Aston Villa have come in for plenty of (understandable) mockery for their crest. The rampant lion, pawing at a star of past glory, standing above the word "PREPARED" seems so ill-fitting given the lack of fight, glory, and preparation we've seen for half a decade now. So plenty of people have clamored for a new crest, including our own James Rushton. Maybe a return to the old one would work. Or maybe something totally new. A lion with X's for eyes, perhaps?
But this is not how we wanted it to happen. In a move that will likely infuriate many Villa fans, Tom Fox has one last legacy to saddle us with: a few million in debt to a design firm for a new crest. And while we can't yet see the result of hiring design firm SomeOne (ugh), we now know that it will include dropping the "PREPARED" and adding claws back to the lion. Rawr, indeed.
So for £2 million (or so) Aston Villa have gotten something that may end up looking like this (note: I MAY have taken some artistic license):
Oooo, claws!
Now, we actually don't know what this will look like. It may be amazing! But even if it is, it's pretty tough to justify spending millions of pounds on a re-brand when this team is still paying buy-outs to at least two past managers and won't be getting the cash-truck that comes with being in the Premier League next year.
Is a new logo good? Yes! Is a new logo worth this at (likely) the cost of doing better football things? Absolutely not. So keep in mind, no matter how great that logo is, it's not worth what it cost us.