West Ham and Norwich before the transfer window and a need for six points

West Ham have a pretty impressive away record this season and we've not won at home. The longer things go on though, the more chance that something will change. The sad thing is, it has to change for Aston Villa or it's going past needing a miracle, we'll be needing a Sepp Blatter type of intervention.

And I've tried to write that several times this week but there is little point in writing about the same thing post after post.

But our manager is talking and I'm sure he's scaring people. He has said "I think we need at least 10 victories. With 36 points you can be safe. Sometimes you go down, sometimes with more points you can go down."

Ten wins from next 21 matches

It's a big ask from the players and the manager but a win today and against Norwich will be a great start and it will get us to very close to where we need to be. But it's a huge ask. And if it happened, we'd all be massively surprised.

So what it feels like is our manager is starting to lose the plot too. He's eating at the same table as Tom Fox the man that is steering the Aston Villa ship towards the Championship. And I have a theory on this now.

I was asked a question this week about the West Ham Way and if I knew why it was important. I wont go into my response, but it did highlight that we don't have an Aston Villa Way or a culture at the club around any type of football thinking. Our philosophy at the club is very much focused on making money so the club is sustainable. Most of the new income has always come from the TV deal though and nobody at the club seems to understand that financial success of a football club can be directly linked to success on the pitch.

But that is to be expected when you've got people at the club that know little about football. But we'll beat West Ham and then all of a sudden we'll be back. I'm going to start drinking soon, after a proper breakfast. See what I'm doing? Some things never change.

January window

This is coming and like I've written before, I expect our business to happen quickly but I also think some are going. I'd not be surprised if the likes of Gabby was one of them and even the likes of Gestede the other. But expect stories to come out soon.

But before all that, it is West Ham. I think we're going to win. I really do. I think we've turned the corner.