Tony Pulis used Aston Villa’s seven changes for their Premier League match against Tottenham to make a familiar late-season point. Once players think there is little left to play for, managers spend as much time dealing with motivation as they do with the opposition. Pulis said this is the stage of the season when players are accused of being “on the beach”, and that is a problem no manager wants attached to his side.

Why the selection call drew attention

Pulis said Villa boss Unai Emery was accused of focusing on the Europa League tie with Nottingham Forest rather than selecting his strongest side against Spurs. That is one reading of the decision, and it is the one that drew the sharpest criticism. There is also the more ordinary explanation that managers rotate late in the campaign, especially when the schedule is crowded and the end of the league season is close.

Pulis did not pretend that the issue is purely tactical. He said clubs generally pay players bonus money for staying up, but results can drop off once 40 points has guaranteed safety. He also pointed to the Premier League’s positional prize money, with several million separating eighth and 12th, as another reason motivation can fade when the pressure eases.

Planning starts before the season ends

His broader point was that the real work does not wait for the final whistle. Pulis said his own transfer planning began in about April, not at the end of the season, and he argued that serious recruitment thinking has to start while the campaign is still live.

That is why his line about incentives lands with some force. “Giving them a financial incentive is probably the only way to solve the issue,” he said. Villa’s league position, 5th with 58 points from 35 matches, means they are not dealing with relegation stress, but they are still in the middle of a season that needs careful handling. The team’s recent results, including the 1-2 loss to Tottenham and then the 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest, show how quickly attention can shift between competitions.

Villa still have Burnley, Liverpool and Manchester City left in the league, so there is no lack of football to play for yet. But Pulis’s column was less about that specific run than about the wider managerial headache that comes with this part of the season, when selection, incentives and summer planning all start to overlap.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →