If I don't write a post soon, it could be that we go the summer without one. And there are things happening at Aston Villa, so it is time. It's also time to write down a few thoughts about the season.
So I'll start with the sacking of Dean Smith. I still think it was wrong in my opinion but I also don't think it's a coincidence that Steven Gerrard got the job so soon afterwards. That Steven Gerrard, a relative newcomer to management is getting to spend so much money is a concern, because we can all walk into a sweet shop but very few of us can take a squad of players and get them playing football the right way.
And if your job is to manage a football club, you'll want to see the latter first. It doesn't make sense that we're going this. Have the owners, or more to the point, has the CEO seen Gerrard do something in Scotland that I haven't?
Don't get me wrong, I hope that Christian Purslow has seen something that I haven't, but the current Rangers manager has a better win percentage than Steven Gerrard had at Rangers and has already won as many trophies as he did. It just worries me a little that is all.
That said, the season wasn't so bad. We didn't finish in eighth place as I forecast (Not using the word predicted) but that was down to changing the manager. I still believe we would have done had we kept Dean Smith. But the manager did take us from 16th, when he took over to 14th. It's heading in the right direction.
New players
And the manager has had an impact in terms of new players arriving. Everyone, myself included, are still very excited by the prospect of Coutinho next season. He should have hopefully had enough time and the manager has spoken a few times of needing a pre-season. With him and the others that have arrived and those that I'm sure will, it makes for an exciting time.
And I don't think it has stopped, I think we're going to see more and I think the starting eleven that starts next season could be quite different to the starting eleven that ended this one.
Players leaving
And I don't just think the squad is going to get bigger, I think we're going to see some players leaving. And for me, these players fall into two camps. The ones I wouldn't like to see leaving and those that are just leaving.
I think we could see Douglas Luiz, John McGinn and Matt Targett all leave and I'd rather they all stayed. On the other hand, I can also see Danny Ings, Tyrone Mings, Bertrand Traoré, Leon Bailey, Trezeguet and Morgan Sanson leave and I think we could do some good business.
And every manager should be allowed to bring in their own players and build their squad, but I think it should take time, especially when the manager is unproven and it should happen when real gaps have been identified e.g. the players simply can't play the way the manager wants.
We've not yet seen the manager stamp a style of approach to football, so it's hard to see these gaps.
It's all about the football
And that said, next season is one where Steven Gerrard has to deliver something after all this money is getting spent. It's not about saying the right thing at the right time, the only thing that matters is that we win more matches than we lose or draw and that means whenever we look at the current form table, we want to see four green wins at any given time.
It's a big ask, but if you look at how the season finished, there was only five sides that finished with four wins out of the last six and those sides were Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Newcastle. If Steven Gerrard wants a successful season, that has to be the aim and a bonus would be silverware.
And that is the post of posts. I suspect we'll get to one a week now until the season starts again, but leave your comments below.