It’s Wolves on Saturday. Whatever happens, the match won’t be the story.
It won’t be a normal afternoon. The events of earlier this week will cast a shadow over the game more so than any we’ve had for a long time. I don’t doubt that the Villa will do the right thing and however we pay tribute (I’d rather have a minute’s silence but it’s down to Gary’s family) Wolves supporters will join in respectfully. Indeed, it’s been noticeable how many supporters aroud the country have been remembering a genuine legend.
Then once the match starts all that will be forgotten as we do battle with the giants of world football in their big derby, unless they’ve changed their minds again. They’re difficult to keep up with. They’ll be bringing some of the most hilariously deluded suporters in football, although by now they might have worked out that whoever their owners are, they’re not going to turn them into Real Madrid. They’ve still got a few Portugese players, and a few Brazilians as well. They speak Portugese.
Jorges Mendes doesn’t seem to be as active with them as he used to be, although he probably still picks the team. The bloke who’s supposed to pick the team will either be the best or the worst manager who ever lived according to whether they won their last match or not. They’ve got a keeper who we borrowed when we were a lot more skint then we are now.
This is one of those times when you see whether we can cope with Champions League midweek then a big match at the weekend. Well, it would be if we were playing a big match instead of Wolves. We’ve got a couple of minor knocks from Tuesday’s trip to Switzerland and a couple more getting close to being fit again, as well as a player who’ll come on, then when he gets the ball he’s bound to score. Three points will set us up nicely for the next week of merriment.
