'When Saturday Comes' on Villa

[Lucky Eddie]

Villa’s prospects bleak as fans turn to gallows humour
Rémi Garde is set to take over as manager at Villa Park

icon villaslip2 November ~ This is Aston Villa's sixth consecutive relegation fight and the hole now dug in the Premier League basement is a particularly deep one. Many winnable opportunities in a relatively comfortable opening ten games have been squandered, and with a difficult run of fixtures coming up that 40-point target seems a long way off.

Owner Randy Lerner and his advisors will have looked at the history of poor starts in the Premier League and concluded that a change of team management was a necessary first step to survival. The sympathetic view of Tim Sherwood’s cameo reign is that he revitalised a side that was drab, couldn't score and headed for relegation, and gave Villa one of their better wins in recent memory in the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool. He lost the spine of the team (Ron Vlaar, Fabian Delph, Christian Benteke) through no fault of his own, while Lerner has been actively looking to offload the club for some time.

The more scathing – and majority – view is that Sherwood betrayed his inexperience with some bizarre line-ups and substitutions, and his unending ability to talk about himself in post-match interviews without ever providing tactical analysis of what went wrong on the pitch. Was his stunned demeanour after the 3-2 loss at Leicester a sign of genuine concern for Villa, or perhaps the dawning realisation that with every agonising defeat his long-term ambitions of managing a bigger club were receding further and further?

There’s a significant reputational risk attached to the post of manager at Aston Villa these days, and the prospect of career damage if the club go down might have limited the pool of candidates as much as the awkward mid-season timing. At the time of writing, Villa appeared set to bring in Rémi Garde and his coterie from Birmingham’s twin city Lyon, against the received wisdom that the situation calls for a proven firefighter.

“Garde would be a gamble given his lack of Premier League experience,” says Villa season-ticket holder Chris Manion. “You can't help thinking we're going for him because he's out of a job and would be cheaper. I'm yet to hear any convincing explanation as to why he should be top of our list, apart from the fact we signed a lot of French players.”

Gallows humour dominated the mood of the impressive 3,000-plus Villa following at last Wednesday’s League Cup defeat to Southampton. “There were a lot of tongue in cheek chants about how rubbish we are,” continued Manion, “which probably doesn't help the team but I think gives a hint of the resignation we all feel. It was incredible that we sold out our allocation but I have resigned myself to us going down this year.”

If Garde does take up the challenge, he’ll need to find a way of boosting the return from striking options that that have so far proved ineffective – Gabby Agbonlahor, Rudy Gestede and Jordan Ayew. The long-serving Agbonlahor seems to have lost his touch – literally – and the fans are increasingly critical. Then there’s the ongoing problem of a back five which is reliable only for the sense that some fresh calamity is inevitable. Colin Peel

[The Villa Werewolf]

“Garde would be a gamble given his lack of Premier League experience,” says Villa season-ticket holder Chris Manion. “You can't help thinking we're going for him because he's out of a job and would be cheaper. I'm yet to hear any convincing explanation as to why he should be top of our list, apart from the fact we signed a lot of French players.”

Why is it that, whenever a publication quotes a Villa fan, they invariably pick the one that speaks the most bullshit?

[LeeB]

“Garde would be a gamble given his lack of Premier League experience,” says Villa season-ticket holder Chris Manion. “You can't help thinking we're going for him because he's out of a job and would be cheaper. I'm yet to hear any convincing explanation as to why he should be top of our list, apart from the fact we signed a lot of French players.”

Why is it that, whenever a publication quotes a Villa fan, they invariably pick the one that speaks the most bullshit?

You think we have it bad? Spare a thought for the only intelligent bluenose.

[Billy Walker]

This "How rubbish are we?" chanting is just embarrassing in my opinion and not very funny.  It's sixth form level, self -indulgent shite.   I can appreciate the counter argument that these people have paid their money to follow the team to all corners of England - fair enough - but if you're going to all that time and expense to "support" the club, lift the players as opposed to going along with the prime intention of making the rest of the stadium think you're a cool bunch.

"We've scored a goal, we've scored a goal...how shit must you be, we've scored a goal..."   *Cringe*.

I agree with Villa Werewolf, too.  I'm perplexed at how every Villa fan that appears in the media seems to be a negative, the end of the world is nigh, type.  They must hunt out these folk and put them on on purpose to keep the "crisis-club" story chugging along.

[Rioch is King]

That kind of negative chanting is really like the 12th man for the opposition, must be totally demoralizing.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

I sing every time we get a song going at away games.
But I just don't join in with this crap.

[joe_c]

“Garde would be a gamble given his lack of Premier League experience,” says Villa season-ticket holder Chris Manion. “You can't help thinking we're going for him because he's out of a job and would be cheaper. I'm yet to hear any convincing explanation as to why he should be top of our list, apart from the fact we signed a lot of French players.”

Why is it that, whenever a publication quotes a Villa fan, they invariably pick the one that speaks the most bullshit?

Depressing isn't it? Like those bewigged goons Sky spoke to ahead of the Southampton game last week.

[dave.woodhall]

“Garde would be a gamble given his lack of Premier League experience,” says Villa season-ticket holder Chris Manion. “You can't help thinking we're going for him because he's out of a job and would be cheaper. I'm yet to hear any convincing explanation as to why he should be top of our list, apart from the fact we signed a lot of French players.”

Why is it that, whenever a publication quotes a Villa fan, they invariably pick the one that speaks the most bullshit?

Because they've got my number usually.

[Ads]

The worst by far is "let's pretend we've scored a goal".

Somebody is going to get a round of fucks at Goodison from me if that shit comes out.

[KevinGage]

On the piss, m'lord needs to go down for the dirt nap too.

Kumbaya bollocks.

[amfy]

The worst at Southampton is that the negative chanting wasn't even as 'creative' as the 'how shit must you be......etc?'

It was literally joining in with opposition chants. Saints fans sung 'You're going down' We joined in singing 'We're going down'. Saints fans sung 'You're f***ING shit' - guess what our witty comeback was?

There's a place for gallows humour, but 10 minutes into a game we aren't even losing,when we'very just sacked our manager, isn't it. I'd also go for a requirement that it's vaguely funny.

The word I eventually came up with last Wednesday was lazy - joining in with the opposition fans to put down your own team. Whats the point? Someone asked last week whether we would rather these moronic chanters supported Man City or Chelsea, & I had a good think about that and came up with the thought that they may as well. They are just glory hunters who'very stayed rather than gone.

[Toronto Villa]

Why spend all that money, investment in your own time in the event and the two way journey to not support your own team that early in the game? I respect anyone who makes the effort and goes to away games, but that just seems completely stupid.

[Pat McMahon]

In the Irish centre before the game on Monday I reckon most of the people I talked to were negative. The general feeling was "no idea if Garde will work or not".

I probably heard as much about Garde and our French league signings as most people - purely from second hand information from my mates over there. They generally think it is a gamble, partly because he hasn't brought in his two habitual aides, but also because from the limited highlights they have seen of us on French TV this season, they think we are shit. They do think Garde is a good coach, however.

When neutrals were asking in August how we would do this season I said there were so many new players about whom I know little, and who had no premier league experience, that it was impossible to say. Throw in a new manager mid season and it makes it harder to predict.

For the record, I would have offered Sherwood a deal till the end of last season, with a bonus to keep us up, then secured a new manager. I would have been much happier if Garde had arrived in June.

[Chico Hamilton III]

In the Irish centre before the game on Monday I reckon most of the people I talked to were negative.

On the phone to my best mate in Australia this morning and he asked about the atmosphere and I was telling him how negative it felt in the Irish Centre. Usually really positive and noisy but it seemed very subdued on Monday, a few half hearted attempts by some young 'uns ( the noisiest one looked like a 12 year old) to get a few songs going but pretty depressing overall.

[UK Redsox]

On the piss, m'lord needs to go down for the dirt nap too.

All the "How shit must you be....." chants at last have some humour about them. "On the piss" is an embarrassment and insulting