Villa fans should think of the future

Aston Villa blogger Matthew Turvey has told his fellow fans to think of the future after a modest outlay from the club on transfer deadline day.

After a final day of transfer dealings, Aston Villa have committed to a set of players who are considered good enough to get us through to the end of the season. Well, January, at the very least.

I'm sure many are, like me, not overly excited by the moves that happened on Wednesday night.

While they could turn out to be good signings, only one of the three players signed, Alan Hutton, has both Premier League experience and a permanent contact.

Jermaine Jenas is on loan and, apparently, has no buy option at the end of his loan deal, so it could be another Kyle Walker situation. You know the one 'Play him, improve him, dutifully give them him.'

Enda Stevens isn't actually joining till January, so he is exempt from the pre-January analysis. He's one for the future anyway, so that is that.

This post isn't meant to be a diatribe. We signed three players after releasing many more. The question now is 'will it be enough?' Time will tell.

Amongst Villa fans, there seems to be a universal and recurring theme to conversations in pubs, clubs, and on the internet.

It revolves around the statement of releasing players and suggests that Randy Lerner is somehow deserting his role as a chairman, in favour of money grabbing.

In order to actually give some kind of fair analysis of who Villa are, at present, we have to look at the whole picture.

Contained in those discussions are some fair points which point to our squad being less capable now rather than then.

Yes, we have let a lot more players go than we have bought. Yes, we have lost players who provided quality to our squad.

Those facts are somewhat immutable. They are truths, but they are viewed out of context if they are just looked at that way.

If there were no extenuating circumstances, then some of the calls by fans that Randy is asset stripping may actually have some solidity.

They don't, however, so look at the full picture. You see, Villa isn't, and hasn't been in recent years, a club that has been operating with massive profits.

We have overspent on players who haven't played and have sold many of those players for, sometimes large, transfer fee losses.

It isn't rocket science, but it is the truth. Villa can't afford to keep running the club out of their overdraft. Sooner or later, they have to act in a solvent manner.

Of course, running a business and supporting a club blindly with money are sometimes incompatible. The best analogy I can think of is that of a family with a spoiled child.

Imagine this for a second - young Jimmy sees the latest games console on TV and immediately sets about asking his Mom and Dad for it every day.

His parents feel somewhat obliged to buy it because Jimmy's friends all have new games consoles, so Mom and Dad don't want to make Jimmy an outcast.

So they go out and buy Jimmy the new console for Christmas and all is well for a while.

But, soon, his friends have new games to play and Jimmy wants them too. Poor Jimmy's Mom and Dad don't have the cash to buy the games, so they stick them on their credit card.

All the while, Jimmy is blissfully unaware, or uninterested, about the fact his parents can't actually keep up appearances.

The problem is that as Jimmy has been handed all he thought he wanted, he hasn't appreciated any value to what he owned either.

Sooner or later, Jimmy is going to find out that stuff starts getting sold in the house to keep things going, perhaps even some of his games.

Jimmy isn't very happy. He starts stomping his feet, complaining that now he doesn't have what he used to have, and that he wants it back now.

He says: "I don't CARE that you have to buy my games on your credit card, just give them me now!"

So what do poor Jimmy's parents have left as options now? They can either keep buying games for Jimmy and, sooner or later, their house will be repossessed.

Or, they can stop the flow of gifts with no value associated with it.

We, the fans, have gotten a bit like Jimmy. We have been used to being able to have what we've wanted for quite a few years now.

However, we can't keep having it, otherwise we won't have a club left to support. Imagine that for a second.

No Aston Villa. No more going down to Villa Park. Is that ultimately what you want?

I, like you, don't like the fact that we have lost Ashley Young and Stewart Downing and replaced only one of them.

I, like you, don't like the fact that we have a painfully thin squad that rests hopes on a lot of the kids. Kids who may do well, but who need time to develop.

Yes, we have less players than we had before and, yes, the season ahead may only get us a top 10 place. It's not ideal, but it is what we need to do.

So, don't be like Jimmy, appreciate our signings and squad, even if they might not be exactly what you wanted.

If we don't, and we keep throwing money at the situation, the future isn't bright. The future is administration.

You can also follow Villa blogger Matthew Turvey at his own site, http://www.astonvillalife.com.