Fulham celebrate their victory over Aston Villa and resulting Premier League promotion by lifting the promotion playoff trophy at Wembley.
American international Tim Ream describes the feeling of returning to the Premier League after helping Fulham beat Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium.
John Terry’s future at Aston Villa is entirely up to him after his side’s Championship playoff final loss to Fulham on Saturday, says manager Steve Bruce.
Villa were denied the chance to return to the Premier League after a crushing 1-0 defeat at Wembley.
Terry, who is out of contract this summer, was a key cog in Bruce’s team this term, providing stability and leadership in his 32 league appearances. However, his future at the club is now in doubt after Saturday’s failure to win promotion.
Asked if he expected Terry, 37, and midfielder Jack Grealish to stay on for another season, Bruce said: “Is John going to stay? That’s the question for everybody. That’ll depend on John.
“There’ll be discussions over the next few weeks. He had an option [for a further year’s contract] if we’d gone up but we haven’t got that now.
“Of course there is going to be speculation over Jack. I would like him to stay; another year with us will do him a world of good. We will see what happens.”
Bruce insisted Villa remain in a position to recover from their disappointment and again challenge for promotion next season, despite what threatens to be a difficult summer.
Along with Terry, the futures of Alan Hutton, who is also out of contract, remain as uncertain of those of Sam Johnstone, Robert Snodgrass, Lewis Grabban, Axel Tuanzebe and Josh Onomah, who have all been on loan.
They also only have a further year of parachute payments, which will be reduced to £15 million from £33m.
But 57-year-old Bruce said: “The feeling is utter disappointment for everybody. But let’s not forget we are Aston Villa, a proud club, a big club. We will try to move forward.
“There is going to have to be a change, of course. We’ll dust ourselves down, accept defeat, and yes it’s going to be difficult, but we’ve done it this year.
Bruce was also critical of his team’s poor first-half performance and of the officiating, adamant Ryan Fredericks should have been sent off for a challenge on Grealish who he felt Fulham targeted.
He said: “I’ll roll my sleeves up and get stuck into it again.”
Bruce could only lament a poor first-half performance in the loss to Fulham, telling Sky Sports that he thought Fulham’s Ryan Fredericks should have seen red for a tackle on Grealish.
“The big moments of the game, the defining moments in a football match. For me, Fredericks should have had a red card,” Bruce said. “He stamped on Jack and right in front of me and they got away with that.
“The second half we were much better. We just needed a break for the goal but we didn’t get it. In a big game like today we need those decisions to go our way and we need to play better than we did in the first half.
“I was totally disappointed with the first half in a big game and big occasion.”
Press Association was used in this report.
Be the first to comment