Supporter behaviour towards own players

[danlanza]

The same Mr Bannan who is barred from the Belfry Golf Course for continually driving his golf buggy onto the tees?
After repeated requests from the green keepers not to do this he came out with the Do you know who i am line.
He was barred on the spot. Arrogance has taken over in football, to much money for doing fuckall. It is a disgrace.
Barry fucking Bannan is not fit to lace a proper footballers boots. Fuck me, i bet Mr Cowans cringes at some of these tossers.

Not every player is like Bannan though. There were plenty Big Time Charlie's back in the day as well.

A lot less in number though. It seems to me that anybody who pulls on a Premier League shirt thinks that they are supreme to everybody else. By buying tickets and other merchandise, we, the fans pay your fucking ridiculously high wages you tossers. Give us some of the respect back that we give you. FFS. Oh, and a couple of visits to the local hospital around Christmas time to hand out a few gifts to poorly kids doesnt do it for me either. Give a weeks worth of your fucking wages to the kids parents so they can afford to live, you overpaid fucking useless wankers. Fuck me i am wound up today. Bollocks to the fucking lot of them. Don't know how they have the fucking nerve to put on a Villa shirt, i really dont.

[nigel]

There was a bloke who used to sit by my Dad in the 70's who was constantly saying how crap Gordon Cowans was!!!

So, even the best player to wear a Villa shirt, in my time, wasn't immune from it.

[andrew08]

Even after the Chelsea defeat I was confident that with a bit of help from the purchase of just 2 or 3 players we'd be fine. They had to arrive Jan 1st. They didn't but we've picked up 2 more points than I thought we would this month so far and we're not in the bottom 3. So although I'm particularly sad today I'm not without hope that we'll scrape together enough points somehow to avoid going down.

This side is better than the '86 lot. Our decline has been far this time round, but to be European Champions in 82 and be relegated that quickly was a disgrace.

[paul_e]

We're not down yet and we can still stay up. So all's not lost, yet.

No we're not, because its January and not May. But can you tell me anything, just anything (and this a sincere, genuine question), that leads you to believe that we will escape relegation?
[/quote]

As I've said many a time, if we're so terrible (and we are) and we're still not in the relegation zone why are all the teams below and around suddenly going to display top half form and overtake us?  I'm not saying we haven't been shit, I'm saying that, despite the fact we've been shit we haven't been shit enough to be in the bottom 3.  Therefore there are 3 teams that are 'really shit' below us.  Everyone seems utterly convinced that QPR and Wigan are going to charge up the table but that we are completely incapable of the same.  There's just no logic to it.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Everyone seems utterly convinced that QPR and Wigan are going to charge up the table but that we are completely incapable of the same.  There's just no logic to it.

I suppose current form is a decent measurement of which direction teams are heading

In the last 4 games we've taken 2 points
Reading 9 pts
Wigan 4pts
QPR 5 pts

Newcastle have taken 1 point

Draw your own conclusions from that

[danlanza]

Everyone seems utterly convinced that QPR and Wigan are going to charge up the table but that we are completely incapable of the same.  There's just no logic to it.

I suppose current form is a decent measurement of which direction teams are heading

In the last 4 games we've taken 2 points
Reading 9 pts
Wigan 4pts
QPR 5 pts

Newcastle have taken 1 point

Draw your own conclusions from that

Conclusion/ We are fucked!

[john e]

i can remember scapegoats of old Aan Wright got a load of stick and Frank Caradous at times, both were decent players as well
 but Bannans treatment is as bad a s anything i've seen at VP to be honest

[E I Adio]

I agree it used to go on back then, but it seems so much worse these days.

Perhaps it just seems worse because there's no getting away from it in all-seated grounds or, like has been pointed out, the gulf between players and fans is now bigger than ever and so any negative feeling is magnified.

Have we ever been this bad before though? Even in 86-87 I don't remember us being this appalling.

We spent two years in division three in the 70s, we've been much worse. We've got the basis of a half decent side but they desperately need some help.

In the year that we were relegated to Division 3 we were far worse than we are now and I don't recall players being overly abused, or if they were it was in a slightly good natured way since they had been crap for such a long time that we were well past anger, and it was more like just stating the bleeding obvious. It was probably because we had been appalling for such a long time that those of us supporters who were still left had a black but sort of good humoured air of resignation about events. In fact, so much so that I bought my first season ticket the following season. (I was young and optimistic then - although it did turn out that I was right to be)

It's also fortunate that those who complain today about lack of communication from the club weren't around then, since communication with fans hadn't been invented then, apart from some poor hack from the Birmingham Mail who had to find stories every week from somewhere.

[saunders_heroes]

i can remember scapegoats of old Aan Wright got a load of stick and Frank Caradous at times, both were decent players as well
 but Bannans treatment is as bad a s anything i've seen at VP to be honest

He deserves it. He's pathetic.

[olaftab]

It's always been there as long as I can remember. I don't like it when the abusers take no account of young children sitting around them. And I do object to posters on here using words like c*** to describe our players or manager.

[johnc]

The same Mr Bannan who is barred from the Belfry Golf Course for continually driving his golf buggy onto the tees?
After repeated requests from the green keepers not to do this he came out with the Do you know who i am line.
He was barred on the spot. Arrogance has taken over in football, to much money for doing fuckall. It is a disgrace.
Barry fucking Bannan is not fit to lace a proper footballers boots. Fuck me, i bet Mr Cowans cringes at some of these tossers.

Not every player is like Bannan though. There were plenty Big Time Charlie's back in the day as well.

A lot less in number though. It seems to me that anybody who pulls on a Premier League shirt thinks that they are supreme to everybody else. By buying tickets and other merchandise, we, the fans pay your fucking ridiculously high wages you tossers. Give us some of the respect back that we give you. FFS. Oh, and a couple of visits to the local hospital around Christmas time to hand out a few gifts to poorly kids doesnt do it for me either. Give a weeks worth of your fucking wages to the kids parents so they can afford to live, you overpaid fucking useless wankers. Fuck me i am wound up today. Bollocks to the fucking lot of them. Don't know how they have the fucking nerve to put on a Villa shirt, i really dont.

I have seen Mr Cowans cringe at the carry on of the first team squad. A player refused to have his picture taken with a young lad. Gordon Cowans came over an apologised to the father of the child and said there was nothing he could do and it would not be well received if he asked that player to pose for picture. I could name the player but it would make no difference as I would imagine 90% of the first team squad would react in the same way.
 They are a million miles away from the fans and that is the way it is now and it is not going to change. This distance also explains why we are more likely to turn on them more easily. If they do not bond with us then we do not bond with them.
 
John Deehan used to come and present medals for our team at the end of the season.  It would probably cost 5K to get Barry Bannan for the night. John Gidman used to watch our games on a Sunday as they were near his house. I imagine DB would have to be carried down on a sedan chair if the same was to happen.

My heart would burst with pride watching Chris Nicholl, Tony Morley or Paul McGrath wearing a Villa shirt. I purse my lips every time I see Stephen Ireland lining out in the shirt. 8K a day? If I had the money I would pay the f*cker 8K a day to stay away from VP. We are merely consumers in much the same way as it is with many things in society.

Anyway there you go. One of the most disappointing nights I have had as a Villa fan...and God knows I have seen some shite.

[ktvillan]

I don't remember it being any different. If players were continually shite they got dogs abuse from some fans. It's part of football.

Totally.  I remember shouting dogs abuse at Curbishley in a game at Luton many moons ago because he was cack and looked about as interested as Ireland on Prozac.  Another Villa fan told me to lay off him and my response was "I pay my money and his wages and if he's shit and not trying I'm entitled to tell him to buck his ideas up" followed by by some advice on sex and travel.

I also recall Vowden, Tiler, Graydon, Hamilton, Robson, McNaught, the entire 1986 team, and many others since, getting stick from the crowd.

[hipkiss92]

i can remember scapegoats of old Aan Wright got a load of stick and Frank Caradous at times, both were decent players as well
 but Bannans treatment is as bad a s anything i've seen at VP to be honest

He deserves it. He's pathetic.

I'd love to know what % of Bannan's passes were to Vlaar/Clark last night, he did seem truly incapable of passing forwards or more than ten  yards, no wonder he was first to be subbed

[Chico Hamilton III]

It's also fortunate that those who complain today about lack of communication from the club weren't around then, since communication with fans hadn't been invented then, apart from some poor hack from the Birmingham Mail who had to find stories every week from somewhere

Have to disagree. I think there's a huge difference between "communication" from the club and PR releases from the club.

Nowadays we all know how to get hold of tickets, all the deals being offered by the club, the merchandise available and showbiz-style kit launches. We're a million miles from the old days of poor marketing and badly run ticket offices ( Ray Fairfax being the wonderful exception).  Krulak played at being the link between us and the club but he was just Lerner's PR mouthpiece and fucked as soon as there were real questions to be answered. 

I don't think the club's communication has improved a jot since Lerner took over. If anything, the club's operations are even more murky and mysterious.

[paul_e]

i can remember scapegoats of old Aan Wright got a load of stick and Frank Caradous at times, both were decent players as well
 but Bannans treatment is as bad a s anything i've seen at VP to be honest

He deserves it. He's pathetic.

I'd love to know what % of Bannan's passes were to Vlaar/Clark last night, he did seem truly incapable of passing forwards or more than ten  yards, no wonder he was first to be subbed

This is what I mean with Bannan, he hits 40yard passes and he's hollywood, he keeps it simple and just keeps things ticking over he's incapable of passing forwards.