Booing is an age-old cathartic expression of disapproval that supposedly makes angry fans feel a bit better. But does it?

This time last year I was asking Randy to get me Quique Sanchez Flores for my birthday and he completely let me down and gave me McLeish instead. That was probably the worst birthday present anybody ever gave me, but I'll forgive him as he has redeemed himself somewhat this year.

It's been a while since I've written about football, specifically about Aston Villa, because let's face it, writing anything half decent, particularly when you're not getting paid for it, requires at least some degree of inspiration, which Aston Villa spectacularly failed to provide last season.

Even the sacking of McLeish and the subsequent speculation about a replacement manager couldn't make me muster any sort of excitement after the suspense and subsequent shuddering disappointment of the last appointment. I refused to have any sort of expectation that the board might actually do the right thing for fear of having those hopes shattered again.

I tweeted several weeks ago "I don't dislike Bent. I dislike that he gets so much credit for so little" and that is still very much the case, probably more so than when I originally tweeted it.

With Gabriel Agbonlahor in arguably the form of his life right now, it should have been a no-brainer for Capello to include him in the squad for Saturday's friendly against Spain. I think most Villa fan's would agree that they are delighted for him and that he fully deserves it, but I'm not sure, from a selfish point of view, I'm entirely happy.

Those who are still disappointed with our lack of signings (did you not read my previous post?) should consider that we no longer have as much scope to strengthen our squad thanks to the FA rules brought in last year. Just in case you missed them, a club must register a squad of up to 25 players including a minimum of 8 home grown players (those that have been affiliated to the FA for a minimum of 36 months prior to their 21st birthday) and a maximum of 17 foreign players, which may be supplemented by an unlimited number of players under 21.

So summer is over, well not officially until September 23rd but in terms of football at least, and where does that leave us?

Having lost Webcam and Pid, NRC, Big Brad, several bit-part and youth team players, and perhaps most devastatingly Mike Bradley (I still haven't got over it) the mood amongst most Villa fans was fairly negative, just for a change. However, I'm fairly happy with the business we have conducted this transfer window.

There were plenty of times last season when we heard moaning about half our squad being out on loan, and admittedly it was quite hard to keep track of with John Carew at Stoke, Barry Bannan and Eric Lichaj at Leeds, Andi Weimann at Watford, Brad Guzan at Hull, Nathan Delfouneso at Burnley, Stephen Ireland at Newcastle, Curtis Davies at Leicester, Jonathan Hogg at Portsmouth, Shane Lowry at Sheffield United - did I forget anyone?

Back in May I stated the case for returning Thomas Hitzlsperger to his rightful English home in 'My Source Tells Me...' at the time for around £500k, and now it's even better because he's on a free. What's more he wants to come home to Villa Park (told you it was down to a communication error he ended up at West Ham!), so what is the problem?

Reports are that Aston Villa have agreed to pay Birmingham City £2m in compensation with Alex McLeish set to be officially announced as Villa's new manager by tomorrow. Although I admit to having spent a large part of today wishing for some sort of miracle where Randy has just caught up with reading my blog and realised that Quique is a far more attractive proposition, in more ways than one, now is the time to accept that the decision has been made and Quique will forever be the one that got away.

There have been a lot of people labelled the "bad guys" during Aston Villa's protracted managerial search from Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner to McLeish to Peter Pannu to sections of the fans and even Martin O'Neill (really, get over it), but the media seem to have borne the brunt of it.

Accusations have been flying that they don't know what they are doing, they are anti-Villa and even that they make things up off the tops of their heads and tell blatant lies. Don't get me wrong, I think there are certain news organisations that have distinctly warped moral compasses and certain journalists who certainly seem to have their own agendas, but on the whole they do not knowingly report untruths.

Ok, I think my heart may officially be broken. Randy has completely let me down and failed to deliver on the one tiny little thing I asked for for my birthday, and now I find out that Kinky Florist wants the Villa job!

So after all the rumour and speculation Aston Villa have declared that they are to interview Alex McLeish "imminently in order to make a decision regarding his candidacy to become Villa manager", which is exactly what Villa fans did not want to hear.

While it was just being reported by TalkSPORT and Sky Sports News many fans felt they could just ignore it, as the media are evil people who tell lies and make things up just to upset the fans apparently, or so they've been told about a million times over the past few weeks, but the club statement makes the appointment of McLeish a very real possibility.

Amid the debate and bickering over who people think should take over the managerial reigns at Aston Villa, the phrase "We're a big club" has been used almost as much as Jamie Redknapp uses the word literally; but are we?

What defines a "big club"? Is it the fans? The financial resources? Exposure outside of the UK? The trophies and titles won?

I'm now really quite gutted that El Guapo won't be heading to Villa Park, but the already huge respect I had for the man has just skyrocketed. There are not many football managers that would turn down the opportunity to discuss a vacancy at a bigger club out of loyalty to his current club and chairman.

At the time of writing this the fans and the media are no closer to really knowing who will succeed Gerard as Villa boss thanks to the "totally professional manner" in which they have conducted themselves and the speculation of smokescreens being thrown up by Randy.

I admit to getting slightly over excited yesterday amid unfounded speculation that Randy's jet had flown to Madrid, and surely that could only mean one thing - he obviously reads my blog and was going to fetch the Kinky Florist. Or not.

Apparently I'm terrible to buy for because I never know what I want, but I really don't need anything and if I see something I want I usually just get it. Having said that I always appreciate my presents, whatever they may be, so I don't really think I'm that bad.

One thing that does make my birthday list is Pep; not necessarily as Villa manager, just wrapped up and delivered to my door will do. Seeing as both of those things are about as likely as Wayne Rooney's recent hair transplant actually looking good, I'd be happy to settle for another swarthy Spaniard.

Our mission today was two-fold; firstly to see if VMF's regular menu stood up to the menu we were served at the food champion's evening two weeks ago and secondly to keep an eye out for anybody who looked like they may be even remotely associated with a certain Italian or Dutch football manager.

On the second point we failed, but VMF certainly didn't.