One thing follows the other, the season awaits

This has been a long time coming. On Monday night after winning, I started but when I read it on Tuesday morning, it didn’t make sense. I ended up writing a post about something that might or might not happen in three to five years time.

Then I started on Thursday and spent the entire post singing the praises on the new owners, when I really should just hold back for another two or three years before we start to form the wonderful opinions that I had formed about them.

Then on Friday, the post I started to write was mostly taking the piss out of the fake Doctor and his tweet that he promised promotion. We got promoted without him and he was the reason we stayed down as long as we did, but the fool doesn’t understand.

And then, by the time I had a post that was written, it had all been written before. Players have gone, some can hold their heads up very high and walk back into Villa Park whenever they like. Others, are best forgotten. Others stole a living from Aston Villa and they should be deleted from the history books of this great Club.

What I can write and I know others have felt this or written this, is that it does feel that we’re back where we belong.

But then I figured nobody has probably looked at what we can expect next season and it’s not going to make for a positive post, but we can turn it into one. You see, in all likelihood we’re not going to win as many as we did this season and that might be hard to for some to take, but it should also not be that hard to remember what it was like in times gone past.

And the new owners, the squad, the supporters and everyone connected to the Club had a part to play in last season and every day since possibly the most important person, Dean Smith, arrived. And I’ve long written that the most important person at any football club is the manager. Dean Smith has brought real optimism back to our great Club.

Success breeds success

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that I didn’t think Jack Grealish would leave even if we stayed in the Championship, but now we’re up, I’m confident he'll be staying. He is a supporter, he is our captain and he clearly loves the Club and playing in a position and style that is good for him. I also believe he has the right people around him. Sure, he could probably get more money somewhere else and sure possibly even a greater chance of silverware, in the near future anyway, but it's not always about that.

The people around him have probably pointed to other players that thought the grass was going to be greener and it didn’t turn out that way. For all his abilities and achievements the last couple of years, there is still a way to go. He’ll get that chance at Aston Villa and if it’s going to happen for him, there is a far greater chance that it happens with us than anywhere else.

And that doesn’t mean there is more chance of silverware with us, but more chance that he becomes that player he can become and actually plays. A by-product of that for Aston Villa is that if he becomes that player, it will mean we get better and those chances of silverware increase for us. Success breeds success and it’s not just about individuals, it’s about the team that Dean Smith is building.

We’ve also seen a lot of players released, so it’s fair to assume we’re going to see a fair number of new players coming in. And you all know my views on that too. I’m not a big fan of a large number of changes, but at the same time, this is the first chance Dean Smith has an opportunity to build a squad for the Premier League. It’s a catch 22.

Does he make a large number of changes now or does he build slowly. It’s going to be interesting to watch unfold. And while I don’t like too many changes, it’s easy to argue that it’s already happened, so there is little choice. Either way, it’s going to happen, one day or the next.

With all that written, time for fixtures and new players.