I'm going to be on a flight on Friday and the internet is probably going to be very dodgy, so I'm writing this now and there seems to be a little more to write about than normal and while I sense some worry, I see nothing but positivity. But it is Christmas and I have had a couple of drinks at lunch, so it's going to be hard to not be optimistic at the moment.
And it's not just because of the alcohol and the many more drinks I'm going to have today, it's that we are third in table after seventeen games this season and we have one of the best managers in football and everything seems to be going exactly as we would want it to be going.
No scrap that, it's going as we should expect with a manager of this quality. Pinch yourself kids.
Anyway, it was announced this week that Atairos have become a partner in V Sports, the vehicle created by Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens to own our Club. Now, unless I've missed it, I don't think we know how much they've invested but what we do know is that Atairos is an investment company with over $6 billion invested in other companies, so you'd like to think that they know what they're doing.
And they're not doing this for a quick return, so it might be that more comes over time. I'd imagine they see the bigger picture (think Rollerball) and expect what our owners have done is something that can grow but also be replicated. And I hate saying this word, but also probably scaled. I can't imagine they're doing this to double their money, I suspect they've done this with a long term view and that can only be good for us.
Let me be clear, I hate it. I hate that football has gone this way, but it is football and no rules are getting broken, so if we want to compete, we have to do this. I'd rather someone came in and fixed football, but that isn't going to happen, so we have to either join this group or be swallowed up by it. It's nice to see we have owners in that know how to make this happen.
Sheffield United at Villa Park
So, we move on and our focus has to be on Sheffield United at Villa Park on Friday. It does feel like we're not getting as much rest as other teams at the moment but that might be starting to change because Manchester United play on Saturday and we play them on Boxing Day, so that extra days rest could be very valuable for us.
And Sheffield United could be tough. But with Douglas Luiz back, I hope we have enough. I think the match against Brentford showed how important he is for us and they rest might have done him good.
And I think Luiz could be the difference for us and while I'm now starting to worry about what I will write next, I will say it will be nice to see Cam Archer back. I hope he doesn't have a great day, but I hope he shows us glimpses of what we let go.
The CEO speaks
Okay, his title is President Business Operations, but essentially it's CEO and there was a video released this week. And in it, he put a stop to the North Stand redevelopment and without saying it, mocked the formed CEO Christian Purslow. Maybe mocked is the wrong word, but is it?
We learnt a few other things, but essentially it's nice to see him not looking for opportunities to talk about anything. Click the link in the previous paragraph if you haven't already seen it.
Bottom line, as long as we keep getting the results on the pitch that we are very quickly becoming used to, he has nothing to worry about and no reason to come and talk to us. I've said it before and I'll always say it, the most important person at any Club is the manager. But a decent CEO will provide the necessary support to make his job easier and the right CEO will also be able to attract the next best manager when that time comes.
Football has moved on, even if I'm not ready to but right now, everything seems to be as good as it can be and for that, I'm a very optimistic supporter at the moment.