I know he’s here to do a job, I know his past and how he’s badly upset fans of the organisations he’s been at. I know his remit comes from above, and it’s not like Wes and Naseef have no idea what he’s up to.

What grinds my gears more than anything else, is that he’s got away with so much because of the success of Unai Emery and his squad. For me, he’s just hidden behind them the whole time.

It’s a sorry path that so many football clubs are well down the road on now – recently there has been unrest at West Ham, Spurs, Leeds, Manchester United, Manchester City, Wolves to name but a few. All with similar stories about huge ticket increases, the scrapping of concessions, threats of season tickets being cancelled if the scanners detect you’ve missed a few games.

The underlying narrative is that season ticket holders feel they are no longer wanted in the same way that things have been at Old Trafford for the last 35 years. If you don’t want to go, we’ll fill your seat in five seconds with someone who’ll pay even more for it and also spend a ton in the club shop. They couldn’t care less about your loyalty, they couldn’t care less if you were there when the Upper Trinity was shut. They couldn’t care less if you were part of a crowd of 5,000 for a Simod Cup game against Bradford, or ninety away at Derby in the same competition.

They couldn’t care less about YOU, and that’s the point. They just want the seat filled by the person who will spend the most.

In the last week, Manchester City announced they were partnering with online touting site Viagogo to sell tickets for their home games. In the lead up to the PSG home game, Villa announced that they had put tickets on Seatwave at the bargain price of £399 (with a night in a hotel and a couple of drinks). The same seats that have been empty for the majority of Premier League games this season.

Normal fans, the heartbeat of the club, priced out and having no chance of a seat for what may well be the biggest home game of their lives. This will be the legacy Chris Heck leaves behind.

This may well seem like hyperbole to some of you, and I understand why you might think that. Unfortunately for me, football is a massive part of my life, something that has been a constant for 40 years, and yes, I get emotional about it.

The tipping point for me was the way supporters who had travelled away were treated when it came to the distribution of tickets for the PSG game in Paris. The 2000 tickets sold out way quicker than the numbers had suggested – while we only had two aways to our name, we had a chance, or so we thought. That chance was snatched away well before our criteria window appeared. Then we’re informed that a corporate trip is organised at £1,600 a pop. Villa informed me that this was nothing to do with our allocation and was completely separate – so hang on…

PSG can only give us 2,000 tickets based on safety and Police advice (other English clubs also received the same). Yet we’re led to believe that we have a whole other section in that stadium just for our fans with more money?

It was reported by a local journalist that “a chunk” of tickets had gone elsewhere.

It’s a proper kick in the guts to get treated in this way – these opportunities are so few and far between, but Heck and his ticket office pals (who run probably the worst online ticket site in the country) once again decided that those with a lot more disposable income could jump the queue and join him for a big jolly to Paris. Life is too short, these chances may not come up again.

For the cup game at Preston, they also decided that a season ticket holder who’d spent £900 at the start of the season, but who had missed one FA Cup game, was lower down the pecking order than someone who’d spent £50 but been to all three. Heck would be delighted to lose a few hundred more disgruntled season ticket holders and replace them with GA+ fans.

On the pitch, we have a squad that is doing us so proud – as I type, we’re right in there for a top 6 finish, an FA Cup semi-final against Palace and the Champions League quarters against PSG. A truly wonderful effort from Unai and the lads.

Off the pitch, we’ve become everything I dreaded that would follow better times on the pitch. We are now every bit as bad as all those other clubs who I’ve despised for years.

Chris Heck should beware though. If the worst happened and we miss out on a trophy and Champions League qualification, where will all those corporate and daytripping fans go then?