We all remember the most exciting part of this January's Aston Villa transfer rumours, right? The small period of time in which we all thought that FC Porto midfielder Steven Defour might actually be headed for Villa? Then we all found out that Villa were no longer in the hunt, but here, have a shiny new Grant Holt!
Well, Aston Villa may indeed be back in the hunt for the services of Defour, if the Belgian's agent is to be believed. Interestingly - or perhaps infuriatingly - Tottenham also appear to be chasing Defour. If we're honest, I doubt that Villa are still considering the midfielder (it's likely his agent trying to churn up a market for the player), but that doesn't change the main point of this article: why do Spurs have to keep coming after everything that Aston Villa want? Now Defour, but before it was Christian Benteke, Kyle Walker (who was theirs, but who we wanted and had on loan and it's just not fair), Christian Eriksen, and more. If Aston Villa have something shiny in their sites, you can bet Spurs want in on it too.
Or, at the very least, that's the way it seems. When the writers of this site were emailing about yet another possible Tottenham caper, I think Aaron absolutely hit the nail on the head. It's not that Spurs keep getting what Villa want, it's the fact that:
four years ago Villa and Spurs were the teams that were going to break up the top 5 dominance. Spurs actually managed to do it and they're probably going to be a very good club for a very long time, while Villa fell off a cliff.
That's really the issue at hand here. Look back just a few years, and these two clubs couldn't be more similar. Between the 2006/07 season and the 2009/10 season, Tottenham finished (on average) in 7th place in the league. Over that same span, Villa averaged a finish of 7.25.
On the cusp of breaking into the upper echelon of English football, both clubs were the "best of the rest." Yet Tottenham have managed to parlay that into continued success, whereas those were the best years for Villa in the past decade.
So yes, we're all feeling a little bit petty about Tottenham getting everything that Aston Villa want, but it's mostly because there's no real reason that Aston Villa aren't in the same position. And it's not even (entirely) the fault of the current front office. That's not what we're saying.
All we're really saying is: dear god, Tottenham. Step back a bit. Let those of us at the Holiday Inn at least have something while you enjoy the penthouse suite at the Hilton. It's just rude not to.