Why we should all hope that Aston Villa get relegated...

[Phil from the upper holte]

Maybe we should keep forwarding all these articles to Lerner then he may take a bit of notice I doubt it though...

[Mister E]

Ask Arsenal fans about Villa, and they'll say that we have been the worst footballing team at the Emirates this season.

We played the perfect first half against them in January
Those two penalties were gimmes for them to get back into the game.
I refuse to think about the league game last month.

True but the second half was a car crash and the league game about as insipid as you can imagine.
The point I was making was that - despite what other fans think - we have been abject all season and will deserve the drop if it happens.

[Fergal]

Who ever wrote that is a c***.  The Owner and Manager deserve to go down but we don't.

Why?

Which fans do 'deserve' to go down? I can't see why one set of supporters would deserve their team get relegated any more or less than any other.

No fans deserve to have the club they love go down through mismanagement.

[Mister E]

The fact is that Lerner has invested too much money, and has very little to show for it. He has invested unsustainably, and I don't have any problem with him scaling this back. However, to be successful on a modest budget you need a strategy, and you need talented people making the decisions. I think Lerner has ambition, but just doesn't have a clue how to go about achieving it.

Adding to this, the strategy 2 years' ago seems to have been to rein in the spending and adopt a cost-management approach. Which is fine (and, as Gary4O says, other clubs are doing a similar thing).
And we saw the direct result of this in the appointment of KMac as manager: a man with the credentials to develop raw talents into an effective footballing unit. A man who would not demand loads of transfer funds and would deal with any ego-personality issues in the squad. A man in total contrast to MON.

So, RL initially took the right action.

The pity is that he panicked after the Barcodes away game.

Which is an interesting contrast with other clubs - Wigan being a current example; ManUre and SrAlex being an historical example - who have stuck with managers whom they regard as long-term stars.

Since then, RL has rolled on the waves of uncertainty as our football and the team have pitched and yawed on the seas of the Premiership. And a shipwreck now looks possible if not likely.

And McLeish, incidentally, does not have a history of developing raw talents into an effective footballing unit; which makes him highly unsuitable for the present needs of the club.

It all points in the same direction: get some more relevant experience in the top executive team. And quick.

[VillaAlways]

Who ever wrote that is a c***.  The Owner and Manager deserve to go down but we don't.

Why?

Which fans do 'deserve' to go down? I can't see why one set of supporters would deserve their team get relegated any more or less than any other.

No fans deserve to have the club they love go down through mismanagement.

Isn't that generally why all clubs go down ?

[Risso]

Who ever wrote that is a c***.  The Owner and Manager deserve to go down but we don't.

Why?

Which fans do 'deserve' to go down? I can't see why one set of supporters would deserve their team get relegated any more or less than any other.

No fans deserve to have the club they love go down through mismanagement.

Isn't that generally why all clubs go down ?

Sometimes, but not always.  Any promoted club is always going to have their work cut out, particularly if they have never previously been part of the Premiership gravy train.  I would argue for example, that Blackpool didn't do a whole lot wrong last year, they're just a very small team who in football terms did unbelievably well to still be in with a shot of staying up on the final day.

[VillaAlways]

Who ever wrote that is a c***.  The Owner and Manager deserve to go down but we don't.

Why?

Which fans do 'deserve' to go down? I can't see why one set of supporters would deserve their team get relegated any more or less than any other.

No fans deserve to have the club they love go down through mismanagement.

Isn't that generally why all clubs go down ?

Sometimes, but not always.  Any promoted club is always going to have their work cut out, particularly if they have never previously been part of the Premiership gravy train.  I would argue for example, that Blackpool didn't do a whole lot wrong last year, they're just a very small team who in football terms did unbelievably well to still be in with a shot of staying up on the final day.

Very true

[Dave Cooper please]

Maybe this comment deserves it's own thread but has anyone noticed what is happening at Chester? A few years ago they were getting gates of around 350 as they slipped unnoticed out of the Football League. Now they are leading their league with almost record points and getting gates of 3,500. They lookbas if they are on the way back. Not suggesting thatvwevshould drop that low but maybe a dose of humility and a huge clear out will do us good. Wouldn't it be great to goto matches expecting a victory compared to what's happening now?

Your point is valid however, as I am a raving pedant, Chester's gates in the Football League even in their doomed season averaged nearly 2,000, and in their solitary year in The Conference they were averaging about 1500 until they called a boycott and got a gate of about 400 against Salisbury.

[Fergal]

Maybe this comment deserves it's own thread but has anyone noticed what is happening at Chester? A few years ago they were getting gates of around 350 as they slipped unnoticed out of the Football League. Now they are leading their league with almost record points and getting gates of 3,500. They lookbas if they are on the way back. Not suggesting thatvwevshould drop that low but maybe a dose of humility and a huge clear out will do us good. Wouldn't it be great to goto matches expecting a victory compared to what's happening now?

Your point is valid however, as I am a raving pedant, Chester's gates in the Football League even in their doomed season averaged nearly 2,000, and in their solitary year in The Conference they were averaging about 1500 until they called a boycott and got a gate of about 400 against Salisbury.

Why don't we go the whole hog and go bust as well? (only joking)

[PaulWinch again]

I don't think any good can come of relegation. We need to stay up and we need to completely tear up this year's plan, get rid of Mcleish and get in a good and entertaining manager. We then need to start operating sensibly and not cost cutting at every corner.

[ktvillan]

I agree with the article's main points, and Lerner does deserve to be relegated for his incompetence. I can't agree that relegation would be a good thing even if it means getting rid of Eck, which is by no means a given.   Newcastle are a rare example of a team that went down and came back stronger.    Most other relegated teams either come back and find it harder,  or else get stuck down there for donkey's years, or even sink like a stone.  Even when we bounced straight back in 1988 we almost went straight back down.  No, the ideal is for us to stay up, and for either these Qatari people to buy us out or for the penny to finally drop with Randy that McLeish is a gash manager.

[Zhong Yi]

I don't think any good can come of relegation. We need to stay up and we need to completely tear up this year's plan, get rid of Mcleish and get in a good and entertaining manager. We then need to start operating sensibly and not cost cutting at every corner.

absolutely. a 1991 Ron Atkinson style shake up of the entire playing staff is in order. 16 new players in and the chaff given free transfers.
Actually in regards to the Ugo wants the Villa job thread i do remember BFR saying when he signed him for Villa he was "better than McGrath at the same age" (19).