You might want to skip over the past seven days.
An anonymity order has bene lifted which means that the identity of a Premier League club owner being investigated for rape, child sexual exploitation and sexual assault can be named. It’s David Sullivan, to nobody’s surprise.
The Liverpool match has been shifted to Sunday at 12.30, or the Friday night before. We’ve had as much notice as usual.
A reminder of years gone by as Ashley Young is finally retiring, aged forty. Good luck to him in whatever he does next, which given the money he’s earned should be whatever he wants to do.
The biggest game for years comes round and there’s the usual nerves before kick-off. Then it started and to be honest we weren’t too bad in the beginning. Forest are confident but we were able to match them and there weren’t all that many chances, although the one that did happen led to a magnificent save from the best keeper in the world. Amadou Onana was on fire, breaking up their attacks and starting ours. All seemed set fair for a good evening.
Then naturally not long into the second half he went off injured. Still we battled and it was looking as though we might be getting away with a good draw until Lucas Digne, for reasons best known to himself, fancied being a basketball player. it was down to VAR and that went the same way as the attack on Ollie Watkins. Looking on the bright side we matched them and there’s everything to play for in the return leg. Time for a bit more Villa Park magic.
Unai was Not Happy after the match, which with luck should help us in a week’s time.
We haven’t got a warehouse anymore. It’s now the Sports Illustrated Warehouse, which will include technology-driven fan experiences and a hospitality pavilion blending Sports Illustrated’s iconic storytelling with curated editorial content, premium food and beverage offerings, and a modern social environment celebrating Aston Villa and the wider world of sport. So there.
The Championship season’s ended; congratulations to Coventry City, who are eventually Back, and returning with six points for us. Well done to West Bromwich Albion, who stayed up because Leicester got deducted six points while the Albion only lost two, and that when it didn’t matter. But most of all, an enormous well done to Birmingham City for finishing tenth, despite the handicap of having a transfer budget the size of a small European nation and the pressure of being on the verge of global supremacy.
The results over the weekend aren’t particularly good but never mind, three points against Spurs and we’ll be done and dusted for the Champions League with a good boost for next Thursday. So what Unai was thinking with the team he picked is a mystery known only to him.
What subsequently happened was what was expected to happen. They scored twice early on and didn’t bother to do anything else because we didn’t bother to do anything at all. You might have thought there would be players in the team doing their utmost to try to get into the reckoning for Thursday but you’d be sadly mistaken.
Emiliano Buendia came on with five minutes to go and did more in that time than the rest of the team put together did in the previous 85. He scored but it wasn’t enough and Unai looked worryingly unpeturbed by the whole affair, which was a gift for conspiracy theorists everywhere.
