What is it that makes players, coaches, managers with hitherto solid and in some cases exciting reputations, curl up and die as soon as they come to our great club? It's not as if ''it's the fans lofty expectations at Villa Park''. Our away form, freed from most of us demanding supporters, is a scandal.
There can't be any other club in the world that has had such a wretched decade as us.
I feel sorry for anyone on here who's had babbies in the last seven years and been repeatedly embarassed in attempts to cajole their offspring into following us. A whole new generation of Villa fans being wiped-out.
Maybe our vision will be 2020 in three years time and the club will finally be able to see clearly.
My mates son is 12. He's had a season ticket since he was 5 The highlight of his 7 years following the Villa is a semi final win! It's such a shame.
Poor lad. One of the worst times to support the Villa probably.
I was born three months after Rotterdam and started supporting the club properly from around 1992, so have been lucky to live through the BFR and Little years, and to a lesser, but still poignant extent, those of Gregory and O'Neil. Which I enjoyed on the whole.
Anything after that has been a struggle, to put it lightly.
Yes, I think SGT, BFR and Little spoilt me a bit. Open, attractive, attacking, winning football for a decent or prolonged period of time. SGT got us promoted, kept us up, and then almost won the league. BFR gave us 3 good seasons and Little gave us 2.
How often have we had periods that could be described as above since. Gregory gave us about a year when he first came, 2 half seasons botched together, O Leary (in fairness) gave us 1 season in his first and O Neill gave us about 18 months from the start of his second season to halfway through his third (although we continued to largely win afterwards but the football was dull).
So that's about 3 1/2 really pleasurable years in nearly 20.
