A very good ebening to all Aston Villa fans. How are you feeling? Nervous? We figured. And that’s how we’d feel, too, if we put ourselves in the shoes of an average attendee at Villa Park right now. Things don’t look too promising, and there’s a chance, a slight chance, that Villa could take the Leicester City route. A few fans have even told us they’re worried about that, and we’re here to reassure them that things aren’t quite the same.
The expert tacticians are already busy talking about XGs, formations, what Unai Emery is doing wrong, and why Villa have been so dreadful in front of goal in these early weeks of the 2025/26 season. And to be fair, most of them are right. It’s been awful to watch. Villa have only three points from five games and sit 18th in the table. Recently, they also parted ways with Monchi, the President of Football Operations who was supposed to give them stability in recruitment and planning. Compare that to the fact they were facing Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter finals just a few months ago, and it all feels surreal.
The Leicester comparison comes up because they too overachieved in Europe, reached the UCL quarter finals, and then within a few years collapsed and went down. But here’s the key difference. Villa fans should be worried, yes. But the concern is more about the short term than the long term.
We’re just spreading some early-season panic and speculating. Let us know what you think.
Aston Villa have the money, for now
When Aston Villa failed to qualify for the Champions League last season, they were distraught. They have a better chance of winning the UCL Lite (Europa fans, sorry), but just taking part in and reaching the knockouts of the premier European competition would get them more money. Above all, being a Champions League club has a pull.
Stefan Borson of Football Insider reported that Villa may have lost up to £50 million after failing to finish in the top five of the Prem. That doesn’t sound like a lot when considering how Premier League clubs throw north of that amount for, let’s be real, average players. But money earned doesn’t just go to the transfer budget. It’s needed for clubs to function at a top level. That’s why relegation is disastrous for a club, no matter how big or small they traditionally are.
When Leicester started declining around the time Brendan Rodgers’ time at the club was coming to an end, they too were losing money.
After their title triumph in 2016, they started spending like a big club. They built a new training facility in Seagrave which cost £200 million, signed top players on high wages, and were, in all honesty, burning through the cash that they felt would never stop flowing. But as performances dipped, so did the money.
In 2022/23, Leicester recorded pre-tax losses of £89.7 million, as they went down to the Championship. They came right back up a year later, only to go down again. Things are dire at King Power Stadium, and the board that fans once hailed as messiahs has fallen out of favor, with multiple breaches and financial irregularities reported.
BREAKING! Leicester have officially been relegated from the Premier League 📉🚨 pic.twitter.com/DmOXUsE6I8
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 28, 2023
Villa have to be smart and avoid what Leicester did. Take it slow, take it smartly. Europa League isn’t the end of the world. It shouldn’t even be the priority. The priority has to be the Premier League, and making sure they qualify for Europe again.
Immediate resolves for Villa to improve
If Eleventh Minute was in charge of Villa’s immediate future, the first thing we would do is take a deep breath. They’re still a big club, and there’s a lot to look forward to. In the Prem, it’s still early days, plus they have a European campaign to look forward to, in which they could call themselves one of the favorites.
That said, one of the things we’d do is control spending, and not try to buy their way back into the Champions League. Control wages too. Villa lost Jacob Ramsey, Leander Dendoncker, Alex Moreno, and also on-loan players like Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford whose moves couldn’t be made permanent. That’s a lot of turnover in one summer, and it shows. The balance of the squad doesn’t feel the same, and the replacements haven’t convinced anyone yet.
And this is where Monchi’s departure stings. He was brought in to give Villa a structure that could outlast the chaos of the football calendar. His exit puts pressure on Emery and the board to get recruitment right, and fans have every right to feel uneasy. Because this is exactly how things unraveled at Leicester. They lost their core, replaced poorly, and then panicked when results turned.
🚨✅ Aston Villa get their first win of the season! pic.twitter.com/1sq4tHgGbP
— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) September 25, 2025
The comparison is fair, but not identical. Leicester spent like a top six club without the consistency to back it up. Villa, as it stands, still have the resources and the manager to pull themselves together. They just need to avoid the temptation of short-term fixes and remember what got them here in the first place.
So, panic? Yes, a little bit. But it’s only September. A couple of wins, and suddenly the table looks less terrifying. The Europa League could give them confidence too. If they keep their heads and rebuild smartly after Monchi, this can be just a blip. The Leicester story is a warning, not a prophecy.
