(First written July 23 2026, X)

Now I know that it is early days in saying this and I understand that Villa fans are well know for building pre-season hype and then seeing our young players go to various different clubs on loan. I am aware that this happens every year, but hear me out for a second. Villa may have just solved the Harry Kane issue for England. Now I am sure right now you are thinking that I am about to be just another Villa fan that is just about to talk up Ollie Watkins and tell you how I believe he is going to be the obvious replacement for Kane when he finally hangs up his England boots- but that could not be farther from the truth. Although I am a huge Watkins fan and I completely appreciate what he has done at Villa he is just the wrong profile of player to be the main striker for England. The English game for years was played with big beefy center forwards, powerful guys that could drive to goal with power and had the finishing to match. Think Emile Heskey, Alan Shearer, players defenders were truly afraid of. Lukaku another great example for Belgium- these are the types of striker that served England well and would do again. When Kane started his career, he was just that an out and out striker and was banging them in for fun- the fact that he never won a trophy with Spurs is almost laughable as he was a star in a very over rated team- a team that has no business being called a big six team but I digress. Kane was a striker and for many years was England's main man, he did it up top solo- that was just who he was. Watkins does not fit that profile, he plays with passion and intelligence and his hold up play is good, the thing is although he does score goals he is not a natural finisher. Watkins scores a lot of goals because his work rate gets him a lot of chances but the reason he is successful in the Villa team is his ability to create goals for our midfield as well- that is not what this England setup needs, it needs a talisman- someone who is going to be selfless in front of goal like Kane used to be, a big powerful center forward that knows how to find the net and sadly he is just not that. You could argue that Ivan Toney could replace Kane but I do not think him or Watkins are really in Tuchel's plans. So then you look at the likes of Delap, maybe, but not that powerful, good eye for goal. All the good English strikers are now past their prime, it is a position we are not blessed in and if England ever want it to come home then they need to think about it.

I truly believe that England's biggest problem in the recent World Cup was Harry Kane. Now a lot of you will probably hate me for this but I feel he was the problem. England fell into the trap that many national teams do of worshiping what they believe is a star. The player becomes bigger than the team and that is the issue. Every ball that is played, looking for Kane. He tried to be everywhere, play for every ball, defense or attack- starting to believe that he was the star but it made him ineffective- he was in poor position some of the time and all we needed was for him to be ruthless in front of goal, he scored a few but he lost that cutting edge of a powerful forward and as consequence England went home. The boys did a nation proud but perhaps it is time for him to step away from the England setup, maybe he has served his time and it is time to pass the torch. We can all be grateful for any work that he has put in over the years, the man is an England legend and this is in no way me knocking him but maybe he has done his leg of Footballs journey home and now it is someone else's turn to kick it the last leg of the journey- the question for England is who will that man be?

Now like I said at the beginning, I know that sometimes us Villa fans do get a little over excited and sometimes ahead of ourselves but I think we have our answer. For the past few months we have been hearing murmurs of a striker that we had signed from France, young kid, powerful center forward and was predicted to be a great acquisition. His name was Brian Majdo. We signed him from Metz for around 14 million dollars which for a youngster, he is currently seventeen, is a sizable chunk of change . That is the thing though if he is running at you full speed, that is not a kid coming at you, he is fast and incredibly powerful and he is massive. Unbelievable size for a youngster. These were all things we were hearing, he had already made three senior performances in Friendlies for Luxembourg at a young age at senior level and everything was pointing to this guy having a promising future. Well as a Villa fan I wanted to believe the hype but we have seen it many times before. The thing is he up to this point has not been able to play, FIFA blocked the transfer due to a rule they have about young players and transfer limits- so he has been ineligible since we signed him for all competitive games, this was such a hurdle that Villa have gone to court to have it overturned. Well as luck would have it we got to see our new man in action as we took our annual trip to the Bescott to face off in a Friendly match that he was available for. He was also our starting striker for the lineup as a lot of our boys are still on their vacations after the world cup. This actually gave Unai an opportunity to give run outs to various players from our youth setup and players that wanted to try and impress the boss for the upcoming season such as Barkley, Bogarde and Buendia. With Watkins likely on a beach somewhere recovering from World Cup duty it was the perfect time to give the young striker Brian Madjo a run out and an opportunity for Villa fans to see their new man in action for the first time and boy he did not disappoint. The kid possesses raw power, he is able to drive hard at defenders to win the ball and has an eye for goal as he showed by netting two goals in the game- the second showed real instinct as the ball hit him but he still had the composure to fire it home. For a big man he is blessed with an incredible burst of pace and already seems to play with the confidence of a fully seasoned professional. Now I said before I know that as Villa fans we do sometimes, actually most of the time overhype our players- that is what fans do. Remember Louie Barry or Cameron Archer- Villa fans swore they were the answer. But this does seem like the real deal and I am glad he is ours because I could see him terrorizing defenses in the Premier League for many years to come. With Emery at the helm of our club his development is in one of the safest hands in the game- if I was England Coach I would Cap him just in case at the next available opportunity. This could potentially, if he continues to grow be the answer to Kane potentially retiring before we try and bring it home at the next World Cup.