Dean Smith, one year on. Our owners and Racism

First off, I want to apologise for my rant on the previous thread.
I wrote the article simply because there was little to talk about and wanted to create some debate. It was simply a bad idea.
I’m on holiday and as you do, had had too many beers, leaving me in an overly-argumentative mood.
Looking back, I think it backfired on me big time, as it led to me saying things I didn’t really mean.
Particularly regarding Hourihane, who, although I still see him as lightweight at times, definitely brings value to the side.
I totally agree, his goals and assists speak for themselves and as long as he’s part of an achieving side, I’m happy.

I’ll try and learn a lesson there; at least it hopefully shows that I’m human and passionate about the Villa.

Anyway, moving on, it’s a year to the day that Dean Smith took over as Villa manager and it’s gone very well hasn’t it?
I’ve said previously that I don’t think Smith is some kind of God.
He’s a manager/coach and they come and go all the time.
Yes, you occasionally get the likes of Stein, Ferguson, Wenger and Shankley etc, but they’re incredibly rare.

That said, you can’t fault what he’s done for the Villa up to now.
His aim when he first came, was to try and achieve promotion.
Maybe not at the first attempt, as we looked like we never had a prayer, but definitely on the second.
He achieved that first time, which I thought was very impressive, although maybe slightly lucky, with Grealish coming back at exactly the right time.
That might seem a bit mean-spirited, but then I can counter that I also thought it was an inspired decision to make Jack our captain, which I didn’t fully agree with at the time.
It all makes sense, doesn’t it?, because a Manager and Captain who are both Villa fans just adds to the good feeling for the club that we now have.
Let’s not forget where we were just before Smith was appointed: a manager who played pragmatic, boring footy, where the fans had become bored to near death.
I genuinely hope Dean Smith can continue to push us on and I currently think he will. To survival and more.

And then add on good owners.
They’ve not said a lot, but have demonstrated intent once again, by pumping another £57 million into the club, making it about £250 million so far.
Even by the Premier league’s standards, that’s a serious amount of money and is to be massively applauded. For some reason, I doubt it will be the last either. I don’t know what they have in mind for us, but you have to think it’s big.

And then the racism thing came up in the comments.
I have to be really careful what I say here, as everything seems to be taken the wrong way, these days.
I don’t know the actual words of the song that was sung and have no interest in even looking for them.
What I have seen is that there was some sort of reference to Nakamba’s (?) appendage.
I don’t know if that’s the worst of it, but if it is, I admit to being slightly perplexed.
If you sung that you thought I had a big ‘un, about me, I’d probably be embarrassed, but not upset in the slightest.
Indeed, I’d probably counter that the missus thinks I’m hung like a hamster.
God, I hope that’s not true (it’s not, I’m just normal).
The point is, it’s said jokingly and means nothing, so I’d just laugh it off.

And it makes no sense to me that Villa fans would sing a racist song about one of our own players, particularly when he’s done really well for us up to now and is being praised everywhere amongst Villa fans.

Racist? It doesn’t seem like it, to me.
Massively stereotypical is more like it and while that’s not right either, it doesn’t seem to be in a bad way.

I’m bound to upset someone with that comment, but please be aware, that I don’t know all the facts.

Whatever, the club itself, seem to have led the protest/complaints and that’s a good thing, particularly when I believe there is a massive Asian market ready to be tapped on our doorstep and further out.