The same group of players not only looked him in the eye, but they gave him the performances he had demanded from them and relegation fears evaporated, and suddenly we were looking at a Europa Conference League adventure. History shows that 12 months later that turned into a Champions League adventure, and we are again in fifth place in the Premier League table with seven games played this year.

But it could have all been different as it was not just a former excuse for a manager we had to survive, there was also a former owner whose talents appear to have been better suited to Tweeting than they were owning a club. For those who enjoy sports betting uk you certainly would not have predicted the rapid fall from grace and the utter shambolic situation we found ourselves in way back at the beginning.

I am pretty sure that every Villa fan only wants to remember ten wins in a row, the Jed Steer stare, promotion and survival from that period of time, but Conor Hourihane has recently spoken about how ‘chaotic’ it was off the pitch for the entire time prior to Nas and Wes’s arrival at Villa Park, and given he gave us this goal we can give him a couple of minutes of our time – it might be therapeutic for all of us!

The Republic of Ireland international did split opinions in the fanbase with his performances, but with 52 goal involvements in his 151 appearances across all competitions, and some very important goals and assists in that number, I imagine the vast majority will simply remember the pivotal role in helping us return to the top flight.

From the outside we all knew about the financial issues we faced. We were quietly decimating our youth setup, we were pawning almost every brick we could for cash injections, and we had the joy of the missed tax bill, a winding up order and although we did not ultimately accept Daniel Levy’s generous (I jest) Jack Grealish offer, our former owner ended his time with the club by letting NSWE pay off his final obligation to Randy Lerner and give them full control in the process.

Hourihane’s recollection as a player does mimic the memory fans may have. With an incredibly busy transfer window in year one, the 33 year old confirmed that even the players doubted our dealings as there was no plan to integrate them as a team, it was simply signing players who had randomly impressed at other clubs for the sake of it. As he points out, throwing a team together and expecting them to gel, well – ‘…obviously it doesn’t work like that.’ Unsurprisingly we finished 13th and avoided relegation by eleven points.

Some may remember Tommy Elphick’s story about being asked his advice by the owner on whether Roberto Di Matteo should be given his marching orders. Hourihane confirmed curiosities like that would happen, and presentations were often given to the group where our owner would tell an inspirational story about himself, and everyone thought it was bizarre, but he only realised how chaotic and bizarre it was when Dean Smith came through the door, and latterly NSWE because obviously that nonsense was not how owners actually acted.

The 2018 Play Off failure still obviously grates though, and he admits the pressure was magnified as everyone knew Villa were in trouble without promotion, and after we lost our owner locked himself in a room and nobody ever saw him again after that night.

To sum it all up.

“…the Dr Tony time was just chaos”.