We need a success story please

[dave.woodhall]

It's Richard Keeling's chance to chip in with a few words.

https://heroesandvillains.info/2021/11/15/we-need-a-success-story-please/

[Legion]

Done.

[algy]

Think in a lot of respects Villa must be the most challenging job going. The expectation is completely out of tune with the historical record for the past hundred years. 100 years, with 2 FA Cups, 1 League championship, 1 European Cup.

However, you ask any Villa supporter if finishing 6th is acceptable as being a long term aspiration, you'll get given a short, sharp "no". With some justification - the West Midlands is the 2nd most populous region in the country, and Villa are the biggest, best supported club by some margin. There's no clubs of a similar size for miles around, maybe Wolves compete with us for fans to the west, Leicester & Nottingham Forest perhaps in the east - but going north it's 'our' territory up to Stoke or Derby, and southwards there's nothing until you hit London.

The expectations will vary between supporters, but you're not going to get less than 'win the league cup every 5-10 seasons', and most will extend to winning the league with some degree of frequency. I can't think of another club where winning the league every 30 years would be seen as a failure when the club has taken 110 years to win the last 2. But if we're all honest, had we won the league in 1989/90 or 92/93, we'd all expect to have won it again by now.

There's only a handful of clubs where that level of ambition/expectation is held by the supporters. Excluding the nouveau riche :- Manchester Utd, Liverpool, and Arsenal. It's that level of job, but without the historial record to back it up (at least within anyone's living memory).

[algy]

Even out of those, it'd be interesting to see how many people rank Arsenal as our peers. I'd be inclined to say that there'll be a substantial section of the support that don't.

Even Manchester United and Liverpool - they only harbour those sort of ambitions because they've had that level of success before. We're kind of on our own having those ambitions despite not having the silverware to back it up (again, excluding football's formative years - I'm fairly sure Royal Engineers or Queen's Park have lessened their expectations over the years!)

[tony scott]

Rightly or Wrongly the expectation is in the DNA would we really want it any other way?

[ventnorVillain]

The comment about Villa being a managers' graveyard is bang on the money and has been consistently overlooked by lazy journalists who seem to view Mr. Gerrard's appointment as nothing more than a stepping stone on an inevitable triumphant journey leading to Anfield. Almost without exception, every manager described in the article has found that managing Villa has been the zenith of their managerial career. No doubt DOL thought that the job would lead him to taking over at Arsenal once Arsene Wenger called it a day: no such luck. Martin O'Neill succeeding Fergie at OT? Think again Martin. Honourable exceptions would be GT taking on the England job, though whether he thought it was a step forward when he was being called Turnip Taylor in the tabloids and being described as the worst England manager in history is debateable, and Joe Mercer who went on to considerable success at Man. City. As for the rest, a slide in to managerial mediocrity followed with oblivion beckoning soon after. Will SG buck the trend? I hope so, but the omens aren't good are they?

[ChicagoLion]

I don’t buy the hoodoo stuff.
Managers have failed, so what most of them do at some point.

[Neil Hawkes]

We have been a basket case behind the scenes for longer than I can remember.

Every time we have had an opportunity to knock on the door of the higher echelons in the league, we've come across a stranglehold in available funds.

With NSWE I believe that the right Manager will receive all necessary financial support to achieve the owners ambitions - finally.

Fingers crossed Mr Gerrard will be achieving what he has been brought in to do. If he reaches a glass ceiling I can see the owners looking elsewhere and not settling for mediocrity.