Would it be more fun if we went down?

[anton hillman]

I've been looking through some old programmes from the late 1960's just to remind me of the last time that things looked this grim at the Villa. The situation only began to change when we hit Division three in 1970 and started winning games again. It became fun to watch the Villa and enjoy the recovery that began during those years that eventually led us to the European cup. Would a spell in the championship bring the club to it's senses and maybe allow us to see a few games being won? It would certainly be more fun to be chasing promotion that dodging relegation year in, year out...

[UK Redsox]

I think that I'd look forward to the actual games but, given the way that football is these days, economically it would be a disaster.

[PeterWithesShin]

It would be shit. Even if we pissed the title i'd hate being in division 2. I hated it in 87/88. Villa should never be out the top flight.

[Slaphead]

You only have fun chasing promotion if you are a shitty pathetic team like Small Heath or some other shitty little club. It's not fun chasing promotion when you should be chasing European qualification. You think the football is bad now, the standard will only get worse the lower we decline, it just gives the illusion of fun because all the other teams are worse which makes us look better.

Plus we may never get back up (soon anyway), we will have less chance selling the unsellable but hey, we get a few new shitty little poxy grounds to waste our money going to. Dodging relegation at least keeps us in the top league.

Fuck relegation, anyone who thinks it is a good idea has a seriously different perspective when it comes to what they get out of the Villa (compared to me anyway).

[lovejoy]

Point is football pre Sky was a different world. With no mark teams (Palace, Swansea, Hull, Stoke) getting £80+m more than better supported teams in the lower division makes the divide bigger. Also our better players would probably leave so no guarantee of even getting back up. Whilst in theory we could do with the cold shower of a good old fashioned relegation, the grim reality would be us turning in to Sheff Weds.

[pauliewalnuts]

That's the thing.

On the one side, it'd be nice to play matches we are expected to win for a change, and if you do away trips, you'd love it. We had a great time in 1987-8, all over the place in my mate's mom's Maxi every other week.

On the flip side, though, Nottingham Forest, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday - three decent clubs there, how many years have they been out of the top flight between them now?

[Ads]

It would be embarrassing. I would hate every minute of it. Victories would be hollow as being out of the top flight is beneath Aston Villa.

The playing staff would have to be gutted. We would have to sell so many players ends meet, who knows what we would be left with? We’d still be enduring Lambert’s awful tactics and diabolical football, only this time in the company of a league full of Mickey Mouse clubs.

Villa Park would become even more lifeless, apart from perhaps one game out of the 23 where we play the Noses. For everybody else, it would be a cup final. The pressure to come back up would be immense, having 23 sides come and pretend they’re playing in an FA Cup semi-final would make home games an even greater misery than they already are.

Away games would be terrible too. The away support in the championship is rubbish; the clubs in there average around 1100. We would be the only club to take a big away following everywhere we went. By the same token, all the locals would turn out for a curious stare at the floundering whale of a club, drowning in the shallows. It would be like a trip to the New Den every other week and I have no desire to be locked in more often than not.

It would be an awful experience and given how badly we fare against lower league opposition under this manager, we would be more likely to be relegated again than come back up.

[PeterWithesShin]

We'd be everyone's cup final home and away. We wouldn't be having the massive away support of the past in the lower leagues because of lower allocations etc. It would be shit. Fail to come straight back up and it would be even more shit.

[pooligan]

Seeing the way Learner has managed the club these last four or five years it would be no great surprise to see him leave the clueless one in charge of trying to bring us back up again.After his choice of the Small Heath manager who had just been relegated ,nothing should surprise us.

[joe_c]

It would be embarrassing. I would hate every minute of it. Victories would be hollow as being out of the top flight is beneath Aston Villa.

If the victories would be hollow, how can you even begin to describe the defeats?

[saunders_heroes]

Well said Ads I agree with every word of it. Championship football is beneath Aston Villa and it would humiliate us. I don't go with all this "it'll be fun" nonsense either. That's the sort of rubbish the Noses come out with. We must not go down.

[PaulWinch again]

It would be terrible, because Villa should be in the top flight. Also consider how tight our budget is at the moment, can you imagine how much further it would be squeezed in the Championship. Also we'd lose most of our good players and we'd probably keep the manager. There probably isn't this golden future of being relegated and then breezing through the Championship on our way to promotion at the first attempt. I think it's likely we'd go down and then be struggling in that league as well.

[mrastonvilla]

Clueless management on and off the field would be equally shit in a lower division

[Tom_Mc9?]

I'd get over it. Plus, it'd be nice for every other Premier League side not to have us in the league next season.

[Des Little]

There is not one single positive about getting relegated.  Not one.