The summer break afforded to football is at first glance an annoying distraction, as hungry fans of the beautiful game are subjected to dull and unnecessarily lengthy sports involving bats and rackets and everyone wearing the same colour.

Its purpose seems to be to provide tabloids with an opportunity to dig up dirt on footballers who have been scoring out of wedlock and occasionally stealing a cheeky smoke, as everyone waits impatiently for the return of the club season.

It does though serve a practical use, but if anybody is searching for any evidence of this at Villa Park they will have a long and extensive hunt on their hands.

It’s been nearly a month since Martin O’Neill walked away from Villa Park and as of Monday lunchtime no successor has been appointed, despite hats full of names being circulated amongst the popular press as possible candidates for the job.

Managers of reputation and experience have been rumoured to be interested in the job, including Gerard Houllier, Sven-Göran Eriksson and Ronald Koeman, as well as current caretaker-manager Kevin MacDonald.

With only speculation to feed fans curiosity, desperate to hear of concrete news in the clubs hunt for a new manager, ThreeMatchBan can exclusively reveal that the slow search has narrowed.

The travelling support brought a banner reading ‘The Nightmare Returns’ as Villa once again faced Rapid Vienna for a place in the group stages of the Europa League, after being knocked out at the same point last season, but surely lightning wouldn’t strike twice.

As a Villa fan nervously watching a side low on confidence and attacking ideas, I was fearful from the point when Stiliyan Petrov missed a penalty and Emile Heskey did what he does best and fluffed the re-bound that was seemingly destined for the back for the net.

Having also missed a spot-kick in last seasons encounter, the match had an unsettling sense of déjà vu about it and when that feeling of disquiet became a disturbing reality, when in three second half minutes goals from Sonnleitner and Gartler gave Rapid another victory, the horror of being a Villa fan was brought into sharp focus.

Club football returned to England last weekend as the Premier League season kicked-off and it afforded fans the opportunity to finally concentrate on the trials and tribulations of their beloved local team, instead of the national side. Some were left disappointed, as the realisation of their teams abilities was refreshed, some were overjoyed and some just got a little bit over excited by the occasion.

It’s good to be home, back amongst the warmth and comfort of Premier League football.

Saturday’s big kick-off brought with it everything that is wonderful about football; despite Sky Sports attempting to up the hype of its imminent arrival to such a bombastic level that if it was to be believed all fans were ready to spontaneously combust with sheer excitement at three o’clock.

Instead, it was business as usual and I couldn’t have asked for more.

Having walked out on Villa, Martin O’Neill has created a manager shaped hole at Aston Villa that urgently needs filling if the club are to maintain the heights that the Northern Irishman took them to during his tenure.

Many Villa fans would be hoping that a large queue would be forming outside Villa Park of top class managers, desperately clutching their CV and trying to catch the attention of Chairman Randy Lerner.

Lerner though could have trouble luring such candidates to the job, as he himself admitted the club has a sell-to-buy policy in operation and even if a manager is quickly installed, they will little time to bring in any fresh faces before the close of the transfer window.

Martin O’Neil has left the managerial position at Aston Villa with immediate effect and Kevin MacDonald has been appointed caretaker boss.

Appointed in 2006, O’Neill successfully guided Villa to three successive European campaigns and their first Wembley final for ten years in the League Cup.

Having left without clarifying what made him jump ship, Villa find themselves stranded without a manger and limited future prospects, exaggerated by the fact that the Premier League season starts in under a week.

The name Rapid Vienna shouldn’t strike fear into the supporter of any established European club, but Villa’s reunion with the side that dumped Martin O’Neill’s team out of the Europa League at the same stage last year, doesn’t fill me with optimism.

Perhaps things would be different if O’Neill had a track record of taking the competition seriously, but unfortunately he doesn’t.

Instead he prefers to use it as a platform to advertise the inabilities of Nicky Shorey, Habib Beye and Brad Guzan.

The protracted transfer saga of James Milner to Manchester City has more than a hint of déjà vu about it.

This time last year Villa fans were in a similar position with Gareth Barry and his move to City, as he too expressed his desire to leave and there were similar mumblings of discontent that the teams brightest star wanted out, but the team progressed in his absence reaching a league cup final and the FA Cup semis.

Now, according to manager Martin O’Neill, Milner has also seen the bright money lit lights of City and has decided it’s his time to earn pots full of cash, but would his departure be a curse or a blessing?

The run-up to any major competition can be tiresome.

Players, staff and fans alike patiently wait for the arrival of the World Cup, but are forced to make do with players in suits standing on the steps of planes in the mean time, whilst all things domestic are seemingly put on hold.

Thank goodness for Liverpool then, as even when you think they’ve enjoyed enough drama for one season they decide to squeeze in a little bit more and push Rafa Benitez out the door with six million quid in his pocket.

Yesterday I wrote an article and it wasn’t well received. In fact it went down like a lead balloon.

An unprecedented amount of contempt was shown for the piece, so I now feel the need to express my thoughts with perhaps a greater deal of clarity and without the aid of a forced scenario.

Despite the show of derision though I still stand by the idea I was trying to project, which was that Villa have badly bruised their chances of a European place in an emphatic and embarrassing fashion.

Seven large explosions were reported yesterday in the Aston area of Birmingham, in what initial reports suggest is Villa’s season imploding in dramatic fashion.

The incident occurred between approximately between three and five yesterday afternoon and witnesses have angrily said that the Villa side contributed to their own downfall.

No one is reported to have been hurt in the incident, but it is thought that Villa’s hopes of clinching the fourth Big Cup spot have suffered an almighty and embarrassing blow.

At about this point last season Aston Villa’s season was beginning to implode, as we stumbled towards a respectable sixth place finish.

A considerable achievement perhaps, but it could have been so much more considering the fact that Martin O’Neill’s side were at one time lying in fourth place, eight points ahead of Arsenal.

Over the course of the remaining games Arsenal shone and expressed their superiority by cruising into the remaining Champions League place.

Having an England international leading your teams front line would be seen by most as a good thing and an exciting prospect to behold. This is not the case though when that player is Emile Heskey.

Having signed for my boyhood team Aston Villa in January 2009, I was blindly optimistic that the big striker could provide our front line with a serious cutting edge, despite everything I had seen, heard and read about him before.

Instead it was the same old Emile that arrived at Villa Park, who after over 15 years as a professional has yet to find his shooting boots and appears at times to be laboriously wading through treacle, such is his slow and cumbersome manner.

After a week of professional and methodical International football, the passion of the Premier League happily returned this weekend and amidst the action also helped to display the ambiguity of emotion.

Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor is possibly the greatest exploiter of this word after he explained away the unnecessary boot force used on Robin van Persie’s face by pleading emotion was the cause.

In a fantastic game of Premier League football that saw the ascendancy of Manchester City with a 4-2 win over Arsenal, the antics of Adebayor will sadly overshadow this.