'Waste of a Club'

[Witton Warrior]

Some fair comments there and yes he's correct about our potential. But until the club rediscovers it's purpose and drive that's all it will be. Potential. I might be in the minority here but the way that the club is being run at the moment makes me look back on the Ellis years with a certain sense of fondness. At least he attended all the games, and although he made some bad managerial appointments ala Turner, McNeil and Venglos he would never have been dumb enough to appoint the current clown from S.H.A. Anyway reading further down the article he then goes on to slate our fine city. Now I've been to London many times but the cockneys seam to think it's some kind of oasis in a sea of shit. Yes the central area is interesting but by god there's some areas that are literally no go zones. I currently now live in Greater Manchester and yes the city centre is nice but the rest of the place is pretty dire to be honest, and the same applies to Liverpool. So why is it only Brum seems to get slated?

But he doesn't single Aston out (he's talking about the walk from Witton Station) - he says like any number of other shitholes.

We once had a visitor fro Oz who I took to VP and, walking from the Broadway down to Witton Island) he continually slated the area as a shithole until I pointed out it was 'our' shithole and he could fuck off back to sunny Oz if he didn't like it.

As for the comments by the QPR fan - not a bad summation from an "outsider" - this is how we are percieved. That is often more potent than the truth.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Half of me is happy that an outsider sees what a big club we are.
The other half is sad that he is so right about our under achievment.

[Mister E]

Despite what Green & Green say, the author has given a description of our club that resonates with us; not because it parrots the fickle negativity of some on here but because it provides a glimpse of what many less-involved footie fans see could have been at VP.
I'm gratfiied that the author did not simply adopt the easy-option approach of many when they claim Villa has simply become irrelevant but has attempted to empathise with us.

[Dave]

He's phrased the bit about O'Neill badly but he's not completely wrong.

The majority of people weren't glad to see the back of him because of the sixth placed finished but because of the manner of his departure.

But that doesn't change the fact that there WAS a sizeable amount of people who wanted him to leave long before he actually did citing underachievement.

[john e]

good read, thanks for posting Charlie,

my pick - 'Elswhere 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'

everyone has a view on MON but i dont see much wrong there either-

'Villa fans weren't sorry to see the back of him'
'lacked ability to take us further'
'O'neil big success at Sunderland'
'a lot higher than Villa in the league'

it about sums up the way i feel, the only thing i could possibly disagree on is the 'only' finishing 6th bit, but then we were pushing for top 4 at times so he's not alltogether wrong there either.

[Vanilla]

There are certain clubs which thrive off the hatred and bile from the fans of other clubs (especially if they are successful), we seem to thrive off sympathy at the moment.

[nigel]

Super article.
This is the paragraph that, for me, hits the nail on the head:
"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."

Let's hope that this season was just to balance the books and with a few summer signings next season we start to climb again.

[Pete3206]

It's funny how we will swallow any judgement of our club so long as it is coated in compliments.

I agree, but the author does make some decent points as well.

[curiousorange]

I'm quite glad he talks about not being able to believe QPR being in the same league. When I read the thread title I thought it was going to be a fan of a nouveau-rich club giving it the big'un.

I wish the MON thing would go away now though. I had a massive row with a 'knowledgable' United fan last night who was banging on about him being "pure class". When I pointed out some of the man's shortcomings, I was advised we all sound like jilted lovers and should let it go. Christ, I can't wait until Taggart retires and that lot plummet.

[CJ]

Good read and excellent analogy with the stunning bird in a baggy jumper bit. Actually made me smile in these depressing McCleish days

[curiousorange]

Super article.
This is the paragraph that, for me, hits the nail on the head:
"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."

Let's hope that this season was just to balance the books and with a few summer signings next season we start to climb again.

That'll be the same Spurs who sacked Martin Jol while he was managing a game, hired Juande Ramos and didn't get a point until October, hired Christian Gross and Jacques Santini to general incredulity and spent most of the last decade dribbling hopelessly while trying to hang onto the coattails of their more illustrious rivals. I would argue even the hiring of Redknapp was a lucky strike - it wasn't as if he was hugely successful at West Ham or Southampton, and Portsmouth didn't have the capital to sustain the man's approach to the transfer market. I think that like every club, Spurs have found it's all come together at the right time, and once their purple patch is over they'll be back with the also-rans like us.

[dave.woodhall]

Read the whole article. The same wise sage says:

I mean when have you ever heard anybody anywhere say “Oh I can’t wait to get to Birmingham me, if only there were a quicker way”? You need the two hours it currently takes on the normal horse drawn train just to prepare yourself for the horror of the place. Maybe the quick trains will only run one way, enabling people to escape at speed but approach the ‘second city’ with the same caution and reluctance they do now.


Still think he's right?

[ktvillan]

Ýou can read it as complimentary, so much so it could have been written by a Villa fan,  but you could also say it's just someone who can see the wood from the trees and doesn't let inter-club rivalry get in the way of admitting it.  Either way I'd say the article is 95% spot on.  I''d disagree with a couple of bits - for fickle, read ambitious.  We're no more fickle than other fans, we're more ambitious than many, because, as he admits himself, we do have the potential to have done what Spurs have done.  And one of the reasons we didn't is O'Neill wasn't quite good enough.  And as Kevin Gage pointed out, there was more to it than league position, the poor quality of the football was a major factor.

[Clampy]

I thought it was a fair enough article. When you have a QPR fan telling us how far backwards we've gone in the last 18 months, then it's slightly worrying.

[VillaAlways]

The fact we have ended up paying the wages of an injured Spurs player for a season speaks volumes about the running of our club compared to them

I've never heard that happen at any other club
Soft touch on the pitch. Soft touch off the pitch