It's been a busy few days and quite a few things have happened since my last post. Glenn Whelan, Ahmed Elmohamady and Christopher Samba have all signed and all of them, plus John Terry offer us an absolutely wonderful opportunity at promotion this season.
It almost feels as if this is our first season relegated. That's how I'm going to approach it anyway, because the second season down is harder than the first, but I feel a lot more optimistic this time out than I did last time.
And you know what - all of these signings feel like Steve Bruce signings. They've been brought in to do a job and it's the job at hand. Not playing Barcelona in the Champions League in three season.
Behaviour breeds behaviour
I've long written the above statement and it means many things. Before I wrote that you could have written that you get used to winning or losing. If you're nice to someone, they'll be nice back. What goes around comes around. Karma.
I'm going into this season with a lot of optimism and I hope it rubs off.
I write this because the thing that brings down Aston Villa more often than anything else, results and performances included, is the supporters. Despite this wonderful opportunity and with the playing squad and manager we have right now, this is a great opportunity we are still going to have supporters that don't have a clue and they're going to bring Aston Villa down and keep us down.
And it's not just because they don't know anything about Aston Villa.
Villa and anything to do with Scotland has never worked. McLeish, Lambert, McDonald (as boss), Black, Hutton, McCormack... any more? #avfc
— TB (@tom9022) July 24, 2017
It's because they know very little about football.
Video of the day
We need a bit of this
This was Besiktas fans cheering their team when losing at halftime. They went out in the second half to draw 3-3. That's what I'm led to believe anyway and it's nice, so I decide to believe it. My point is ... this would never happen at Villa Park and it should.
And despite everything, mostly that we still have Gabby and Richards, I'm going to go into this season believing we're going to have a great season. I think these new players are more than just players. They're going to bring something that we haven't had in a long time at Aston Villa and I'm looking forward to seeing it.
That is when the Club finally announce the streaming service they are going to announce - not long until the season starts now.