Dave Woodhall looks on as Villa lose 3-0 at Brentford.
Once the television companies, and Sky in particular, get their teeth in to something it becomes high drama. Nothing ordinary can happen; every event has to be the biggest and the best. Nowhere is this trrue than in the final few days of the transfer window. The ever-increasing amount of money spent is added up. Every rumour is followed until it becomes either fact or is forgotten as though it never existed. Crowds gather, ratings go up and advertisers pay to be associated with the spectacle.
On the last day of the window promising young defender Jacob Bedeau has joined Villa from Bury, as has Swansea left-back Neil Taylor and it seems we’re on the verge of signing Brentford striker Scott Hogan. In the most amazing deal of the month Burnley have paid real money for Ashley Westwood. Jordan Ayew is headed to where Taylor arrived from and Ross McCormack is joining Aaron Tshibola on loan at Forest. All in all it’s been an exciting, and hectic, few hours. Except for one thing.
No matter how good their form prior to signing, no matter how highly-rated they are or how much we spend on them, new Villa signings always adhere to the club’s traditions. As soon as the opposition press they lump the ball as high and long as they can. As soon as they they go a goal down they lose all confidence, give up and look no better than the underachievers they replaced.
For the first fifteen minutes at Brentford Villa looked impressive. The new midfield duo of Hourihane and Lansbury were dominating, Jonathan Kodjia caused a few problems. It was all very un-Villa. Then things started to go wrong. Brentford upped their tempo, Villa couldn’t respond. The two killer goals in the first half were down to appalingly slack marking, the first from the central defenders and the second in allowing a midfielder to sneak unnoticed into the box. But, while individual errors caused the ultimate downfall, nobody in the team can escape criticism.
Yet again, from the moment Brentford’s first goal hit the back of the net it looked unlikely that Villa would be able to get anything from the game. That was as much down to the players as any lack of tactical acumen on the bench, yet it has to be saif that for the second time this season Dean Smith has had the better of a Villa manager. After the game at Villa Park there was a story that we’d spent more on players during the summer than Brentford have in their entire history, and if that was true then it can’t far off have been repeated in January. Brentford have taken four points off us, it could have been six, and they’re above us in the table.
Where this all ends, I don’t know. We’ve signed virtually two new teams in the past eight months and we’re no nearer a sustained improvement than we were when Remi Garde left. I’m starting to wonder how much patience Tony Xia has and, most worryingly of all, what might happen should the time come when he decides that this idea of owning the financial black hole that is a failing football club is more trouble than it’s worth.
If you want an idea of the ultimate fate that could befall the Villa, it’s coming up on Saturday in the shape of Nottingham Forest. Twice European champions, top flight regulars for decades and if you’re under the age of thirty all you’ll know of them is that they’ve been badly run, badly managed and spent as much time battling relegation as challenging for promotion. It’s not a pleasant thought.