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Aston Villa's Christmas gift-giving is almost as shambolic as their season so far

The Villains gave us more laughs than they have Premier League points in this ‘bad Santa’ video.

Aston Villa FC / YouTube

OFFICIAL FOOTBALL CLUB Christmas videos are usually dull as dishwater.

Why would anybody risk doing anything entertaining when they can just stand glumly and tick it off the list of club obligations until next year?

But, this holiday season, Aston Villa no longer care about being a laughing stock as they sit propping up the Premier League table with just one win in 15 games. On Villa’s YouTube channel, in between such seasonal dross as ‘Christmas shopping with Ian Taylor,’ Remi Garde’s pre-match press conference, Zat Knight’s left-foot swinger against Arsenal in ’08 and John Gregory’s appearance in a music video, there’s this incredibly entertaining ‘Bad Santa’ gift-giving clip – where, thankfully, the players’ dire league situation is not mirrored by their mood.

This is a great video for many reasons, but we have to separate them out into two categories: the scripted forced-banter parts brought by the presents and the free-flowing, off-the-cuff slapstick nature they just can’t help lending to it.

In the scripted corner [SPOILER ALERT, YouTube fans]

  • There’s a blow-up mattress for Jack Grealish, in case he wants to lie down… 

jack g

… y’know, in Tenerife or wherever.

  • Ciaran Clark has a brand new Daniel O’Donnell album.

“You pretend you’re Irish, so we thought…”

villa

It’s the unscripted treats that really make it worth watching

  • Micah Richards’ laugh is more infectious than man flu.
  • And then there’s this grand finale.

villa christmas

While Richards’ laugh screeches over everything, his playful jab at Gabi Agbobonlahor causes a domino effect that ends with Angry Alan Hutton careering over the Christmas tree.

At least they can smile at this difficult time, God love them.

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7 Comments
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    Mute Philip Maher
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    Dec 10th 2015, 9:38 PM

    Thats about as much fun as theyll have all season

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    Mute Barry Ward
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    Dec 10th 2015, 9:35 PM

    That laugh!

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    Mute Alan Wright
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    Dec 10th 2015, 11:59 PM

    Pathetic us villa fans ain’t fu*king laughing

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    Mute ciaran
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    Dec 11th 2015, 7:04 AM

    Brilliant laugh , proper dressing room type banter .

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    Mute Ann-Marie Wallis
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    Dec 11th 2015, 7:01 AM

    Do you know what would be a better gift? Winning a few feckin’ games perhaps!!

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    Mute Donncha Ó Ríordáin
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    Dec 11th 2015, 8:51 AM

    so the gift giving was good? I’m confused because the headline said it wasn’t.

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    Mute Ryan
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    Dec 11th 2015, 5:05 AM

    Aw god this is worse than waking up in a wheelie bin

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