Tony Xia tweeted yesterday, “Someone go low, we go high! Up The Villa!” Presumably, he was responding to Norwich City’s refusal to meet the asking price of brand new Aston Villa striker Ross McCormack.
McCormack’s arrival solves a problem that had existed since Benteke left last summer and it also shows the intentions of the people who are now in charge of the club. If Xia wants something enough then he’ll get it – or so we hope.
Ross McCormack is being judged by many as a crazy signing; I understand why people would think that, as £12 million is a lot of money for a Championship striker of his age. For a club that should be in the Premier League, a club that has won the FA Cup seven times, a club that has won the European Cup, £12 million is part of the cost of repairing the mistakes of the incompetent Lerner, with the intention of getting us back to where we belong, the Premier League.
From my point of view, Ross McCormack has the easiest job in football for the upcoming season. If he keeps putting the ball in the back of the net and winning games for Aston Villa, he’ll be welcomed into the Aston Villa Hall of Fame, especially if we get back into the Premier League at the first time of asking. I couldn’t think of an easier job description, although the execution may be tougher.
The next step for the management team at Aston Villa is to bring in diversity to the creative areas of the field. One mistake we can’t make is to burden Jack Grealish withy creative responsibility. I trust Grealish to be the future of Aston Villa Football Club and to flourish in the Championship, but I don’t want such a young player carrying us in such an unforgiving league.
Tony Xia and the Aston Villa management team have signed, sealed and delivered the perfect statement of intent to Aston Villa fans in signing McCormack. Now it is important that they don’t go back on their word and sell McCormack short in midfield.
I hope that we will move forward over the next month, adding more new players to complement the prolific striker who signed a four-year deal yesterday. The work required in rebuilding Aston Villa as a competitive Championship side is not yet finished. Thankfully, I believe that the people in power at our football club know that better than anyone else.
