The Three Dads' Football Season Wonderland

 Straight in, hand up - I'm one of those guys who loves reading all the fans posts and threads on various social media platforms without ever really contributing to them too much myself, and recently I've found myself reading even more than usual, especially on various Forest sites & fan pages. It struck me reading through them that never have I seen such a good example of the 'glass half full/glass half empty' divide, and it was actually really amusing. First up the glass half empty brigade: "We can't hold a lead against Luton, struggled to pick up points again newly promoted teams and other teams around us". I can get this, throwing away a 2 goal lead against a team like Luton, who are fighting hard but hardly likely to look much past last day survival as a target, is a bit of a shocker. There are a few similar games this season where we have dropped points we really should have held on to. However compared to last season we are not crumbling badly w...

Last night I watched Unai Emery's pre-match presser before the game with Nottingham Forest tomorrow. It was a 17 minute display of relentless focus and absolute determination. The man is a different breed entirely. He was asked questions along the lines of "It's your birthday today, Happy Birthday, how do you plan to celebrate?" and responded with confirmation that he'd be watching videos, planning tactics, and might consider celebrating after the game, so long as we win. He was asked whether it made him proud that Villa fans are now super enjoying our football, then launched into his response about how the past is irrelevant, because the focus is always upon what comes next. With some managers you get a sense that they have 'a line' that they trot out in these pressers, but with Emery the repetition of his responses  [focus, improvement, practice, always striving for more] comes from within his soul. This man lives and breathes the process. This obsession...