Not so long ago I wrote a post about goal difference or more to the point conceding too many and not scoring enough. I've also written so many times that it's a great time to be an Aston Villa fan. Google 'what a time to be an Aston Villa fan' and you'll see what I mean.
I honestly don't remember when it was this good. Sure, under Ron and Little we won something and the John Gregory years were great, but football was different back them. Football was a free for all back then in comparison to today, but it was a sensible free for all.
Maybe I'm looking at this through rose tinted glasses, but it's almost as if we hear about several Clubs a season in trouble financially, but back then, it wasn't so often. Back then, Clubs didn't spend if they didn't have or knew they couldn't afford. These days, it's a gamble and people don't seem to care that much.
I'm sure they do care, but if I'm an owner coming in, buying a Club because it's fashionable, I don't really care if it doesn't work out in a few season really, not like you'd care if it was your Club. It's not the same type of caring. What I mean, you wouldn't gamble on the Club in the same way you might gamble on other things.
Unai Emery commented on it yesterday in his program notes, "Financial controls came into football to avoid bankruptcies, but we should review it, for this good tool will become a limitation for the clubs that are doing good management, who will never be allowed to dream and get higher goals."
If we continue to allow Clubs to pay ridiculous salaries, this isn't going to go away. There has to come a time when there is a salary cap at a League level, that everyone signs up for and lets say it's £100,000,000 a season. Let the owners actually make money. Force Clubs to invest in grass roots football. Make all the players millionaires, but do they really need to be making £100mn+ over a career, wouldn't £20mn over a career give them enough?
I write all this because the game is different today and [my comments from yesterday about going out to win every game](/aston-villa-blog/avfc-opinion/second-we-didnt-lose-and-its-still-early) were maybe written too soon after the game. Don't get me wrong, we should be going out to win every game, but maybe the result yesterday will turn out to be a great result by the end of September.
We've got Brentford and Palace this month and Everton, Sunderland and Fulham in September. These are all going to be tough matches, tougher without Konsa for three matches, but these are matches where we should fancy there are a few points for us and we can be optimistic.
And, there is a big difference from a friendly match and the real thing. The players know it's started now and contrary to a comment I saw yesterday, I think the calibre of player we have is good enough to be competing for top four. We just need to find our stride.
Ramsey has gone
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And just confirmed a little while ago, not that it's a surprise, Ramsey has signed for Newcastle. As Mint commented on the other post, it's not nice when an academy players leaves, but this is the game now. It's broken, it's not fair and we all know it. But until things change, this is what we have to deal with.
Three in a row. Think I can keep this up?