One thing that made me laugh on Saturday was when I saw somebody tweet that Aston Villa wanted to go out of the FA Cup to League 1 Sheffield United. Why? Well, to essential complete their Football League trifecta of cup humiliation. Let’s hope they don’t go out of the FA Cup to a Conference side next year to complete a grand slam of professional football failure – I guess there are positives so far, hey?
For me, this loss stung. Say what you will about the manager’s alleged disrespect for the competition, but he essentially named his strongest side, certainly a team that should’ve taken care of a League 1 club with little difficulty.
Sure the team misses Ron Vlaar. Even last season the team was statistically better with Vlaar despite his penchant for the odd lapse or overcompensation. With all that said, it’s hard for me to get my head around the fact that the team can’t function without him. If this team needs Ron Vlaar to beat Sheffield United, then that’s an indictment of everybody else playing.
The club is being more proactive about addressing some of its deficiencies than it was a year ago. Wes Hoolihan may or may not have put in a transfer request, and he may or may not be available for Monday. Steven Defour may or may not be Younnes Belhanda redux. Villa fan Joleon Lescott may or may not play for the club he is said to support. Hoolihan seems the most realistic to me, even if he isn’t top drawer. However, if he can step in and fill a role nobody else at the club can, hopefully we can finish the season respectably.
As long as the club can’t or won’t compete with the wages offered by the likes of West Ham or Fulham, let alone the top eight that’s all we can hope for – staying in the bottom ten. Beyond that, we’re left hoping we can find another Christian Benteke and Ashley Westwood, and hoping Alexsandr Tonev, Nicklas Helenius, and the academy kids can get better.
No, it isn’t a certainty but, at times like this, hope is a big part of what we have.
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