The Statement #avfc fans should send....

[lernerslostit]

...but wont because were not united:

http://t.co/FvKhsQm3

Dear Aston Villa Fans, Board and Management

We feel that after the press release by the board on the 25th April we need to put across the fans perspective. Whilst this has been vetted by several fans (some well known, some not) we’d like to point out that while we could never speak for everybody, we feel we will be speaking for the vast majority of fans from our respective dealings with fans that are friends, on match day, on twitter, and on villa forums.

Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner’s joint statement stated that we “right now everyone connected with Villa is hurting badly” and at this time it is more apparent than ever this statement is correct.

Alex McLeish appointment was never a popular one, some areas of the press have said this is because of his connection to Birmingham City Football Club, and while this may be true for a very small minority of fans who take local allegiances too far. The majority of us saw this as a bad signing for reasons that have since been proven during his tenure at the club;

His terrible style of play, premiership record and inability to accept blame.

We are reasonable comfortable in the knowledge that we will not challenge for the Premier League trophy in the foreseeable future with the Mega-Rich alliance of teams that dominate the top 6 of the league. But as Villa fans we want to see a team play decent football and try and win games. This is not Alex McLeish’s style as Graham Taylor said about his tactics:

“looks like you are preparing a side not to lose”

This dour football he serves up as lead to him having the worst record of any of our Premier League managers in terms of point per game and win ratios, he has now got the worst home wins record in the entire length of our history and as you can see from the below Stats he is close to the record of the last manager to relegate us Billy McNeill: (villa career v nearest 2 managers)

Alex McLeish                                       1.08 Pts per game                            23% win ratio
Graham Taylor (02-03)                   1.18 ppg                                               32% wr
David O’Leary                                      1.34 ppg                                               36% wr

Billy McNeill                                         1.02ppg                                               22% wr

This record along with his current form as manager has proven what the majority of Aston Villa fans have said from the appointment and protested against… that Alex McLeish is not of the quality to manage Aston Villa Football Club and should be removed as manager.

The board chose to release a statement after a loss to Bolton Wanderers (placed 19th in the league at the time) that said

“We very openly acknowledge the frustrations of Villa fans and share in them completely”

Yet they chose to appoint a manager with 2 relegations from the Premier League in three years and ignore our protests about this. If the board shared our frustrations they would sack Alex McLeish with immediate effect and appoint a Caretaker to the role until the summer when a promising manager with a decent style of football could be appointed.

This would boost the atmosphere at Villa Park, ticket sales and season ticket renewals whilst showing they do understand the fans and will listen to us.

By issuing the statement as they did when fans were so upset and standing by a manager that has such a poor record we have question if they do share our concerns, goals and targets for our club. A 5 year plan set out by Randy Lerner seemed to be abandoned around the time of Martin O’Neill’s departure and left with cost cutting measures and poor managerial appointments which cost us £12million last year alone. By keeping by the side of manager who ticks none of the boxes necessary to keep the fans onside and Villa Park attendances up they seem to be ignoring the fans basic need of watchable football and hoping they will pay regardless.

Randy Lerner in a rare interview once said:

‘I’m what you call the custodian. There have been plenty of custodians of Aston Villa since 1874 and if I can’t make it work, I will do what the others did, move on and let someone else try.’ Lerner – Aug 2006

As Villa fans we would like you to act like a custodian and do what the vast majority of Villa fans want and remove Alex McLeish from our club. If you are “hurting badly” you can remove the pain and press on with the “bright future” promised…..

Or are you a custodian in a prison warden sense and want to keep us locked up in this situation…..

May 6th will be “McLeish Out Day” at Villa Park. If you are our custodian you will see that us organising this during such a run has taken a lot to do and we ask that changes are made and (unlike the past few games) Villa Fans are allowed to display our feelings during the game through banners and placards.

Note: Games calculated include cup games. So 3 points are allocated for a win in that case. (for you vitalvilla kids ;0)

FULL MANAGER STATS HERE: http://t.co/F9Ymdjhz

[JUAN PABLO]

Is it has much as 23% win rate  ?

[damon loves JT]

AN OPEN LETTER TO MY MILKMAN

we, the supporters of Aston Villa, demand that you deliver four pints of semi-skimmed tomorrow, but no more of that horrible Greek yoghurt that nobody eats

Signed,

the supporters of Aston Villa

[jembob]

Is it has much as 23% win rate  ?

We've won 7 of 35 games so far this season. That's 20%

[PeterWithesShin]

We won 50% of our cup games this season. McLeish in!

[lernerslostit]

Hi everyone who cant read the last line... the record i used is his TOTAL GAMES INCLUDING CUPS. so 3 points given for a win. All explained if you read. And click the link to the stats,

Tah...

[hawkeye]

great another new thread

[PeterWithesShin]

Might help if you spell George Ramsay correctly. And i'm pretty sure he wasn't manager for 1327 games.

[Dante Lavelli]

It’s definitely an improvement on the one Cuz’s friend wrote. 

Sometimes I think that the letters would be better sent to journalists so they can stop repeating the “where he came from” lie.  They’d lap up the stats quoted as it’d look like they’d done some research.  Once the press are onside then Randy from his laptop in Cleveland will hopefully realise that it is not just a small minority moaning.

[Billy Walker]

Hi everyone who cant read the last line... the record i used is his TOTAL GAMES INCLUDING CUPS. so 3 points given for a win. All explained if you read. And click the link to the stats,

Tah...

I'm not particularly on board with this letter implying we accept not challenging for honours as long as we play nice football.  Who are we, West Ham?  I'm sure a good few Villa fans feel we need to be competing and winning trophies too.

[Risso]

Yet again, badly written with appalling grammar.  No standards some people.

[stuart r]

I dunno, I find these worthy letters puporting to represent us a bit humdrum. They lack passion. I think a delegation should visit the club and present in the style of X Factor auditions with the songwriters from the Song for McLeish thread each performing their efforts.

[Rigadon]

Urgh.  Another fucking open letter.  Just send it and miss out the internet. 

[Risso]

I dunno, I find these worthy letters puporting to represent us a bit humdrum. They lack passion. I think a delegation should visit the club and present in the style of X Factor auditions with the songwriters from the Song for McLeish thread each performing their efforts.

I'm up for that.  I'll have cymbals on my knees and a mouth organ on a bit of wire in a proper one man band style.

[stuart r]

I dunno, I find these worthy letters puporting to represent us a bit humdrum. They lack passion. I think a delegation should visit the club and present in the style of X Factor auditions with the songwriters from the Song for McLeish thread each performing their efforts.

There needs to be some variety so someone is going to have to convey their concerns with McLeish through dance and/or mime.

I'm up for that.  I'll have cymbals on my knees and a mouth organ on a bit of wire in a proper one man band style.