Since 15th May, its been like being at Alton Towers for me. That day we saw our replacement manager lead Aston Villa to an astonishing win over Arsenal where our fans were in fine voice and doing us proud after what everybody will agree, has been a hard season for all involved.The 22nd of May became one of our proudest moments since seeing our Aston Villa team walk out of Wembley.Aston Villa fans were yet again in fine voice and saw another great victory! Oh and some team that are 3 miles away got relegated again.Since then the media have played their role in doing the usual Anti Midlands, anti Aston Villa hype in making the club a bit of a laughing stock. Linking us to every manager around which was mainly based on nothing. But this hype is what has led to very bad vibes around the Villa fan base.After last season where a large sector of fans just wasn’t behind the manager at all and were quick to jump on his back, very quick indeed. Its been understandable that fans have wanted to voice their opinions on who should be the next manager, but have been hanging off every word the media (TV and newspapers) have said. The media and journalists are famed for their conjecture, famed for their use of hyperbole and fatuous stories, that wasn’t taken into consideration by a number of people and it led to wildfires breaking out all over the social networking world.Fans from other teams even having their input making the whole situation 10 times worse.Finally on the night of Saturday June 11th, the last wildfire spread. Birmingham City's manager was Aston Villa's main target. I couldn’t do it again, couldn’t give credence to yet another story. Even still it was hard to swallow, and pretty nerve racking. Sure enough the following day he's resigned. When I heard that I couldn't believe this man who has not only led Birmingham City to their first 'Proper' trophy, but just got them relegated as well, only 3 weeks ago to the day. Sure enough the tidal wave of negativity hit us from pretty much everybody based in Birmingham, including plastic supporters of this week’s top team. I can understand this first wave of emotion, 3 weeks ago 42,000 people in Villa Park was celebrating Birmingham’s misfortunes and now it would seem we can’t do that anymore because we now have the man who took them there.All we know of is his time at Birmingham City. He took them down twice and played uninspiring football. But the more you think about it the more you start to understand why Alex was on a sinking ship. I think what people can't quite fathom is what happened there. What you have to remember is he wasn't at a club like Aston Villa, he was at a yoyo club whose only ambition was to survive.Through the years McCleish didn't have the full backing of his boards, they couldn't bring in quality players because the board wouldn't back him. E.g. Robbie Keane, Roman P, N'Zogbia. He had to take different approaches to bring in players to fill a squad, which on its day was quite alright but wasn't big enough. Once they lost their best defender they crumbled, but would have survived had they not won silver wear.(which in its own right deserves recognition). As for his style of football, they played relegation football, because of the lack of ambition from his board. He was resigned to having to play that way because he had no other option. He didn't have the good coaches, didn't have the great youth, and didn’t have the great facilities. I think all this needs to be considered when evaluating his performance as a Birmingham City manager. By the Monday morning my gut reaction had gone and i was on board after doing my research.So if we look at McLeish's record as a player and manager. He won a great amount of noticeable trophies as a player under Fergie at Aberdeen. They got in between the Glasgow domination. People discredit Scottish football but i don’t think that’s right, especially when you have European trophies to your name. As a manager he did extremely well before Rangers with average teams and got amongst Celtic and Rangers. At Rangers he did a great job, did just as much as Martin O'Neill who didn’t get stick after coming from Celtic. He won just as many honors there as Martin O’Neill.Martin O’Neill was hailed as the new messiah, a savior of the club. the best thing to happen to us but to me he had a lot to answer for regarding our turbulent transition last season, our financial situation and why the fans have began to act in such a disparaging way.Martin O’Neill brought in some great players, played exciting football and gave us some memorable moments (notably the 5-1 result), but he also made some bad decisions in the transfer market and in business, paid too much for transfer fees and in wages to these players who would just rot away, and then left us 5 days before our new campaign. A lot of fans can quite understand why the ‘messiah’ would do this and used the board and Gerard Houllier as their scapegoat.The protests last week, to me, were a backlash to that, and now it seems to a small minority Alex will now be a scapegoat for Martin O’Neill’s departure. That is unnecessary now, and might I add that Martin’s departure was a result of his own downfall “beware of false prophets“. Fans at the protest have since come out to claim certain things that were reported didn’t happen. Maybe so, but what was shown was interviews with fans who’s only justification of being there was down to the fact he’s moving 3 miles down the road to the Pride of the Midlands. The protesters and the people who have said they won’t come again. That’s a good thing to me. Because Villa Park should be full of positive, optimistic devoted fans and not one's who will disappear at the first sign of what they call a 'bad time'.Being an Aston Villa fan is a way of life, and requires dedication and devotion. If it were your child, you don't project negativity at the first sign of their weakness. You give them love and the confidence to succeed.Many people have come to terms with the appointment; they are at most cautious which is natural and acceptable. What isn’t are people taking drastic action with no basis or justification for it. But as I say, to me, it’s a backlash of fans who are still miffed about Martin O’Neill’s departure.In the current climate of football, it’s easy for a fan to say “get your chequebook out”, “sort it out” etc… because there’s teams around that remain able to do so, which in the long run will be their own downfall. The likes of the relatively small teams like Manchester City and Chelsea getting handed lottery tickets. It’s hard to see for us fans, I know. But what people have to remember is that Aston Villa Football Club is a business. The club is one with tradition, great heritage, great dignity and passion. It always has been since the great William McGregor. It should remain so. Especially when these lottery winners can’t get into Europe because they can’t break even anymore. We shall reap the rewards soon enough. Rome wasn’t built in a day.In conclusion, the point of my post is that I want people to get behind the club and manager and team. We can’t have the "I told you so" mentality. Football in general moves so fast, so if you will it to fail it will fail and we'll be in division 2 before we know it. Football is the best social event on the planet. We have the power to make watching football more entertaining as a supporter, rather than just being grim.With the protesters, I’m miffed that 99% of those people that turned up didn’t make the effort to get to Villa Park for the bells are ringing initiative on the 4th of April, yet made the effort to be in a negative movement last week. 200 people turned up that day, more people should have been there if people who protest think they were doing was good by what they did last week. Going forward we need those numbers to back initiatives, to back positive campaigns.We all shoot for the same goal. It’s to see our Aston Villa succeed. Aston Villa is an institution and needs devotees to give more.And...Geoff Vowden, Alan Curbishley, Peter withe, Dennis Mortimer, Des Bremner, Dwight Yorke, Kevin Phillips and the legend that is Ron Saunders has crossed the divide. Its never prompted such an uproar and i think these things should also be taken into consideration.I understand people pay a lot of money to watch the Villa, and go the pub and have something to eat but that’s a fans choice. People also go on holiday, when your their you don’t have a rubbish time you make the most of being there. My point being when we're down the Villa, let’s get more people involved in songs, in being positive because that is all we can do and if you really look at it that positive approach does touch those players and it does make them better.It gives them confidence to be creative, you look down the road at blues and their fans. it’s no wonder they are a yoyo team because they are whining gits. We as Villa fans have class, tradition, grace and dignity (most of the time). Let’s show it! What a rollercoaster ride we’ve had, it’s now time to rebuild and progress united to the cause.Semper Fidelis. Always Believe.by M Hinckley
I'm tired of do-gooders telling me to back the shirt. I'm pissed off,right?
Quote from: garyfouroaks on June 20, 2011, 07:06:18 PMI'm tired of do-gooders telling me to back the shirt. I'm pissed off,right?So what are you saying then, are you not going to support Villa anymore because you don't like the manager?
I'm tired of do-gooders telling me to back the shirt. I'm pissed off,right?Having F'ing Eck looking like the boy from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory who had opened the golden ticket at the press conference today did not help my humour, either.
Quote from: saunders_heroes on June 20, 2011, 07:07:30 PMQuote from: garyfouroaks on June 20, 2011, 07:06:18 PMI'm tired of do-gooders telling me to back the shirt. I'm pissed off,right?So what are you saying then, are you not going to support Villa anymore because you don't like the manager?I'm saying that I reserve the right to be grumpy for a bit.
QuoteAll we know of is his time at Birmingham City. He took them down twice and played uninspiring football. But the more you think about it the more you start to understand why Alex was on a sinking ship. I think what people can't quite fathom is what happened there. What you have to remember is he wasn't at a club like Aston Villa, he was at a yoyo club whose only ambition was to survive.Through the years McCleish didn't have the full backing of his boards, they couldn't bring in quality players because the board wouldn't back him. E.g. Robbie Keane, Roman P, N'Zogbia. He had to take different approaches to bring in players to fill a squad, which on its day was quite alright but wasn't big enough. Once they lost their best defender they crumbled, but would have survived had they not won silver wear.(which in its own right deserves recognition). As for his style of football, they played relegation football, because of the lack of ambition from his board. He was resigned to having to play that way because he had no other option. He didn't have the good coaches, didn't have the great youth, and didn’t have the great facilities. I think all this needs to be considered when evaluating his performance as a Birmingham City manager. By the Monday morning my gut reaction had gone and i was on board after doing my research.
All we know of is his time at Birmingham City. He took them down twice and played uninspiring football. But the more you think about it the more you start to understand why Alex was on a sinking ship. I think what people can't quite fathom is what happened there. What you have to remember is he wasn't at a club like Aston Villa, he was at a yoyo club whose only ambition was to survive.Through the years McCleish didn't have the full backing of his boards, they couldn't bring in quality players because the board wouldn't back him. E.g. Robbie Keane, Roman P, N'Zogbia. He had to take different approaches to bring in players to fill a squad, which on its day was quite alright but wasn't big enough. Once they lost their best defender they crumbled, but would have survived had they not won silver wear.(which in its own right deserves recognition). As for his style of football, they played relegation football, because of the lack of ambition from his board. He was resigned to having to play that way because he had no other option. He didn't have the good coaches, didn't have the great youth, and didn’t have the great facilities. I think all this needs to be considered when evaluating his performance as a Birmingham City manager. By the Monday morning my gut reaction had gone and i was on board after doing my research.
I personally thought it was a fairly well-written, thought-provoking article.
Oh, and while we're at it, can we stop calling him "Eck"?
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