Matt Maher: Champions League or FA Cup? Why not both?

“FA Cup or Champions League qualification - which means more?” ran the headline on the BBC website on Friday morning, above a piece questioning whether Villa, Manchester City or Nottingham Forest, would rather finish in the top-five or win the Cup next month.

If the question was which is worth more, the answer would be fairly straightforward. The financial riches available in the Champions League simply dwarf those in the Cup.

In winning four ties to reach their first semi-final in a decade, Villa have received £910,000 in prize money, which is just a little more than they banked for drawing with Juventus last November. 

The prize for winning the FA Cup final, meanwhile, is just £2million. That will barely cover half of Marcus Rashford’s salary for his four-month loan stay. Qualifying for the Champions League for a second consecutive season would make it far more likely Villa could sign the latter permanently. In cold, hard financial terms in the PSR-era, there is only one target worth aiming for.

But this is sport, where bottom lines and budgets will always be behind emotion, euphoria and glory in the attraction stakes. 

In that light, the question of what means more might be pretty easy to answer too. Ollie Watkins did a pretty good job of it standing in the Etihad Stadium mixed zone on Tuesday night.

“I’ve been saying to the boys one thing I set my eyes on when I joined the club was winning a trophy,” he said. “It’s been so long since the club has done that.”

Watkins has already made a bit of history this season, his goal in last weekend’s 4-1 win over Newcastle seeing him equal Gabriel Agbonlahor as Villa’s top scorer in the Premier League.

Those of an older generation might have cause to scoff at “Premier League records” but for those players born after football was invented 1992, they can mean an awful lot. For Watkins, it underlines his standing as the club’s best striker of the century so far.

For all those goals, however, nothing will get you remembered like scoring in a cup final. 

Peter McParland, Villa’s Watkins of the 1950s, netted 121 times in 341 appearances, yet it is unlikely he would be hailed with quite the same reverence without the two which beat Manchester United in 68 years ago. The fact it remains the last time Villa won the famous trophy has only added to the legend.

At 29 and for all he has achieved, Watkins is still to taste silverware. The same applies to the likes of Ezri Konsa, Matty Cash and Tyrone Mings, all of whom remain key components of what might just be the best Villa team since 1982 but to be truly considered great, needs to add a trophy. 

It is why this season’s FA Cup and Saturday’s semi-final with Crystal Palace feels such a big opportunity. Under Unai Emery, Villa now have a culture of winning football matches and lots of them, 29 out of the 52 they have played this season to be precise. The next step, the biggest step, is winning something.

Much as there is a desire to make a swift return to the Champions League, the fact Villa already ticked that box with last season’s fourth-placed finish means you might argue winning silverware would be an even finer achievement. There are generations of supporters who have never known what that feeling is like.

It’s sometimes easy to forget how easy the answer is for those actually involved in the games.

“We are choosing both,” remarked Emery on Friday, when the Champions League or FA Cup question was put to him. 

The “would you rather” debate might pass along pretty nicely among fans and pundits. Players and managers just want to win, whatever the competition. They don’t want to choose.

Palace will also see Saturday as an opportunity. Villa are very good, their form ahead of Tuesday’s defeat at Manchester City being the best in Europe.

But facing them isn’t quite the same as a team with a pedigree of winning silverware, like Manchester City, who Nottingham Forest play in Sunday’s second semi-final.

This will still be a new stage to some of Villa’s players. They are an emerging force, yet it is actually Palace who have played at Wembley more recently, in 2022 when they were beaten by Chelsea at the same stage of the competition. They’ve also got the confidence of having beaten Villa twice already this season, with the other fixture a 2-2 draw in B6 which they might, with better finishing, have also won.

In the other semi-final, meanwhile, Forest will no doubt take heart from last month’s 1-0 home win over City. Of all four teams, it is the latter who will face the biggest burden of expectation, as they look to avoid a rare trophyless campaign.

Villa and City are favourites with the bookmakers, though hardly by huge amounts and for a variety of reasons, neither tie is particularly easy to call. That makes it refreshing, particularly against the backdrop of a Premier League season which has often felt predictable.

The fact three of the teams are also still involved in the only race which remains alive, the battle for the top-five, prompts the question of which victory you’d prefer? The best answer is another question - why not both?