The Youth of Today
Not all of Villa's teams struggle to get past the third round of major competitions having been drawn invariably against Manchester United.
And so it is a hearty good luck message to the under-18s as they head into tomorrow's FA Youth Cup semi-final with Chelsea.
Whether Villa's policy of searching far and wide for their youth talent (Hungary, Austra, Australia, Sweden and... err... Watford in the case of Harry Forrester) is good for the English game is open to question and a debate for another time.
But there is no doubt whatsoever that it is good for Villa.
Villa's youth set-up is the envy of, I would suggest, all of the Premier League- yes, and that includes Chelsea and Frank Arnesen.
They have a phenomenal recruitment headed up by Bryan Jones who has been there since Gareth Barry turned up in short trousers.
There is a strong backroom team including people like Steve Burns and Paul Brackwell and three terrific coaches in Tony McAndrew, Gordon Cowans and Kevin MacDonald who would walk into far more senior positions at other clubs on the back of their tremendous cv's at Villa.
This latest batch of kids includes Nathan Delfouneso who looks likely to replace Darius Vassell, Luke Moore and Gabby Agbonlahor as the next brightest local thing. How come Villa can find all these lightning-fast Brummies?
Whilst regular watchers of the youth team just love wee man Barry Bannan.
Hats off once again to Villa.
Villa's success in the FA Youth Cup: 2002 winners and 2004 runners-up, reminds me of the one of the bizarrest and possibly most spiteful thing said to me at Bodymoor Heath.
It was said by a current employee who was standing next to first team manager of the day at the time, some years back. He said: "You could argue that the club winning the Youth Cup was the worst thing they could ever have done."
I'd just written a cracking feature on how good the youth set-up was, and has always been at Villa at a time when Doug Ellis was, rightly or wrongly, channelling a fair amount of funds into the Academy and there was definitely a split in the camp. Manager v Chairman.
Of course this person was being horribly psychophantic in trying to back his manager who wanted to rip apart the youth set-up to give himself more cash for first team players.
But I always remembered the quote. I thought it was a feeble, weak stance. And wondered if he still feels the same way?
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Mat Kendrick - is the Birmingham Mail's man at Villa.
Name names Bill.
Villa's youth set up is so good because they pay the earth to swipe other teams best prospects. It's all about money not scouting and I'm sure Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea aren't envious.
Also if these kids were that good why do Villa keep selling them? Obviously don't think they have got it.