Trump or Slump Time for Villa?

So what are Aston Villa this season? The team to demolish the "top-four" oligopoly? The team to bring through England's next generation? The team with a manager who should have taken the England job? Maybe all of these depending on the newspaper you invest in.

That was before the latest slump brought my heavily cautious optimism back down to earth. Others' once welcome conversation starter of: "How about Villa eh? Top four finish, I promise you" has been replaced with the less flattering: "What's happened at the weekend?" Bad times.

One point out of five games is admittedly awful, especially for the highfliers who went 13 games unbeaten earlier in the season, but this is a club which is still expanding, and the talent is yet to be fully nurtured.

Two years ago, when the messiah by the name of Martin O'Neill took up his post at Villa Park, Villa finished the season 11th. Compare this with the present day where pundits are claiming Villa are underachieving for not sitting in fourth and consider that point proven.

Things can only get better for Villa. They are probably the strongest squad since that of the early 1980's who brought the European Cup to the Midlands, and the majority of this young squad are yet to hit their peak. Furthermore, their ability to boast a fully British first-team is almost unrivalled in the Premier League. The current squad is teeming with talent such as Gabby Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Curtis Davies and Nathan Delfouneso who have the potential to be world-beaters in a few seasons, and in Martin O'Neill and John Robertson they have excellent guidance to ensure this happens. Sorry if you feel the "mighty" Marlon Harewood has been unfairly excluded from that list, but I'm of the growing opinion Prof. Stephen Hawking would make a more effective striker and would like to wholeheartedly thank Wolves for taking him off Villa's hands - if only temporarily.

Behind the scenes things are also looking very bright. The notoriously penny-pinching chairman Doug Ellis, whose minimal investment attitude kept the club afloat but stifled almost any growth, has been replaced by American tycoon Randy Lerner who has taken a totally different approach. Lerner has been different to almost all of the foreign chairmen in the Premier League, leaving the management staff to get on with their jobs uninterrupted and investing significant funds if the right player becomes available. He has also been seen making the tea in his box on matchday which tells you a bit about his character.

Conclusively, through all this talk of a Villa slump there shall be light at the end of the tunnel, a tunnel which may last a season or so. By the end of this one I shall have a nice big smile on my face with anything above sixth and a place in the UEFA Cup. Villa is a club where things can only go better as long as key players and Martin O'Neill are kept on the payroll, and also that the great man realises Nigel Reo-Coker is a worse right-back than I am.

Ta much for reading
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