Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Lucky Eddie on November 05, 2015, 10:28:42 AM
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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
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“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?
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“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.
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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.
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That kind of negative chanting is really like the 12th man for the opposition, must be totally demoralizing.
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I sing every time we get a song going at away games.
But I just don't join in with this crap.
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“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.
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“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.
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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.
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On the piss, m'lord needs to go down for the dirt nap too.
Kumbaya bollocks.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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This 'we are shit' singing has to stop. OK, pretending we've scored a goal when we are getting stuffed may have been funny once. It isn't any more.
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"We've hit the post" was quite funny on Monday night, quickly followed by "We've scored a goal" which was considerably less so.
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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.
I suppose they took a look at the team selection and thought if the club have surrendered pre-kick off what's the point.
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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.
I suppose they took a look at the team selection and thought if the club have surrendered pre-kick off what's the point.
That may well be so, but we actually started the game playing quite well. If it was 3-0 to them go at it.
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Win a couple of games and the sad, sick Villa ridicule will disappear faster than Fabian Delph up the M6.
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This is all assuming that a highly paid and motivated professional footballer takes any notice of what his supporters may be saying tucked up in a corner of a stadium. see N'zogbia as an example of one and his Twitter 'bants'.
I think it's more self mocking by our supporters, in that we are actually spending our hard earned cash on watching what is progressively getting worse, without even a hint of improvement, yet still we turn up even for televised away games.
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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.
I suppose they took a look at the team selection and thought if the club have surrendered pre-kick off what's the point.
That may well be so, but we actually started the game playing quite well. If it was 3-0 to them go at it.
We were 1-0 down after two minutes...
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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.
I suppose they took a look at the team selection and thought if the club have surrendered pre-kick off what's the point.
That may well be so, but we actually started the game playing quite well. If it was 3-0 to them go at it.
We were 1-0 down after two minutes...
We are talking about the game vs Southampton
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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 think you're being unfair to 6th Formers!
The chanting at Southampton and Tottenham was extremely embarrassing and not in the least amusing. The point of chanting, surely, is to encourage the players, and that sort of negativity has the opposite effect. Contrast this with the tremendous support during our good spell in the 2nd half at Spurs and the effect that must have had on the team.
"On the piss" may not affect the players but it's crude and insensitive. It says nothing about Villa and quite a lot about the idiots who sing it.
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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.
I suppose they took a look at the team selection and thought if the club have surrendered pre-kick off what's the point.
That may well be so, but we actually started the game playing quite well. If it was 3-0 to them go at it.
We were 1-0 down after two minutes...
We are talking about the game vs Southampton
My bad
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Why is it that, whenever a publication quotes a Villa fan, they invariably pick the one that speaks the most bullshit?
An interesting observation considering that the publication in question has a certain Damon Green of this parish as a reasonably regular contributor.
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As a (misguided) tribute to God, it sort of had merit at the time.
After he went walkies and missed the Exeter cup match in 1994, he could have received far worse stick.
But it sounds dreadful, and the tacked on 'shit support' and all the other bobbins don't redeem it in any way, shape or form. It does us no favours at all.
I'd love to see that dirge drowned out with a good hearty boo -something we normally excel at.
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I had a bloke behind me in a pub at Spurs sing (to the tune of fuck the albion) we're fucking shit, we're fucking shit, over and over and over.
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As for the article itself, 97% of football reporting would do well to follow where WSC leads - but that article looks like they've gone the other way and decided to fill space with a sitting-on-the-fence article, saying nothing that could just have easily been lifted from a Metro work-experience kid.
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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.
After seeing the team line up im not surprised they were chanting negatively
I have no problem with the occasional 'negative chanting', after all there hasnt been anything to shout about recently
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As a (misguided) tribute to God, it sort of had merit at the time.
After he went walkies and missed the Exeter cup match in 1994, he could have received far worse stick.
But it sounds dreadful, and the tacked on 'shit support' and all the other bobbins don't redeem it in any way, shape or form. It does us no favours at all.
I'd love to see that dirge drowned out with a good hearty boo -something we normally excel at.
'Shit support' that gets sung even when the away end is rammed full for a midweek game against a team from the Outer Hebrides or similar.
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This 'we are shit' singing has to stop. OK, pretending we've scored a goal when we are getting stuffed may have been funny once. It isn't any more.
At Selhurst Park last season I was walking towards the away end when a Palace fan started signing "Going Down, Going Down, Going Down" to us. I responded with "So are we, so are we, so are we".
We both laughed. I thought it was quite quick for me.
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i'm not a great fan of negative chanting but given how shit we have been recently, I actually do think it is understandable.
Joining the opposition fans in putting down your own team is not.
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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
The "how shit must you be" thing at least has an element of self deprecatory humour about it. Even the "you're nothing special, we lose every week" thing has a likeable, typical football thing about it.
The "let's pretend we scored a goal" thing is just unfunny and cringeworthy.
Then again, I recognise that it's a bit hypocritical of me to judge what is and what is not proper support at a match which I spent slouched on my sofa, watching something else so I didn't actually have to pay attention to what was happening at the match.
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The "let's pretend we scored a goal" thing is just unfunny and cringeworthy.
On the whole I agree but for the notable exception when we were losing 3-0 at Liverpool, sang it 4 times and then started "3-0 and you fkd it up" to the bemusement of the scousers - silver linings and all that...
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“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?
A season ticket holder that goes both home and away. Inexplicable.
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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 think you're being unfair to 6th Formers!
The chanting at Southampton and Tottenham was extremely embarrassing and not in the least amusing. The point of chanting, surely, is to encourage the players, and that sort of negativity has the opposite effect. Contrast this with the tremendous support during our good spell in the 2nd half at Spurs and the effect that must have had on the team.
"On the piss" may not affect the players but it's crude and insensitive. It says nothing about Villa and quite a lot about the idiots who sing it.
Absolutely bang on.
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"We've hit the post" was quite funny on Monday night, quickly followed by "We've scored a goal" which was considerably less so.
Neither likely to be an issue on Sunday..."We've got in your half" maybe :)
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Win a couple of games and the sad, sick Villa ridicule will disappear faster than Fabian Delph up the M6.
Totally agree Brian. These morons are not Villa fans really, just a class of lower intelligence, go with the current trend idiots.
If Garde turns out to be the catalyst who gets Villa progressing positively again, all the idiots will conveniently forget their earlier non supportive attitudes.
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Win a couple of games and the sad, sick Villa ridicule will disappear faster than Fabian Delph up the M6.
Totally agree Brian. These morons are not Villa fans really, just a class of lower intelligence, go with the current trend idiots.
You mean these morons who watch Villa home and away? The snobbishness of some people annoys me more than the daft songs a few kids like to sing at games.
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Win a couple of games and the sad, sick Villa ridicule will disappear faster than Fabian Delph up the M6.
Totally agree Brian. These morons are not Villa fans really, just a class of lower intelligence, go with the current trend idiots.
Chico I'm not a snob, just a working class bloke, but fans? who go to games to then sing songs that deprecate their team can hardly be true fans. They just seem to want to demonstrate how "cool" they are to the other team's supporters. Doesn't seem to fit with genuine fan displeasure of the often justified criticism the team deserves.
You mean these morons who watch Villa home and away? The snobbishness of some people annoys me more than the daft songs a few kids like to sing at games.
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I think the gallows humour of the last couple of games will vanish due to the optimism that comes with the arrival of a new manager. Let's hope it doesn't return anytime soon.
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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.
I suppose they took a look at the team selection and thought if the club have surrendered pre-kick off what's the point.
That may well be so, but we actually started the game playing quite well. If it was 3-0 to them go at it.
we were a goal down after 2 minutes. How's that starting well?
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Win a couple of games and the sad, sick Villa ridicule will disappear faster than Fabian Delph up the M6.
Totally agree Brian. These morons are not Villa fans really, just a class of lower intelligence, go with the current trend idiots.
You mean these morons who watch Villa home and away? The snobbishness of some people annoys me more than the daft songs a few kids like to sing at games.
It comes with the gentrification of the game.Prawn sandwich anyone?
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If you pay top dollar to travel to London on a Monday night and watch the shite we've been serving up for years, you can sing what you like as far as I'm concerned, you're a better fan than me.
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It's never bothered me much - there have always been some songs I haven't joined in with, including Celtic/rangers stuff etc. fair play to the fans for going home and away and making some noise.
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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.
I suppose they took a look at the team selection and thought if the club have surrendered pre-kick off what's the point.
That may well be so, but we actually started the game playing quite well. If it was 3-0 to them go at it.
we were a goal down after 2 minutes. How's that starting well?
No we weren't.
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You talking about the Tottenham game?
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You talking about the Tottenham game?
No my comment comes after amfy was talking about Southampton.
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If you pay top dollar to travel to London on a Monday night and watch the shite we've been serving up for years, you can sing what you like as far as I'm concerned, you're a better fan than me.
I basically agree. The chants on Monday were mostly quite funny, in a gallows humour way, and weren't getting on the teams back in my opinion. Also, as others have pointed out, the fans got behind the team as well it wasn't all negative.
Maybe 'We're f***ing shit' is taking it a bit far mind. I was taking a friend from Mexico to his first ever Premier League game, who'd planned his trip around seeing Villa, and found it hard to explain the sarcasm behind it.