February 25th can't come soon enough for me because I need to see three points for Aston Villa away from home and they will get it this weekend. You see, this is the match of the four where we get three points and I'm convinced of it. That is optimism for you.
Don't get me wrong I've enjoyed my weekend of FA Cup football and very little worrying about if we were going to win, lose or draw, but there is something about a weekend with Aston Villa that makes it more fun and I'm actually starting to not care when we don't win - I just accept it as a likely outcome on a Friday night and don't even brace myself for the worst anymore.
I don't think it is sad and I know many feel this way now, but I live in the hope that one match, something will happen that will make me take note. I think I sit in hope more that our owner will act and make something happen, but I'm not sure I ever had any real hope in him and if there ever was any, it was, I can write this now, blind optimism.
An optimistic outlook
Now, we don't have to win this weekend for the one in four theory to be proven - it is there for all to see in the table, but if we don't win this one it is Blackburn away or Fulham at home and I've just got a feeling we will get this win out of the way early and possibly win another and then start seeing some saying, because Alex McLeish won two games in four, or maybe even three, that we have turned the corner.
We wouldn't have and it would only be because we were playing two teams destined for relegation and another we should be above in the table by the time we play them at home and who currently have the worst away record in the league.
So, we will win this weekend and you know what, we really should win the other two and if we did - that would basically assure our position in the league and then hopefully the owner will act.
Rumours of a Saudi Prince at Bodymoor
Look, I don't know how true this is and I'm taking it with a huge pinch of whatever you have to pinch, but someone somewhere said there was an Saudi Prince getting a tour at Bodymoor Heath and someone else has said that this tour was because the Saudi Prince did a lot of entertaining at Villa Park.
I'm getting this all fourth and fifth hand but I'm told this is common knowledge in terms of speculation, so I'm going to add my two pence and it is this; nobody is getting a tour of Bodymoor if they are spending a lot of money entertaining guests at Villa Park. First - if they are spending the money they don't need to be 'sold' and second, if they are spending the money, they should be getting a tour of Villa Park, not the training facility.
Just like the club dismissed the photo of Stewart Downing with a Liverpool scarf and Andy Carroll in the summer as not true - I dismiss this story that it is because of entertaining guests at Villa Park as not true, but in the very same breath, I also have to admit that because I'm told this is all speculation that the chances of an actual Saudi Prince visiting Bodymoor are quite possibly not true too.
But imagine if they were. Go on, think about it for a minute. Then get back to work.