Musa[OPENING SHOT: DEEP FOCUS AERIAL DRONE SHOT]
EXT. BIRMINGHAM, UK – DAWN
Grey city skyline emerges from morning mist. The camera glides low over terraced houses, canal boats, the rotunda. Smoke rises from chimneys. The soundtrack is atmospheric, minimal – distant trains, seagulls, a low industrial hum.
DRONE PULLS UP – REVEALS VILLA PARK
The stadium emerges from the fog like a sleeping giant. The Holte End stands monolithic, silent. A single floodlight flickers on.
TITLE CARD: THE HOLTE END – 3:47 AM
V.O. (DAVID TENNANT):
“Every city has its religion. In Birmingham, they have Aston Villa.”
[CUT TO]
EXT. ASTON, BIRMINGHAM – 1874 – BLACK AND WHITE REPRODUCTION
Hand-tinted photographs dissolve into frame. Gas lamps. Horse-drawn trams. Four men in waistcoats stand outside a chapel.
ARCHIVAL TEXT SUPERIMPOSED:
VILLA CROSS WESLEYAN CHAPEL – FOUNDED 1874
V.O.:
“Four cricketers. A broken lantern. A winter without cricket. They needed something to keep them fit.”
ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPH: JACK HUGHES, WALTER PRICE, WILLIAM SCATTERGOOD, GEORGE MATTHEWS
V.O.:
“They called themselves Aston Villa. They had no idea what they were about to create.”
[CUT TO]
INT. MODERN VILLA PARK – BOARDROOM – DAY
SUNLIGHT STREAMS through tall windows. Oil paintings of old directors line the walls. A long mahogany table.
V.O.:
“To understand Aston Villa is to understand England. Empire. Industry. Immigration. Reinvention. Decline. And the desperate, beautiful struggle to rise again.”
[TITLE CARD: THE CLUB THAT INVENTED MODERN FOOTBALL]
[ARCHIVAL MONTAGE – BLACK AND WHITE]
- Victoria. Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year. Villa players in heavy cotton shirts, mud-caked, handlebar moustaches. They’ve just won the Double. The first club to do it.
Newspaper headlines: VILLA CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD
V.O.:
“Before United. Before Liverpool. Before Arsenal. There was Villa. The first global superclub. They toured Europe when Europe had barely seen football. They beat Juventus so badly the Italians refused to play them again.”
[CUT TO]
ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPH: PETER McWILLIAM – 1905
V.O.:
“Peter McWilliam signed for Villa in 1905. He later took their philosophy to Tottenham. Bill Nicholson learned from McWilliam. Nicholson taught a young Alf Ramsey. Ramsey taught Terry Venables. Venables taught Guardiola’s mentor.”
TITLE CARD: EVERY TIKI-TAKA PASS BEGAN HERE
[CUT TO]
INT. VILLA PARK – TROPHY ROOM – DAY
CLOSE UP: European Cup. Massive handles. Worn leather. Light catches the engraving: 1982.
V.O.:
“And then, for forty years, almost nothing.”
[SLOW DISSOLVE]
EXT. VILLA PARK – 1987 – ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE
Rain. Empty seats. Uncut grass. A plastic sheet where the roof should be.
V.O.:
“This is what decline looks like. Not sudden death. Slow decay. Selling your best players. Selling your stadium. Selling your soul, piece by piece, just to stay alive.”
[CUT TO]
ARCHIVAL INTERVIEW – DOUG ELLIS, 1990s
ELLIS: (waxing) “I’m not a football man. I’m a businessman.”
V.O.:
“Doug Ellis didn’t understand. You can’t run a cathedral like a corner shop.”
[TITLE CARD: THE DARK YEARS – 1983-2016]
[MONTAGE]
Relegation. Promotion. Relegation again. Paul McGrath, sublime, knees wrapped in ice. Dwight Yorke sold. Gareth Southgate sold. The holte end in silence. Chairmen coming and going. Managers sacked before Christmas. Randy Lerner, the American owner, looking lost on the touchline.
ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: 2016
Arsenal 4-0 Villa. Confetti falls. Villa are relegated. For the first time in 29 years, they are not a Premier League club.
V.O.:
“There are clubs that have never been relegated. There are clubs that always bounce back. Villa did neither. They just… stayed down.”
[CUT TO]
EXT. VILLA PARK – NIGHT – 2018
Rain. Championship playoff semi-final. Villa vs Middlesbrough. 90 minutes. 0-0. Extra time. 0-0.
TITLE CARD: PENALTIES
CLOSE UP: Jed Steer, goalkeeper. Eyes. Slow motion.
V.O.:
“One save. One kick. One hundred and forty million pounds. That’s what this moment is worth.”
[SAVE. GOAL. BEDLAM.]
EXT. VILLA PARK – NIGHT – FANS
Middle-aged men weeping. A woman clutching a scarf to her face. A child on shoulders, too young to understand why his father is crying.
V.O.:
“They were back. But they were also bankrupt.”
[CUT TO]
INT. VILLA PARK – NASSER AL-KHELAIFI BOX – DAY 2019
Sunlight. Suits. Handshakes. Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, new owners. Billionaires. One Egyptian, one American.
TITLE CARD: £300M – THE PRICE OF RESURRECTION
V.O.:
“Villa didn’t find sugar daddies. They found engineers. Men who build things.”
[CUT TO]
INT. VILLA TRAINING GROUND – BODYMoor – DAY 2022
TACTICAL WHITEBOARD. Arrows, pressing traps, positional rotations.
CLOSE UP: Unai Emery. Eyes scanning. Lips moving silently.
V.O.:
“Unai Emery had won four Europa Leagues. He’d managed Arsenal, PSG. He didn’t need Villa. But Villa needed him. And in that need, something rare happened.”
EMERY:
(archival clip, subtitled)
“Es un proyecto. No solo un equipo. Un proyecto.”
V.O.:
“Not just a team. A project. Not just winning. Building.”
[TITLE CARD: 2023-24 – THE RECALIBRATION]
[MONTAGE]
Ollie Watkins, transformed. From Championship striker to England international. A diagonal ball from Ezri Konsa. John McGinn, Scottish, impossible to knock off the ball. Boubacar Kamara, French aristocrat, sweeping. Emiliano Martinez, World Cup winner, mad as a brush, saving everything.
V.O.:
“Emery didn’t change the players. He changed what they believed was possible.”
[CUT TO]
EXT. EMIRATES STADIUM – LONDON – DECEMBER 2023
Arsenal 0-2 Villa. Final whistle. Villa players embrace. Arsenal players on their knees.
TITLE CARD: VILLA HADN’T WON AT ARSENAL IN 31 YEARS
V.O.:
“Thirty-one years. A lifetime. And then, one Tuesday night, history ended.”
[CUT TO]
EXT. VILLA PARK – MAY 2024
Sunset. The Holte End, full-throated. Scoreboard: ASTON VILLA 4-0 LIVERPOOL.
V.O.:
“Liverpool came to Villa Park needing to win. They left having conceded four. The title race was over. But something else was beginning.”
[TITLE CARD: 1982 – 2024 – 42 YEARS]
EXT. VILLA PARK – NIGHT – CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MUSIC BEGINS
CLOSE UP: A child, maybe seven years old. Her grandfather beside her, eighty. Neither speaks. The music swells.
V.O.:
“The old man remembered Rotterdam. The girl will remember this. And in between, nothing but faith. Four decades of it. Proved right.”
[FINAL MONTAGE]
ARCHIVAL: 1982, Peter Withe’s goal, slow motion, black and white.
ARCHIVAL: 2024, Unai Emery walking alone at Bodymoor, night, floodlights, thinking.
ARCHIVAL: The Holte End, 1970s, 1990s, 2024. Same faces, different years.
V.O.:
“Aston Villa invented professional football in this country. They nearly lost it all. Now, they are coming home.”
[FINAL SHOT]
EXT. VILLA PARK – NIGHT
The stadium, lit from within. Champions League banners unfurl along the Trinity Road stand. The floodlights seem brighter than before.
TITLE CARD: THIS IS ASTON VILLA
TITLE CARD: 1874 – ∞
[FADE TO BLACK]
[SOUND: Distant crowd roar, fading to silence. Then, faintly, a chapel bell.]
Musa
