A once in a lifetime opportunity and Manchester City tonight

I promise you that I did have a post written and I was planning on publishing it yesterday, but when things starting to crumble, I thought it best not to. I actually can't remember anything collapsing so quickly and I'm not sure they even had a chance to explain what they wanted to do, but I see an opportunity.

But I should say that I secretly wanted them to succeed and leave. I wanted them to believe they were going on to huge riches, only for their supporters to ultimately leave and for them to come back, cap in hand, asking to be let back in.

And we would have let them back in, but they would have had to start in League Two. Maybe even Spurs or Arsenal would have gone bust, their owners building apartments instead of losing money or having to pay for it themselves. We might even have invited Celtic and Rangers to participate in the English league.

I wanted them to leave because it was doomed to failure. It would never have succeeded but we need something like this to fix the game. Because the game is broken. The game has been broken for years and it's only now, essentially when the people in football are threatened financially, that they see it. However, this is an opportunity to fix things. It might even be described as a once in a lifetime opportunity, but will they take it?

There are so many problems, for the big clubs and the small clubs. Football is effectively broken when you are paying players millions each month instead of putting it into the game. There is an opportunity to fix it now, they must fix it. If they don't, more supporters are going to walk away after what's happened the past few days.

And it's not difficult to fix, it really isn't. It's actually one of the easiest things in the world to do, it's just complicated. It will take a little time and it will take some having to give up something they want for the greater good, but it's more than possible and everyone will win. It will be fair. It will be competitive. But it will only happen if someone makes it happen.

Anyway, enough of that, it wont change and it wont be fixed, just wait for the groveling apologies to come and they will come because these owners know how important it is that supporters feel like they have a real voice. This is actually an opportunity for them and they wont miss it.

So, it's Manchester City tonight and we're going to win. Don't ask me how I know, I just know.

Match facts from the BBC

Head-to-head

• Aston Villa have lost 11 of the past 13 Premier League meetings, with their only victory during this period coming in September 2013.
• Manchester City have won their four most recent league games against Villa by an aggregate score of 15-1.

Aston Villa

• Dean Smith's side have lost half of their 16 league fixtures in 2021 and only won once in the last six attempts.
• Villa have lost eight of their past 10 league games against the league leaders. The exceptions were a 1-0 win against Chelsea in 2014 and a goalless draw with Manchester City in 2015.
• They have earned 24 points in away games this season, compared to 20 at home. Villa haven't ended a top-flight season with fewer points at home than away since 2012-13.
• Emiliano Martinez still needs one clean sheet to match Brad Friedel's Villa Premier League record of 15 in a season, set in 2009-10.
• Ollie Watkins could score in three consecutive Premier League appearances for the first time.

Manchester City

• They are aiming for a 10th successive Premier League away victory. It would make them the first team to achieve the feat more than once, having won 11 in a row between May-December 2017.
• City are on a club record run of 16 consecutive away victories in all competitions and are unbeaten in 19 on the road.
• They lost their previous league match, against Leeds, but haven't suffered consecutive defeats since December 2018.
• Manchester City require 11 points from their final six matches to guarantee a fifth Premier League title.
• City have won 14 successive Premier League fixtures on Wednesdays, the best run on a specific day other than Saturday in the competition's history.
• Sergio Aguero has scored 10 goals in his past six starts against Aston Villa in all competitions, including a hat-trick in a 6-1 victory last season.