Aston Villa’s form has certainly dipped this season, as Unai Emery attempts to balance their Premier League duties with those glitzy galavants around the Champions League.
But as Morgan Rogers inspired Aston Villa’s 3-1 win over Brentford – their first victory in nine games across all competitions – clearly all is not lost at Villa Park.
The 2024/25 is not a write-off. Far from it. In fact, unless Tottenham Hotspur beat AFC Bournemouth away from home on Thursday night, Aston Villa will stay seventh heading into the weekend.
Could that Brentford win – OIlie Watkins and Matty Cash putting Villa 3-0 up inside 34 minutes – be something of a turning point? Or will it prove to be a false dawn.
The type of false dawn Napoli suffered again and again during a disastrous Scudetto defence in 2023/24.
Napoli wanted Fulham’s Sasa Lukic but got Aston Villa’s Leander Dendoncker instead
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Just one year after becoming Serie A champions for the first time in over three decades, the Partenopei finished a lowly tenth in Italy’s top flight.
That brief three month, 17-game spell in the dugout will not be remembered with particular fondness by Nicolo Frustalupi; the man who assisted Walter Mazzarri during a period in which Napoli’s season went from bad to worse.
But Frustalupi feels that Mazzarri, who returned for a second spell at a club where he helped put Edinson Cavani on the map, was not helped by those above him.
A difficult January transfer window certainly didn’t aid things. Frustalupi, speaking to Radio Kiss Kiss, reveals that Mazzarri wanted to keep the stylish attacking midfielder Eljif Elmas, only to see him leave for RB Leipzig to the tune of around £20 million.
The Napoli coaching staff also had their heart set on bringing Fulham’s Sasa Lukic back to Serie A, only to end up with Leander Dendoncker being bundled through the door on an ill-fated loan spell from the aforementioned Aston Villa.
That is enough to drive anyone Frusta-loopy.
“Mazzarri wanted Elmas to stay. Then, for personal reasons, the player decided to leave,” explains the former Watford and Inter Milan coach. “Better not to talk about [Dendoncker joining instead of Lukic].
“Better to ignore [the fact it even happened].”
Lukic bouncing back at Fulham while Aston Villa send Dendoncker on loan
Frustalupi is not surprised to see Napoli in a much better state one year since Mazzarri’s doomed return to the Stadio Diego Maradona.
Antonio Conte has Napoli sitting top, with ten wins out of 14 games.
A record which owes much to the success of their latest transfer window. Scottish duo Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay have made quite the impact while, in Alessio Buongiorno, Napoli also have one of Europe’s best young centre-halves in their ranks.
“This year’s market went much better, from Buongiorno to the others,” Frustalupi adds. “Conte is doing great things. Perhaps I didn’t expect Napoli to be first but, with a coach like that and without [European football], it is right that Napoli is up there.”
Lukic captained Torino in Italy’s top flight before joining Fulham for around £9 million back in January 2023. And, after a slow start to life at Craven Cottage, the towering Serbia international has bounced back impressively while helping to fill the void created by Joao Palhinha’s departure to Bayern Munich.
Dendoncker, meanwhile, is still technically an Aston Villa player. Though whether he takes to the pitch under Unai Emery ever again remains to be seen, the Belgian struggling with injuries on his newest loan deal with Anderlecht.
Dendoncker returned to former employers Anderlecht over the summer. And while things aren’t exactly going to plan, at least he’s featuring more than he did in Italy.
Dendoncker would make only three Serie A appearances in that Napoli spell, totalling 21 minutes of football. No wonder Frustolupi would rather not comment.