I think that the next season is going to be great for Aston Villa, and I hope you’ll agree. Such a statement may well be a big claim, but I feel that this season will be the best we have had in a long time.
Now before people get on my case, let me explain. My claim is not based on the assumption that all things are going to be rosy suddenly, or that we are going to get sixth back straight away because things take time.
We will have some hard games against the top teams in the league, and we will probably lose a couple of them.
We’re going to slip up on the way losing an advantage at home after silly mistakes, and to teams we consider inferior to us because all clubs have that issue from time to time. Those days we will go home unhappy but I think we will go home happy more times than not this season.
The cup draws might go against us, and we could suffer a few injuries at crucial times during the season but that is how football is – it is unpredictable.
Paul Lambert is a fantastic appointment and a really exciting prospect but we need to temper that excitement with realism too – he has got one hell of a job to do. We have a team that have been drained of all their attacking flair in recent times, and who have struggled to put two passes together for a fair while.
We have a keeper whose confidence must be in pieces after the way his national team performed in the European Championships and a back line with more holes in it than Phil “The Power” Taylor’s dart board.
Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking we are the real deal straight away despite many of us being excited about new signings or promising youngsters. We aren’t miles away but, for now, the feel good factor and hype are masking the fact that we do have a poor team.
Don’t believe me? Look at the league table for last season. Yes, people can blame Alex McLeish for that poor campaign but, even so, players are players and they get paid to play – they are the people who win and lose games for us. Can any of those players say, hand on heart, that they gave their all last season? If they can, then they are clearly not as good as we thought.
The Great Season
After all those reality checks and before you go slitting your wrists, let me explain why this season will be good. It is very simple really, and something that I haven’t witnessed in quite some time.
As a group of fans, we are back together. The splits have gone and, once again, we are all as one behind a manager. This in itself is worth at least 12 points a season in my opinion.
Now that the fan base is not fractured and cracked, the infighting has gone, and we are all pulling in the same direction, it feels better, and gives me more cause for optimism.
How it feels now is like we never had that before, largely because of a few poor seasons under different managers, but now we are looking at the new season with excitement and are eager for the season to start. Mr Lambert has got something that wasn’t given to the last two/three managers, rightly or wrongly, and and that is full unconditional support.
Already the fans are full of positivity – positivity breeds positivity – and this will spread from the terrace on to the pitch. As well as this, Mr Lambert has given us all hope – hope for the future, and hope for the plans that go with it. Simply because of the comfort of hope this allows patience and, given patience, thus Mr Lambert will be able to do what he is good at building a successful, attractive, competitive team.
So sing with me now – We glow in the dark, we glow in the dark, we’re Aston Villa, and we glow in the dark!
We are back baby, so “don’t stop believing”
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