Steve Bruce peers over his neighbours' wall and begrudgingly admires the lavishly decorated garden before him. A surge of envy fills his knotted stomach as a sea of exotic, expensively assembled and mostly foreign flowers bloom around his neighbours' well-manicured lawn. Bruce steps down and looks sorrowfully at his own, ageing, uninspiring garden before heading indoors to complain loudly and vociferously to anyone that will listen.
Only one week previously, the Aston Villa manager had watched in horror as his team were played off the park by a more cohesive, more attractive and generally better Wolves team during a 2-0 Championship defeat at Molineux. The scoreline flattered Villa. Bruce admitted that Wolves had been the better team on the day but he would wait to tell everyone what he really thought about his neighbours.
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Bruce deemed the aftermath of Villa's unconvincing 2-1 win over Fulham at the weekend as the perfect time to deliver a withering riposte about Wolves.
“Wolves’ team last week was 80 per-cent foreign - in the Championship," Bruce, who may as well have been standing in front of a bus bearing the slogan 'Get Diogo Jota Out To Save The NHS £350m', told the Birmingham Mail. “Surely you are not telling me there aren’t some young players who couldn’t play? Well, we’ve proved there is."
Bruce may have a point as Wolves have undoubtedly benefited from their connections with prominent agents and they are reaping the rewards of the on-loan Jota and co., but the colour green doesn't suit the manager of the claret and blue army.
The current Aston Villa first team is hardly a hot bed of flourishing young, local talent. Seven of the squad to play Fulham were English, which is the same number of Englishmen that were named in Wolves' squad during their 3-2 win over Preston on Saturday.
For Villa, only the on-loan Sam Johnstone (from Manchester United) and Josh Onomah (Tottenham), as well as Keinan Davis, are aged under 24 and have played eight or more games of the current season. The emergence of Davis has been a significant bonus but even his rise to first team regular was more by accident than design as a raft of injuries to Jonathan Kodjia, Scott Hogan and the ageing Gabby Agbonlahor forced Bruce's hand.
There is still plenty of time for Villa to catch the Championship leaders as Bruce is a proven performer when it comes to earning promotion but for now he would do well to focus on matters in his own back yard, rather than those of his near-neighbours.
For starters, Bruce has work to do with his garden as he surveys the remnants of flowers that were at their peak in 2012. There's a few prize-winners in amongst the dead wood, potatoes and mulch but there is still plenty of pruning and preening to be done.
A harsh winter will come and there will be time for some to bloom in the spring, which is when Bruce will be hoping that he has the last laugh. For now, his recent comments would suggest he is struggling to keep up with the 'Joneses'.
Aston Villa are next in Championship action at local rivals Birmingham City on Sunday 29th October (Midday Kick Off).
