Six Whammies

[Boz]

An excellent post

[Chico Hamilton III]

We have gone from being a respected club of note with the name of a children's hospice on our shirt to being a complete basket case which promotes a chinese gambling organization

It's funny innit? when Lerner took over and we got the Acorns deal I thought nothing symbolised the difference between Lerner and Ellis more than the fact that we used to be sponsored by an online bookies and we moved to a childrens' hospice. "Bright Future" and all that shit

Now I think nothing better symbolises the state we are in than the changing of shirt sponsors to a Casino (Malaysian, by the way, but there you go). And the fact that the value of the deal might just help to recover the transfer fees O'Neill spunked on wasters like Curtis Davies and Steve Sidwell.

I feel as if I've been royally shafted up the arse by O'Neill, Lerner and his highly decorated miltary mouthpiece, Krulak, who patronised us at every opportunity while we ( I include myself) rolled over like puppies for him.

 Disillusioned of Deptford

[Mister E]

Brian, I always enjoy your terse, well-argued posts (even if I don't always agree with your views) because they have a fine balance of emotion and logic.

[NiiLamptey]

Just wanted to expand the calculative MON comment further...

If you recall 6 months before he left, Talk Sport broke a story he had walked around the time the liverpool role was vacant if you remember... no smoke without fire and all that, so the bard should have seen it coming!

[Chico Hamilton III]

so the bard should have seen it coming!

Shakespeare Out!

[Mister E]

... so the bard should have seen it coming!

"Foresooth, my Liege, indeed 'twas predicted in the stars"

[Simba]

so the bard should have seen it coming!

Shakespeare Out!

Tea on keyboard. Thanks.

[Pat McMahon]

Great post Brian. It certainly echoes a number of my thoughts.

My only comment to add is re your first whammie, as I am still not sure whether MON calculated that he wanted to cause as much damage as possible by walking 5 days before the season kicked off. This is purely because the true events are probably only known to a handful of people and the actions of the board re football matters in the past 18 months have not generated confidence. Off the pitch, they have generally done a great job.

[pauliewalnuts]

To describe Genting as "a casino" is a bit like describing Vodafone as "a phone shop".

Don't get me wrong, I can think of lots and lots of things the board have screwed up, but apparently the Genting sponsorship is one of the biggest in the top flight, so I don't really see what there is to criticise them for in that.

If we're going to get sniffy about the fact it's gambling industry related, then maybe we should have been equally sniffy when Randy first turned up, what with his fortune coming from his family owning a company built on entirely on encouraging people to get into debt (and one which was known for being particularly proactive in their snaring of customers).

[WarleyWonder]

It is almost impossible to overstate the damage done to Aston Villa in the last 21 months.

During the time I have been following the Villa there have been terrible blows we have had to suffer but there has been nothing which compares with the series of hits we have taken recently.   We have gone from being a respected club of note with the name of a children's hospice on our shirt to being a complete basket case which promotes a chinese gambling organization.

The first blow was the departure of O'Neill.   My own personal opinion is that it was premeditated and timed to cause the club as much damage as possible.   O'Neill is not the sort of man to do things on a whim.   I believe that there must have been clear signals that all was not well with him and the directors failed to pick up any of the storm warnings.   Doug Ellis's spies would have had HDE informed of every straw in the wind.   Our directors were either naive or incompetent or both.

The second blow was that the club had to take a very large, undisclosed financial hit for its treatment of O'Neill without any public word ever being uttered in defence of the club.   Of all the hits, this is the one which pains me most.   The club was made to look ridiculous and toothless.

The third blow was the loss of Houllier.   The appointment of a man with heart problems into a massively stressful situation exacerbated by rampant player power disruption left behind O'Neill's tenure was a ticking timebomb which duly exploded.

The fourth hit was the decision by the owner that the books had to be balanced.   No harm in that.   Money is money.   The damage was caused by the instant change from big spending club with aging players on huge wages and very long contracts to cheap and cheerful club reliant upon cheap home grown players thrown into the deep end prematurely.

The fifth torpedo amidships was the absurd pantomime of attempts to find a replacement for Houllier.   It was a public relations cock up of monumental proportions and because it was such a shambles it led to -

Disaster number six namely the appointment of Alex McLeish whose shortcomings and failings have been too well documented for me to elaborate upon them.

The net result of these six whammies is the complete breakdown of trust between the club and its fanbase.   The fans have been disregarded on an almost weekly basis and I think it will take years for that trust to be restored.

No more free flags and scarves.   Give us proper, open communication about what the club is doing and why it is doing it.   If you want to keep the fans, trust them.

If the club can once again start to treat the fans as intelligent responsible adults the healing process can begin.   If it is more "Dunne Says Lay Off McLeish" PR bullshit things will never be the same again.

Well said my friend but be careful as to what you put on here as if you upset "certain people" they hold it against you.

[Legion]

Give it a rest.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Well said my friend but be careful as to what you put on here as if you upset "certain people" they hold it against you.

Like the Bellamy Brothers you mean?

[not3bad]

Well said my friend but be careful as to what you put on here as if you upset "certain people" they hold it against you.

I don't think he needs to worry about that WW.  As to why, the clue is in the phrase "well said".

[pedro25]

I would add a seventh whammy, the signing of Jenas with no get out clause should he endure a season ending injury as he did, a bread and butter mistake from an incompetent board, no other board in the prem would have made such an elementary error.

[not3bad]

I don't know, if we're going to add bread and butter mistakes I think we'll be up to 700 whammies!