For me Saturday was just about the final straw. Lerner, Faulkner and Lambert need to lock themselves in a tiny room together and start plotting something. Something big, something major—something along the lines of The Great Escape. I feel that should Villa steer clear of relegation this season then it’s going be of the same magnitude as those brave souls back in 1943/44.
One really does have to question whether this current Villa squad have enough experience, quality and character to pluck themselves out of this sorry situation. It ain’t looking good.
And just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse Mark Halsey gets well-and-truly conned by Southampton’s Jay Rodriguez in Saturday’s huge six-pointer. The 23-year-old striker then had the cheek to approach an understandably disgruntled Ciaran Clark to say, “I didn’t dive!” Gravity along with television replays would suggest otherwise.
To top it all off, West Brom threw away a two-goal lead late on against our relegation rivals Reading, and in the process cost me £180 off a five quid accumulator. It would seem that our near neighbours will do just about anything to see us playing Championship football next season.
This week Paul Lambert was quoted as saying that now is not the time to panic. Some factions of Villa supporters are panicking so much that they are pining to see both Alan Hutton and Stephen Warnock return to the fold, and I certainly didn’t think that I’d ever be arguing the cause but I do feel – as I’ve written in practically every one of my articles this season – that our fullbacks are costing us dear. What makes this even more absurd is that arguably we have more options in the full back positions than anywhere else on the pitch. I’d strongly recommend that Lambert swallow some pride and bring them both back in, and for those who question me on that I’d ask, what have we got to lose?
We’re now over a fortnight into the transfer window and whilst our rivals are strengthening, we appear to be doing very little and that despite a write-up posted by the Daily Mail website last Sunday that Lerner was ready to foot the bill once again in order to see Villa safe. As much as I admire this piece of writing I fail to see how Villa are an attractive proposition for a player of any reasonable calibre at this moment in time.
This weekend we make the short trip to The Hawthorns – and if truth be told I’m absolutely dreading it. Defeat at Albion may see the players wounded beyond repair and the faith of the supporters in tatters. The up-coming league fixtures have me scratching my head and I’m left constantly asking myself as to where the points are going to come from. Here’s our next half dozen league matches:- WBA (a), Newcastle (h), Everton (a), West Ham (h), Arsenal (a) & Man City (h).
Next Tuesday evening we’ll take to the field looking to oversee a two goal deficit against League Two Bradford City in the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final, and I’m actually feeling very up-beat about this. At Valley Parade I felt that they were there for the taking before their fortuitous opening goal, and I’ve a sneaky feeling that both Villa and Chelsea will progress to the final. We shall see how that pans out, eh!
Due to me having a long weekend away this weekend I will not be posting to the site for another fortnight, by which time Villa could be on 25 points, booked a place into the last-16 of the FA Cup and have a trip to Wembley to look forward – it’s perfectly possible.
Until next time, Up The Villa!
The Author
