Nearly men again

[avfc_1874]

There's not much between the teams placed 5th - 20th points wise.

The standard of this league is definately getting more even now.

[hawkeye]

The point is -  that it has been the same for many, many years ('81 -82) excepting. That's when we had a chance to take over. Shall we talk about it?

All clubs have a persona - Spuds and their passing style.?. West Ham Academy, (soft but skilful...) Manure, great players attacking footy. SHA. er..... oh yeah,  "Losers" that's it.

Us, "Nearly Men".

Well done - erudite, insightful and most importantly you actually said it.

50 years I have supported this Club and it has (almost) always been the same.

Question is: I like what we stand for as a Club etc etc but would I want US to have Man City/Chelsea Millions and actually strive to be the very best in terms of winners of silverware? To have players of genuine World Class quality?  Yes I bloody would. I mean Manchester or Liverpool are not a comparitive shangrilar in comparison with Brum is it, so it is not our City.

I feel we deserve to be respected as Winning Club and fifty years later I am still waiting for us to establish ourselves as such . I am fed up of "Fresh Starts" and "Five Year Plans". Docherty, Venglos, O Niel and Rene, etc..
 
The on going: "We have to re build. Fans must have Patience."  I am patient but might die any minute.

However, to quote you: "The point is "...... we have little Choice. It's the Club we support and unlike the Glory Hunting ( unlike us as Glory HINTING) supporters we are stuck with it -  it seems.

Anyway, Rant over. Good post. Well said. IMHO. But I am supportive of the new regime and of course live in hope.

sorry about your first point, happy to talk about it, i was there wnen we went to Villa Park in expectation not in hope, Gidman Little Gray Deehan Nichol Evans Morley Shaw Withe Mcnaught Cowans

[Dante Lavelli]

I'm a lot more optimistic than that.  In fact, almost the opposite. 

The following give me reason to be optimistic:
1.  The emergence of Albrighton, Bannan and Clark has provided us with three excellent squad players and arguably three players for the first team.  Just below that there are Delf, Lichaj, and Weimann.
2.  Randy is the chairman and has demonstrated that he is prepared to spend money when required.  This is against the back-drop of other clubs tightening the purse strings.
3.  The players noted above means that we do not need to flesh out the squad.  This suggests that big money can be spent on the missing links (imo - a ST and a DMC)
4.  Delph will be back soon and is arguably a replacement for Petrov/NRC (a position where we needed to improve)
5.  We have a new manager that will have contacts that opens up a new market of players
6.  Some of our less talented but high paid players are nearing their departure.  Sidwell, Carew, NRC (??) could all depart in the summer, reducing the wage bill and opening up spaces for us to buy new players.

We do need some younger full-backs, but they're probably one of the cheapest positions to fill as they players do not affect the spine of the team.

Do I think we'll win the league anytime soon?  No, but there is hope that we can and will improve with a mix of our own youth players and exotic foreign signings.  The early days suggest that we'll be playing a more attractive style of football to boot. 

[AV82EC]

Jesus the glass is half empty with some people at the moment.  We haven't won for three or 4 games and people seem to be willing to talk themslves into a slough of despond.  I'm actually feeling quite buoyant about all things Villa, yes I agree with many of the comments above but if you're a supporter then get on and support.  I don't know whats going on with Villa supporters at the moment, a dull and lifeless display from us at home to Chelsea followed by one of the most downbeat away crowds I've seen for many a year away at Sunderland yesterday.  What do we need to wake us all up?

[Lambert and Payne]

Why dont we give Houllier a chance and see what happens? Its a difficult month wins werent going to be easy but i think we've given a good account of ourselves so far just lack a little luck
Don't throw in the towel yet our day will come
Keep calm and carry on Villains - Get behind the boys!!

[VillaAlways]

The thing that pisses me off is that the likes of Everton manage to hold onto their best players, when they're in no better position to challenge than we are.  You don't see Cahill or Arteta wanting to move on, though either of those could move on to one of the top four if they wanted.  What is it that they're doing right and we're doing wrong?

Cahill and Arteta don't play for England

[Simba]

Rigadon: Depressing? De fucking pressing? THIS ain't depressing. THIS is a(nother) fresh start.

Doncaster away,  in the piddling rain - and losing. Now that was depressing.

I dunno, maybe we can actually press on from here. The squad is not bad, of course not Champions League but just maybe we can push on. Good Management Team, great Youth and Reserves and I feel an honest and involved group of Owners.

Just maybe this time.  50 years...... What was I doing?

[cdward]

We always start the cycle of new manager, new players, good seasons, bad seasons, every 4 or 5 years.
In recent times the successful clubs have either had long serving managers (Fergie, Wenger) loads of money(Chelski, Citeh), or a close combination of both ( liverpool) we come close on both counts but fail to deliver.
I don't see us changing in the forseeable future, i look forward to another couple of Cup Finals in the next few years, and being top Midlands club, otherwise it's normal service at B6.

By the way i don't consider a 4th place finish as "winning anything"

[hawkeye]

My point is if the manager says that 6th to 12th is ok then the players can achieve that and think they have done a good job, we can walk away from a defeat at sunderland and be 10th and think its ok, the one thing i know about leadership is the idea that you dont set targets that are easy to achieve

[Simba]

The point is -  that it has been the same for many, many years ('81 -82) excepting. That's when we had a chance to take over. Shall we talk about it?

All clubs have a persona - Spuds and their passing style.?. West Ham Academy, (soft but skilful...) Manure, great players attacking footy. SHA. er..... oh yeah,  "Losers" that's it.

Us, "Nearly Men".

Well done - erudite, insightful and most importantly you actually said it.

50 years I have supported this Club and it has (almost) always been the same.

Question is: I like what we stand for as a Club etc etc but would I want US to have Man City/Chelsea Millions and actually strive to be the very best in terms of winners of silverware? To have players of genuine World Class quality?  Yes I bloody would. I mean Manchester or Liverpool are not a comparitive shangrilar in comparison with Brum is it, so it is not our City.

I feel we deserve to be respected as Winning Club and fifty years later I am still waiting for us to establish ourselves as such . I am fed up of "Fresh Starts" and "Five Year Plans". Docherty, Venglos, O Niel and Rene, etc..
 
The on going: "We have to re build. Fans must have Patience."  I am patient but might die any minute.

However, to quote you: "The point is "...... we have little Choice. It's the Club we support and unlike the Glory Hunting ( unlike us as Glory HINTING) supporters we are stuck with it -  it seems.

Anyway, Rant over. Good post. Well said. IMHO. But I am supportive of the new regime and of course live in hope.

sorry about your first point, happy to talk about it, i was there wnen we went to Villa Park in expectation not in hope, Gidman Little Gray Deehan Nichol Evans Morley Shaw Withe Mcnaught Cowans

That's the difference: Expectation. A knowledge of our ability to succeed. Not Hope, but Expectation.

For the first time in a long time I think we will build that expectation of success again. My glass is a quarter full, but ready to be filled - not emptied.

[hilts_coolerking]

We always start the cycle of new manager, new players, good seasons, bad seasons, every 4 or 5 years.
In recent times the successful clubs have either had long serving managers (Fergie, Wenger) loads of money(Chelski, Citeh), or a close combination of both ( liverpool) we come close on both counts but fail to deliver.

It has to be said that, on this occasion, the cycle restarted because our manager walked out on us.

[Simba]

cdward: Fourth place not winning anything? You are right. It would not be in our trophy cabinet and we would not be drinking to it in ten years. Winning something. Bloody hell I was at Wembley in '94 (and Spurs and Norwich in 70's) and I remember it. Only a League Cup but we WON it.

Your are right, fourth will never be remembered.

[hawkeye]

We always start the cycle of new manager, new players, good seasons, bad seasons, every 4 or 5 years.
In recent times the successful clubs have either had long serving managers (Fergie, Wenger) loads of money(Chelski, Citeh), or a close combination of both ( liverpool) we come close on both counts but fail to deliver.

It has to be said that, on this occasion, the cycle restarted because our manager walked out on us.

MON was a spent force, its a shame that the boadrd did not realise/ act upon it earlier

[Shrek]

I was sort of thinking this sort of thing earlier, it struck me when I looked at the league and saw Liverpool and Everton who have been the shambles this season only 1 and 2 points behind us.

[hilts_coolerking]

MON was a spent force, its a shame that the boadrd did not realise/ act upon it earlier

I wouldn't say spent force exactly - because he might pitch up somewhere else and achieve similar results - but I agree that there were indications 12-18 months ago that he didn't quite cut it at the top level.