PS Mr Lerner

[usav]

We are Aston Villa and I was brought up to believe that we were a force for good in football.

Given the result, nobody liked the decision the other night, however, to act like this concept of weakened teams and more emphasis on the league has crept up on you and smacked you in the face is a little incredulous.   Where have you been the last 15-20 years?

Living in the hope or belief that we would see us lift the cup?

I'm right there with you, but to be surprised at squad rotation for cup games at this stage of the Sky revolution seems a little, errr, surprising.

[Risso]

What land of ours has RL flogged to date ?

£8m worth to a parent company to settle the outstanding management charge.  I asked the General about it but he didn't want to talk about it.  There's also a new company called Reform Acquisitions Realty Limited, which as the name suggests must have been set up to deal in property.

[pestria]

I can't believe this thread has lasted so long when the issues at stake are so simple.

Put simply Houlier made  a very very poor error of judgement.


1. This match was will not alter our chances of survival in the premier league.

2. This match was winnable.

3. This match didn't warrant squad rotation.

Our 1st XI squad hasn't played been overplayed to the same extent as the past few seasons.  It is more than capable of finishing mid-table or even higher this season.  This is no chance of being relegated.

For the avoidance of all doubt perhaps we should list our personal priorities just so the board understand what we would prefer.

For me:
1. win the league
2. win the champions league
3. win the FA cup
4. qualify for CL
5. win the league cup
6. win uefa cup
7. qualify for uefa cup


In fact I go as far as to say I'd trade any silverware for relegation as its so easy to get promoted again (see WBA, Newcastle, Blues, ...).

[TheTimVilla]

It may well be a sad state of affairs that we 'threw away' a chance to get through to the next round, but all this abuse Houllier is getting and people saying they aren't going again, is in my opinion, ridiculous. O'Neill threw away 3 cups to try and get 4th place, which some people actually backed. If this counts as 'throwing away' as well, then it's to try and keep us in the league. Surely our league status is more important in this transitional season. If we went down and won the cup, it still wouldn't be the same for a long time. The mass exodus of players and huge fall in revenue could put us in a horrendous financial position, not worth thinking about. Unfortunately, money does run Football these days, but we need to keep with this to be successful.

When it was reported that Gary Gardner was in the squad, there were Villa fans all over Twitter and Villa Talk (not sure about here) ranting and raving about him, saying he should start etc. He's never even sat on the bench before let alone played for us. Then Herd, Delph, Bannan, Bradley come in, we lose, and Houllier lost the game on purpose, didn't want it. I personally think the 3 young lads there could play a massive part in our future, and can start to make an impact now. It went wrong, now let's move on.

GH is turning this club around, we played fantastically to beat Blackburn 4-1 less than a week ago, yes, not a huge team, but a great performance and great result. It's taken him a while to get us playing well, but we are getting there. There are 3,000 going to Bolton tomorrow, including myself, and it will be extremely disappointing if we get on his back early on, as we do need to back the team. We need to try and get at least a point up there and kick on again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy about what he did, but it was a gamble, not throwing away a trophy. The gamble didn't pay off and we have to wait another year.

I genuinely cannot believe some of the things I'm reading on here... This is still the Aston Villa you follow, and always have. It's always been a rollercoaster ride, always will be.

'We did not choose - We were chosen.'

Great post, Supertom. Similar to the Gary Gardner story, people were angry that Pires started against Blackburn (before the match) and were convinced we'd lose because of it. Sometimes the manager gets it right, sometimes he gets it wrong but it's not just a question of field our strongest side against Citeh and we've won the FA Cup.

[TheTimVilla]

I know people are upet about yesterday. But calling for the manager's head. Really? I was hoping for much better last night, and while I'd liked for him to have played a stronger team, he decided against it. I understand why even if I don't entirely agree. A manager needs to be able make those decisions and not be subject to having people called for him to be fired just because we don't see it that way. You'd honestly think by the reaction of some that we'd been relegated last night. Be upset, but let's not go so overboard as to make ourselves out to be so emotional as to lose all sense of rationality.

I know our hated rivals won a cup on Sunday, and on the back of that the circumstances of this game couldn't have come at a worse time. But we're still a great club with great traditions, fans and history. And contrary to current feelings we also still have a very good manager, coaching staff and players. We need to see this season out now, get rid of the some of the crap that cannot fill in when needed, and get in hungrier and more talented players.

And, assuming we were to sack Ged, who would we replace him with? And what would we do if the replacement had a similar philosophy to Ged?

[eastie]

Please timvilla let's not even open up that can of  worms...

[dave.woodhall]

I just cannot believe Dave Woodhall's comments on this.  At one stage you used to go on so much about us winning silverware, I assumed you had changed your middle name to Trophy by deedpoll and I agreed with you 100%.  But to say we are over reacting beggars belief.  The side that was played the other night was entirely (except for forced changes) without justification or understanding at this stage of the competition with the potential rewards ahead.  Barring an absolutely shambolic collapse in the last 10 games we are not going down, with games at home to Wigan, Wolves and other assorted average sides to come. 

Therefore the strongest possible side should have been played.  I actually believe he went there not having a care whether we went out of the cup or not as was evidenced by Liverplopesque body language.

It was a ridiculous decision, and made even worse by trying to defend those that did play by saying they are all internationals.  What absolute codswallop.  Arrogant, obstinate, any other amount of adjectives don't cover it. 

Don't worry though it's just 54 years now, what's another year as that Irish bloke sung.

Try reading what I've said. It was wrong, inexcusable, unjustified and in the context of the season, mystifying. It was also, sadly, the sort of decision all too prevalent in modern football. It was not the darkest day etc and to cite it as a reason to refuse to attend another match is a bit ridiculous.

[olaftab]

The people on here that are trying to justify our managers decision just dont get it, he killed a lot of supporters rationale for supporting the club, there is absoloutely no justification for Aston Villa to act in this cowardly and disrespectful way. You should read again what VCTM said, why on earth should any one comit to a club that is not commited to the majority of it supporters. Yesterday was one of the darkest days in our history and what is so sad about it was the fact that it was self inflicted.

No, no over-reaction here either.

Dave over reaction by the paying customers...now what's wrong with that?
Hawkeye and VCTM  have it bang on.
My support for the club started with the relegation from the second division  and  was cemented during 1970/71 season and in particular the semi final and final of the League Cup. I know that our top priority was to get out of the Third division however the daunting task of 46  league game did not mean giving up the League cup. All I and many other fans ask is that we compete and when we don't I reserve the right to over react.

It isn't 1971 anymore. Talking about darkest days in history and never watching the team again is ridiculous. There isn't a team in the league, and possibly any league, that take league positions less seriously than cups.

As I said paying customers and those  who said  "darkest day" and "never" are entitled to their opinion.
Heard what you said on WM about payments for League positions but winning is a habit and teams that compete on all fronts do end up being most successful.

[hawkeye]

Maybe those that are tyring to justify GH selection are doing it out of a mis placed sense of loyalty to the Club. The majority of fans are angry because thier loyalty to the club includes doing the best to win and to experience glory. That opportunity was shamelessly denied them by our managers actions. His subsequent attempt to justify his decisions was disrespectful and arrogant.
Those that are now insulting those fans because they are rightly angry and upset is very sad.

[ROBBO]

I believe all comments after a loss should be left for two or three days for rational thinking to get some space. Some (not all )
posters may be a little ambarrassed over their knee jerk responses.

[usav]

Maybe those that are tyring to justify GH selection are doing it out of a mis placed sense of loyalty to the Club.

I don't think anyone has justified the selection, have they? From my perspective, it was baffling at best and not a decision I support in any way.

I think the difference of opinion centres only on the (over)reaction people have had to what happened.

[LeeB]

I can't believe this thread has lasted so long when the issues at stake are so simple.

Put simply Houlier made  a very very poor error of judgement.


1. This match was will not alter our chances of survival in the premier league.

2. This match was winnable.

3. This match didn't warrant squad rotation.

Our 1st XI squad hasn't played been overplayed to the same extent as the past few seasons.  It is more than capable of finishing mid-table or even higher this season.  This is no chance of being relegated.

For the avoidance of all doubt perhaps we should list our personal priorities just so the board understand what we would prefer.

For me:
1. win the league
2. win the champions league
3. win the FA cup
4. qualify for CL
5. win the league cup
6. win uefa cup
7. qualify for uefa cup


In fact I go as far as to say I'd trade any silverware for relegation as its so easy to get promoted again (see WBA, Newcastle, Blues, ...).

Yeah, see Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Portsmouth, Norwich......... oh, hang on.

[LeeB]

Maybe those that are tyring to justify GH selection are doing it out of a mis placed sense of loyalty to the Club. The majority of fans are angry because thier loyalty to the club includes doing the best to win and to experience glory. That opportunity was shamelessly denied them by our managers actions. His subsequent attempt to justify his decisions was disrespectful and arrogant.
Those that are now insulting those fans because they are rightly angry and upset is very sad.

That's a bit rich coming from you.

[Bad English]

I believe all comments after a loss should be left for two or three days for rational thinking to get some space. Some (not all )
posters may be a little ambarrassed over their knee jerk responses.

Good idea! We could save money by giving up our internet connections and sending in irate postcards (2nd class so they don't arrive in the heat of the moment).

[LeeB]

I believe all comments after a loss should be left for two or three days for rational thinking to get some space. Some (not all )
posters may be a little ambarrassed over their knee jerk responses.

Good idea! We could save money by giving up our internet connections and sending in irate postcards (2nd class so they don't arrive in the heat of the moment).

Maybe Dave could do a video blog in a "Points of View" stylee, reading out only the most indignant and outraged letters.