On the face of things, I'm a fairly open book. I come to a conclusion or opinion and I tend to stick with it and as most of you will know, I don't mind sharing that opinion either. The thing is, getting to an opinion is the hard part for me because I usually like to form it with data and numbers and not just my gut.
Today, it's a little different and actually, it's not just about today. This new opinion forms my future and it's from my gut, no data and no hard evidence and my heart.
And I'm doing this because I've been supporting Aston Villa for as long as I can remember and I've been doing this, writing about the Club for 15 years. And what I'm seeing doesn't bode well for all things Aston Villa at the moment and I feel as if, if only for me, that I've got to get out ahead of it.
And what I mean by what I'm seeing is that it's mostly about what people are writing. I've seen it many times before and it's the type of comments and statements that tend to only head in one direction. And I know what's coming and I also know the sources these days, but it's not going to come from me.
And it's because I'm in my 40's and because I've seen this before and I know nothing is going to really change, that I have to go with my gut. It's also because milk doesn't taste like milk did when I was a kid. It's because the game is broken (that was never a penalty) and it's because you can't just turn up at the park and join in a match any more.
And I just want it to be about supporting Aston Villa and not about anything else. Everything else is what has taken us to the Championship and kept us here.
Times have changed
Things are different these days and I want to sing it loud and proud. Dean Smith is my manager. I've written that before, but I've not written that I want him to sign a ten year contract. I'm writing this because we need to get back to what supporting Aston Villa is all about. We need to remember what football is all about. We need to forget about football as a business.
We need to remember what it was like hear your mum or dad call you in when it was getting dark but you wanted five more minutes.
And so what if we don't go up this season. First is the easiest season to go back up and after that it's the fourth when Clubs like us tend to go back up. The third season is when the rebuilding happens and that is exactly what Dean Smith is doing.
I will just say though, too many changes in players also tends to cause issues. I've written it so many times before I tend to assume everyone understands my position, but we've had a lot of recent changes and we're starting to look like a side that hasn't played together before. Coincidence?
So yes, we lost today and this post hasn't really touched on that. I decided to write this instead when I started to see comments on social media and this blog that lead to the next. I'm not saying it's coming, I'm saying it's how it starts. But what I am saying is that we've just got to remember what it's all about.
Managing Aston Villa is the biggest job most managers ever have and it is for a reason. Lets do our job and try and make it just a little easier. And yes, I'm a bottle in but it was fantastic .. a 2013 Campo del Titari, so I'm allowed and yes, I started writing this post with twenty minutes to go.