Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Billy Walker on March 20, 2011, 12:47:55 PM
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This is our one hundredth season in top flight league football - league football being the game we gave to the world- and I am not prepared to accept, with eight games left and twenty four points to play for,that the most important, historic club in the world is going to meekly surrender its place at the high table. It's surely time to put aside feelings about the manager, to be practical and to focus on our season and what it boils down to in these eight remaining games.
The motto under the badge says "Prepared". When our founders came up with that legend I am pretty sure they did not mean it in such a context that Aston Villa Football Club is a club prepared to fail or a club prepared to throw in the towel when things don't go our way. It is time to prepare to scrap and battle and fight for our lives and for our club. Negativity is food and drink for our rivals and will not help us keep our place in our league. It will destroy us.
It's time to give our whole club 110% support. We need to get behind the senior lads and we have to show a little patience and understanding with the young lads in order to lift our club up. With encouragement and backing these lads will run through brick walls for us and the club. Get behind them and lift them!
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Well said.
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I whole-heartedly agree.
But first the club needs to accept we are not "Too good to go down". We need to fight.
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BUT Houllier HAS to go
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With encouragement and backing these lads will run through brick walls for us and the club. Get behind them and lift them!
No, they'll gladly pick up the fat salaries they don't deserve, then their agents will engineer moves away from Villa Park as soon as the final whistle goes against Liverpool. They simply don't give a shit as was so clearly evident yesterday. How many of those wasters will stick around for a season in The Championship? Tradition, history and success may mean everything to us, but these tossers couldn't give a flying fuck. Houllier may be tactically inept, but that doesn't excuse the attitude of some of our players. They are simply a disgrace.
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Chipsticks you are totally correct. No club is too good to go down. I've seen us get relegated before and it was pretty desperate stuff. We all have to dig deep and not allow it to happen again. In order to do that we draw on the strength of our club and that is not merely the owner, players and staff - it's us, too. We are the strength of the club, we have to draw a line in the sand, roll our sleeves up and scrap our way out of this situation. It's being in this kind of position that shows the world what we are made of - We shall not be moved!
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I'd like to see some more of the players showing some pride, spirit and whatever else is required
to get us out of this predicament the supporters will follow I'm sure - we are in this together but
no pulling in the same direction.
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With encouragement and backing these lads will run through brick walls for us and the club. Get behind them and lift them!
No, they'll gladly pick up the fat salaries they don't deserve, then their agents will engineer moves away from Villa Park as soon as the final whistle goes against Liverpool. They simply don't give a shit as was so clearly evident yesterday. How many of those wasters will stick around for a season in The Championship? Tradition, history and success may mean everything to us, but these tossers couldn't give a flying fuck. Houllier may be tactically inept, but that doesn't excuse the attitude of some of our players. They are simply a disgrace.
Like it or not our future's in their hands. We have to get behind them, fire up their pride and remind them they are playing for the greatest club around. Shouting abuse and moaning at them will not make them want to play for the shirt.
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BUT Houllier HAS to go
I don't think sacking him will help, and I also think that he is not to blame solely.
Those players weren't performing/'trying' under McDonald and at times MON, and with the apparent disciplinary issues, I believe the problem lies partly in the players. They need to wake up and believe that fight is needed, and that they simply cant "pass to Ash" (An overpaid, overrated wanker) and expect goals.
But, back to the point; Newcastle and many others have shown us time and time again that a quick sack-and-replace is not the cure for overnight success and revival, which is what we sorely need. I think Houllier needs to re-think his tactics, and some of the players need to re-think their attitudes.
Any performances similar to yesterdays simply won't be enough to keep this historic club in the top flight.
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With encouragement and backing these lads will run through brick walls for us and the club. Get behind them and lift them!
No, they'll gladly pick up the fat salaries they don't deserve, then their agents will engineer moves away from Villa Park as soon as the final whistle goes against Liverpool. They simply don't give a shit as was so clearly evident yesterday. How many of those wasters will stick around for a season in The Championship? Tradition, history and success may mean everything to us, but these tossers couldn't give a flying fuck. Houllier may be tactically inept, but that doesn't excuse the attitude of some of our players. They are simply a disgrace.
Like it or not our future's in their hands. We have to get behind them, fire up their pride and remind them they are playing for the greatest club around. Shouting abuse and moaning at them will not make them want to play for the shirt.
There were around 35,000 Villa fans at Villa Park. I doubt if any one of them wanted the tripe that was served up to them after paying upwards of forty sheets for the privilege. Fans were extremely angry at the final whistle and with good reason. They are grown men, professional footballers and paid an absolute fortune. 100% commitment should be the minimum requirement from these men, regardless of the stick they get from the crowd. It goes with the territory.
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My own personal opinion is that our ire should not be directed solely at Houllier. Watching yesterday, my own anger was born of frustration at the way our players seemed not to know what the hell it was to play as a team. The plodding pace, the waiting on the ball, the misplaced passes and the wrong decisions - you can't blame that solely on the manager because at the end of it all, it's the players' job to put those tactics and training into practice. I can't believe that Houllier and his staff train those players to play so poorly. But then what are they being trained to do? Because if the problems are obvious to us, then surely they're obvious to all of the management team? So logically, there's a fundamental lack of respect between the management and the squad. It's therefore everyone's responsibility for the predicament.
The x factor is what the hell they're going to do about it. After a season of tripe, bad PR, terrible results and a record of six wins in 25 games for the manager, I feel as if they've tried everything. The fans have been as patient as the team deserve, so whoever wants to have a go has a right to. But to my mind, wait and see what you're being asked to sit through before you start moaning. You never know, now we're out of our traditionally terrible month we might be bitching prematurely. Doubt it though.
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Wish people would stop referring to newcastle and shearer
Take Liverpool / hodgson as an example, an old manager out of his depth very similar to houllier
The Liverpool board took swift action and it's paid off
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If I'd seen any kind of effort yesterday I wouldn't have been so angry, all I saw was a bunch of overpaid wankers barely going through the motions.
I don't believe It's all down to houllier but he's not doing himself any favors either
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Wish people would stop referring to newcastle and shearer
Take Liverpool / hodgson as an example, an old manager out of his depth very similar to houllier
The Liverpool board took swift action and it's paid off
not really, its just media hype,
yes they have had one or two good results, but they have been dumped out of all competitions and look unlikely to be playing any sort of european football next season, when dalgliesh first took over they were talking about champs league.
dont think they would have been in much differenet shape if hodgson had stayed,
i dont think Dagliesh is the man to take Liverpool forward, they need someone progresive and younger rather than someone who continualy reminds them how good they used to be,
the papers love him at the moment though
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A pity the coaching staff and players don't feel the same as you Billy.
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It's all very laudable calling for unequivocal support from the fans, but it's hard to do when fans have given up a large proportion of their disposable income to go and watch the tripe that Houllier's team has served up this season. I can't think of a team in the land whose supporters would sing their hearts out after watching the Aston Villa team go through the motions this season. It's a two way street, with the onus firmly on the players and management. We pay to go and watch them, after all.
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A pity the coaching staff and players don't feel the same as you Billy.
The French team revolted against their training regime at the World Cup last year. They were dispirited, looked knackered and were clearly angry. Very much like Villa players yesterday. It is surely no coincidence that the French fitness coach in South Africa is now doing the same job at Villa, literally crippling the team.
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Villa Park has been such a crap place this season - no atmosphere, hardly any decent football from our team and a Manager who's as devoid of motivation skills as any I've witnessed at VP.
Man City was the straw that broke the camel's back - after a decent run, he gave up on the tie.
That and the Liverpool love in, are what he will leave engraved in our memories.
Let's just hope the other teams down in 'relegation ally' have a worse end to the season than us.
UTV
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The fans are not the problem- the management and players are the problem and they alone can get us out of this mess- we will be left to pick up the pieces not them.
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Man City was the straw that broke the camel's back - after a decent run, he gave up on the tie.
That may well be the night when the majority of the players lost respect for him. If there's no respect there, it's only going to get worse.
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That team who rolled over yesterday would only run through a brick wall if you told them it only looks like a brick wall, it's really polystyrene with bricks painted on it. And you get fifty grand for every brick you knock out of the wall. Run through brick walls? That lot? Jim Royle had two words for such a proposition.
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It's all very laudable, but you're pissing in the wind. Most of the fans are already lost, and will only get behind the team if the team themselves inspire it.
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A pity the coaching staff and players don't feel the same as you Billy.
The French team revolted against their training regime at the World Cup last year. They were dispirited, looked knackered and were clearly angry. Very much like Villa players yesterday. It is surely no coincidence that the French fitness coach in South Africa is now doing the same job at Villa, literally crippling the team.
Sigh. For the umpteenth time: les Bleus didn't revolt against their training regime. All you saw on TV was Duverne having a go at Evra because the team were refusing to train (because Anelka had been sent home after a newspaper report said he had insulted the manager in the dressing room) before a World Cup game no less. They revolted against the lunatic Domenech, yes. Against Duverne, no.
That said, he may well be crippling the team, what the fuck do I know?
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It's all very laudable calling for unequivocal support from the fans, but it's hard to do when fans have given up a large proportion of their disposable income to go and watch the tripe that Houllier's team has served up this season. I can't think of a team in the land whose supporters would sing their hearts out after watching the Aston Villa team go through the motions this season. It's a two way street, with the onus firmly on the players and management. We pay to go and watch them, after all.
The problem is that confidence is such a key ingredient in sport and it was clear that yesterday that the longer the game went on the more it ebbed away. One way of helping that come back is, as Billy says, for us to play our part and offer up as much encouragement as we can muster. The managerial situation is out of our control but we can try to influence performances.
Yesterday it was flat from the start, a sure sign of a nervous crowd, and just got worse as the game went on.
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It's all very laudable calling for unequivocal support from the fans, but it's hard to do when fans have given up a large proportion of their disposable income to go and watch the tripe that Houllier's team has served up this season. I can't think of a team in the land whose supporters would sing their hearts out after watching the Aston Villa team go through the motions this season. It's a two way street, with the onus firmly on the players and management. We pay to go and watch them, after all.
The problem is that confidence is such a key ingredient in sport and it was clear that yesterday that the longer the game went on the more it ebbed away. One way of helping that come back is, as Billy says, for us to play our part and offer up as much encouragement as we can muster.
I'm sure the fans will play their part Chris they always will, but when we have a manager in charge who did'nt trust his first choice eleven to win a one off cup tie, i doubt if he has the abilty to motivate the players before they leave the dressing room, just when we now need it most.
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The Citeh debacle did for him, the club were inundated with letters and e-mails about what happened that night. To come off such a good performance against BBurn and then thow the game in the way he did, followed by his piss poor statements was the last straw. Its pretty obvious that between Citeh and now he lost the players.
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I said it post-liverpool game that Houllier was a dead man walking. Its just a shame that he has managed to walk this far.
Calling for full out support is all very well but when the management and players look like they couldn't give two shits about the situation any support is going to quickly turn to frustration.
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The fans are not the problem- the management and players are the problem and they alone can get us out of this mess- we will be left to pick up the pieces not them.
I agree Eastie that the fans are not the problem. There are many factors that have conspired to place us in our current position. As someone posted on a thread elsewhere, however, the fans can be part of the solution. The players are human and they will respond to positivity. We've got to get behind them. I remember some of the poisonous, horrible games in '86 and I'm determined that we are not going to allow history repeat itself, here. We've got to learn from that history. We are definitely a better side than Turner/McNeill's side, there's plenty left to play for and the negativity must be left at the door until the final ball is kicked. I'm not saying we are too good to go down because we are in a very delicate position, squad-wise. We have some disenchanted senior pro's and some rabbit-in-the-headlight youngsters who need pulling together and huge support - the talent is there to lift the club.
Back in '86 our youngsters were Birchy, Gallagher, Kerr and the like. The negativity destroyed some of those young lads. We've got a good crop of young ones now that need support. This season has been a baptism of fire for some of our youngsters, if we can get through this together it could be the making of them and our club for seasons to come. Let's learn from the past, pull together and lift this club up.
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It's a chicken and egg type situation.
I cannot believe the fragrant disregard for the club and its fans from our players and even to an extent the management this season. They haven't in many done anything this season to deserve support but to an extent they need it. However, I personally feel we should make the ground a wall of noise for them. Cheer on the young players sing about the Villa and put all negative thoughts of the manager and players out of your mind, ignore them if you have to and get behind the club our club. Make them look and feel even worse. We give our all but yet they do not or just lack the ability to. Save the comments and negativity for here.
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We needed a loud support prior to the game, that's all we can do, the rest is then up to the players.
Instead, we got a poxy banner that helped enhance the already morgue like atmosphere.
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I love Aston Villa with all my heart, but sometimes I just cannot be fucking arsed.
That said, I'd still go and watch them every week if they fell as far as Division 3.
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So if the fans are unhappy, they should wait until the end of the match when the players, manager and directors have left? Then what, write a stern letter to the Evening Mail or be a "first-time caller, long-time listener" to Tom Ross to complain? That'll really show them what we think.
If they're shit, and they were fucking awful yesterday, then they deserve to be told during the game. Why is it up to the fans to tell Houllier he's got it all wrong and what subs he should make?
At the moment, rightly or wrongly, I want them to give me a reason to get behind them 100%. I'd like them to show me they're in it 100%, be it commitment or knowing what they're doing.
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It's time to give our whole club 110% support.
Saunders......Saunders........Saundersssssssss
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With encouragement and backing these lads will run through brick walls for us and the club.
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Quite possibly the most ridiculous statement I have ever read on here.
As a team we have relegation written all over us
No heart
No leaders
No desire
No clue
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What we need now is leadership on and off the pitch
On it, Ashley young should not be captain. A frankly bizarre decision to give him the armband. It should either be NRC or Petrov.
Off the field, GH IMO has to be removed now and kmac and co step in for 8 games to see us through. Loanees should be recalled especially Carew and bannan. Revert to 442 counter attacking football with young and downing on the w ing and Carew and gabby up top.
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What we need now is leadership on and off the pitch
On it, Ashley young should not be captain. A frankly bizarre decision to give him the armband. It should either be NRC or Petrov.
Off the field, GH IMO has to be removed now and kmac and co step in for 8 games to see us through. Loanees should be recalled especially Carew and bannan. Revert to 442 counter attacking football with young and downing on the w ing and Carew and gabby up top.
For me our biggest problem is the french cock continuing to play AY in the hole.
It gives us a terrible shape and totally negates Bent.
on Sat he should have had downing on the left, NRC and Bannan (dont get me started) in the middle, AY wide right and gabby and Bent up front
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What we need now is leadership on and off the pitch
On it, Ashley young should not be captain. A frankly bizarre decision to give him the armband. It should either be NRC or Petrov.
Off the field, GH IMO has to be removed now and kmac and co step in for 8 games to see us through. Loanees should be recalled especially Carew and bannan. Revert to 442 counter attacking football with young and downing on the w ing and Carew and gabby up top.
agree with a lot but kev mac? remember 6-0 newcastle?