Editorial

Hello and welcome to the first edition of the New Year.

Don't worry, you haven't been asleep for nine months. Rather, in line with the Villa's impending Stock Market debut we've decided to take our calendar from the financial year from now on.

It's still the end of the football season though, and with it comes the usual look back at events since last August and a debate on what's going to happen during the summer.

I can't see what all the problems are. We're well on course for Europe and yet there are people calling for the head of Brian Little. Remember, we've never finished high enough in the league two years in succession to qualify for Europe ever since Europe was invented, so if we mange to get into next season's UEFA Cup then Brian will have made history. But even that won't be enough for some. It's all a bit perplexing, particularly as BFR's supporters still say he wasn't given enough time.

As Russell Thomas said in the Guardian recently, it's an indication of our 'disappointing' season that we can attract a full house for a game against the worst side on current form in the league, win easily and continue our drive towards Europe. What's annoying most supporters is that it's easy to look back and add up the points we've dropped - Arsenal's late equaliser, missed penalties against Newcastle and Sheffield Wednesday, the diabolical refereeing decisions against Leicester and Nottingham Forest. That's a dozen points, to say nothing of all the times when we dominated games without winning for the lack of a goalscorer. Much as I think the future's full of triumph, I can't help feeling that we'll never have a better chance to win the league.

Of course we should never go back to the days of accepting the occasional good season in between years of mediocrity, but a sense of proportion has to be called for. I'm still certain Brian is making progress and we should have at least a modicum of patience.

Tommy Johnson's departure wasn't without its critics, although a lot of them were probably the same people who said that he was a bad buy in the first place. Johnson was a popular player, mainly because he belonged to the Paul Birch/Dean Saunders theory that running around a lot will make up for any other deficiencies. He didn't do himself any favours though, when he left and said the Villa were inferior to a club that over the past ten seasons has spent most of its time coming fourth or worse in a two horse race. Carl Tiler was a gamble that didn't quite come off - at least we got most of our money back - and to be honest I thought Phil King had already left.

With the end of the season coming it's time to look through the squad and see where it needs strengthening.

Goalkeepers are no problem. Bosnich is still one of the best on the country, and every time he has a bad season he comes back better for the experience. Michael Oakes is a reliable deputy and we're lucky to have him.

Defence is also looking good. The central defenders are the best set in the country and our wingbacks are as good as any, particularly if Brian resorts to a back four and uses them as defenders rather than wide men.

It's in midfield that our problems start. Much as I've got a lot of time for Andy Townsend we've got to face the fact that he isn't getting any younger. Mark Draper is far too inconsistent and doesn't score enough goals. Which leaves lan Taylor, and it's not just because he's a local hero that I can't fault him.

And up front we all know what the problem is so let's just leave it at that.

And so onto the younger members of the squad. Riccardo Scimeca looks better with every game, and should be pushing to be more than just injury cover soon, David Hughes also has great potential, but we shouldn't be expecting too much just yet. Lee

Hendrie, I must admit, is starting to give cause for concern. At 21 he's starting to be a bit old to be considered a promising youngster for much longer. After all, at a similar age Gordon Cowans had been in the first team for three years and Gary Shaw was scoring hat-tricks for the league champions. It's not over-dramatising to say that next season will be the most important in Hendrie's career and I really hope that he can come through. As for Gareth Farrelly, if he doesn't want to play for the club and thinks he's a star when he's in reality just on the first rung of the ladder then its a shame but there's nothing anybody else can do about it. The world is full of players with that sort of attitude and few of them ever make it.

Which leads us on to the big topic of the moment who do we buy? I reckon that at least four players are needed. In midfield I'd like to see a creative goalscorer Patrick Berger, who seems never to have settled at Liverpool, would fit the bill here. A midfield general to take over from Andy Townsend is also a requirement. It's a horrible thought but the name Ince comes to mind. And finally in attack. As I've said elsewhere my first choice would come from overseas. And as we need more strength in depth I'd also move on for Emile Heskey of Leicester. That's a total of about £25 million, which would no doubt give Doug a seizure. It's also the sort of money we've got to be spending. And let there be no getting rid of players who we don't want to sell. If anybody thinks that Dwight Yorke should be sold to the first team to come up with ten million quid, then I have one question. Who could he be replaced with? The only strikers in the league who are better than Dwight are Shearer and Fowler. I doubt if they're for sale.

Off the field there are also a couple of talking points. The flotation is underway and all we can now do is hope it's a success and that the new directors bring fresh approach to a club that has never bee over-ambitious in the past.

And as for the furore over the ground, stop for minute and think. The council might have use emotive language, but there's a lot of truth in what was said. Look around Villa Park not as a supporter but as a neutral would see it and you'll realise that does have major faults, not least the lack long-term planning that the council complained about. Doug has boasted for years about the money he's saved; equally we've warned of the danger false economy. It gives me no pleasure to say that we've been proved right. You'd never admit it t them, but at least Sty Andrews is being built to plan. It might not be a very good plan, but when it finished there will be a sense of uniformity about their hovel. Meanwhile, Villa Park will still loo exactly what it is - four separate buildings, each built with no reference to the others and in four separate styles.

But that's for the future. The present is that we're course for Europe, at worst we should be top six the league despite throwing away more points than any side in history and in the summer we'll throwing money around like never before.

Have a good one.

Day by Day

7th March: Gareth Farrelly says he's turning down a new contract. Tommy Johnson's going nowhere. And Brian's off to Roma to check on another foreign forward.

13th March: Villa agree a fee of £2.3 million with Derby for Tommy Johnson. We're reported to be interested in Roy Makkay of Vitesse Arnhem.

14th March: Shares in BUPA reach new heights and doctors throughout the north west have their holidays cancelled as Datian Atkinson starts training with Manchester City.

15th March: Villa 0 West Ham 0. This game stank of end of season drabness. No doubt West Ham were glad of the point, but we're in the top six and at home, they're fighting relegation and playing away. No wonder they were glad of a point. The defence showed some frailty, for which we should be thankful that Bossie was back to his best form. Our midfield never got on top (whatever happened to that player we had last season, Draper I think his name was?) and up front there was no imagination. You can knock Savo, but without him it's hard to see where the goals are coming from, with our ideas based round giving the ball to Dwight Yorke in the hope that he might beat the four defenders marking him. The biggest talking point was the crowd, thirty six thousand turning up to witness this drabness. If we can't afford new players when we're getting crowds like this, what will happen when they stop coming?

20th March Let's have a look what's happening elsewhere. That's funny, Manchester United are through to the European Cup semi-finals. What's that ? You can lose three times in a cup competition now and still not get knocked out? Well fancy that. Things must have changed since I was a lad.

22nd March: Blackburn Rovers 0 Villa 2. An efficient, no-nonsense performance of the sort that was so successful last season. Blackburn are dreadful - the amount of replica keepers shirts on display showed who their tearn is, particularly when Chris Sutton went off after five minutes, The rest of the game was spent in a display of Villa denying Rovers any openings and hitting on the break. Dwight should have scored, Taylor did score although it was disallowed, then in the second half a bit of substittit;onal genius paid off. Super Tom made the initial difference, Yorke got another and it was business as usual (as if). The other results went for us and getting into Europe is in our own hands now. Blackburn have got a nice ground haven't they? And can there be anything in football as embarrassing as the disaster that befell Kevin Gallagher, being marked at a corner by Alan Wright?

24th March. An Extraordinary General Meeting passes various resolutions that mean we will eventually cease to remain as a football club. No doubt it was all done with the best of intentions, but the sight of John Ritchie, who with the best will in the world is only a local solicitor, repeatedly embarrassing Doug and his highly-paid advisors, makes you wonder what City investors and analysts will do in the future.

26th March: Carl Tiler joins Sheffield United for £650,000, Phil King goes to Swindon for nowt. Celtic are after Tommy Johnson, Andy Townsend's contract gets nearer to being signed.

27th March: It looks like Tommy Johnson's going to Celtic. And a piece of good news. Former assistant manager John Ward, who had more reason than most to feel aggrieved when he left the Villa, becomes boss of Bristol City. Last night a Villa team played an Albion one. one of our players went off injured and might be out for the rest of the season, Is anybody surprised?

28th March: Tommy Johnson signs for Celtic for £2.4 million and makes the usual speech about moving to a bigger club. Perhaps those who reckon Johnson as one of Brian's bad buys might remember the profit we've made on him.

2nd April: Remember when it was what happned on the pitch that counted? Today the Villa announce a new £6.5 million deal with Reebok, that this, share deals and the odd player sale mean Brian's got £30 million to spend during the summer, and that the ground is to have its long-awaited expansion to hold 50,000. There is, though, a get out clause for this last bit, so don't hold your breath.

3rd April: Problems. The Trinity Road redevelopment gets knocked back by the council, who say "It looks awful Come back when you've made a better job of it." Hopefully the Villa will listen and stop penny-pinching. Dream on. Mark Bosnich is reported to have been injured playing for Australia. What do I keep saying?

5th April: Villa 3 Everton 1. Talking to some Everton supporters before the match made me realise they were so bad they just had to beat us. And for twenty minutes that's what it looked like, They worked on the if it moves kick it philosophy aided by a sympathetic referee and despite Michael Oakes making one of the best saves I've ever seen they went a goal up. Then the Villa suddenly decided to play football and for half an hour either side of half time were as good as theyve been all season. When Savo scores you know he's also going to be man of the match, and looking at today I think we might already have the goalscoring midfielder we need. Talking of which, I'm starting to have my doubts about Mark Draper. He hasn't had a good season but today he was awful. Gareth Farrelly had a stormer and all efforts to keep him should be redoubled. Curcic came on to a mixed reception and didn't do much, David Hughes continues to be the surprise of the season. If only he was a forward. The other results yet again went for us and if we don't get into Europe now it's our own fault and nobody else's.

7th April: Two new members are added to the Villa board. Mark Ansell, of auditors Deloitte Touche and

David Owen Of solicitors Edge Ellison are bet 'life-long' Villa supporters and will both no doubt be adding a great deal of independent thought to future board meetings.

8th April: The silly season starts early with Athletico Madrid bidding £10 million for Dwight. He says he doesn't want to go, Brian says he's not moving anyway and LET THAT BE AN END TO IT,

9th April: Wimbledon 0 Villa 2, and a strange example of what it must be like to be a Manchester United supporter. There was a surprisingly large turnout for what is the worst place in the world to get to, and the reason why was revealed when sitting down. At a rough guess almost half the Villa supporters present were from dahn Sahrf, and a lot of the Brummies were living there as well. Looks like we'll have to stop being so abusive towards the Greatests. Or perhaps not. As for the match, no Jones, Earle, Holdsworth, Leonhardsen et al told its own story. In days gone by, the Dons would have used the game before a semi to wreak havoc, but not now. They treated the game as a training, session and we should have scored before we did. Save confused himself as well as the defence when running with the ball, but he scored so who cares? Mark Draper has been taking some stick lately, so it's only fair to say that even if everything he tried didn't come off tonight, at least he was more adventurous that of late. David Hughes is fast turning into an exceptional talent, Nelson had another good game - hardly being noticed but doing nothing wrong. We let Wimbledon back into the game after our goal but Michael Oakes was scarcelytroubled and Alan Wright concluded things with a well taken goal. To complete a useful evening's entertainment, getting away from the ground was easy and we got home early.

10th April: Brian says Savo's still going in the summer, though. Manchester United are now taking legal action because the FA won't let them make up their own rules and finish the season when they want to. You'd have though Lancaster Gate would have realised who runs football by now

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