John McGinn doesn't believe the financial rules which hold Aston Villa back excuse the club's start to the campaign
Aston Villa captain John McGinn
No excuses... Villa captain John McGinn(Image: Getty Images)
John McGinn insists Aston Villa’s frustration with financial regulations is no excuse for their poor start to the season, and has called for unity.
The club captain fronted up following Villa’s 1-0 defeat at Brentford on Saturday, which came after a goalless draw against Newcastle United on the opening weekend.
Those results mean Villa have failed to win either of their opening two Premier League games for the first time since the 2019/20 season. It's also the first time since 2002/03 that they’ve failed to score in both of their opening matches.
“I’m not quite sure,” McGinn said when asked what’s been missing for Villa. “Obviously, we never started the game well and lost a poor goal. We aren’t creating clear chances, we’re not opening up teams, and players are not playing at their best. It is very early on, we can’t panic, but we need to improve, definitely.
“We know we are still a very good team. It is very easy to start panicking and changing what we have built over the past few years. We need to stay strong, use the ball well next week against Palace, who have been good against us in the past few seasons.
“We have a point to prove there. At home, we know we need to create more chances and score more goals. We know what we need to do.
“It is just a bump in the road. It is very early on. We have 36 games to rectify it, and even though we have made our job a little bit harder, it is not the time to make rash decisions or jump on us too much.”
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Villa have faced restrictions in the transfer market in recent windows with UEFA in particular clamping down on their spending. As a result, transfer chief Monchi has been unable to splash the cash - even after raising £39m through the sale of Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle.
Within the club and amongst fans, there has been significant anger and frustration over Villa’s inability to spend like their rivals. However, McGinn refuses to use that as an excuse for the team's failure to score in the opening two matches.
“No, it is a separate situation,” he said. “We are professional footballers and it is what it is. Once you go out on a Saturday, you should have enough to compete. We do have enough.
“We knew going to Brentford we needed to compete, and I think over the game, it was pretty even. It could have been a draw, it could have gone either way. But we need to be better.
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“It is about results. We need to get results, and we haven’t over the past two weeks. Two games and no goals - we know we need to put the ball in the back of the net, and starting next week, we need to do that.”
Elaborating about financial rules, McGinn said: “We have spoken about it before. It is up to whoever is making those decisions to decide. I’d rather talk about it after a win or a positive performance.
“It feels like we can make too many excuses, and I don’t want to add to that. Today we weren’t good enough, and we know in this league if you are not at your best, you can get beat.
“We can use it as an excuse, but we don’t want to. The manager is not one for excuses. We have spoken about it enough, and I don’t want to keep talking about it. I think we need to just focus on what we have in the dressing room and on the pitch. That should be enough to play better than we did today."
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