Do you Think Randy Underestimated the Premier League?

[dave.woodhall]

Whether it was a vague idea of what they wanted to achieve, or written on ancient papyrus in Randy's own blood, is a bit irrelevant I suppose.  Whatever it was, I don't imagine the current scenario is what they envisaged.  I'm more interested to know what they plan to do to get us out of it.

All will be revealed on January 26th, for the bargain price of £1.50.

[Diablo]

I've been giving the situation at Villa Park some thought for quite some considerable time now, and I think we have to look to our recent history for the route of the problem and the solution.

Part of the problem is how Aston Villa are perceived outside of Villa Park . To the media we are no more than a mid table team at best, they continually rate Everton, Spurs and Newcastle as bigger than us. Now i'm pretty sure that our trophy list is bigger than Everton, Spurs, definately Newcastle and maybe even Chelsea. So part of the problem is perception. How are we ever going to attract top players or managers if we are perceived as being a slightly bigger version of Blackburn or Bolton?

Our next problem is chairman/owners. They are the route of all the problems at most clubs. Take a look at Newcastle for a good example of an owner playing god with the club. But it's our history that concerns me. Ron Saunders was easily the most successful manager of modern times but was undone by an owner who wanted to tinker with his contract. Now after just winning the first league championship in 71 years I can understand Mr Saunders annoyance. No wonder he told them to get stuffed. That brings us on nicely to Deadly Doug. Only Doug could have sacked the man who brought us the european cup,and replaced him with the manager of Shrewsbury Town (Graham Turner). No matter what your opinion of Tony Barton was, you don't replace him with Graham Turner. It's like Man Utd winning the champions league, then sacking Fergie and replacing him with Keith Hill from Rochdale. Obviously only a mad man would do that. Not content with the Graham Turner experiment he then inflicted Bingo Billy on us. Sure enough relagation followed and only then did he really see that to run a massive club like Villa you need a massive character, and not a yes man. So well done Doug for the appointment of Sir Graham Taylor. But then look at some of Doug's other appointments. Dr Josef Venglos - once again the Chairman's vanity nearly got us relagated, and once again we went looking for another manager. In stepped Big Fat Ron. It was a case of so near, yet so far. We played exhilarating football at times, but fell at the final hurdle. But Doug being Doug couldn't stand to be in the shadow of Big Fat Ron, so he had to go too. We then had a succession of managers, some more succesful than others, but all with the exception of O'Dreary couldn't or wouldn't work with Doug. Granted Doug then installed MON at the helm, but what promisses or assurances he made is anyone's guess.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is this: History shows us that to be a success at managing a massive club like Villa, you need a massive character, and in my opinion Houllier is not that man, and like many of his predecessors and the media he has been taken by suprise by the passion that the fans have for this club.

No one really knows why MON and Randy fell out, but one thing is for sure, Randy has most definately not learnt from history. If you have a succesful manager, you back him. If you can't work with him you must absolutely appoint a top manager. Someone hungry, someone with a proven track record. Not an old man! The Graham Taylor experiment(2nd time around proves this).

So what do we do now? I think it's too late this season to change. Big Sam imho is not the answer. I think we need to get our prayer mats out and come May time say thanks to Ged and appoint a new man no matter what division we are in. But, and I hope Randy learns from this experience, and that of our history, we are a massive club. We need a massive character. Not a yes man! Randy, please don't become another Doug. With the right backing and the right man at the helm we can mix it with the best. History proves it!

what an excellent post!

[Tezmond]

There may / may not have been a 5 year plan, but the accounts of Reform Acquisitions Ltd definitely show repayable loan notes kicking in in 2016.