Boring Boring Football

[London Villan]

Its only ever been Liverpool Manure,Chelsea,Arsenal and now more recently Man City in the last 30 years that have ever been in with a chance of winning the title.

You forgot Blackburn.

And Leeds, Everton, Newcastle, Ipswich...

[Dave Cooper please]

No, I meant that the new UEFA rules are meaningless in their vain attempt to create some sort of level playing field and force clubs to live within their means, because clubs like Citeh and doubtless all the other big clubs in Europe will just find more and more inventive ways of getting around the rules, and ultimately we all know that UEFA won't be that arsed as long as they are still getting the biggest clubs into the latter stages of the Champions league.

[Gazza1982]

Its only ever been Liverpool Manure,Chelsea,Arsenal and now more recently Man City in the last 30 years that have ever been in with a chance of winning the title.

You forgot Blackburn.

And Leeds, Everton, Newcastle, Ipswich...

Fair play, Leeds and Blackburn did it once,Newcastle and Ipswich came close once and we did it once and came close twice. Thats 3 other clubs other than Liverpool Manure,Arsenal and Chelsea in 30+ years! Thats why I dont mind Man City breaking up the monopoly, just wish it was us obviously.

[Gazza1982]

Forgot Everton twice, thats four clubs in 30+years.

[dave.woodhall]

Its only ever been Liverpool Manure,Chelsea,Arsenal and now more recently Man City in the last 30 years that have ever been in with a chance of winning the title.

You forgot Blackburn.

And Leeds, Everton, Newcastle, Ipswich...

Fair play, Leeds and Blackburn did it once,Newcastle and Ipswich came close once and we did it once and came close twice. Thats 3 other clubs other than Liverpool Manure,Arsenal and Chelsea in 30+ years! Thats why I dont mind Man City breaking up the monopoly, just wish it was us obviously.

Watford and Southampton both finished runners-up, and Ipswich did so twice .

[Gazza1982]

All Im trying to say is that those 4 clubs have dominated the English game for the last 30 years,the FA Cup is even worse, other than City last year and Portsmouth,I dont think anyone other than those 4 have won it for years and years.

[dave.woodhall]

Forgot Everton twice, thats four clubs in 30+years.

Four clubs what? Eight clubs have won the league in that time.

[Gazza1982]

Four clubs..Villa,Everton,Leeds and Blackburn have won it 5 times between them in the last 30+ years, the rest of the time its either ManU,Chelsea,Arse or Liverpool..the original point being that you have to go back over 30 years to when the league was relatively competitive, certainly a lot more than it is now.

[VillaZogmariner]

I can't say I'm going to miss watching "The most exciting bestest league in the whole wide universe".

[LeeB]

Some of my best memories at Villa park were the European nights.Juventus in particular, at the back of the Holte when Cowans scored with a diving header to make it 1-2 (sure it was Cowans), my Dad nearly swallowed his cigarette with the surge forward.
I'll take 'mildly embarrased' all day long to see the cream of Europe back at Villa Park again and to lift the FA cup once more, in fact, to be honest, I really wouldnt give a shit.

It's this attitude which has been exploited and allowed the situation football finds itself in.

If we lifted the FA Cup using the means that Citeh have, it wouldn't mean dick to me.

So if Sheikh Loadsadosh came along with the promise of a few hundred million quid to invest in the team you would say, keep your money raghead,we are above all that! I think you would find yourself in the minority.

Well no, I wouldn't say that because it would be a bit racist, but aside from that I wouldn't feel that my club has acheived anything of note, other than confirm that money corrupts the sport I love.

Last season was the first time since the eighties I haven't had a season ticket, due to my family commitments, and in that time I've taken over running my sunday league side. I get far more pleasure organising, watching, and more often than not playing in those games than I do going down the Villa. I've been playing football for 25 years and it's the first time I've thought that, the Villa always came first and I gave up the chance of playing Saturday football because of it.

Maybe other people get other things out of following the Villa, but for an old romantic like me I want to feel that maybe through hard work, innovation and ambition we could still hope to get to the top, and maybe we can but it looks a lot less likely when someone is pouring their country's sovereign wealth to a competitor's transfer budget.

And that's before you look at that issue from a moral veiwpoint.

It's just fucking wrong.

[Gazza1982]

Got to say I agree with you for the most part.When you consider that a Russian team whose name I cant even pronounce and never heard of is now buying up the likes of Etto and the like and can basically buy whoever they like and pay them more in a week that im likely to earn in a lifetime then from a moral point of view its most definately wrong. The likes of people like Shankley,Revie,Saunders,Clough who built teams from sheer know how and from the ground up is long gone to be replaced by chequebook power and not much else.

[5ft811st2 Durham]

Got to say I agree with you for the most part.When you consider that a Russian team whose name I cant even pronounce and never heard of is now buying up the likes of Etto and the like and can basically buy whoever they like and pay them more in a week that im likely to earn in a lifetime then from a moral point of view its most definately wrong. The likes of people like Shankley,Revie,Saunders,Clough who built teams from sheer know how and from the ground up is long gone to be replaced by chequebook power and not much else.

I recently read a book about Revie's Leeds and it was fascinating to read about how he took  a side at the bottom of Division 2 in 1961 to the brink of the League and Cup double four years later, and needless to say his success had absolutely nothing to do with money. Leeds were just lucky enough to appoint a genius (albeit a flawed one) as their manager and in those days that's pretty much all it took and what a great game football was in England for that reason. A game where supporters could always live in hope.


 

[Dave]

When you consider that a Russian team whose name I cant even pronounce and never heard of is now buying up the likes of Etto and the like and can basically buy whoever they like and pay them more in a week that im likely to earn in a lifetime then from a moral point of view its most definately wrong.

Yeah, why can't smaller teams just learn their place in the world.

[Gazza1982]

When you consider that a Russian team whose name I cant even pronounce and never heard of is now buying up the likes of Etto and the like and can basically buy whoever they like and pay them more in a week that im likely to earn in a lifetime then from a moral point of view its most definately wrong.

Yeah, why can't smaller teams just learn their place in the world.

Thats unfair and you know it.Thats not what i am saying at all.....simply that money will eventually buy them success,not that they dont deserve it any more than anyone else.

[Mister E]

Last season was the first time since the eighties I haven't had a season ticket, due to my family commitments, and in that time I've taken over running my sunday league side. I get far more pleasure organising, watching, and more often than not playing in those games than I do going down the Villa. I've been playing football for 25 years and it's the first time I've thought that, the Villa always came first and I gave up the chance of playing Saturday football because of it.

Maybe other people get other things out of following the Villa, but for an old romantic like me I want to feel that maybe through hard work, innovation and ambition we could still hope to get to the top, and maybe we can but it looks a lot less likely when someone is pouring their country's sovereign wealth to a competitor's transfer budget.

And that's before you look at that issue from a moral veiwpoint.

It's just fucking wrong.

You summed it up for me, mate.
I've also bailed out of being a ST holder this season after a fair old period of ownership - and I really enjoy the time that I've now got to do other football-related stuff: watching my local team, reffing junior football games. I still watch Villa (via t'Interweb) and spend my time on here and other Villa-related sites, but the attraction of being there has deminished - and I hate saying that, 'cos I still love the buzz of a live Villa game ...
... a difficult situation really.