Future Villa

While watching the match today some harrowing thoughts went through my mind. (These thoughts happened before the two Villa goals, but I think this is relevant anyway.)

Someone I follow on Twitter, retweeted something about where you will be in five years. I'll probably have died from a bear tranquilizer overdose. (In lieu of flowers, send puppies!) (Just kidding no I won't.) (No I won't?)But this got me to thinking about Villa. Where the hell will the Villa be in five years?

Under Houllier, I could see the direction we were going in. Houllier playing the youth, and he was changing the way in which Villa played, and was bringing in players to suit the system. (I miss you, Jean.) And he had started to get rid of the MON dead weight. (Sup, Steve Sidwell.) His unfortunate health problems and subsequent resignation essentially put an end to all of that.

Especially considering who his replacement end up being. The who part about losing Ashley Young and Stewart Downing didn't help either. But McLeish has seemingly slammed on the breaks and u-turned. I'm not saying it was necessarily a bad thing. It's just different.

And while today's match showed the slight improvement that we've seen recently, judging by the overall results this season, we do seem to be going downhill. I get that McLeish doesn't have much money to work with, but he spent some of that on Alan Hutton. While the rest of the summer signing have worked out ok, (I'm not counting Jenas.) if this is any indication of the type of player McLeish wants to sign, we will be going downhill soon.

But we are in a state of waiting, for lack of a better word. Waiting for all these crappy MON contracts to get off the books, so we can not sign the Habib Beyes of the world. But if we are going to sign the Alan Huttons of the world, I don't want McLeish in charge during that period.

As much as I would to stop messing with the club by bringing in another new manager, I'm not sure McLeish should be there.

Which brings me to the point. Where will Villa be in five years? My hope is that, a) we either get a new manager, or b) McLeish uses the money on slightly better players. (And maybe even looks outside the British Isles.) Even if he keeps playing the way he has been, I can deal with fairly boring football if were winning.

But my guess is that, in 5 years, we'll have a new manager. But still be sitting mid-table, still treading water. That may be because this season has disheartened me. But I can't see us dropping down further in five years, as I don't think Lerner will let us sign players to absurd contracts like what we have now. But I also can't see us challenging for the title or anything.

So. Where do you think Villa will be in five years? And who knows maybe I'll dig up this article in five years and see if anyone's right. If I don't get hooked on bear tranquilizers that is.