Fans reaction.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Most fans I know feel totally betrayed by the club with the appointment of McLeish and are still angry that after renewing their season tickets prior to his arrival they have been subjected to a season of absolute torment at Villa Park.

It's ok though because no-one is going to renew next year so the hostility will be replaced by virtual silence.

I'll renew. I'm still a Villa fan whoever's in charge.
Also I'm way past McLeish being ex Small Heath. In fact if he sorts out the defence next season I think we'll have a good team.

Finally, some sense.

[DeKuip]

Just about every club in the country has far more shit seasons than good... it's all part of being a football fan.
I bet you if a survey was done of every fan leaving a football ground in England this coming weekend, more would be unhappy with what they'd just seen than happy – the majority would say it was poor value for money and a good proportion would grumble about their manager, or chairman.
It defies logic that the vast majority keep going back, week in, week out... but we do.
I don't know why at times, but I do to. So long as I can afford to and so long as we are The Villa and play at Villa Park  I'm sure I will carry on doing so. Whoever is the manager, whichever division we're in and whatever overpaid, clueless bunch of let-downs are out on the pitch in claret n blue.
Just imagine how good it'll feel to beat City on Sunday!

[Percy McCarthy]

Good post DeKuip. And I think you answered your question about why we defy logic and keep going right at the end of your post.

[Stu]

Why are so many supporters now so hostile towards their own club and players?.

I will tell you why. Because the younger supporters ( I mean anybody under 40), just like the players, are a bunch of over indulged spoilt brats who think they have an entitlement to everything, and they are entitled to it right now !
With your mobile phones and i pads and whatever, you all turn up at the game in your air conditioned cars and have your nice comfy seats. You can watch live football under the stand on colour TVs before the game, get all the interviews and team info instantly. The pitches are all pristeen without a blade of grass out of place, and you see tippy tappy pretty football because nobody can tackle anymore without receiving a 4 game ban. At half time, you can even buy healthy food if you want and consume it in a smoke free atmosphere and relieve yourself in clean toilets.

Back in my day you had to get four different shitty British Rail trains to get to a mud heap at Rochdale, get treated like shit by the Police, eat cold nasty pies at half time surrounded by the smell of woodbines, have a piss up against some corrugated iron fence, then after watching 22 blokes kick lumps out of each other and we had lost 1-0 hope to be back in Birmingham in time so you could get an Argus to find out any other results.....If you were lucky !

Your all soft !   

I apologise for being born in 1992 when football started to get shit.

If we're honest about it, football in the 80s wasn't all that either.

For every tale of bring back standing, and the swirling mass of humanity which was the Holte, there were far more occasions when you stood with acres of empty space around you, or, when there was a crowd, wade through piss soaked terraces to watch the match.

I think us who remember it from back then are probably more than a bit guilty of romanticising things.

To add to this, what former glories have people under the age of about 26 got to look back on? Its all very well caning younger supporters for being impatient when you've seen Villa at the pinnacle of the sport, but I reckon for younger fans, the lack of tangible success and the outright cost of following the team makes them more vocal in their criticism.

[Dave Clark Five]

Why are so many supporters now so hostile towards their own club and players?.

I will tell you why. Because the younger supporters ( I mean anybody under 40), just like the players, are a bunch of over indulged spoilt brats who think they have an entitlement to everything, and they are entitled to it right now !
With your mobile phones and i pads and whatever, you all turn up at the game in your air conditioned cars and have your nice comfy seats. You can watch live football under the stand on colour TVs before the game, get all the interviews and team info instantly. The pitches are all pristeen without a blade of grass out of place, and you see tippy tappy pretty football because nobody can tackle anymore without receiving a 4 game ban. At half time, you can even buy healthy food if you want and consume it in a smoke free atmosphere and relieve yourself in clean toilets.

Back in my day you had to get four different shitty British Rail trains to get to a mud heap at Rochdale, get treated like shit by the Police, eat cold nasty pies at half time surrounded by the smell of woodbines, have a piss up against some corrugated iron fence, then after watching 22 blokes kick lumps out of each other and we had lost 1-0 hope to be back in Birmingham in time so you could get an Argus to find out any other results.....If you were lucky !

Your all soft !   

I apologise for being born in 1992 when football started to get shit.

If we're honest about it, football in the 80s wasn't all that either.

For every tale of bring back standing, and the swirling mass of humanity which was the Holte, there were far more occasions when you stood with acres of empty space around you, or, when there was a crowd, wade through piss soaked terraces to watch the match.

I think us who remember it from back then are probably more than a bit guilty of romanticising things.

To add to this, what former glories have people under the age of about 26 got to look back on? Its all very well caning younger supporters for being impatient when you've seen Villa at the pinnacle of the sport, but I reckon for younger fans, the lack of tangible success and the outright cost of following the team makes them more vocal in their criticism.

I agree with that. What with Villa Park having totally changed as well over recent years it is a different Villa that younger people are trying to identify with. A comparison of average wages for fans against entry fee to matches, say, 40 years ago, 30 years ago and today would make interesting reading.

Beer prices would also give an indicator. I know that Ansells Mild was about 12p a pint in a public bar in 1973, with tickets costing about 60p.

Beer is now about £2.50 so a five fold increase would put match tickets at £12.50.
On that basis, we are being ripped off and I am not taking the piss on this occasion.   

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Why are so many supporters now so hostile towards their own club and players?.

I will tell you why. Because the younger supporters ( I mean anybody under 40), just like the players, are a bunch of over indulged spoilt brats who think they have an entitlement to everything, and they are entitled to it right now !
With your mobile phones and i pads and whatever, you all turn up at the game in your air conditioned cars and have your nice comfy seats. You can watch live football under the stand on colour TVs before the game, get all the interviews and team info instantly. The pitches are all pristeen without a blade of grass out of place, and you see tippy tappy pretty football because nobody can tackle anymore without receiving a 4 game ban. At half time, you can even buy healthy food if you want and consume it in a smoke free atmosphere and relieve yourself in clean toilets.

Back in my day you had to get four different shitty British Rail trains to get to a mud heap at Rochdale, get treated like shit by the Police, eat cold nasty pies at half time surrounded by the smell of woodbines, have a piss up against some corrugated iron fence, then after watching 22 blokes kick lumps out of each other and we had lost 1-0 hope to be back in Birmingham in time so you could get an Argus to find out any other results.....If you were lucky !

Your all soft !   

I apologise for being born in 1992 when football started to get shit.

If we're honest about it, football in the 80s wasn't all that either.

For every tale of bring back standing, and the swirling mass of humanity which was the Holte, there were far more occasions when you stood with acres of empty space around you, or, when there was a crowd, wade through piss soaked terraces to watch the match.

I think us who remember it from back then are probably more than a bit guilty of romanticising things.

To add to this, what former glories have people under the age of about 26 got to look back on? Its all very well caning younger supporters for being impatient when you've seen Villa at the pinnacle of the sport, but I reckon for younger fans, the lack of tangible success and the outright cost of following the team makes them more vocal in their criticism.

I agree with that. What with Villa Park having totally changed as well over recent years it is a different Villa that younger people are trying to identify with. A comparison of average wages for fans against entry fee to matches, say, 40 years ago, 30 years ago and today would make interesting reading.

Beer prices would also give an indicator. I know that Ansells Mild was about 12p a pint in a public bar in 1973, with tickets costing about 60p.

Beer is now about £2.50 so a five fold increase would put match tickets at £12.50.
On that basis, we are being ripped off and I am not taking the piss on this occasion.   

Or you could be saying that beer is too cheap these days.

[john e]

a double whisky was 38p in London in 1975

[N'ZMAV]

I don't like Whisky.

[KevinGage]

I wasn't around in the Third Division days, a wee bit before my time that.

But from what I can understand, part of the buzz was we were the biggest club by far in that division, there were a whole host of new grounds to visit and -crucially-  we all expected that we would be back in the upper echelons of the game soon enough.  Our stint in the lower reaches was just a brief sojourn.

Back then it was also possible to go from the Second to the First and compete for the title, so most sides in the top flight would have believed that -with a bit of luck, this might be their year. 

Now, barring Man U and clubs funded by Gulf states or Russian oil, it is inconceivable that your side will realistically be competing for major honours anytime soon.  When you remove hope, you kill a big part of the appeal to the game. 

Fans will generally be patient if they see a work in progress -even in these 'want it now' times.  They will be turned off if they see a side merely treading water, happy just to make up the numbers. 

[MarkM]

£1.25 for me to stand on the Holte in the mid 80's

[Stu]

£1.25 for me to stand on the Holte in the mid 80's

I think it was Mac who posted something like "Before the prem began, a match ticket cost the equivalent of 4 pints of beer. Now a ticket costs the equivalent of 16 pints of beer."

Lovely beer.

[MarkM]

One thing that does concern me [amongst other things] is the comments made on many a thread along the lines of:

"We should buy this player or that player" or "We need a new and better defence get rid and get better players in"

Although I agree with the sentiments the reality as I see it means that we will not be spending loads trying to rebuild the team no matter how much we reduce the wage bill.

What’s the point in all this cutting back if we are going to just splash the cash in the summer? We may as well just have spent in the last transfer window or not bothered to sell on players and kept them for squad strength.

I see this reduction in spending being a long term thing [at least about 5 years] so I don’t see the future looking any brighter, unless RL finds some more cash to inject into the team.

But with his focus apparently elsewhere I just don’t see RL putting in the time, effort and investment that is needed to turn us back into a consistent top 6 side again

[VillaAlways]

A Bluenose on my Facebook has just posted a photo of a bedsheet hanging from Villa Park gates saying" Proud History.No Future under him".He said it was from today.

[Concrete John]

One thing that does concern me [amongst other things] is the comments made on many a thread along the lines of:

"We should buy this player or that player" or "We need a new and better defence get rid and get better players in"

Although I agree with the sentiments the reality as I see it means that we will not be spending loads trying to rebuild the team no matter how much we reduce the wage bill.

What’s the point in all this cutting back if we are going to just splash the cash in the summer? We may as well just have spent in the last transfer window or not bothered to sell on players and kept them for squad strength.

I see this reduction in spending being a long term thing [at least about 5 years] so I don’t see the future looking any brighter, unless RL finds some more cash to inject into the team.

But with his focus apparently elsewhere I just don’t see RL putting in the time, effort and investment that is needed to turn us back into a consistent top 6 side again

The theory is, which obviously not everyone subscribes to, is that the wages must not exceed a certain level in relation to turnover.  So if we're there now, then seeing players like Heskey, who is supposed to be on £30k a week, allows other to come in.  We couldn't do this last summer as he, amongst others, were still here.

Time will tell.

[MarkM]

One thing that does concern me [amongst other things] is the comments made on many a thread along the lines of:

"We should buy this player or that player" or "We need a new and better defence get rid and get better players in"

Although I agree with the sentiments the reality as I see it means that we will not be spending loads trying to rebuild the team no matter how much we reduce the wage bill.

What’s the point in all this cutting back if we are going to just splash the cash in the summer? We may as well just have spent in the last transfer window or not bothered to sell on players and kept them for squad strength.

I see this reduction in spending being a long term thing [at least about 5 years] so I don’t see the future looking any brighter, unless RL finds some more cash to inject into the team.

But with his focus apparently elsewhere I just don’t see RL putting in the time, effort and investment that is needed to turn us back into a consistent top 6 side again

The theory is, which obviously not everyone subscribes to, is that the wages must not exceed a certain level in relation to turnover.  So if we're there now, then seeing players like Heskey, who is supposed to be on £30k a week, allows other to come in.  We couldn't do this last summer as he, amongst others, were still here.

Time will tell.

Isnt that just for playing in European games?