FMFA Manager

Aston Villa vs Brighton and Hove Albion

After last season's fantastic season we get the honour of raising the curtain to season 25! The ending of season 24 was a whirlwind as we tied up the league with a 3-2 win over Bournemouth on the final day before beating the same side on penalties a couple of weeks later to lift the club world cup! After the disappointment of season 23 it was amazing to run out as double winners!

Those are the highs and lows of football and, having tasted both, we are hungry for more success and ready to hit the ground running this season.

It's been a relatively quiet off season for us with minimal comings and goings as we have a settled squad. Squad defender Simone Pinna was moved on for a cash fee and he has been replaced in the squad by Ismail Bouleghcha who has been promoted from the U23s. He is not ready for first team action yet but we will give him time. We also added Gabriel Gudmundsson to bolster the defence for a fee of just over £120m and his tackling ability will see him straight into the matchday squad. He signs to replace Marin Pongracic who leaves alongside academy graduate Zach Butterworth - both of whom have moved to the opponents for this match Brighton. Coming the other way as Butterworth's replacement we have J_M_da_silva with the Swiss midfielder having been a long term target of Villa's. Finally on the senior moves Ian Maatsen left for QPR replaced by Darwin Nunez who will provide forward cover to the team this season. He is an upgrade on Schick and Rusyn who both left for West Ham.

So a player in each position to strengthen but the core of the squad is as was last year and are hopefully hungry for more of the same this time around.

We take on Brighton in this friendly curtain raiser as we tussle with the old enemy in Will who remains as caretaker for another year. The Seagulls won the cup after ending our treble hopes with a penalty win after a 0-0 draw in the quarter finals last season. We also drew 1-1 at Villa Park in the league opener with us nicking a 1-0 win in the return at The Amex so these games are normally tight affairs. Maybe both sides will let the shackles off for the curtain raiser.

We're not too fussed about the result of this one so may experiment a bit - it's a bit of fun after all. Always nice to get a win early though so that is in mind as well. Whatever happens, it's good to be back