I seem to remember rumblings about relegation setting in while Houllier was running the team.Then as soon as he had the health problems and that football managing magician Gary McAllister took over, we lost maybe 1 of our last 8, going from something like 16th in the league to 9th. Suggests to me that the quality in the squad was much better than the league position suggested when Houllier was managing them and he was indeed a waste of space and a complete and utter c***.
Look at that Wolves side. Bunch of absolute hod carriers. Losing at home to that shower should have been an instant sacking. I remember in the Bartons we were all convinced we were down after that. Little did we know we'd have another five years of suffering to endure, first.
It's been forgotten now, but there was a performance against Sunderland in the New Year where Heskey got sent off, and when they scored their winner the whole of Villa Park sang "you're getting sacked in the morning" at him. Then we signed Bent and managed a bit of momentum. 9th was a false position - winning at Arsenal made us safe but on paper that was an horrific run-in.
We finished 9th as over a 38 game season we were the 9th best team. Doesn't matter when the points were won. No one says, well apart from probably Stuart, that 5th last season was a false position despite us spending nearly the entire season lower than that.
Quote from: mike on September 13, 2019, 10:49:18 PMThis sounds pretty damning, but then Stephen Ireland is quite possibly the biggest wanker who ever played for Aston Villa. Didn’t he get voted player of the year?
This sounds pretty damning, but then Stephen Ireland is quite possibly the biggest wanker who ever played for Aston Villa.
Quote from: kippaxvilla2 on September 14, 2019, 08:52:32 AMQuote from: mike on September 13, 2019, 10:49:18 PMThis sounds pretty damning, but then Stephen Ireland is quite possibly the biggest wanker who ever played for Aston Villa. Didn’t he get voted player of the year?Yes, after he played well in an away win against Chelsea and for about half an hour in a defeat at home to Arsenal... It was under Mcleish so it was either a piss take or us hoping collectively that a player of the year award would coax out a few more appearances where he actually broke into a sprint.It didn't work, so no surprise we didn't do the same for N'zogbia. Ireland had plenty of chances and was shit. He can blame whoever he likes for how crap he was at Villa but I've a feeling he'll find the real culprit in his mirror.
That season must be the most picked-over and analysed of all time. It must also be the only season where a team's supporters will argue until they're blue in the face that they should have finished lower.