All articles by John Clark
The window has started dragging on a bit, and frustration and anxiety are mounting among the Villa faithful. I think many expected us to hit the ground running when the window opened, but that was probably always a bit optimistic following Suso’s departure and Lange’s arrival.
It’s revving up, and we know all too well how this works. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be on the edge of your seat. You’ll see some transfers coming on like a very, very slow train in the distance. Others will just pop up out of bushes. But while every window is important, this one is every bit as crucial as last summer’s.
Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Villa ultimately snatched ‘victory’ from the jaws of defeat, God might have had a hand in it, and Dean Smith was ultimately to squash talk that he didn’t know what he was doing.
Football’s been just about the last thing on my mind, and it feels very strange to be coming back to the keyboard to write about a resumption of sporting hostilities when so much else has been going on. But here we are, and Villa will start fighting for their Premier League lives again in a week. God only knows what’ll we get. Regardless, it’s time to shake off the rust and get our game faces on.
I get the money. I get the legal issues. And at least some are finally copping to those being the primary considerations for finishing rather than “integrity.” There is no sporting integrity to the season if it’s played out in bizarre, forced circumstances that affect clubs disproportionately. It’s a very small fig leaf.
