Aston Villa dressing room up in arms over departure of very popular teammate
Aston Villa players have been made unsettled by the Premier League club’s summer transfer business – and one deal in particular is still the cause of major agitation.
Unai Emery’s side endured a relatively quiet window, although Aston Villa completed late moves for Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott.
Meanwhile, the West Midlands outfit have failed to score in four Premier League fixtures, and consequently sit just 19th in the top flight.
Adding to Emery’s disappointment, Aston Villa were knocked out of the EFL Cup by Brentford on Tuesday, 16 September.
Aston Villa decision to sell Jacob Ramsey was unpopular among Unai Emery’s players
While Aston Villa reached the Champions League quarter-finals and FA Cup semi-finals last term, their failure to clinch a top-five spot negatively affected their PSR status.
Consequently, Villa sold homegrown product Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle United for £40m in the summer transfer window.
According to The Telegraph on Thursday, 18 September, that decision has created a sense of uncertainty in Emery’s dressing room, which is still being felt now.
The home-grown attacking midfielder was essentially a sacrifice to generate total profit, but his departure has not gone down well with team-mates.
John McGinn and Ezri Konsa are just two of the players who have recently criticised the rules which they feel are heavily loaded against clubs of Villa’s size, while Tyrone Mings has also spoken out publicly about his disappointment at losing Ramsey.
Jacob Ramsey’s Villa career in numbers
Ramsey made his debut for the Villa Park outfit in the 2018/19 season, when the West Midlands outfit were still in the Championship.
| Jacob Ramsey stats | Aston Villa career |
| Appearances | 167 |
| Goals | 17 |
| Assists | 19 |
Following Villa’s promotion to the Premier League in 2019, the attacking midfielder made just two senior appearances, which came in the FA Cup and the EFL Cup.
The 24-year-old subsequently joined League One outfit Doncaster Rovers on loan in January 2020, scoring three goals in seven appearances.
It was during the subsequent 2020/21 campaign that Ramsey became more of an Aston Villa regular, albeit he failed to score and produced just one assist in 25 outings.
The next two seasons proved more fruitful for Ramsey, as he scored six goals and made one assist in 2021/22, before managing his career-best return of six goals and eight assists in 2022/23.
In his penultimate campaign with Villa, the 24-year-old notched just one goal and two assists before enjoying a more successful 2024/25 season, making nine goal contributions, including one goal in the Champions League.