Fantasy football, one more player and a broken record

Just a quick post today and probably nothing more, unless the club up the bid for Charles N'Zogbia by £1,000,000 and match what Dave Whelan wants, as I'm feeling a bit energetic and think the grass needs a cut.

So straight to the point is going to be my mantra for the day and I'll start with fantasy football and we've created a free league at the free to enter DreamTeamFC website, managed by The Sun.

Now, The Sun isn't my favourite paper but I'm cheap and the fantasy football game they run is actually quite good - I do prefer it to the one we used last season and it only takes a few minutes to set up. So the details are very simple - the league pin is 163802 and the password is blog1234 - click here, create your team and add it to that league.

I don't actually know who won last year as I didn't log in that often and lost interest in the game, but I wont this year, as this game is a bit easier and there is less need to be making changes. So, if you win, you win the shirt and maybe a signed photo of yours truly.

The manager talks, or does he?

I read something on Twitter last night about the manager saying there was only going to be one more top player coming in this window and it got quite a few people flustered. I say, well done, because that is all we need and I wrote about it recently. But I'm not entirely sure if he did actually say it, because I've not actually read it.

Yes, in an ideal world we would have two top players competing for each position, but in an ideal world the game would be fair, we'd be playing Champions League football every season and be in with a shot of winning the league, but it isn't fair any more and we do not need to have two top players competing for every position, but in some positions, we already have that.

What we need is hunger and desire. What we need is a belief that it is possible and what we need more than anything is a way to play football that doesn't involve hitting it long or a feeling that everything rests on one player. As things stand right now, we could start the season with a player in each position, playing a variation of 4-5-1.

We need to believe that the Academy at Aston Villa is producing. We all think it is and there is talk it is and we've seen glimpses, but none of us really know with absolute certainty and we will only really ever know if they are given a proper run.

Sure, Marc Albrighton looks the real deal and Barry Bannan, if given a proper run this season, will also have his chance to show us and we've got the likes of Fabian Delph, Ciaran Clark, The Fonz, Jonathan Hogg and Gary Gardner who are also all desperate for the chance to show us they are capable and I'm not even including the likes of Eric Lichaj, Andreas Weimann, Nathan Baker and Chris Herd who are also close.

My point is, to do it organically, we have to have absolute belief that it is possible and that means throw away all your doubts, because they are, for the most part, unfounded. Just believe it is possible and if we have a team, based on five or six players from our Academy, then add the spice from outside, that is our engine and that is our desire.

I know I sound like a broken record, but it isn't going to happen the other way - this is the only way it can happen and if the manager was given enough money to bring in four or five players - that is only going to take us backwards and throw us into that cycle of it never going to happen. This is the right way. It might not work this time, but it is the right way.

On that, I am going to leave you with a reminder.

Fantasy football

Just a reminder. Click here, register your team and add it to the AVFC Blog mini-league. The pin code is 163802 and the password is blog1234.