And a decent one for a change.
Another important week begins and the stories that Monchi are on his way are proved true. He’s due to be replaced by Roberto Olade, formerly of Real Sociedad and a man who will hardly have to contend with taking over from a fans favourite.
Not only is it subsequently confirmed but Monchi is to be an advisor to V Sports. Jo Venglos wasn’t sacked either, he became our head of European scouting. Expect a similar scenario. The words of Damian Vidagany; “We will keep working hard now with Unai and Roberto and all the staff” make it sound like one of his former colleagues won’t be missed.
Ezri Konsa reckons Unai was right to call the players lazy, which is hardly the way to foster team spirit but he’s not far off.
And so to Europe, and an inevitable comparison with last season courtesy of our repeat opponents Bologna. The anthem’s not as good (which we knew already), the tifo’s a bit crap and the only Champions League thing about the occasion are the prices. That’s the biggest reason why we had either seven or almost eleven thousand empty seats, depending on which figure you believe.
Those who did shell out to be there saw the Villa winning, which was probably worth it for the rarity value. The best keeper in the world’s missing, because we haven’t had a decent conspiracy theory fora few weeks and there are a couple of the team whose inclusion raises an eyebrow.
We got off to a good start and should have scored even before John McGinn put us into the lead after thirteen minutes. We should have scored after it as well, but one-nil at half-time it still was, Ollie Watkins came on and won a penalty which he naturally had to take and even more naturally at the moment the keeper saved it, which wasn’t difficult.
This inspired Bologna, who hit the bar and the last seconds of the match saw Marco Bizot pulling off a save that would have been considered good even if he was Argentinian. A win and perhaps the strongest opposition in the group beaten. Not a bad evening’s work, all things considered. Pity about the empty seats.
As warm-ups to the main event of the weekend Samuel Iling Junior gets a belter for his non-league outfit and the recently-arrived Fletcher Boyd scored from the halfway line for another of our Academy teams, which should put his value up a bit rwat for next summer.
Then onto the headline act. Emiliano Martinez is back, a couple you might not expect are dropped. The result was going a gal down before we’d hardly kicked off and Fulham having a couple of penalty appeals turned down. Then we finally decide to pass forward instead of sideways, Ollie Watkins runs onto a long ball from Lucas Digne and everyone’s a lot happier.
It doesn’t take long after the break for the happinessometer to go even higher, thanks to McGinn and The Other Emiliano. We sat back a bit after that and might have let another goal in but some decent defending mean a calm end to the match and three points The panic’s over, the fun can begin.
