Stan Collymore believes that the Premier League needs Aston Villa to be successful in the play-off final at Wembley on Saturday.
The former Villa striker stated in his weekly column for our sister title The Mirror this week that there are too many ‘smaller clubs’ getting to the Premier league and not making a good enough job of it.
He writes:
“The Premier league needs Aston Villa and other big clubs like Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Derby.
“We are being overloaded with smaller clubs that have sneaked into the Premier League, are cheap to buy, and have low expectations.
“They get to the top flight and then roll over and have their bellies tickled by the big sides.
Big clubs come with big expectations even when they are not doing so well so I would love to see Villa back.
“But given the way Fulham under Slavisa Jokanovic have been playing this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if they took the last remaining ticket to the Premier League.”