Competitive in Championship v uncompetitive in PL?

[saunders_heroes]

What a horrible topic. It's the Premier League all the way. Even the slightest suggestion that some fans would welcome the Championship just because we maybe be more competitive in it suggests Lerner and co have sucked every last bit of ambition out of the club.
We're Aston Villa FC, a club that's spent just 12 season out of the top flight in its entire history. Not some small time outfit who are just happy to plod along in the lower leagues.
Have some pride in the club for crying out loud!

[richtheholtender]

What a horrible topic. It's the Premier League all the way. Even the slightest suggestion that some fans would welcome the Championship just because we maybe be more competitive in it suggests Lerner and co have sucked every last bit of ambition out of the club.
We're Aston Villa FC, a club that's spent just 12 season out of the top flight in its entire history. Not some small time outfit who are just happy to plod along in the lower leagues.
Have some pride in the club for crying out loud!

Amen.

[Charlie8182]

Actually one of my favourite season's was 1987/88 when we played in the old 2nd division for a season; I found it bizarre and completely different plus I used to go to away games then and enjoyed matches at Shrewsbury and Bournemouth.
Would I enjoy life in the Championship now though?  a massive NO!

[Ad@m]

Interestingly I've been thinking a little about 'what if' recently.

In a weird way I reckon if the worst did happen and we got relegated, season ticket sales might even increase - firstly because of the potential that we might actually win some home games for a change and secondly for the novelty factor of playing a load of new teams.

On the pitch I think this squad wouldn't get close to promotion though. Benteke would leave but I think it's really damning of the quality of the squad that not many more would leave. The kids would then get massively bullied in the Championship and we'd finish mid-table. We wouldn't have a Leeds, Forest, Wednesday style meltdown because our finances are in much better shape than theirs were but we'd need to spend a lot of money to get back up.

I'd obviously prefer we didn't go down in the first place!

[supertom]

The sad fact of the matter is, most of the players we have would still struggle in the Championship. That league isn't a dogs dinner, and honestly there's not a huge deal of difference between the bottom 9-10 Prem teams and the top 8 in the Championship at the moment in terms of quality, just that there's the odd star player among the lower prem ones, such as Berba, Benteke, etc. But players like that will be out the door quicker than you can blink if and when their clubs get relegated.

Our club should be aspiring to be a competitive side in the Prem. We need to be comfortably up in the top 10, within sniffing distance of the clubs above, because you'll always be able to make a push if/when 1-2 clubs start faltering. If you stay around 8-10, you've always got a chance of a final flurry and possible Euro push. We're in the wrong grouping in recent years. The dog feeders, the relegation scrappers. That's nowhere near good enough for Aston Villa. We've not come up from nowhere like Swansea, or pop in and out of the top flight over the years like Norwich or Soton. Aside from the odd blip we've always been a top division side. We've been here since the birth of football in 1992. Just the same as Everton should expect more than fighting for their lives at the bottom, or Spurs, we should too.
The odd dogfight is one thing, but we're in our 4th straight year of scrapping now. If you keep playing this game, eventually you'll lose. I would hate seeing us in the Championship. And for a club our size, and the way Randy's running it, we'd suffer from the drop. The hit would be massive. We could double drop.

And what of our players? If we run on a tight budget in the Prem, after the Sky windfall, yeah we might get a parachute payment if we dropped, but players would be out the door. What happens if players like Westwood and Lowton, who both got payrises, are now earning too much? Obviously Delph, Tekkey, Kozak, Vlaar would all move on. But I think even some of the players Lambert hopes will make it in the Prem in the next few years, like Westy, Lowton etc, might suddenly be pushed to the outdoor. I would think our wage cap, which is low, will get even lower. Then expect even more Bowery-esque level signings. And lets face it, he was struggling in League 2. Gabby would probably stay unless forced out. He'd do well at that level, but would he suddenly become a 20 goal forward just because he's in the Champ? I don't think so.

Unless we change tact, we're in a potentially very dangerous cycle right now.

[monkeyboy]

Was the question posed by a follower of one of our other local sides? Sounds like the sort of thing they come out with to justify their team's yoyoing. Whilst exciting, swaggering, cavalier football is something we'd all love to see, dropping down a division is no guarantee of its arrival.
We belong in the top division.
Eventually things will get better. They always have.
These may be dark days, but they are very, very far from our grand old club's darkest. We'll be back, maybe not to the pinnacle of our finest hour, but we will, and we shall hold our heads high, and it will be in the premier.

My first year as a season ticket holder was the year we won the Super cup  - I was in the Holte the night Barcelona came a tried to kick us off the pitch - and i've been a season ticket holder ever since - I don't want to watch Championship football, of course not - and this wasn't why I posed the question - just i got stopped in my tracks when asked if i'd rather see us competitive, thats all, because we are not and we won't be for a while it would seem

Didn't mean to upset folk by posing it-  but please don't tar me with a SHA brush though!

[Billy Walker]

What a horrible topic. It's the Premier League all the way. Even the slightest suggestion that some fans would welcome the Championship just because we maybe be more competitive in it suggests Lerner and co have sucked every last bit of ambition out of the club.
We're Aston Villa FC, a club that's spent just 12 season out of the top flight in its entire history. Not some small time outfit who are just happy to plod along in the lower leagues.
Have some pride in the club for crying out loud!

Spot on.  This question/debate has surfaced a few times over the past three years and it makes me want to vomit.  (Apologies to anyone having their lunch as they read this!)

[aj2k77]

Relegation so we can beat Doncaster and Burnley?

How about we just sort ourselves fucking out. Get a proper manager in, sign some real players and be competitive with Southampton, Swansea, Everton, clubs with smaller crowds and smaller incomes. We need to stop pissing about now, we are the only club in the Premier league buying players from fucking Crewe and Chesterfield. Piss take.

[Ad@m]

Relegation so we can beat Doncaster and Burnley?

How about we just sort ourselves fucking out. Get a proper manager in, sign some real players and be competitive with Southampton, Swansea, Everton, clubs with smaller crowds and smaller incomes. We need to stop pissing about now, we are the only club in the Premier league buying players from fucking Crewe and Chesterfield. Piss take.

You really are Mr Sunshine aren't you?!

You've criticised Lambert on pretty much every thread you can find but I'm yet to see you actually offer an alternative.  So care to share with us who this 'proper manager' is we should be getting in?

[supertom]

Relegation so we can beat Doncaster and Burnley?

How about we just sort ourselves fucking out. Get a proper manager in, sign some real players and be competitive with Southampton, Swansea, Everton, clubs with smaller crowds and smaller incomes. We need to stop pissing about now, we are the only club in the Premier league buying players from fucking Crewe and Chesterfield. Piss take.

[saunders_heroes]

Relegation so we can beat Doncaster and Burnley?

How about we just sort ourselves fucking out. Get a proper manager in, sign some real players and be competitive with Southampton, Swansea, Everton, clubs with smaller crowds and smaller incomes. We need to stop pissing about now, we are the only club in the Premier league buying players from fucking Crewe and Chesterfield. Piss take.

You really are Mr Sunshine aren't you?!

You've criticised Lambert on pretty much every thread you can find but I'm yet to see you actually offer an alternative.  So care to share with us who this 'proper manager' is we should be getting in?

It's not his job to find another manager, it's the club's. Just because fans can't come up with an alternative manager to please you doesn't mean their opinion he should be replaced isn't worthy. How many fans thought of Laudrup for Swansea or Pochettino for Southampton? They haven't done too badly have they?

[ktvillan]

There is no reason why we shouldn't be able to compete in the PL (to an extent at least) if Lerner and Lambert only had a clue what they were doing.  Clubs with far fewer resources than us are able to give Man Yoo a game and beat Palace and Sunderland at home.  It's down to  mismanagement at almost every level of the club.

[onje_villa]

Don't feel bad for asking the question, I've often wondered over the last twelve months if it would provide us with the opportunity for a "rebirth", to get come back stronger with a renewed identity. I don't think its a ridiculous thought at all.

I do however agree with the majority on here that the chances are high that we would suffer further and we would never see such a renaissance and we could languish in the lower reaches for some time.

Also agree with many saying that we need to sort ourselves out one way or another. Where we are now is not where we should be, we have the resources, support and infrastructure to be one of the top sides. Expectations need to be raised not lowered. We mustn't allow them to be lowered, that would be the most dangerous thing of all.

[aj2k77]

Relegation so we can beat Doncaster and Burnley?

How about we just sort ourselves fucking out. Get a proper manager in, sign some real players and be competitive with Southampton, Swansea, Everton, clubs with smaller crowds and smaller incomes. We need to stop pissing about now, we are the only club in the Premier league buying players from fucking Crewe and Chesterfield. Piss take.

You really are Mr Sunshine aren't you?!

You've criticised Lambert on pretty much every thread you can find but I'm yet to see you actually offer an alternative.  So care to share with us who this 'proper manager' is we should be getting in?

Lamberts shit, hundreds of managers world wide, going over old ground again.

If you can't think of a better manager than Paul Lambert than you have an imagination about as exciting as Paul Faulkners.

[Ad@m]

Relegation so we can beat Doncaster and Burnley?

How about we just sort ourselves fucking out. Get a proper manager in, sign some real players and be competitive with Southampton, Swansea, Everton, clubs with smaller crowds and smaller incomes. We need to stop pissing about now, we are the only club in the Premier league buying players from fucking Crewe and Chesterfield. Piss take.

You really are Mr Sunshine aren't you?!

You've criticised Lambert on pretty much every thread you can find but I'm yet to see you actually offer an alternative.  So care to share with us who this 'proper manager' is we should be getting in?

Lamberts shit, hundreds of managers world wide, going over old ground again.

If you can't think of a better manager than Paul Lambert than you have an imagination about as exciting as Paul Faulkners.

How very constructive.  Thanks for your input.