The author actually seems to have a decent knowledge of Villa and can definitely see our potential. I think it is a fair article.
“A waste of a club” is how I described Aston Villa in the pre-match rambles, and by God it’s that and so much more. Aston Villa are like that girl you see with the high IQ, cracking body and wicked sense of humour wasting away in the corner of a Wetherspoons in a baggy jumper while her Chelsea supporting boyfriend tells racist jokes that make his baseball-cap-wearing mates laugh into their pints of Carling and call him a “ledge.” You want to go over to that girl, pick her up by the shoulders and scream in her face: “What is wrong with you? You’re wasting your life you dizzy bint.”But it’s not your fight to pick and, even if it was, the thought of being beaten into a bloody pulp by five Stone Island wearing chavs in the smoking area of a Wetherspoons doesn’t sound like my idea of a good time, even if the girl did subsequently look back on it as a turning point in her life. QPR have enough problems of their own without hunting down issues elsewhere in the country but for the love of God there’s a giant here waiting to be woken up by anybody with any imagination and ambition whatsoever.As you walk down Witton Road from Aston train station it’s much like walking through any other inner-city slum in any other of Britain’s many shitholes. And then, as you emerge from the reinforced concrete underpass and the thin, toxic smoke floating out of the burger van drifts away into the night, there it is; Villa Park. You’re greeted first by the sight of The Holte, a beautiful old brick clubhouse that dates back to the nineteenth century and looks absolutely resplendent after a refit five years ago. History seeps from every orifice of Villa, founded 137 years ago, and The Holte is the perfect gateway into this famous old club. The Springbok it is not.Once in the ground it’s hard to believe QPR are in the same league. There are more than 42,000 seats in the place, with the colossal Holte End towering over the field to the left of the away section which this season was located across two tiers of the side stand as opposed to behind the goal where we have been for recent cup meetings. Elsewhere in the city lurks a fine training ground and highly successful youth academy. On the pitch the manager picks Emile Heskey wide on the left.Despite the fact that this is a club clearly being left to drift, with a team playing well within itself under the guidance of a manager who built his reputation in the park standard football north of the border and then somehow fell into this job despite two previous Premiership relegations when everybody else turned them down, 32,000 people came out on a freezing Wednesday night to watch the team play. And Tony Fernandes talks about potential at QPR.“You are embarrassing,” the QPR fans sang when they led 2-0, and the Villa fans laughed and joined in. There’s a sense of humour here, these are the supporters who once prepared a banner for david O’Leary that read “We’re not fickle, we just don’t like you.” They are a little fickle though, these are also the supporters who weren’t too sorry to see the back of Martin O’Neill because they “only” finished sixth and he lacked the ability to take them further. O’Neill is now the success story of the year at Sunderland while Villa languish seven places lower in fifteenth.Fickle or not, even when their team hauled it back to 2-2 you sensed the fans knew it meant little. In fact in the long run it will probably keep McLeish employed longer, allowing a mistaken belief that the players are fighting for him and showing spirit to fester in the minds of the club’s decision makers. They might, in the long run, have been better losing 2-0.This is a club with the infrastructure, history and support to be a top six side in the Premiership. Everything that has been achieved at Spurs could easily have been achieved here with the same ownership and managerial appointments. Norwich, Stoke, Swansea, West Brom and Fulham are all higher in the league at the moment. Oh for somebody with the balls to pick this dizzy bint up by the shoulders and turn her life around.
Please donate to help towards the costs of keeping this site going. Thank You.
Author
Topic: 'Waste of a Club' (Read 42322 times)
