The perception of Villa

[Toronto Villa]

Sack the manager and appoint one who is on nodding terms with the 21st century.

Would you then actually come to Villa Park to watch a game or two ?

How do you know he doesn't already?

Because of his/her consistent attendance on match threads, maybe ?

you're going down a dangerous road with your line of argument.

[KevinGage]

Older fans of other clubs I talk to (40/50+) seem to rate us.

Younger ones (20's/30's) less so.

[KevinGage]

Sack the manager and appoint one who is on nodding terms with the 21st century.

Would you then actually come to Villa Park to watch a game or two ?

How do you know he doesn't already?

Because of his/her consistent attendance on match threads, maybe ?

This might be a bit out of leftfield but stay with me:

How about if he'd been a regular for years, season ticket holder and the works. Yet had to move for work?

I don't know whether he was a regular, truth be told. But at a guess I'd say he has probably seen a game or two.

[Risso]

Sack the manager and appoint one who is on nodding terms with the 21st century.

Would you then actually come to Villa Park to watch a game or two ?

As others have pointed out, my non attendance at Villa Park is entirely to do with the fact that I don't live in the UK any more.  Before I moved over, I got to a lot of away games and a few homes games a year.  Before that, I was a season ticket holder.  Take your better fan than you bollocks, and shove it.

[Ross]

I think MON has a better public image than Villa does, so quite how sacking the manager improves that, I'm not sure.

[Chris Smith]

Older fans of other clubs I talk to (40/50+) seem to rate us.

Younger ones (20's/30's) less so.

I'd agree with that. Talking to an older Arsenal fan a few weeks ago and he said that he thought the league needed Villa to be challenging and that he was brought up to think of us as a massive club, kept saying "the Villa" which I liked.

We need to win something or get into the CL for younger fans to start to see us any differently.

[jamestownvilla]

Improve on the pitch and realities and perceptions will change.

exactly

[Dave]

Hopefully we can improve enough so that everybody hates us.

That's what we should be striving for.

[TimTheVillain]

Hopefully we can improve enough so that everybody hates us.

That's what we should be striving for.

I agree, and fears us - especially at VP.

[Risso]

Hopefully we can improve enough so that everybody hates us.

That's what we should be striving for.

I agree, and fears us - especially at VP.

When we get Alex Ferguson moaning about how we always get the decisions at Villa Park, then we'll know we've improved.

[russon]

One of my friends said he sees us as a club that is happy to float around the top ten and that so long as we are a bit better than mid-table we are doing well. He thinks we see ourselves as bigger and more fashionable than we are.

Your friend is right

[Chris Smith]

Hopefully we can improve enough so that everybody hates us.

That's what we should be striving for.

I agree, and fears us - especially at VP.

They do fear us at VP, that's why they mostly come and put 10 behind the ball.

[Risso]

Hopefully we can improve enough so that everybody hates us.

That's what we should be striving for.

I agree, and fears us - especially at VP.

They do fear us at VP, that's why they mostly come and put 10 behind the ball.

"They" know that's it not hard to defend against Villa's lack of inventive football.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

The original statement of this thread is that we are perceived as a little boring.

Well I dont find us boring and never have done in over 40 years whether we have been crap or good.

Sometimes I think people are measuring what they feel they should be provided with against the hyped up image of the likes of Arsenal,  Chelsea, Man City, even Spurs fed to us by the media and in particular the likes of Sky and TalkSport.

Personally, I dont really care how others perceive us.
Do we really care what pundits who never had any connection with us during their careers say about us when they turn up on some football show to spout their generally inane repetitive rubbish in exchange for a few hundred quid ?
Do we really care what other football followers who have probably never been to a live match at Villa Park, and are being fed their perceptions by the same unforementioned media think about us ?

[peter w]

That's the thing - as Irish villain said - we do see ourselves bigger than what we are. We scoff at those pundits that say we think we have a divine right to win anything and everything. We attack those pundits who say that 6th is a great achievement for us. We pour scorn at Newcastle for pundits going on about them being a big club when all they do is fill a ground to capacity every week despite winning nothing for 50 odd years.

But in reality we are big in our own minds. We're there or thereabouts when we have a good season but have only won something like 10 trophies in a hundred years or so and no matter how many excuses we can come up with we can only sell out the ground when the opposition are big.

Maybe its not us that's right and everyone else that is wrong. Maybe we are doing well to be where we are. maybe we're not a big club despite thinking that we are - yes we have the potential to be but so do many.

We are, like most clubs, possibly just big in our own minds.