Scott Hogan’s response to possibility of Aston Villa signing a striker is pure confidence

The law of attraction.

If you ever watched that documentary on YouTube, the one that's supposed to have transformed Conor McGregor's life, you'd take a few things away from it.

1. All people care about is money.
2. A lot of people are bullshitters.

But, 3), that things really are genuinely possible if you really believe in the possibility of them enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC_YmdPy2h0&t=8s It's not really a coincidence that things happen to you the way they do. One of the oldest psychological hypotheses suggests that there is no such thing as a coincidence. Think back to a run of form you might've been on in any walk of life - in football, in dating, in work. You were on a hot streak and you don't really know why or how, you just knew it was happening and it was going to keep happening. The most clear memory you probably have from that time isn't anything you were doing in particular or anything you were saying, it's just that you believed you were going to get results - it was more than belief, it was certainty. And the results came. Most of the time it's because you actually go and do the work then to garner the result, it isn't anything magical. But the fact that you saw it happening was enough for you to go and do whatever you had to do to get there. Christ, where were we? Scott Hogan. The 25-year-old Ireland international is an interesting one. He's a classic example of how your stock rises when no-one is there to study your actual effect. Despite really struggling to kick into gear in his Aston Villa career, the calls for Hogan to be thrown into the Irish first team grew louder and more impatient as the year progressed. In fact, in 20 Championship appearances this season, the forward has hit the net just twice for Villa. Most importantly though, those two goals came in his last two games. And what that has done for Hogan is made him believe beyond doubt that he is the man - the only man - for the job. Jonathan Kodjia, the club's main striker, is expected to be out for the rest of the season with a broken ankle and, with Hogan failing to justify his price tag and hype since arriving, the talk had been circulating that Steve Bruce would be in the market to sign a forward in January. Hogan? He doesn't give a shit.

"I will tell the manager, 'Don’t bother. If you want to get someone, go on. But he isn’t going to play because I will keep my place,'" he said.

"I am not giving it up now.

"I will get the goals.

"Hopefully, they might buy someone and not need them."

Every striker should have that bit of arrogance. It's just attacking arrogance - you need it in your play, you need it in your mind. Goalscorers, creators, match-winners should be allowed to be selfish, they should be allowed to back themselves and they should be allowed to play the game on their terms because they're the ones who are going to ultimately win you that game. And Scott Hogan might sound cocky to the wrong person but, to a striker - to any young striker growing up - that's the mindset you need, especially in that position. Unshakable belief.