It's like we're about to buckle down into The Smiler at Alton Towers. We know it's a rollercoaster and we know there are loops and we know it's going to go fast and be over in just under three minutes, but we don't actually know how we're going to feel at the end or after the first drop.
And right now, we're staring at the start line of a new Premier League season and the truth is, we know it's football and we know there will be some good performances and bad ones and that it ends after 38 games. But we don't actually know how we're going to feel this time next week or in three weeks or three months.
But we're going to get on
We also know we've got a few new players, we know that some have gone and quite likely more will. We also know that we probably need that experience in the side and if we don't get it we probably wont have as good a season as we could have.
But we do know this season coming will be better than the last. While it isn't impossible to have a season like the last one, you'd have to be mad to think it will be as bad, especially after how we finished the last one mixed in with a little bit of optimism.
But it's going to be a rollercoaster and this is my sort of season preview post.
The thing is with season previews is I tend to summarise everything I want to get across in the first few paragraphs and I've done it again. This season will be better than last and I think as things stand today, we've got top half finish written all over us.
But I don't think a 'top half finish' is good enough for Aston Villa but I do grudgingly accept that it's a process. But I also think we could finish much better than 'top half', if you know what I mean, if we get that extra player or two to add some much needed experience.
I think we need experience because I think the younger, less experienced players need someone to look up to and I think that sometimes we need a player with experience to put a foot on the ball.
But there is also an argument for suggesting that last season will have given them that experience. I don't think, all round, it would have, although they would have learnt and learnt a lot, but I'm not sure it will be enough. I could be wrong.
And there is also an argument that suggests the number of new players coming in will upset the flow or require time for everyone to gel, but I think that's a long shot, especially considering the time they have had together. I think they're all young, eager and determined, so I think that will count for more than getting to know how to play football, the right way, again.
And my faith in what the manager is doing has increased a lot. When he dropped Bent last season and seemed to put his faith in Benteke I was suspicious, mostly because Bent is a great striker (I'm using his game to goal ratio to form that opinion) and I thought we should have played to his strengths. But the manager didn't and he put his faith in Benteke and it proved right. I hope he doesn't pull that faith from Joe Bennett and I think if anything, we have to have some blind faith in what he is doing.
So that is about it. I'm not going to look at individual players too closely as it's a team game. I am going to hope that we start the season as we finished the last, I think that is actually the most critical thing to the potential success this season and by success, I mean mostly that we surprise a few people and start to get spoken about in the right way and that we don't look back and look at it as just acceptable.