The Aston Villa brand, due diligence and walking around in circles

I can smell it, there's something in the air and it's not fresh bread or coffee. It's the smell of optimism and it makes me think that something is going to happen quite soon and I'd like to think this week. And it could be anything and you can put it down to the Force if you want, but I just can't get away from it.

And there is no reason behind me thinking this other than it's two weeks since we learnt 'officially' that Randy Lerner wanted to sell the club and six months since we learnt 'unofficially'. It's like the stars have aligned and things are about to happen.

And the transfer window has been open a while too and even though I know not many sides are doing business, some are and I just think ... ack, you never know. But I do think Lambert has been told what he's got to spend and I think he also knows what is available to him.

And unless a new owner comes in very soon, I don't think there will be much happening in the transfer window unless someone comes in and offers £50mn for Benteke.

Walking round in circles

But the point of the post and me smelling something. It comes down to the post at the weekend about opportunity.

We sold less tickets last season than anyone else in the Premier League (as a proportion of what was available to sell) and while it would be easy to blame Lerner and Faulkner and right, it's also the internal marketing department and the website the club has from 2003 and the message we create. They still live in the 90's and think just because they've not done something before, we've not seen it.

But this isn't about them and I wrote the other day about thinking long term and as they don't do it, they're not going to get it. It's about potential and there was this brand directory football thing released last week that said Aston Villa were the 23rd most valuable football brand.

You can read more about it here but I'm only posting this as it's a positive story. The truth is, I don't think I believe it. They've got West Ham one place behind us and for me, that just doesn't make sense, especially when Celtic are 14 places behind us.

But, if you pay your dues, you can get anything published these days. Hopefully this story of unsold seats and undervalued brand will tempt someone out of the woodwork and that's my point.

It's fair to say that when you're trying to sell something, it's easier when everyone knows. If someone was interested in Aston Villa after the news broke, a deal could be close. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if it isn't very soon, we have reason to be worried.

If a truly wealthy individual or someone serious about doing this was alerted to this opportunity, they'd be getting very close, if it hasn't already happened, to completing due diligence and then it's just about signing contracts.

The longer this goes on, that nobody is interested or even the longer due diligence goes on, the more worrying this will become. But we're Aston Villa and we are a sleeping giant and we do have so much opportunity. That's why I can smell something in the air. It 'has' to happen soon.

And on that, I'm going to catch that flying pig but say what you want, it's a positive post.