Are things really as bad as I feel they are?

[Fergal]

I don't remember feeling this way about our club before. 
We seem to have an absent owner who is not in control.
We have sold our best players.
A squad that's as paper thin as any Dolly would have claimed ownership of.
A manager who  is clearly not up to the job.
Or am I just over reacting to things?

[sidcowans10]

No your not. I feel exactly the same. That is all

[TheTimVilla]

It's shit and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

[Rigadon]

There's definitely a bit of a cloud over the Villa at present.

To answer you points:

Lerner's continued absence is concerning.  He must feel like he's on a bit of hiding to nothing though considering the way things panned out for us after ManCity stole our thunder but he should at least be attending a game or two.  The fact he is now invisible adds to the overall malaise.  Maybe he's got personal stuff happening - he wouldn't be the type to publicise the fact.  He still has enough good will in the bank for me to believe he has our best interests at heart, but that will change if things don't pick up.

We have sold our best players and it's galling to see the line ups of the super-duper-grand-slam-sunday teams.  Barry, Milner & Young all starting today apparently.  We need to bring teh youth through now. 

The squad is much better than OLeary's.  It's just our level of expectation and the standard of the league as a whole has been raised since then.  We still have some very good senior players (Bent, Gabby, Dunne, Given) but they are labouring alongside some pretty average ones (Hutton, Warnock, Petrov, Collins).

I think AM is a good manager.   He won't be given the time he needs though and a few more defeats will no doubt see him become a nice scapegoat for the new reality.

I think most Villa fans I know are in a kind of zoned-out only-here-out-of-habit mood.  Me included.  If I could use one word it'd be 'uninspiring' and I suspect a lot fans of most clubs feel the same way.

[jembob]

I'm feeling pretty despondent at the moment. I can understand the approach which the owner has taken although I don't like it but overall I believe he has been and will be beneficial for the club. He's always been ultra low profile so I don't understand this talk about him being absent.
It's the quality of the footbal that is really making me angry. Yesterday's perfromance was as poor as any I've seen in recent years and while I didn't expect the new manager to bring an exciting brand of football, I did at least expect him to demand the basics from the players - i.e. pass the ball to one of your team mates.
MON was not really interested in playing decent footbal and towards the end of his term performances were abysmal. Last season saw no improvement however we had Young and Downing to add a bit of quality to things. We don't even have that this season and it seems that we are incapable of doing the most basic of things. If we were to compare the two squads from yesterday's game, I would not have swapped any of their players for any of ours but we made them look like Barcelona. They moved into space and passed the ball to each other and could well have given us a real hammering. We, by contrast, failed to keep the ball  and resorted to pointless hoofs up the pitch.
While I can understand the commercial position which the club is in, I can't accept that the team cannot do the basics and that's whats really pissing me off about things.

[bertlambshank]

Its got the feeling of 86 I'm afraid,can't see where the next win is coming from.

[dave.woodhall]

It's been worse than this before, it'll be worse than this again. It'll also be better. That's football.

[Monty]

It's the futility, the lack of identity. As Rigadon said, it's the fact that we're just here out of habit now. The football is bad, but it's bad in a kind of supernaturally pointless way. We don't pass the ball, but we're not even direct in a mad way that can be fun if you're just after incident, we're just long-ball-to-the-opposition-then-defend. We could probably stand bad, negative, over-pragmatic football if it were getting us somewhere, with a sense of purpose, as it was sometimes under MON, but there's a listlessness about us at the moment. We're going nowhere slowly and boringly.

[Compass]

You're not overreacting at all.

If you take a closer look at the game and not just the result we were awful. 0 shots on target at home against a derby match should have any manager pack their bags. And don't say Herd changed the game. Any decent manager would still get the team to perform decent, not like that embarassing collpase yesterday. West Brom managed to score another goal last season when they were down to 10 men. There's also the fact Hutton should have been sent off instead of Herd, so it kind of evens out.

I despise McLeish. Not only is he really shit, but even if he takes us down he won't give a damn. Just more money in the bank for him. He is the second worst manager in the league after Kean. Piss poor excuse of a manager.

[atomicjam]

I fully understand why Randy has to get the club on a better financial footing. I understand why we had to sell and look to rebuild. I understand why we need to hold back, at least until some of the players on crazy money when their value to the team is either zero (Beye) or questionable (Heskey).

I do not understand why, when you are about to go through these hard transitional times, you would alter the communication from sometimes clumsy (GK) and sitting in the away end with your fancy scarf (Randy) to GK going missing without a word of warning to the empty seat that I would like to see Randy in, at least sometimes.

I do not understand who thought a letter that had nothing to do with football on the pitch was suppose to give us hope. And most of all I do not understand why they would pick a manager who vitually no one wanted. That manager is a nice bloke and talks well about the game but is known for ultimately failing and playing dull football as he does it. I find it hard to take that Brighton and Birmingham have Managers I would have in a heart beat over the one we have. And it has absolutely nothing to do with him coming from across the City.

I hope we are in the same division next season. With that level of ambition from myself, yep, I feel times are bad.

[bertlambshank]

I can also see us looking for a new manager before the end of the season.

[Nelly]

It's not an over-reaction, thats just the black and white of where we are right now. It's completely depressing.

[Toronto Villa]

Right now there's a feeling of emptiness. The club have contributed to it. We as fans have contributed to it. There just isn't that feeling of togetherness, and it's almost every man for himself in trying to get out of it. People are pointing fingers and even from afar, watching the games on TV there just seems a constant air of scepticism and cyncism. I think as much as the club have made a number of errors, we as fans can help matters, if only on match day when we should all be united and getting behind the team, more so than any one player or the manager. I'm trying to get my head around why Newcastle have pulled out of their funk faster than us, and a part of is their support. It helps massively to be united in a cause. Between the two Birmingham clubs there is an air of resignation, and that's kind of how it feels watching us right now.

As Dave said, it's been far worse, and far better, and it will be better again. It just might have to get worse though first which is the really worrying thing, but are strong enough as a combined unit (club and fans) to get break out of this.

[Eigentor]

I'm trying to get my head around why Newcastle have pulled out of their funk faster than us, and a part of is their support. It helps massively to be united in a cause.

I think one reason why Newcastle seem to be doing fine at the moment is that the club allowed the manager to get rid of the deadbeats and troublemakers.

[Mister E]

Villa's been a massive part of my life for 42 years and yet I do not feel much passion for them right now, for all the reasons articulated in three-four key posts here recently.
This season I'm not a ST holder for the first time for several years, and I don't miss it. I feel like a love-cheat for saying it but there you go.