Matt Maher: Five Midlands football clubs facing five big questions in 2026
To say 2025 delivered some wildly contrasting fortunes for the region’s football clubs would be a major understatement.
Yet whether they are currently flying high like Villa, or on the floor like Wolves, there feels every chance for all the next 12 months could prove era-defining, whether it be for ownership, management or team.
Here are some of the big questions we could see answered in 2026:
Can Villa win a trophy?
This question is posed in the knowledge the West Midlands still has six teams in the FA Cup.
Yet if any team is going to break the region’s long trophy drought - and not least their own - it is surely Unai Emery’s men.
In many respects, 2025 has been a special year. A run to the quarter-finals of the Champions League transformed perceptions of what might be possible, while the team’s current 10-match winning run is the club’s best since 1914. These truly are special times.
But professional sport is ultimately about silverware and that is the area in which Villa have continued to fall short, the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace joining the Conference League loss to Olympiacos and - if we are being brutally honest - the quarter-final exit to Paris Saint-Germain on the list of near misses.
No Villa manager has won matches at the same relentless rate as Emery but for this era to be remembered as truly great, his team need to start delivering in those which matter the most.
Can Fosun revitalise their ownership of Wolves?
If you were being particularly cynical, you might pose the question as to whether Wolves will ever win another Premier League match?
