With Sunderland the opponents for Aston Villa at the weekend, much will undoubtedly be made of the return of the Messiah, Mister Martin O’Neill.
Loved as he was during his tenure at Villa Park, the Ulsterman will have entirely different objectives than he had when he sported a Villa sweatshirt. This time, nil points will be his plan which, as some Villa fans might say, is only one less point than Alex McLeish will be aiming for.
Joking aside about McLeish’s propensity for draws, whether they are intentional or not, Sunderland will provide a chance for Villa to take three points from the weekend, something that has sadly happened all too infrequently this season.
Given that Villa are not yet safe this season, one would hope that the team – players and manager – would have the desire to put any lingering relegation fears to rest. However, the current situation at Villa Park seems less distinctly obvious than usual sensibilities would normally dictate.
Whether this is down to defensive tactics, an inability for players to shake off fear, or a plain lack of commitment to the Villa cause, the situation at the club has appeared bleak with astonishing regularity.
Teams that Villa would have normally had a high expectation of beating have provided less than three points in games, giving either one or none. Fans are undoubtedly angry about the situation, often having a sense of dread regarding the weekend rather than one of excitement.
How is this fixed though? The obvious suggestion made out by fans will be the removal of McLeish, specifically because he is seen to blight the unwritten Villa philosophy and ethos of the club, with such proclamations heard with regularity.
As a long time fan though, well as long as my 33 years on Earth allow me to be, I do often struggle to comprehend some of these suggestions that Villa have had their wings clipped under McLeish.
Yes, I can see the results have been poor – I’m not blind obviously – but I struggle to remember any Villa team of my adult life play with regular flair.
We’ve had it in patches, sure, but we’re nothing like Tottenham Hotspur in that sense. When the likes of van der Vaart, Modric, or other stars who have come from abroad are mentioned, it is rarely Villa who are mentioned in the same sentence. This isn’t purely down to the poor recent form we have been in, merely the fact that Villa have never been that team, as much as many of us have wanted them to be.
In fact, if there was one prayer that fans would want answered in recent years, besides the obvious “I’ll have a 20 goals a season striker”, it was for a flair player or two. Paul Merson was an example of such a talent, as was Benito Carbone.
Nowadays, Stephen Ireland is the man with that mantle. However, strangely, despite Ireland’s recent renaissance, many fans are still unconvinced about his ability or work ethic. For me, the former can’t be in question – he is, in my opinion, the most skilled player in the whole squad bar none.
Charles N’Zogbia, another player who has received less than a comprehensive welcome following his move to the Midlands, is the other player in the team who has the ability to link up with Ireland. Both of them, again in my opinion, are streets ahead of the rest of the team in terms of talent. However, the pair need suitably talented players around them or their abilities are lost due to lesser players not being on their wavelength.
Other players may be bigger, stronger, faster, or any other trait, but these pair are the most skillful and, therefore, should be the pair that the team are built around.
Some might suggest that such an ethos is ridiculous to ponder given the current man in charge of the team, but is it really? Didn’t McLeish buy N’Zogbia and, whether fans care to admit it or not, get Ireland playing at a high level again?
Again, some will lambast the signing of Brett Holman, considering him to be useless, despite the fact that many have not seen him in action, apart from in a few low resolution Youtube clips. The guy’s coming from the potential Dutch champions, and he is both skillful and versatile.
Are we really saying we are that able to be picky that such a player isn’t good enough for us? More to the point, if Holman isn’t, who is? The likes of the aforementioned van der Vaarts and Modrics of this world are not our level. Our level is more modest, even though we have been scouting a lot further afield than England nowadays – with our scouts being at competitions such as the African Cup of Nations – something that would have been unheard of during the tenure of O’Neill.
So this weekend will show Villa glimpses back of a past under a once favoured Ulsterman brought back into sharp focus contrasted with the much maligned Scotsman in charge at present.
With McLeish’s first season drawing to a fairly unsatisfactory conclusion the question will be, assuming he survives the summer, if he can improve a team that has been on a downward spiral since the exit of Martin the Messiah.
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