If We Had More Money Than Citeh.

[willywombat]

I think I would rather have rules put into football that genuinely level the playing field.  A salary cap and wage cap football-wide, making the game a genuine competition based on skill, wits, intelligence and local pride would be brilliant. That would do for me.

The system in its present state where you can quite literally buy success (and its been like this for a long time, steadily becoming more and more absurd) makes an absolute mockery of the term "sport".  Relying on a richer owner to come along and gazump the current richest owners in the game would supply a short term fix of excitement for me but, ultimately, it would all become pretty stale and hollow.

This for me

[CJ]

I'll admit to being a bit jealous of Citeh and would love to see the likes of Silva playing for Villa. But my answer is still a firm no. Sooner or later I believe there will be a European Super Duper Sky Sensational Sunday Soccer League with no relegation from or promotion to it, and football's soul will have finally been sold to those teams whose sole motivation is to get bigger slices of bigger financial pies. Sport would be a long way second. When that day comes away games would be beyond reach certainly for me, and although some would argue (quite rightly) how great it would be to see the likes of Barcelona at VP, the game as a sport would have gone for me, and if Villa were part of it I'd be off watching Harriers. 

As an aside and by way of a sort of illustration, at the weekend I witnessed multi millionaires playing on Saturday, and on Sunday I took my dog for a walk and watched the village under-16 team playing. Guess which game was hugely more enjoyable even though both 'my' teams lost?

[not3bad]

I think I would rather have rules put into football that genuinely level the playing field.  A salary cap and wage cap football-wide, making the game a genuine competition based on skill, wits, intelligence and local pride would be brilliant. That would do for me.

The system in its present state where you can quite literally buy success (and its been like this for a long time, steadily becoming more and more absurd) makes an absolute mockery of the term "sport".  Relying on a richer owner to come along and gazump the current richest owners in the game would supply a short term fix of excitement for me but, ultimately, it would all become pretty stale and hollow.

This for me

Either restore a more even playing field or have the 'elite' f*ck off to their super league and give us our game back.  Either of these would be infinitely prefereable to becoming the very thing we hate.

[achilles]

I think I would rather have rules put into football that genuinely level the playing field.  A salary cap and wage cap football-wide, making the game a genuine competition based on skill, wits, intelligence and local pride would be brilliant. That would do for me.

The system in its present state where you can quite literally buy success (and its been like this for a long time, steadily becoming more and more absurd) makes an absolute mockery of the term "sport".  Relying on a richer owner to come along and gazump the current richest owners in the game would supply a short term fix of excitement for me but, ultimately, it would all become pretty stale and hollow.

This for me

... and me, although I can't see it happening, the soul of football is dead!

[PeterWithesShin]

No one seemed too fussed when Randy was splashing the cash for a few years. So where does just investing in the club stop and ruining football by buying success begin? £30m a year, 50, 100?

[Mark H]

A no from me - Success but not at any cost , and in this case I think selling your soul is the cost if you just buy the league/cups.  I would like our Randy to punch a bit to his finacial weight and let us compete with the Tottenham's of this world as I think the top 3/4 are out of sight at the moment   

[Hopadop]

Depends. If he / she was basically benign, Randy but richer, I'd probably get over it. But I don't think it's likely.

I was having an argument with a Chelsea supporter about this (and if you'd wanted an improvisation by two middle aged farts on the themes of sad and pathetic, you'd have to go a long way), and I was basically saying I'd rather get relegated than see Villa shirts on fat kids in parks all over London.

I meant it, so it's a finger wagging no from me.

[Gulf Villa]

Another angle for this, is if you dont want the money, but want to watch a team that can compete against their opponents every week, then the only way this will happen for us, is relegation.
Randy is cutting his cloth accordingly, and as for the tactically astute management and coaching staff we have, that to me is where this season will end.
Then we can be the billy big bollocks of the championship.
vtid

[darren woolley]

I'm a Villa fan.  I want Villa to win matches and trophies.  So a big 'yes' from me.

I agree with you totally.

[Vanilla]

In the past couple of years, Citeh have bought and dispensed with, for example, the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Robinho and Santa Cruz, on loan or on partial transfers. Those three players alone have cost them near to £100 million in transfer fees and wages for virtually no reward.

Yet MON is still criticised for wasting 20 odd million on unsuccessful players, trying to rebuild a whole team over the space of four years, even though we made large profits on the better purchases.

Yet, manure, 'pool, Chelsea and Spurs have also wasted millions & millions on poor signings.

That's why we will never get anywhere. Villa fans are to willing to tow the party line and critically analyse every signing, as though we should judge each player on whether they are up to scoring a goal in the Champions League Final..

[john2710]

Some Villa fans would still find reason to moan.

[Mr Diggles]

As do some City fans now. A few of my friends from work are City supporters (and yes they are from the Manchester office) and if you get them talking about footbally over drinks they all seem to say the same thing. It's great to watch, but the soul of the club that they fell in love with and grew up with in the 80's, 90's and 00's has completely and utterly disappeared.

[Hookeysmith]

Whenever the middle  / upper classes / wealthy get involved in sport then the soul is lost - this goes for any sport

Anyone growing up on a staple diet of cold meat pie and bovril as the fayre at a football match are amazed to see baguette du monde and 36 types of coffee available with a nice chardonay for half time.

Football has catered for the wealthy fan (lets face it most have to be pretty comfortable to afford a game nowdays) and that is where the game has changed

[KRS]

Long gone are the days of appointing a manager to get the best out of average players to win trophies, so as much as I dont like how football is going, buying your way to success is the only way in modern football.

I told my Man Ure supporting friend after their defeat on Sunday that this was a bad day for football, but he disagreed and said it was the best thing that could happen. Why? His reasoning was that it may encourage the Glazers to sell to the Qatar Royals making them instantly much richer with much more buying power than Citeh.

With the financial fairplay rules and the call for the removal of relegation, this European or potentially Global Super League is getting closer and closer....

[Gaztonniller]

Could be argued that any successful club past/present has bought success even if they've bought just ONE player who contributes to that success.
Peter Withe cost approx £500,000 when the club signed him which i imagine to some clubs at the time was an absolute fortune to spend, and which was the clubs record signing at the time.  I dont think its the amount of money spent by city thats the main gripe, its the level of finances available to them when compared to the 99.9% of the football league clubs.
I cant imagine that if R.L was considering giving-up his involvement, and found Sheikh Multi Billionaire as his replacement worth £30 billion quid, any Villa fan would say - Nah, Jog on Sheikh, we're fine as things are.