ok pissed off tonight after Citeh but get a grip

[TonyD]

If you really think about what he did and said, it means that unless we spend stupid money in the summer, he has settled for us to be mid table mediocrity merchants.

Imagine saying our first strength team couldnt beat City anyway, so why bother playing them?

If that is his attitude, where will we be next year?

Playing pretty football in the middle of the park,   leaking goals and not bothering to at least try to beat the big nasty teams

[jonzy85]

If you really think about what he did and said, it means that unless we spend stupid money in the summer, he has settled for us to be mid table mediocrity merchants.

Imagine saying our first strength team couldnt beat City anyway, so why bother playing them?

If that is his attitude, where will we be next year?

Playing pretty football in the middle of the park,   leaking goals and not bothering to at least try to beat the big nasty teams

Is giving the ball to the other team or putting it out over the touch line what they call pretty football these days?

God Barcelona are boring giving it their own players all the time!

[eastie]

Well he did say when he took over he saw villa as a top 12 club - seems that's the way we are going.

[Louzie0]

Got in late from work last night and picked up the match on ITV about 10 minutes in.  Turned to a bottle of something chilled as the match unfolded before me, although I had already been surprised by the team selection.

Posted when I was trying to find positives after a pretty dire time, friends (other teams) texting etc.  On reflection, maybe get a grip was not the thing to say to fans who had travelled.


Enjoyed the bit when they kept the ball though.  About the only smile of the night.

[KevinGage]

If you really think about what he did and said, it means that unless we spend stupid money in the summer, he has settled for us to be mid table mediocrity merchants.

Imagine saying our first strength team couldnt beat City anyway, so why bother playing them?

If that is his attitude, where will we be next year?

It's the beauty of sport, isn't it?

Look at Ireland yesterday, B-lose on Sunday and so on. The unexpected can  happen, results don't always favour the form side, or the better/more expensively assembled one.

Truth be told, I don't think a close to full strength Aston Villa side facing and injury hit and half knackered Citeh side would have fulfilled the criteria of a major upset. When did they suddenly become untouchable?

GH say's we couldn't have won even with a full strength side yesterday.  I naturally disagree. Sad thing is we didn't even need to win, a draw would have sufficed. As it would at the return at VP and going through on penalties. B-lose drew against pretty much their first choice starting XI last month afterall. Who knows, had we managed to take them back to Villa Park they might have been in an even worse state form and fatigue wise and we could have won outright.

We'll never know, because we didn't even try.

[frank]

Enjoyed the bit when they kept the ball though.  About the only smile of the night.

There was a passage of play in the first half when we passed the ball about 20 times, but we lost it in the end (probably Bradley again, but it might have been Gabby) having gained no ground at all. We just didn't threaten going forward, whereas with Young, Albrighton and Downing last Saturday we looked very dangerous. I accept that it was only Blackburn and they were pretty dreadful, but there's no doubt that a couple of our in-form players would have made a difference last night.

[dave.woodhall]

Well he did say when he took over he saw villa as a top 12 club - seems that's the way we are going.

No he didn't.

[hawkeye]

yes i really need to be told to get a grip, so here goes i promised my 3 kids that i would take them to thier first game this season, i wont now because i dont trust the club anymore, so the proud history and bright future looks a bit fucked, the first generation of my family that will not be brought up to support Aston Villa

[eastie]

Houllier clearly stated in his 1st press conference as manager that he saw Aston villa as a 7th to 12th placed club in the pecking order- even though since the premiership began we are the 5th highest and we have just finished top 6 for the last 3 years.

His comment at the time caused a great deal of publicity.

[Clampy]

If you really think about what he did and said, it means that unless we spend stupid money in the summer, he has settled for us to be mid table mediocrity merchants.

Imagine saying our first strength team couldnt beat City anyway, so why bother playing them?

If that is his attitude, where will we be next year?

 
We'll never know, because we didn't even try.

I think this is what upsets people most. We gave up the F.A Cup with a whimper to give us more chance of beating Bolton.

[WikiVilla]

Surrendering in the FA Cup
Season ending first week in March
A very Unpopular Manager & Assistant
£110m Debt
Salifou, Beye, Warnock costing £100k per week
SHA Winning a Trophy

Dark Times

[eastie]

Not exactly great when you put it like that wiki is it ? I think If doug had been in charge with those statistics he'd be copping a lot more flak than randy is getting right now.

[WikiVilla]

I know we've got some great kids coming through and we have a very good owner who's put a lot of money in, but the landscape has changed. We end up selling our best players - FACT. I'm not sure what our realistic target can be anymore. We give up on the trophies we can actually possibly win, and have no chance of winning the PL or at this stage even qualifying for the CL

[pauliewalnuts]

Well he did say when he took over he saw villa as a top 12 club - seems that's the way we are going.

No he didn't.

No, he didn't - "top 12" might have included 1st to 6th. He said 7th to 12th.

I like lots of things about Gerard, some things he has definitely got right, and I like the way we are starting to play (these "tippy tappy football" references are pathetic - like listening to Stoke fans justifying hoofing the ball at the opposition for 90 minutes, and the very same people would soon be up in arms if we actually started doing that).

The problem with Houllier is that he judges the club incorrectly, and puts his foot in it on far too regular a basis. There's far too much of O'Learly about him on that score.

It's both tempting and easy to brush this off as "harmless", but if we're still in the relegation mix as he clearly believes, then there's no doubt that these gaffes and clangers won't have done anything to help the situation so far.

The biggest clanger of this week's events has been the pissing away of the nascent sense of "togetherness" that was building up around the club. Just when we started to look like having the crowd behind him, when the fractiousness of the earlier part of the season was slipping away and we'd put together some better results, we go and do something like this which threatens to piss it all away.

I understand his motives, but this was a bad decision, and if he thought repercussions would not go beyond the fact of us being out of the FA Cup, I think it was naive on his part.

[eastie]

Surely paulie , he would have said top 6 club if he thought we could come 1st to 6th- I do agree however that he said 7th to 12 th which i feel is a tad harsh on us given our past finishes in the league- I personally see us as a top 8 team in general, along with the lines of everton.