Those huddled together in the punditry hall of shame have to stick together - if only to keep warm.
The managerial situation at the team recently crowned the most boring in English football history by one newspaper is up for discussion. Not even the presence of a brooding, bearded Roy Keane could make Aston Villa exciting. Now that he's gone, the sense of mind-numbing listlessness around the club is more inescapable than ever.
The feelers have gone out from the club - they're looking for some jazzy director of football to inject something, anything, into Villa.
Into the breach steps the club's former centre-forward Andy Gray, speaking on Aston Villa fan Jonny Gould's podcast.
Andy is a football man - and a football man who played football back in the 70s to boot - and he is not impressed by all this talk of bringing in 'consultants' to pick the new director of football.
Consultants, Andy reckons, tend to be bewitched by gimmics such as CVs and the like and they'll probably end up picking 'some French guy, some Italian, some Spanish guy'.
They need a man who knows Villa, Andy reckons. The answer is staring them in the face. Well, maybe not them, or anyone else, but it's definitely staring him in the face.
The man known to all as Big Ron.
Let’s say I’m Aston Villa and I want someone who knows the game, has an affinity with Villa, and knows about players. Let me think - Ron Atkinson.
People might think, ‘Don’t be so stupid, Andy’ - I’m just saying that’s right off the top of your head. A man who has 50 years in the game, has huge knowledge of the game, has amazing passion for the game, loves Aston Villa, loved his time there, and knows players.
Ron Atkinson managed Villa between 1991 and 1994 - a time of relative prosperity at the club. Indeed, at one stage it looked likely that he was going to guide Villa to the championship back in 1992-93.
Unfortunately, his last spell in a role not dissimilar to director of football was filmed on television as part of a reality TV show.
Read also: Robbie Keane Seems to Have Decided on His Post-Playing Career
