Brucie Bonus

It may be the most clichéd, obvious, unfunny pun for a title that I’ve ever used. And I’m certainly not claiming to be the first to use it.

It’s safe, it’s obvious, but it’s not particularly exciting.

Which, funnily, makes it the most appropriate title I could have used.

Because that’s what Steve Bruce is.

He’s not going to introduce a style of football that reforms the game, he won’t make us into the most dangerous team in the division going forward, and he’s not going to promise the fans a cup and European football in 5 years.

And that’s a good thing.

Steve rather brings a sense of security, an aura of organisation, and an atmosphere of honesty and logic.

He stops the defence doing their best deer-in-headlights impression as soon as we are required to hold onto a lead, he gets the midfield working hard for each other, and he puts our attacking line into formations and partnerships that yield the greatest return.

On the pitch, he has the experience and tactical nous lacking in Tim Sherwood and Paul Lambert; and the honest, likeable, enthusiastic style in press conferences that Lambert, Garde, and Di Matteo (all of whom having a tendency to be bumbling and incomprehensible) all failed in. It’s genuinely refreshing to have a Villa manager that will both discuss the training and ideas the team have been working on, as well as being honest and self-critical when things haven’t gone our way.

To give an example, he’s held his hands up for isolating Jedinak in midfield against Wolves, and ever since then Miles has potentially been our most integral player. It’s this honesty and learning from mistakes that makes Bruce so damn likeable.

And it’s more than just talk. Steve’s effect on the pitch has been as obvious as Gabby’s diet.

11 points out of a possible 15 is some feat considering the lack of belief in the squad since he took over. Kodija looks capable of becoming the 20-goal-a-season striker we all hoped we’d signed, and it looks like he’s finally established a back 4, even if it meant the bold move of dropping our captain.

We seem to have abolished our curse of throwing away leads late into games, and have even began to steal some instead, and we’re finally not blindly fluffing several clear-cut chances per match.

To accomplish these things in such a short timescale - with a squad so low on confidence – is nothing short of remarkable.

Going forward, it’s interesting to see that Bruce clearly sees places in the squad for the current scapegoats and favourite of the boy-boys, Agbonlahor and Westwood.

Although January will be a better battleground to test this faith, and whilst I find it hyperbolic to call Agbonlahor “as good as any striker in the division”, there’s certainly no sense in dropping a Villa fan that has scored goals in the top division all of his life, even if he did disgrace himself last season. We just don’t have room for that luxury at the moment.

The same goes for Westwood. Fans are all to eager to highlight his short-comings, but he’s shown before that he is capable of holding his own in the Premier League, and we need all of the midfield firepower we can muster (until January at least). More importantly, he’s a hard-working, nice-natured Englishman, which is exactly the type of player Bruce has a soft spot for, so I wouldn’t expect to see the back of him anytime soon.

With all this praise-singing, it’s easy to forget that this was an appointment resisted by many.

Associations with bitter rivals are choppy waters to navigate for any football alumni entering a new club, and there aren’t too many rivalries more bitter than the one between ourselves and our Blue neighbours. Just look at the stir the McLeish appointment created before a contract was signed and a ball was kicked.

There are two key things to remember on this front.

Firstly, Bruce hasn’t squeezed into anything from the Blues’ club shop since 2007, almost a decade ago, and it’s high-time for bygones to be bygones. To give a sense of scale, Tony Blair was PM and England were just moving into the new Wembley.

More importantly, I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating: We’re the biggest club in the division, but we’re far from good enough to be picky and in too much of a crisis to put emotion over logic.

Wins against Fulham and Reading - once considered a formality - had us stood on the Holte giving an emotional rendition of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, in case you can’t tell how hard times have been for us as fans - and what our football means to us.

If you can’t get behind Bruce because of Blues, it’s time to grow up.

I don’t expect him to win us any silverware, but he’s easily the man for the job if we are to return to where we belong – he’s proved that himself in the month that he’s been here.

I personally see next season as the true reasonable target for promotion. I’d love to be proved wrong (for better not worse), but our season has only just begun – perhaps a little too late, and even with the expected foray into the January transfer window, I still see this as (yet another) transitional season.

For the time being, we should be content knowing we’re picking up forward momentum, and have finally, for me, appointed the right man.  

He is a focus on substance over style, and finally shows a significant, positive change in direction from within the club.

It only took 6 years, relegation, the constant shattering of incompetence records, an embarrassingly one-sided FA Cup final, and a change of Chairman to get us to there.

Match Review: Aston Villa 1-1 Leicester City

Everyone was in the same boat on this one.

We expected 0 points, but had a slither of hope we might just pick up an unexpected 3.

We got something in between.

And considering we got that against supposed 'title contenders', I'd say we can be happy. 

Not to say that Leicester turned up looking like table toppers - both teams put in a sloppy, physical display - and ignoring the first 25 minutes ours was actually superior.

We genuinely looked like threatening their goal, and if Jordan Veretout knew how to hit a ball further than the first man from a set piece, or if Ayew knew how to deliver a decent ball after beating his man, we easily could have got more from the game.

But that's what it boiled down to, a game of 'ifs'.

'If' Bunn hadn't saved the penalty; 'if' we didn't have goal-line technology; 'if' the ref had seen Huth swing at Libor; or 'if' Okore hadn't let the ball bounce for the goal, the game would have been totally different.

That's probably more a reflection of football itself than this one-off game, but when there's so many incidents that could have gone either way - a point is probably a fair result. 

Garde's decision to stick with the bold shake-up in the team sheet against Palace was a relief, and my faith in the Frenchmen is slowly growing every week. I found myself not questioning his decision to swap Gil for Gestede after an hour, a sub that would sparked a wave of disgust around the ground had Lambert or Sherwood made it, and it certainly payed dividends as Rudy ultimately found the back of the net (just about).

On a side note, I also finally saw how Leicester have gotten to where they have.

They have somehow managed to combine two of the best teams from 2008 to create a weird hybrid that nobody's quite sure how to play.

They have the incredibly fast pressing when out of possession, whilst hunting in packs of 2 and 3, that is genuinely reminiscent of Guardiola's Barcelona (don't laugh), mixed with the thuggish, in-your-face backbone of Tony Pulis' Stoke team, with players like Huth and Vardy, who have no problem at all swinging for players and pressuring officials. 

This is why they can turn up against 'elite' teams and compete - there's no fear.

But enough about their lot.

We're certainly showing there's some fight left in us, and if we are to have any hope at all of turning our season around, 4 points every 2 games is a good target to start from.

Focus must now shift to our next 3 league games. 

Albion away, West Ham away, and Norwich at home.

7 points is possible, and must be our target going into these games.

It's The Hope That Kills Ya'

El Chapo's been caught, Bowie's dead, and Aston Villa Football Club have won a game of association football.

It's been a weird week. 

I haven't written anything since September 1st, and to be honest it's because there's been very little to write about that hasn't already been said. 

When the only thing you can say about a game is "we were shit and deserved to lose", and hundreds of people are saying the exact same thing, every week, then there's little point in putting pen to paper and adding a drop to the ocean.

But last night against Palace - for the first time in months - Villa stirred and showed signs of life. 

We were controlling, attacking, and didn't panic while trying to hold a lead, very different to everything we've come to expect from what I can comfortably say is the worst Villa side I've ever seen.

Can we attribute this to Remi Garde?

In fairness, who'd have thought that playing a 'proper' centre forward - who can play a bit and has been tearing up the u21's - up front in Libor Kozak would improve our fortunes?

All of us, for months and months.

But at least Remi's finally seeming to get the picture. There's more to our side than just 'lump it to Rudy' and it's seeming like it might be finally starting to show. Players like Kozak and Gil who have been mercilessly overlooked in recent times not only have something to offer the team, but are perhaps people we should be looking to build the team around.

He's also showed that he has the ability to lay down authority when needed - something massively needed when you're trying to run through treacle like we are right now.

Somewhere between punishing Grealish for his unprofessionalism; finally dropping Guzan; and his straight-talking press conferences, Garde proved on Tuesday that the team still has spirit and are willing to fight for him - shown undoubtedly through the tireless, industrious display from the midfield 3 and the celebrations after the final whistle. 

Anyone who's been a Villa fan for longer than 6 months (and I can't imagine we've picked up many glory hunters in that time frame) will know that these 'turned the corner' displays often come to an abrupt halt 90 minutes later.

Saying that, me and my old man had agreed we wouldn't return to B6 until we thought the team could compete, and we've got tickets for Saturday.

It's the hope that kills ya'. 

Start of Season Review

A well-timed international break for a squad stricken with illness and a seeming lack of chemistry, and everyone can finally breathe a big sigh of both relief and exhaustion as the busiest and arguably most pivotal transfer window in the last decade has finally come to a close.

It certainly wasn’t short of action and interest, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the forums were discussing a trip to West Midlands Safari Park than the Villa, with talk of Snakes, Beasts, Frogs, and now Elephants running wild (Sorry Joleon).

Signings have ranged from signing Mark Bunn to Barcelona wonderkids, and most refreshing of all we seem to have finally found adequate replacements for positions needing upheaval for years.

An all-rounder, confident left back in Jordan Amavi; a game-changer in Adama Traore; and a box-to-box powerhouse in Idrissa Gana Gueye.

All the uncertainty around Sherwood’s first opportunity to buy players proved to be misplaced, and only our very own fantastic Mr Fox could turned losing our two best players and a cup final into yet another August of optimism.

This isn’t an absolute certainty however. Amavi’s mistakes against Palace and Sunderland have arguably cost us 3 points, Idrissa seems to run out of puff in pivotal moments of games, and Traore may well be too raw to risk against premier league full-backs.

This aside, 4 points from 4 games isn’t a bad return from a side many will have tipped to go down, and most importantly we haven’t been playing badly. The points dropped certainly aren’t due to a lack of chances or trying, promising in itself. If not for jammy deflections and Micah Richard’s knees resembling a 50p coin we could easily be in a far healthier position on the table.

The team are passing with more confidence and certainty with every coming game, well-balanced by Clark and Richards looking like a formidable force at the back, Adding the experience of Joleon Lescott will undoubtedly strengthen the teams resolve – hopefully we’ll see less of the errors that cost us at Selhurst Park.

What’s impressed me more than the new signings, however, is the continuation from the current players to free themselves from the Lambert-ian football that plagued the club recently. Ashley Westwood has pushed on further up the pitch like we all knew he could, Alan Hutton is continuing to prove himself worthy of the ‘Scottish Cafu’ moniker, and Carlos Sanchez proved against Sunderland that the ball-winning, long-passing, hard-hitting ‘La Roca’ we thought we’d signed is still in him.

Things aren’t all positive though.

Gabby continues to look a liability, Gestede may have a few goals in him but is nowhere near enough a replacement for Benteke, and Ayew and Veretout have gone missing when given the chance on centre stage.

Scott Sinclair's form has been nothing short of inspiring, but we won't be able to rely on him for goals all season. The likes of Grealish, Gil, Westwood, and Bacuna need to start chipping in with a few more from midfield. 

I’ll always be optimistic, and there’s plenty to be singing about right now – but what concerns me most are Sherwood’s comments about the players needing time and asking for patience. It’s a completely valid angle to take but after season after season of transitional periods it gets to a point where results simply need to start coming.

With a hatrick of Midlands derbies on the horizon – what a chance to get off the mark and put any doubt to bed.

Match Review: Aston Villa 3-3 QPR

It was always going to be a weird one for me last night. After having countless people unable to make the game with me, I woke up yesterday morning unable to keep away from a game of such importance.

“Screw it, I’ll go on my own.”

It turns out plenty of people go to Football solo, and if anything it really showed me the power of the game. I got friendly with the people around me; whom I’d later end up hugging and screaming in their faces, and I never felt awkward being on my tod.

This was particularly well-welcomed in a time where we, as Villa fans, have received much negative (not to mention hypocritical and hyperbolic) press for fan behaviour.

I’d always thought of football chiefly as a tool for me to spend valuable time with my Father and Brother, as well as a distraction from the general miseries life manages to throw at all of us – but going on my own proved to myself once and for all that I am deeply, deeply, and irreparably in love with this club.

But enough about me.

What a game of football we experienced last night.

Value was definitely achieved for the price of admission, but I was still left driving down the M42 feeling ripped off.

It was a game we should have won with some degree of comfort, but Villa being Villa, could never make it easy for ourselves, and again proved our reputation of being a team of two halves to be true.

After going a goal behind so early, we showed great character – probably the best thing Sherwood’s bought to this team - in quickly firing back with two of our own, and we really should have kicked on from there and sent QPR back to the capital with a sore backside from a thorough kicking at the home of Football.

But it took Benteke heroics to save us from dropping into the bottom 3 - the most powerful Christian since Jesus himself. (not my own but I love saying that)

Despite this disappointment, and as I will always stress even in the darkest of times, there were some real positives to take from the game.

Gabby proved somewhat that he is capable of turning up against teams from outside the midlands, Benteke showed form reminiscent to his 2012 killing spree of goalkeepers, and we (for the most part) were able to control a game and show attacking intent, something we haven’t quite been able to get in good balance for some time.The team also showed that there is certainly fight and a bit of steel about them, yet another factor we’ve been sorely lacking in season’s gone by – which I again must credit our Cockney maestro for.

I was also really impressed with the fan backing tonight, it would have been understandable to stay away tonight after the disappointment against Swansea and inevitable heavy loss at The Library of Dreams, but the Holte was full and made plenty of noise, not that I’d expect anything else.

This isn’t to say there weren’t glaring concerns in the team.

Defending for all 3 goals was sub-par with more horrendous marking, and the now-routine conceding from a set piece. As dominant as it felt we were, especially in the first half, I never for one second felt comfortable with the defence, and QPR were always a threat on the counter.

We also managed to continue the running theme of being gut-wrenchingly vulnerable at Full back, with Richardson and Bacuna getting caught out numerous times, though the entire blame for this can’t be placed solely on their shoulders. Frankly, the formation tonight got narrower and narrower as the night went on, and our lack of width was troublingly Lambertian – leaving the poor sods exposed as always.

But we’re still in the fight, we’re not in the bottom 3, and we ultimately managed to prevent QPR from getting all 3 points – probably more imperative than winning the game ourselves.

There’s still plenty of football to be played, and I still think Sherwood will see us safely into Premier League football next season, but the games don’t get much easier from here on out; and we can’t keep leaving games thinking ‘we should have got more from that’, that costs dearly in the relegation scrap.

Onwards to White Hart lane.

The Paul Lambert Show – Thanks for the Memories

This time 48 hours ago I was driving over the Aston Expressway, and as Villa Park appeared in my view, something happened that had never happened before.

I was angry.

Normally, I’d glance over and feel a burst of pride looking over at the most beautiful stadium in the world. Sure, those feelings have been slowly diminishing – but they’ve always been there.

This is the result of spending a 6 hour round trip on a coach to Hull on a miserable Tuesday night the previous day only to be served up something reminiscent of a betting scandal. The team not only didn’t look like winning – they didn’t look like they were trying to win.

Little did I know that beneath me the cogs were beginning to turn, and by the time I got home the news would be broken. It was the news that by now, almost all Villa fans had been waiting for, and the news none of us thought the club would make.

For me, at least, and maybe others – the initial wave of relief and joy has been slowly developing a tinge of anxiety.

What we have perceived to be the root of our problems has gone, but what now? With Scott Marshall in charge for Sunday’s game, what will the direction of the team be? Who will they look to for inspiration? What if the rot has run too deep into the club, and won’t subside until we see more significant overhaul? The threat of relegation is still very real.

Regardless, we as fans have a duty to fulfill this weekend, we need to play our part in lifting the team and being less on their backs than we have been recently – but I know that we will be.

As for the man himself, I was thoroughly behind him all along, but my waivering support changed in Hull, the straw that broke the proverbial Camel’s back. Enough was enough. But even with that said, reading over Lambert’s subsequent comments I genuinely have sympathy for the guy.

He was given the incredibly hard task of restructuring a huge club with a (rightfully) highly expectant fanbase on a shoestring budget, and I have a lot of respect for his efforts. For the various flops we’re all aware of, He purchased some potential club greats in Benteke, Vlaar, and getting Guzan to re-sign. This is also ignoring all the players he’s bought through that we have yet to see the best of, in Sanchez, Kozak, Helenius, Westwood, Senderos, Gil, Bacuna, all bought for very little in relation to their talent.

I also had a lot of respect for the game he tried to play during his first year, where we truly saw exciting attacking football, even if its success was hindered by a shaky defence and widely-acknowledged lack of experience. It was only when this clear direction was put aside in favour of an array of odd, under planned tactics in hopeless hoofball and sideways-going-nowhere did it start to seem like the man might truly be out his depth.

He cared greatly for the club and fans, and always wanted to deliver what we were asking of him. It’s such a shame that he wasn’t quite capable; it’s obvious from accounts of him that he’s a very genuine guy who is passionate about his work.

Even if he did greatly underachieve for us, he’s still created some magnificent moments over his tenure. I don’t think I’ll ever forget coming back from 2-0 down to Albion after 10 minutes to win 4-3; Delph’s incredible footwork to beat Chelsea; or putting 6 past Sunderland on a Monday night.

These will be the games I remember when people asking me about what it was like growing up as a Villa fan, and I will always applaud what Lambert was trying to do.

You may have overcomplicated football, broke various records for the worse, and left me feeling more frustrated than I knew I could be in football – but your intentions were always pure. Some of my most cherished Villa memories were from you Paul, and for that I thank you.

Football and Religion

It’s become a cliché of football, and is certainly very cringe-worthy, but the statement ‘Football is my religion, [stadium name] is my Church’, is one you can find plastered regularly on social media and forum signatures.

It may seem excessive, and from a religious person’s point of view a devaluation of faith, but I genuinely think that such a statement may be reasonable to make, with many similarities between the two, and has provided me with an interesting self-reflection. With myself labelled as an agnostic, I genuinely think some of my understanding and tolerance of religion stems from my passionate love of Football.

You may think this immediately to be injudicious, but I implore you to give me a chance to explain.

First of all, let’s start with the common factors.

In the United Kingdom at least, and certainly many other cultures, both have strong roots in the working class, with the class-balance strongly shifting this way in the later 20^th century with football, arguably both its charm and also a trigger for many of its problems. This concept is similar in religion in the notion that it partially exists, or least has done historically, as a way to pacify and divert the attentions of the working class away from political matters.

On top of this, while I don’t want to umbrella all religions into one, there is also clearly a very, very, strong focus on upholding tradition and ceremonious events which can also be found in football. Whether it’s Church on a Sunday, Mass at Christmas, FA Cup final at Wembley in May, or open-top buss parades, both have aspects that will seemingly always outlast modernisation, and seem to remain a large part of the appeal in both.

Both also have a large problem in being ruined by monetary greed, and the concept of the ‘weak’ and the ‘masses’ being controlled by the few strong in power. In football this is a fairly obvious, well documented, and if anything overdone point, but will always be relevant. The balance of power and amount of money has gotten to the point of ridicule, with companies such as SKY having far too much influence, power, and money in dictating football and keeping the same few ‘elite’ clubs on an immovable pedestal; as well as the blatant corruption in FIFA, even over something as sacred and culturally significant as the World Cup.

In religion we see this through exploitative organisations such as Scientology, taking money off innocent people who are down on the luck or simply don’t know any better. The extent of this is so severe that the German Government refuses to recognise Scientology as a religion, being officially labelled as ‘an abusive business masquerading as a religion’, while the French Government has found the organisation guilty of ‘organised fraud’.

Another large issue apparent in both is mass problems with violence. While hooliganism was not properly a pressing concern until the late 1970’s, religion has been a cause for violence for hundreds of years before us, and will be for hundreds of years to come. While again it is obviously to a different level of severity, there is definitely a similarity in groups of people from what is essentially a tribe fighting other human beings for following a different set of beliefs - for belonging to a different tribe.

To an outsider this may seem incredibly over the top and almost a null point, but if you’ve seen organised football violence in person you’ll know how barbaric and scary it can be.

So many people I know have belittled me for daring to make these comparisons, but as far as I’m concerned that doesn’t mean that I don’t ‘get’ religion, I see it as you not ‘getting’ football.

The feeling of being a part of something so much bigger than yourself, that I feel while standing in the Holte surrounded by thousands of people wearing the same colours I am.

The feeling that nothing else in the world matters, and that if I’m having a rough week it won’t matter because come the weekend I’ll have something to take my mind off things and belong to.

The feeling of pure belief, and indeed purpose that as long as we stick around supporting our team that things might somehow improve.

I can imagine this is how it feels to have faith in a religion, with that same belief, that same loyalty, and that same feeling of purpose and belonging. 

I see people in tears expressing their love of Christ, and I can’t help but reminisce over times I’ve legitimately had tears in my eyes at Villa Park, both from sadness and joy.

I hear of people seeing great cathedrals and monasteries for the first time and being struck with awe. Similar perhaps to how I see the rafters appearing slowly into view from the Aston Expressway, there’s an unmatched feeling of adrenaline and emotion.

The fact is managers, owners, players, backroom staff, and everything else to do with the club will at some point be gone. Aston Villa itself has become somewhat a living entity in itself to me, and I pledge my unwavering loyalty to it forever. I’m not putting football on par with religion, I’m only saying that it’s helped me have a respect and tolerance for people with a religious faith.

If you think that sounds stupid, then you just don’t get it – and you never will.