Harsh business sometimes.
Aston Villa are back in the Premier League after three seasons out of the big time.
Villa defeated Derby County in the Championship playoff final, on Monday, to return to the top flight of English football. The club were in mid-table at the turn of the year but the return of captain Jack Grealish from injury helped spark an impressive run of results.
Dean Smith’s side defeated Derby 2-1, at Wembley, and work is already underway to ensure they can stick it out in the Premier League.
Smith told the official Villa channel that he was most looking forward to facing Manchester United at Old Trafford as former Red Devils boss Alex Ferguson had promised to share a prime bottle of red wine after the game.
Villa’s players are enjoying a well-earned break before they return for pre-season in a few weeks and get to work. Eight of their now former teammates will not be joining them.
In a very short and somewhat sweet press release, this afternoon, Villa confirmed the departure of several familiar faces:
‘Aston Villa has today released eight players. They are Mile Jedinak, Alan Hutton, Tommy Elphick, Albert Adomah, Glenn Whelan, Ritchie De Laet, Mark Bunn and Micah Richards.
‘We’d like to thank all of them for their contributions and wish them the best of luck for the future.’
47 words. Take out the players’ names and that is just 30 words used to see off the players. The club did, at least, put together a video for social media:
We can this afternoon confirm the release of eight players. Thank you all, for everything. Best of luck. 💜https://t.co/2cHnkCyrdl#AVFC pic.twitter.com/9We4EHO50x
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) June 1, 2019
It seems particularly cutting to the likes of Alan Hutton (198 Villa appearances), who had already signalled his exit with a post lauding the club and its fans, Albert Adomah (125 appearances) and veteran midfielder Glenn Whelan (73 appearances in two seasons).
Ireland international Whelan made 36 leagues appearances (24 starts) for Villa this season and last started in the 2-1 playoff semi-final win over West Brom.
It remains to be seen what his next club career move will be.
