We now head into MON’s fourth season with the previous ones showing signs of progress until the slight ‘hitch’ last season, the question is which way will this one go ?

Return to Mecca

Unlike a lot of Villa fans I see the departure of Barry being really positive for us, it will allow us to create a more dynamic midfield, a midfield that can get up and support the forwards. I also believe that at the end and certainly when we had our bad he was a malignant influence on our team.

However he has gone and along with Laursen there are holes to be filled which unbelievably have not been filled yet. OK, I expect MON in his transfer dealings to be cautious but letting Knight go with no immediate replacement was at the very end scale of being strange. But I do have faith MO knows what he is doing and
I really do think the whole transfer market is so messed up it makes proper deals impossible until it is clear Manchester City have finished.

So where we are now is a squad that has been improved in some areas, Right Back, Right Wing, Centre of Midfield. With Delfuensno having a years more experience then I think the forwards are fine but the gaps are obvious and large but not unsolvable.

We now approach the six games of a season with actually quite an easy start and between 12 and 15 points would start us off well against a bunch of teams last season that we actually got only 7 points against. Clearly however it is our home form that HAS to improve and it will be very interesting to see the starting team and formation against Wigan as it way show the way ahead for the season.

So with the expectation of at least two new signings, likely to be Warnock and Distin, my predictions are

Final League place – 5th
FA Cup – forget it !!
League Cup – 5th round
Europa League – Last 16
Player to Watch – James Milner
Future star – Marc Albrighton