Local rivalries provide a wonderful backdrop to certain football games, stoking the atmosphere on match day and dominating the narrative in the lead up.
Arguably, the players give that little bit extra when it’s derby day or in matches that always seem to provide talking points and food for thought.
Take Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers for example. Two huge Midlands-based clubs, 21 miles apart and of roughly the same size in terms of supporter base.
When they collide, invariably, there’s nothing else to talk about in the days before the game, with bragging rights at stake.
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When asked which of the two were the bigger club, talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan was unequivocal.
He identified that Wolves’ glory days were way back in the 1950s, whilst Villa had won the European Cup since then, albeit that was in the early 1980s.
Looking forward the pundit believes that the Villains are better placed to become successful, and that’s unlikely to sit well with fans of the gold and blacks.
However, when you can lose a player of the quality of Jack Grealish and somehow end up being better as a team, thanks to the strength of your beliefs and way of working as much as for being able to buy well in the transfer market, that says an awful lot.
Wolves were great initially under Nuno Espirito Santo but tailed off towards the end of his tenure and haven’t really got going since.
Mid-table obscurity beckons, whereas Villa have every chance of earning a European berth this season.
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