Looking forward to Spring?

January is over and the snow has gone - for awhile at least. Should we therefore be feeling a bit warmer and looking forward to Spring? Well that is a leading question, I believe.

Aston Villa-wise, we have been looking aghast at what has been going on down at the Aston Lower Grounds these last 2+ years, and if we thought that another Bent-like saving grace was to appear before the close of the 'window', then we have sadly been let down.

Just what has happened these last 2 years? In January 2011 a package of some £24 mill pulled in Bent to do a saving job and he just happened to be the final link that was needed to do that. But since then it's nearly all been downhill.

Just at the point when it looked to me as though some real experience is needed to be pulled in to help turn things around at the 11th hour, we instead get a French league two player and another who has tasted precious little Premier League football.

When Villa were in very similar circumstances in December/January of the 1955-56 season, Villa went out and spent a little fortune on players of real worth: Sewell, Dugdale, Sims and Smith. They proved to be the main basis of the Villa team for the next 3 or 4 years, so solid were they, and, importantly, they enabled Villa to fractionally scrape away from relegation for that season at least.

Will these latest two signings be able to help Villa to do a similar escape act, now? Well, if Dunne is not to appear again then Villa really are up against it as cracks are still showing, even with Vlaar's return.

So, we are left with these yawning questions - does the owner really care about the club and its potential dire position? Does he really believe that Villa - if relegated - will be able to bounce straight back up again?

Even if the answers to those questions is "yes", then it's plain that he has scant regard for the traditions of the club and the feelings of the real fans that are left, but are beginning to dwindle. We didn't welcome Randy Lerner to lead the club into this sort of position - it's partly for the reason that we thought Doug was leading Villa that way that we welcomed Lerner to bring back some hope.

This Odyssey is very close to hitting the rocks. But being the Villan that I am, I wait for that fair wind that the forecasters have not yet seen coming. The sails may be torn and holes may be appearing in the hull of the ship, but hope remains eternal.

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