Hope is something really hard to get a grip on. It is easy to hope for things though, like I hope I'll win the lottery, but I know it is an unrealistic hope, so not a real hope that can happen. Hope that Aston Villa might win something is a difficult hope to have at times, although it is one I am familiar with.
I have that hope again. I have it because I am basing it on us having a manager that has won a lot of stuff and because we have many of the ingredients already at the club and seeing as I've started with a food reference, I'll end on one; the best chefs all go to school in France.
I'm not saying it will happen, but I did go to sleep with a smile on my face last night. Hope had come home.
Assistant Manager
We don't know who this is yet but the smart money will be on either Patrice Bergue or Kevin MacDonald and if MacDonald doesn't get the title of Assistant Manager, I think it is safe to assume that he will be involved in the first team, which is a sort of promotion and the right direction for him.
Exclusive opinion
Stan Collymore has given his opinion on the appointment and I wouldn't normally quote something from talkSHITE, but it deserves to be put down, as there is some validity to it.
Stella Artois
If it was a manager that was looking to build the club and take it on from three sixth-placed finishes with Martin O’Neill surely you’d give him longer than two years. [An interim manager is] what Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner are viewing it as. It’s almost a kind of trial. If he needs to have a trial then it doesn’t send to me, as an Aston Villa supporter, a very positive sign.
Now, if the club had called it a rolling two year contract, would that have made him happier? I say this because the previous manager only had a one year rolling contract.
But actually, what is wrong with Houllier as an interim manager? He has undoubted qualities and if his role is to merely steady the ship, run an experienced eye over the likes of MacDonald and add some much needed footballing credibility to the club before taking a seat upstairs, I'll take it.
Emily Dickinson wrote something along the lines of 'we know nothing about hope' or something like that and it appears Mr Collymore has none. Chin up Stan, you know it isn't backwards step, that we were not going to finish sixth again with the previous manager, so we can either stand still or move forward with this one.
End note
At the end of the day, we don't really know what is going to happen. It wasn't long ago that Houllier was winning the French League and not long before that he won a fairly decent amount of silverware in this country, so our default position right now should be a hopeful and optimistic one, but time is needed.
Do not expect the football to instantly change but expect it to develop over time and if you want a suggestion; go put a tenner on Aston Villa to win on Monday - you will get 2/1 at the moment at Betfair and a free bet.
Video of the Day
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