Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: claret and blue canada on May 08, 2012, 10:40:27 PM
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I can honestly say that this is the worst season i can remember. When i was a kid there were some years when we were in the third division and Villa Park was still fun. The enduring memory of the season is......brawl at the nightclub? Dougie knighted? In other words nothing football related. Just waiting to see how far away from traditional claret and blue next years kit will be. Even from Canada the stench is unbelievable.
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Easily the worst, at least we had pride and dignity even in past relegation years. We have now descended into an undignified embarrassment and you can't see it changing .
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Yes....embarrassing
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Dreadful dreadful season. I remember the relegation to the third division but after that we were on the up and up and won the First division exactly 10 seasons later. Bit of a dip in 87 but nothing like this season specially at home.
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Easily my worst season as a villa fan. Found it tough going at times. It felt like we'd never win again at times. How rare was a villa attack in recent weeks? It took individual brilliance or a stroke of good fortune for us to score. It never came from a well worked move, an obvious attacking strategy (wing play/service to Bent) or from a well worked set-piece.
Dreadful, dreadful stuff. I hope they restore some pride next season.
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Definitely my worst. I'm only 24 and my first game was in '94 so I've not exactly been through the dark days, but yes.
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It's my best ever season as a season ticket holder..
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So it is your first season as a season ticket holder ?
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As the song goes, 'Things can only get better!' ;)
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Dull and uninspiring granted, but worst season ever? Nope, not even close to the misery of relegation under Billy McNeill
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As the song goes, 'Things can only get better!' ;)
Not if McLeish stays
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Mcneil was far worse.
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So it is your first season as a season ticket holder ?
How did you guess?
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Still doesn't feel as low as 03/03/03. Not only because we lost, but because we sunk to their scummy level in doing so.
Hateful night.
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1984-85. As a 14 year old, and only 2-3 seasons before we were league and european champs. We signed steve Foster. Nuff said
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Dull and uninspiring granted, but worst season ever? Nope, not even close to the misery of relegation under Billy McNeill
The only difference with Billy McNeill season is that we actually did go down, although we actually won 8 games that season compared with only 7 this. The club was a shambles then (as quoted by Graham Taylor) and it is now.
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1986/87 was my first season. As I was 7/8 at the time my appreciation for the game wasn't quite what it is today so I can't say that I hated that season despite the results and subsequent relegation. I was just delighted to be at the Villa.
This season has been easily the least enjoyable in my time. The fact that I'm over here and unable to get to a game has never hurt so little, to be honest. We get full 90 minute coverage of almost every game live here and I usually manage to see 3 or 4 Premier League games each weekend - Villa have been without doubt the most insipid and frustrating side to watch over the course of the 37 games so far. Wolves and Blackburn have been less effective than us but, watching as a neutral, both sides have been involved in at least half a dozen entertaining/ridiculous/funny games each this season. Wolves away aside, I can't remember being on the edge of my seat with any of our offerings, sadly.
A season that didn't manage to ever get going and seemed destined to never end. Good bloody riddance 2011/12.
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The McNeill era was far worse.
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Dull and uninspiring granted, but worst season ever? Nope, not even close to the misery of relegation under Billy McNeill
This for me.
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1984-85. As a 14 year old, and only 2-3 seasons before we were league and european champs. We signed steve Foster. Nuff said
True but it didnt cost me a lot as I could still get in as an under 16 year old even thou I was 20 and we still had a bloody good giggle . Today its so expensive and so dull.
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I used to pay £1.50 on the Holte End during the McNeill era. Adults paid £3. Now it's too expensive to justify watching a bunch of millionaires churn out complete garbage week in week out. It could only happen in football.
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I used to pay £1.50 on the Holte End during the McNeill era. Adults paid £3. Now it's too expensive to justify watching a bunch of millionaires churn out complete garbage week in week out. It could only happen in football.
And you still believed we could win the league the next season when everyone started on 0 points again . Today you have to face up to reality that there is no chance.
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I used to pay £1.50 on the Holte End during the McNeill era. Adults paid £3. Now it's too expensive to justify watching a bunch of millionaires churn out complete garbage week in week out. It could only happen in football.
And you still believed we could win the league the next season when everyone started on 0 points again . Today you have to face up to reality that there is no chance.
In other words, we paid less to watch sport, whereas today we pay more to watch a show.
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The McNeill relegation season was worse, but being the worst season since then is still piss poor. And I'd actually argue that this was less fun.
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Without looking up the stats, I would guess twice as many of us are at VP watching now compared to those days. So was fear of hooliganism a stronger deterant than shite footy?
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Not worst, but terrible none the less. Horrendous football, coupled with horrendous results and no tangible hope. Awful.
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Apologies is this has been said already, but it's the worst season since we've had the global information tool that is the internet, where we can moan to each other and make it seem worse than if we were just wallowing in our own misery in private.
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I stood among Nottingham Forest fans on the open terrace behind the goal at their ground in Autumn 1986 with my then girlfiend (now wife) at her first ever football match. Villa were awful and lost 0-6. The Forest fans were taking bets on how many more they could score, given longer than 90 minutes. THAT was the low point.
You can see just how awful at
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1986-7 was worse because we were relegated, but this really feels like the most tortuous, dullest collection of displays we have dished up in my memory. Most neutrals I know over here cannot bear to even watch us for 5 minutes.
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It is certainly my worst season so far. I'm only 19 and had a ST since I was about 10. It has been woeful and so painful this year. It's a treat just to see us attack this year!
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The McNeil era was far worse. We looked totally clueless back then. This time we lack direction but it's clear to see there is better there than has been produced.
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Been attending 13 years, not really old enough to get all that was going on then. The worst season for me was Ellis/O'Dreary years not knowing who to hate more, the in house fighting, protesting and surrenders.
This season matches it I think.
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I stood among Nottingham Forest fans on the open terrace behind the goal at their ground in Autumn 1986 with my then girlfiend (now wife) at her first ever football match. Villa were awful and lost 0-6. The Forest fans were taking bets on how many more they could score, given longer than 90 minutes. THAT was the low point.
You can see just how awful at
Thanks for posting that. How Forest didnt get 10 I dont know. It does put this season in perspective.
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Surely 69 or 87 are worse, this is as bad as 2005 but no worse
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I saw something yesterday that claimed that if Villa fail to beat Norwich then it will have been the worst season in the club's history in terms of actual league wins.
Don't know if the stat is accurate though.
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Apologies is this has been said already, but it's the worst season since we've had the global information tool that is the internet, where we can moan to each other and make it seem worse than if we were just wallowing in our own misery in private.
This undoubtedly makes things seem worse.
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85/86 and 86/87 were like a slow painful death often played out in front of crowds of less than 20,000.
There was an inevitability about the final outcome then and it was harder than now given that we only had to look back three or four years to be reminded of the best side we'd had for 70 years.
10/11 and 11/12 have had a similar feel but nothing like as bad. I still remain optimistic that with the right manager and handful of astute signings we would be quickly back on the right track - but this really is a critical summer.
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The McNeil era was far worse. We looked totally clueless back then. This time we lack direction but it's clear to see there is better there than has been produced.
While its true that we were awul that season I think the general feeling was that we were desperately under achieving. At least at the start of the season it was felt that a team that had the likes of Spink, Dorigo, Williams, Evans, Elliot, Keown, Birch, Hodge, Walters, Stainrod and Gray should do ok. Didn't we also sign Steve Hunt and Andy Blair in the middle of the season, both decent players in their day. Also I remember that when McNeill came we did have a brief 'new manager bounce' and it looked as though things were looking up. Also we reached the semi-final of the League Cup final that year, after a fantastic win at Highbury in the Quarter final. Although that second leg at Oxford was a trully depressing night.
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1986-87. Even worse than today. It was a car crash waiting to happen after the previous season's narrow escape.
Ooo Eck is Tuner/McNeill rolled into one
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The McNeil era was far worse. We looked totally clueless back then. This time we lack direction but it's clear to see there is better there than has been produced.
While its true that we were awul that season I think the general feeling was that we were desperately under achieving. At least at the start of the season it was felt that a team that had the likes of Spink, Dorigo, Williams, Evans, Elliot, Keown, Birch, Hodge, Walters, Stainrod and Gray should do ok. Didn't we also sign Steve Hunt and Andy Blair in the middle of the season, both decent players in their day. Also I remember that when McNeill came we did have a brief 'new manager bounce' and it looked as though things were looking up. Also we reached the semi-final of the League Cup final that year, after a fantastic win at Highbury in the Quarter final. Although that second leg at Oxford was a trully depressing night.
Wasn't the League Cup the year before? Same with Hunt and Blair - we were too close for comfort in 1986 and they were signed.
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85/86 and 86/87 were like a slow painful death often played out in front of crowds of less than 20,000.
There was an inevitability about the final outcome then and it was harder than now given that we only had to look back three or four years to be reminded of the best side we'd had for 70 years.
10/11 and 11/12 have had a similar feel but nothing like as bad. I still remain optimistic that with the right manager and handful of astute signings we would be quickly back on the right track - but this really is a critical summer.
20,000 was a rarity in those seasons.
One the one hand, because it was cheaper and we were younger we probably did have more fun those seasons than we had this year. On the other, looking back we aren't even that close to how dire we were those couple of years.
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This is one of the worse seasons I have seen for the general apathy around the club, fans and players.
Its like we have all resigned ourselves to the drivel we are watching and we just sit there and shrug our shoulders.
Lerner et al had lifted all our expectations and love or hate him O'Neil did lift the club into the top half of the table and gave us a better media image [important in this media driven world, especially when looking to recruit new supporters and gain better commercial deals]
Over the past two years those expectations have been dashed and it now feels almost worse than ever.
When things were bad in the 80's we had a focal point for our venom and Mr Ellis got plenty of it, we all had the view that we would be better off without him, and that he was more than likely the reason for the mess we were in.
Now we have no real focal point, some blame Lerner, Some Faulkner, Some blame O'Neil and many blame McL [or all or a mixture of them all] We have no real groundswell for a change in ownership and Mr Lerner has ascaped relatively unscathed from the past few years of piss poor ownership. So what we get is general apathy all around. From my view without some major changes it will be the same next year.
Maybe it didnt seam so bad to me in the 80's, after all I was paying £1.25 to stand on the Holte back then!
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I think this is worse than the 3 previous relegation scares in the Premier League era, under Little, Taylor and O'Leary, purely because we have a better squad of players this year, we did not have quality like Bent, N'Zogbia, Ireland, Gabby, Dunne and Given in those seasons, so i think this is the most underachieving squad we have had for 20 years. I'm not M'ON's biggest fan, but when you look at our squad in his first year when we finished 11th, player for player on paper we are infinitely stronger this season, which makes it that much harder to take.
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Wasn't the League Cup the year before? Same with Hunt and Blair - we were too close for comfort in 1986 and they were signed.
I thought Andy Blair was signed Championship 1981 close season?
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Ah. Signed again in 1986.
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I was just bored, there wasn't even a relegation "fight" because we drifted along until the other teams were relegated. If the season was amonth longer we would have been down.
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I was just bored, there wasn't even a relegation "fight" because we drifted along until the other teams were relegated. If the season was amonth longer we would have been down.
I think another game longer and we would have been relegated in truth. If we end under 40 points, we have stayed up by default, and I am sure that McLeish now has the lowest win percentage in the history of the club, which is even worse than McNeil?
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This season has been, without a doubt, the worst season *ever*. Rest assured I was on the internet within minutes mailing my disgust throughout the world...
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I agree that this has been the most *underachieving* season I have ever seen (started following the game in the 77-78 season). Perhaps 85-87 was the worst period of football seen at Villa Park in recent decades. But as has been said, we have a much better squad of players now than we did then. Today we have Given, Dunne and Bent. Back then we had David Norton and Paul Kerr..
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Wasn't the League Cup the year before? Same with Hunt and Blair - we were too close for comfort in 1986 and they were signed.
I thought Andy Blair was signed Championship 1981 close season?
He was, From Coventry City i seem to remember, and a bit of a disappointment all in all. (Sorry Andy).
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Sure feels like it right now, but the worst home record ever isnt going to help.
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last time we 'just' avoided relegation 94? didn't we finish the next season in second place.....not a feckin hope next season
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last time we 'just' avoided relegation 94? didn't we finish the next season in second place.....not a feckin hope next season
We just avoided relegation in '94-'95...BFR lost the plot over the summer of '94 and the team going into that season was incredibly old and tired. Brian Little came in in Nov '94 but thanks to the decrepit state of the team was not able to do any more than hold us where we were until the following close season, i.e. just above the relegation zone. That close season was one of the busiest and most exciting I can recall at VP in terms of comings and goings, and the team was totally transformed. It looked fresh and purposeful and signed on with a fab 3-1 win at home to Man U (what ever happened to the floppy haired 20 year old twat who scored Man U's consolation goal that day, btw?...). We finished 4th at the end of 95-96 and won the League Cup, our last trophy to date...the point being that an damn good clear out and rebuild close season can work wonders, so, who knows...however we will need a new manager (wonder if Chris Hughton's going to want another season in the 2nd tier?)...
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1986-87 has to be the worse overall although as we went down and we knew we were but i don't remember it being as boring as this season.
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Fucking horrible season. Even other seasons we've been threatened with relegation, we weren't this dour. We were still pretty entertaining to watch in 95. Despite almost going down we had some really memorable games. Even under Taylor and O Leary when we were threatened with relegation we weren't nearly as awful as we have been this season. That will reflect in the fact we can't get any higher this year than a pathetic 41 points. Mind you I don't think we'll get over the 40 point mark.
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This for me our worst season and our fall from grace is horrifying, which i think is making me a whole lot more angry. In only a couple of years we've gone from chasing that 4th spot with a talented young team that no one wanted to play home or away, averaging our highest gates for years, cup final and a semi and just a general buzz about the place. We were the team everyone was talking about and we all thought including neutrals "right the Villa are back" and i bloody loved it.
Roll on 2 years later we have our deadliest rivals manager in charge, a man who is totally out his depth, tactically naive and basically should have never been given the job in the first place. we've narrowly scraped through a relagation battle when in most seasons we'd have gone. and more importantly it seems the board have just washed there hands with us and give us the V's
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Dreadful awful season- the relegation year of 87 was poor as was venglos's season in charge but this has been just awful- certainly the worst football ive seen from a villa team and thank god its nearly over!
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1986-1987 was much worse.
We were Champions of Europe five years earlier.
We played in front of crowds averaging 18,000 sometimes hardly 10,000 turned up, that was soul destroying to see Villa Park so empty.
We did actually get relegated and knew it was going to happen from Christmas onwards.
Oh and Paul Elliot played for us and the snake Hodge left us.
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It's always a toss up for me between 85/86 and 86/87 as to which season I hate the most. In many ways even though we somehow stayed up thanks to a late season rally, more often than not I feel 85/86 edges it.
I'm sure we hardly won a game from the beginning of Oct to end of March. Awful crowds, losing to fucking Oxford in the LC semi's in front of barely 20,000 and i'm sure our highest crowd that season was only about 25K for the visit of the Blues, and they battered us 0-3.
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What I'm struggling with is this. Amongst our fans we have:
The future King of England
The current Prime Minister
The head of the Bank of England (who trumps the other two it seems)
...and we are still absolutely shit. If we played in any other country in the World we'd win the league and cup every sodding season.
(Adopt Partridge voice) This country!
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I've been going since 90 and for me is the worst, norwich at home chelsea away only 2 games that stand out, I've seen games we haven't had a shot I've seen little fight, no goals from corners, I can only think of 2 pens, I've walked out twice and I've never done that.
I've found watching us like pulling teeth, I bet neutrals are praying for us to go next year
Worst season ever!
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Sums up our season that Alan Hutton is out for 8 weeks... a week before the end of the season!
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I've seen us relegated three times, so were those seasons worse ?
1966/67 - My first season so boredom levels were zero as I falling in love with the Villa. Plus my Dad paid.
1969/70 - Totally unexpected but we still knew the club had been turned round and would rise again. Plus my Dad paid.
1986/87 - Totally expected but football everywhere was shit at that time so you just accepted it. I paid but it wasn't a lot.
Now I read this has been a great season for football, I've been bored shitless and of course I've paid - A lot !
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Sums up our season that Alan Hutton is out for 8 weeks... a week before the end of the season!
Exactly what I thought when I heard the news, why oh why could that not have happend at least eight weeks earlier!!!!
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Sums up our season that Alan Hutton is out for 8 weeks... a week before the end of the season!
Exactly what I thought when I heard the news, why oh why could that not have happend at least eight weeks earlier!!!!
What is even more worrying is just imagine how shit Hutton will be after a lazy 8 week long summer. I reckon he will come back fatter than Dunne and shitter than ever.
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Sums up our season that Alan Hutton is out for 8 weeks... a week before the end of the season!
I didnt want him injured I wanted him sold. Ah well.
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I remember moving down here in 83' at 8 years old. All my new found friends in Devon either supported Utd or Liverpool. They all thought I was from some foreign place and supported a rubbish football team.
I loved the Villa, had the kits, posters, calendars, my uncles whole back collection of programmes, would buy Shoot magazine in the hope there would be a feature on us. My dad would take to me to Villa when he could and I would be Evans, Birchy or Walters on the school playground. When we finally dropped after a massive decline in those early years living in Devon it was absolutely gutting, I was devastated.
The thing was back then I didn't really watch football like I do now. For a start I really only got to see the results on the TV on Saturday evening. My Grandad would send me up the Pink and I would read it on Tuesday.
Back then it was gutting as a kid but this year it has just been so bad since January it feels like we are digging ourselves further and further into a big whole and it feels like we don't want to come out of it. I missed the first part of the season while I traveled Europe, but since I have been back it has certainly been horrible.
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I only vaguely remember the 87 season, so yes, I'd say when all things are taken into consideration this is probably the least enjoyable season I can remember.
The football is just as shite as anything O'Leary served up in his final year and when you take into account what befell Stan Petrov, it's been a shocking, depressing, hopeless season.
Thank fuck it ends tomorrow.
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Dull and uninspiring granted, but worst season ever? Nope, not even close to the misery of relegation under Billy McNeill
I'll second that - it was utterly dreadful
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Been going down since 1961 and no its not the worst (certainly not for my generation).
What makes it seem so bad is the lowering of expectations - when Lerner arrived we were all on a high and promised much. Two trips to Wembley and top 6 finishes raised our expectations and our profile.
Now we are back to being also rans and pitied by fans of clubs, who, not so long ago, we were looking to leapfrog.
Lerner needs to get his next big decision right otherwise we we are in danger of being the next Leeds, Forest, Sheffield Wednesday - not a thought I wish to consider.
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It's always a toss up for me between 85/86 and 86/87 as to which season I hate the most. In many ways even though we somehow stayed up thanks to a late season rally, more often than not I feel 85/86 edges it.
I'm sure we hardly won a game from the beginning of Oct to end of March. Awful crowds, losing to fucking Oxford in the LC semi's in front of barely 20,000 and i'm sure our highest crowd that season was only about 25K for the visit of the Blues, and they battered us 0-3.
I'm with you there PWS. They were my early senior school years and it was awful putting up with those glory hunter fans and then the Blues when they beat us in their cup final at Villa Park 3-0. It was a slow death from 1985 onwards.
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This has been an extremely disappointing season but far from being the worst. In relatively recent memory the seasons 85/86 (when we were truly awful but managed to avoid relegation) and 86/87 9 (when we were literally the worst team in the division by far) were far more depressing, the disappointment enhanced by the fact that only a few years previously we were winning the European Cup and Super Cup. Just imagine that for a fall from grace!
Before that, the famous Aston Villa were a depressing shadow of a formerly great club in 1967, relegated from the top division with a very poor side and a Board who had seriously lost the plot. It even had to get worse before it got better, with the unthinkable relegation to the third division.
I can't remember anything positive to say about any of those seasons. Our current side does at least contain a top class goalkeeper, a top class finisher and some youthful promise peppered around the team.