Our strategy

[Billy Walker]

We have high aspirations for the Villa, we want our club to be challenging for the top honours but the reality is that we wont.

Lets face it we are not going to compete with Manchester [blue or red], Chelsea or Arsenal and with Spurs and Liverpool making progress we are left in at best 5th / 6th but more realistc 7th / 8th. I would think that the board realise this and have settled for this and are cutting our cloth to fit.

Unless the top four dissapear into a European League then we we will be an also ran club hoping for cup win from time to time.

Unless of course the football governing bodies decide to cap wages etc... then we might have a chance again

Football constantly changes and evolves and we don't know what is around the corner.  We could get new investment, as you say, that allows us to compete for the best players.  Conversely, new rules might come in to establish new wage and transfer caps.   We just don't know what is around the corner.  One thing I am certain of, though, is that we have had sustained parts of our history when we were out performing and beating the Lpools, Manchesters, Arsenals etc.  We are more than a big enough club in terms of location and history for this to start happening again.

The key is that we, as a club, never lose our ambition and desire to compete.  Clearly we are hamstrung at the moment with Randy's situation but we just have to keep aiming as high as we can.  As custodian of the club I would hope Randy is doing all he can to make sure Villa are competing at the highest level in the not too distant future, be that through employing dynamic leadership or securing new investment  - preferably both.

[UsualSuspect]

Randy is doing all he can to tighten us up financially and if he had a half decent offer he would sell tomorrow. IMO

[Concrete John]

It's interesting as Chelsea were traditionally below us in the pecking order, but that massive investment from Roman propelled them ahead of us.  He doesn't put as much in as he did before, because the success that initial investment created has evolved the club and it now generates more of it's own income, be it the CL money or shirt sales in Asia.

Traditionally, lots of clubs had their periods of dominance and also being also rans - was it 25 years between titles for Man Utd before 1993?  The difference now, as we all know, is that money is so much at the heart of the game that once you have it, be it through rish owners or excellent marketing and commercialism, only someone with the same or more can challenge you.  And unless you do get an oil billionaire going down that marketing/commercialism route is a hiding to nothing as outside your existing fans all anyone cares about is the glamour clubs the media fawns over, who already have the money.

So to me the whole 'where should Villa be' argument is pretty much redundant in the modern game as the true question that defines how good we are is how rich we are.   

[VillaZogmariner]

Randy is doing all he can to tighten us up financially and if he had a half decent offer he would sell tomorrow. IMO

Is what I am thinking too.

[MarkM]

We have high aspirations for the Villa, we want our club to be challenging for the top honours but the reality is that we wont.

Lets face it we are not going to compete with Manchester [blue or red], Chelsea or Arsenal and with Spurs and Liverpool making progress we are left in at best 5th / 6th but more realistc 7th / 8th. I would think that the board realise this and have settled for this and are cutting our cloth to fit.

Unless the top four dissapear into a European League then we we will be an also ran club hoping for cup win from time to time.

Unless of course the football governing bodies decide to cap wages etc... then we might have a chance again

We are more than a big enough club in terms of location and history for this to start happening again.

You could say the same for the British Empire but it aint gonna happen.

[ktvillan]

The fact is, though, that for about 98 of those 100 years we've been at best marginal contenders or at worst appalling. Take out League Cups and all the clubs I've mentioned have won more trophies than us during that time. We've never been more than best of the rest so to expect more than that as some sort of birthright and to complain when it doesn't happen is wide of the mark.

Difficult to argue with that, however I'd say we've been particulalry unfortunate in that, pretty much since the days of Rinder and co., we seem to have attracted a succession of spectacularly  inept owners and board members who have in turn appointed a series of average or downright incompetent managers.  In short we have failed to realise our potential for most of the last 100 years, but that doesn't mean the potential wasn't there.   For example, Liverpool were a run of the mill second division team until Shankly and the Moores family tapped their potential.  Sadly it is probably no longer enough to attract, say, 60,000 a week of the 2-3 million population within 30 miles of VP and be well run with a top manager.  We'd also need an injection of at least 200 milion pounds in transfer fees plus 50-100 m a year extra on wages to have a cat in hell's chance of achieving top 3.  The game has been killed stone dead as a competitive sport except for a select few.

[Dave Cooper please]

Not sure I agree with the average team for a hundred years.
We have had a succesion of Managers Taylor, Atkinson, Little, Gregory and  Mon that have got us very close to being competing with the Top Teams in England. Everytime through mis-management we have shot ourselves in the foot and faded. How many other Clubs outside the Lpool, Chelsea, Manure Arsenal have been threatening to breakthrough as often as The Villa. Spurs and Everton maybe. The rest have had brief spells in the Sun but have then yo yod from mediocre to worse.
This shows me that we have or had the capability to play with the big boys. Maybe our time will come again. UTV

One league title, one European trophy and two FA Cups in that time suggest we have.

Better than that - Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, Spurs, Leeds, Forest.

So we're not a top 5 club then Mr Woodall

In terms of trophies won, no. In terms of consistent league finishes, yes.

[MarkM]

Not sure I agree with the average team for a hundred years.
We have had a succesion of Managers Taylor, Atkinson, Little, Gregory and  Mon that have got us very close to being competing with the Top Teams in England. Everytime through mis-management we have shot ourselves in the foot and faded. How many other Clubs outside the Lpool, Chelsea, Manure Arsenal have been threatening to breakthrough as often as The Villa. Spurs and Everton maybe. The rest have had brief spells in the Sun but have then yo yod from mediocre to worse.
This shows me that we have or had the capability to play with the big boys. Maybe our time will come again. UTV

One league title, one European trophy and two FA Cups in that time suggest we have.

Better than that - Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, Spurs, Leeds, Forest.

So we're not a top 5 club then Mr Woodall

In terms of trophies won, no. In terms of consistent league finishes, yes.

Looking back we can say that we are a top side, however in the present time that we are in we are not a top side, we dont have the cash, the team or the marketing appeal to make us a top side.

I dont see top players / managers beating a path to join the Villa [just look at the manager situation we were in]

[Billy Walker]

We have high aspirations for the Villa, we want our club to be challenging for the top honours but the reality is that we wont.

Lets face it we are not going to compete with Manchester [blue or red], Chelsea or Arsenal and with Spurs and Liverpool making progress we are left in at best 5th / 6th but more realistc 7th / 8th. I would think that the board realise this and have settled for this and are cutting our cloth to fit.

Unless the top four dissapear into a European League then we we will be an also ran club hoping for cup win from time to time.

Unless of course the football governing bodies decide to cap wages etc... then we might have a chance again

We are more than a big enough club in terms of location and history for this to start happening again.

You could say the same for the British Empire but it aint gonna happen.

Well, I would say the rules and conditions for empire building are different to those of football club building (but no one can predict the future for certain so you never know...)

When it comes to football I actually believe that a big change in the game will come when the clubs from Asia, South America etc. decide they have had enough of allowing European clubs to dominate their markets and the progress and growth of their own clubs.  I'm pretty sure punters in Hong Kong, for example, are going to say at some point: "Hold on, why am I supporting a football club half a world away when we have perfectly good football clubs here and plenty of money to make our clubs the biggest and best on the planet."

Now, if and when that day comes, it will be very interesting.   

[Billy Walker]

Not sure I agree with the average team for a hundred years.
We have had a succesion of Managers Taylor, Atkinson, Little, Gregory and  Mon that have got us very close to being competing with the Top Teams in England. Everytime through mis-management we have shot ourselves in the foot and faded. How many other Clubs outside the Lpool, Chelsea, Manure Arsenal have been threatening to breakthrough as often as The Villa. Spurs and Everton maybe. The rest have had brief spells in the Sun but have then yo yod from mediocre to worse.
This shows me that we have or had the capability to play with the big boys. Maybe our time will come again. UTV

One league title, one European trophy and two FA Cups in that time suggest we have.

Better than that - Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, Spurs, Leeds, Forest.

So we're not a top 5 club then Mr Woodall

In terms of trophies won, no. In terms of consistent league finishes, yes.

Instead of looking at the last one hundred years of football why don't we compare the performances of those clubs during the first one hundred years of the game? 

[MarkM]

Not sure I agree with the average team for a hundred years.
We have had a succesion of Managers Taylor, Atkinson, Little, Gregory and  Mon that have got us very close to being competing with the Top Teams in England. Everytime through mis-management we have shot ourselves in the foot and faded. How many other Clubs outside the Lpool, Chelsea, Manure Arsenal have been threatening to breakthrough as often as The Villa. Spurs and Everton maybe. The rest have had brief spells in the Sun but have then yo yod from mediocre to worse.
This shows me that we have or had the capability to play with the big boys. Maybe our time will come again. UTV

One league title, one European trophy and two FA Cups in that time suggest we have.

Better than that - Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, Spurs, Leeds, Forest.

So we're not a top 5 club then Mr Woodall

In terms of trophies won, no. In terms of consistent league finishes, yes.

Instead of looking at the last one hundred years of football why don't we compare the performances of those clubs during the first one hundred years of the game? 

If you are trying to establish a list of 'The big clubs in English Football History' then looking back would establish Aston Villa as huge club.

However if assessing the present then we must do a 'where are we now' analysis including comparing ourselves to our competitors, if we do that they we are an also ran in terms of obtaining success.

[dave.woodhall]

Not sure I agree with the average team for a hundred years.
We have had a succesion of Managers Taylor, Atkinson, Little, Gregory and  Mon that have got us very close to being competing with the Top Teams in England. Everytime through mis-management we have shot ourselves in the foot and faded. How many other Clubs outside the Lpool, Chelsea, Manure Arsenal have been threatening to breakthrough as often as The Villa. Spurs and Everton maybe. The rest have had brief spells in the Sun but have then yo yod from mediocre to worse.
This shows me that we have or had the capability to play with the big boys. Maybe our time will come again. UTV

One league title, one European trophy and two FA Cups in that time suggest we have.

Better than that - Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, Spurs, Leeds, Forest.

So we're not a top 5 club then Mr Woodall

In terms of trophies won, no. In terms of consistent league finishes, yes.

Instead of looking at the last one hundred years of football why don't we compare the performances of those clubs during the first one hundred years of the game? 

Because in this context it's irrelevant. Nobody is going to support or join us because we were good in the 1890s. 

[luke95]

Not sure I agree with the average team for a hundred years.
We have had a succesion of Managers Taylor, Atkinson, Little, Gregory and  Mon that have got us very close to being competing with the Top Teams in England. Everytime through mis-management we have shot ourselves in the foot and faded. How many other Clubs outside the Lpool, Chelsea, Manure Arsenal have been threatening to breakthrough as often as The Villa. Spurs and Everton maybe. The rest have had brief spells in the Sun but have then yo yod from mediocre to worse.
This shows me that we have or had the capability to play with the big boys. Maybe our time will come again. UTV

One league title, one European trophy and two FA Cups in that time suggest we have.

Better than that - Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, Spurs, Leeds, Forest.

So we're not a top 5 club then Mr Woodall

In terms of trophies won, no. In terms of consistent league finishes, yes.

In terms of trophies won we could well consider ourselves top 5 but we aint won to many trophies over the last 80 yrs or so .

As for consistant top 5 finishers , when was this becouse it certainly aint in my time of following the Villa

[pauliewalnuts]

There's a difference between thinking we should, and expecting us to, compete, and seeing success as a birthright.

I see it used a lot on here but I don't think anyone really thinks the latter, do they? We haven't won anything for 15 years now.

I just want us to try to do the best we can, if we don't do that, then why are we all bothering?

[NeilH]

I just want us to try to do the best we can, if we don't do that, then why are we all bothering?

Because for at least 28,000 or so Villa fans there's no choice and the club know that. I'm not being cynical or anything, but for many many of us, we'll go to Villa no matter what.