I should have written this before but you have no idea how busy I've been, how many flights I've had to take the past month and how many I've got coming up. This afternoon, I've got three meetings starting at the same time. So, that's an apology. On the other hand, Aston Villa won a match and Paul Lambert is about to put pen to paper on a new deal.
You have to chuckle and you know what, it was a win we were desperate for and it secures the manager for the next two games (one point a game target) and that has given him some breathing space. But that is what is sad about all this. It was a fantastic three points but nothing has really changed.
We were always going to win a game in the end but that's because if you keep banging your head against a brick wall, you'll eventually break something. The football wasn't great and I basically switched off after thirty minutes. I even said to someone that Palace would score with ten minutes to go, but I was wrong. Happily wrong.
And we also had the majority of the ball. Maybe that one win and the possession is enough for me to feel as if we've turned the corner. That's what they want me to think. I don't know if I can though. Even though I know it will be so much easier.
But it should be about the football
And I know I harp on about the football and everyone is sick to death of it, but that's all I really want. I want a fair game (the entire game is broken right now) with some certainty and I want to see good football. I don't want an owner that wants to sell and I don't want a manager that I don't think is good enough for our club. But does it matter what I or any of us want?
Maybe I should change my thinking. Maybe as supporters we don't have a right to want the best and maybe we should just be expected to support. Maybe we are just customers now though. Maybe we should do what Liverpool supporters are doing, but do it right. If we don't want to be treated as customers, we should stop acting as customers.
But can we have it both ways? As customers, don't we have a right to complain and demand better? As a supporter isn't our role defined by what we call ourselves, in so much our role is to support as best we can? We've bought into it, so why don't we just do what we signed up for?
Not many people want Lambert at the club but it's pretty clear Lerner does at the moment and I have learnt a thing or two this week about the great Aston Villa that is close to heartbreaking. Maybe the time has come to just try and enjoy the football, to forget about the owner and the manager and concentrate on the football.
It was more fun when it was just about the football and I know that sounds like a beaten man, but it's not. It's just someone that is stuck in the woods.