So where next for Aston Villa? – will it be Premier League safety, or do we get the route planners out for away days at Oakwell, the Keepmoat, and possibly even at Spotland – Rochdale? (I unashamedly wanted to give a shout out to possibly the manager of the season, Keith Hill) Type Spotland, Rochdale FC into your Sat Nav and it’ll think you’re taking the mick –‘Where? Spotland? Where’s Rochdale? Really? And you really wanna go there?’ will be the series of automated replies, accompanied with a map of the road to hell as Chris Rea dirges on the radio. It is potentially that serious, we are starring into the abyss, and touching the darkest of voids all to a soundtrack of Chris Rea!
We could be dealing with the unthinkable and face a haunting relegation, a relegation that can cast some very long shadows. Ask supporters of Leeds, Sheff Wed, Forest, Southampton, Charlton, Bradford et al. what relegation can do to you. Even Manchester City fell to what is now League 1 before their nouveau riche renaissance. Having hoped for and expected so much more in the long lazy days of August, we were not and are not “Prepared” for relegation. Everything about this club is Premier League, but big reputations do not keep you up, the trapdoor is swinging open beneath us, and the slope on which we currently find ourselves is now as slippery as an oiled up 18 year old intern in the arms of a certain Italian PM. So where has it gone wrong and how do we put it right? More importantly can we put it right in time?
Hamstrung from the season’s start with O’Neill’s departure, the situation created an instability before a ball was kicked. The delay in getting Houllier in, and subsequently having no summer transfer window time for the new manager didn’t help too. The break-down in communication and discipline at most levels on, and off, the pitch, and the uncertainty we now find ourselves in is certainly largely of our own doing sadly, though we will have to deal with that at the season’s end.
The Road Ahead
However we can mend this broken season, and the situation is not yet terminal – we have 7 games in which to salvage the wreck of our football club and our season. 7 games for reputations to be (in-part) restored and for the people at the football club to repair and limit the damage. In the summer, it is imperative for the outstanding issues to be addressed, and the lessons of this season must quickly be learned so as there is no repeat.
And so it starts Sunday with Newcastle: the same Newcastle we relegated final day 2 years ago and who will be keen to reciprocate. The same Newcastle who tanked us 6 at the seasons start, but I really believe we’ll win this one. If any team defines and encapsulates the entire Premier League this season – it’s the Geordies who are, at best, consistently inconsistent. I just can’t see them getting anything at VP – with an improved showing against Everton and with Bent on song, and in the goals I predict an albeit jittery at times victory.
But it has to be a victory, we simply have to get wins at this stage, a win and another 3 points is all that matters and our next five games with Newcastle, West Ham, Stoke, West Brom and Wigan surely represent better opportunity of getting points than the last two against Arsenal and Liverpool… I’m a glass half-full type but it’ll test even my resolve if we still aren’t safe with a trip to The Emirates and a home game against the Scousers to come. We have the players, we have the manager, we have the fans – we just need the belief and the will to win – as the saying goes ‘its not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of fight in the dog and it’s time this dog bared its teeth.
The Author
