That said, Randy might actually start making some money against by sacking McLeish as I think this will galvanise the fans and re-ignite the interest that has been lost.
Quote from: brian green on April 06, 2012, 11:07:28 AMI do not want to see Villa relegated. The pain would be unbearable. In addition my age makes it more than likely I shall never see them back in the top half dozen teams in the land.However, I am coming closer and closer to the opinion that it will take relegation to have a sufficiently drastic effect on the governance of the club to cure us of the sickness which grips us.What is happening to us is what is happening to top level football in the country generally but writ large. We have ceased to be a football club and have become a product.As football moves further and further away from its cultural and geographic roots and seeks to become part of the entertainment industry, more and more clubs are being run along contemporary business lines which dictate that they have to be "marketed".That is the canker which has eaten away at our club. We have a naive owner who has never really understood the way we feel about our clubs in this country. He has appointed directors who have no feel for or understanding of the fact that football does not obey the conventions of business. Why else would so many of us have paid Doug Ellis £11 each for shares in Villa which were not worth a fifth of that sum? Neither do the directors have any football nous. The owner does not believe that they need any. They are in place to run a business.They and the owner have squandered twelve millions pounds in pursuit of a replacement for O'Neill but neither they, nor the current man of their choice is held to account for their monumental blundering.As I said in another thread, because the directors and the owner absorb their knowledge of what is happening to Villa via the media the comment in yesterday's Daily Mirror that the fans (implying all the fans all the time) have been on McLeish's back since he arrived, that media lie and all the others like it will carry much more weight in the Villa boardroom than anything we say or do. The manager is what he is, a man of unimpressive record completely out of his depth in the premiership. He stays in place because the media says we the fans hate him for where he came from and because the owner was personally involved in appointing him.If the club is to be re-born, it has to be utterly purged of the concept that it is a product to be sold and that the loyal fans are nothing more than a crop to be harvested. Such has to be the depth of the purge that we have to get back to the basics of taking into consideration whether a player like Emile Heskey should be signed when he has always been a figure of contempt and ridicule by the fans. In the new dawn which may or may not break through the Astonian Gloom (epic couplet) if say, Craig Gardner was available in the summer whoever is in charge has to consider if that player's provocative and hostile comments about Aston Villa make him a suitable player to wear the shirt. To ignore such implications is to perpetuate the concept that the fans will turn up however they are treated. To respect the fact that the bedrock fans have expectations of behaviour and loyalty from players paid such obscene sums of money is where the rebuilding must begin.I think we may just scrape out of the bottom three this season but that in itself will only make matters worse if the sickness which ails our club is carried into next season. I see Sid and KMac being in charge by Christmas, nearly two years too late.spot on Brian. The board never had a plan, just spend till we ended up in a mess.
I do not want to see Villa relegated. The pain would be unbearable. In addition my age makes it more than likely I shall never see them back in the top half dozen teams in the land.However, I am coming closer and closer to the opinion that it will take relegation to have a sufficiently drastic effect on the governance of the club to cure us of the sickness which grips us.What is happening to us is what is happening to top level football in the country generally but writ large. We have ceased to be a football club and have become a product.As football moves further and further away from its cultural and geographic roots and seeks to become part of the entertainment industry, more and more clubs are being run along contemporary business lines which dictate that they have to be "marketed".That is the canker which has eaten away at our club. We have a naive owner who has never really understood the way we feel about our clubs in this country. He has appointed directors who have no feel for or understanding of the fact that football does not obey the conventions of business. Why else would so many of us have paid Doug Ellis £11 each for shares in Villa which were not worth a fifth of that sum? Neither do the directors have any football nous. The owner does not believe that they need any. They are in place to run a business.They and the owner have squandered twelve millions pounds in pursuit of a replacement for O'Neill but neither they, nor the current man of their choice is held to account for their monumental blundering.As I said in another thread, because the directors and the owner absorb their knowledge of what is happening to Villa via the media the comment in yesterday's Daily Mirror that the fans (implying all the fans all the time) have been on McLeish's back since he arrived, that media lie and all the others like it will carry much more weight in the Villa boardroom than anything we say or do. The manager is what he is, a man of unimpressive record completely out of his depth in the premiership. He stays in place because the media says we the fans hate him for where he came from and because the owner was personally involved in appointing him.If the club is to be re-born, it has to be utterly purged of the concept that it is a product to be sold and that the loyal fans are nothing more than a crop to be harvested. Such has to be the depth of the purge that we have to get back to the basics of taking into consideration whether a player like Emile Heskey should be signed when he has always been a figure of contempt and ridicule by the fans. In the new dawn which may or may not break through the Astonian Gloom (epic couplet) if say, Craig Gardner was available in the summer whoever is in charge has to consider if that player's provocative and hostile comments about Aston Villa make him a suitable player to wear the shirt. To ignore such implications is to perpetuate the concept that the fans will turn up however they are treated. To respect the fact that the bedrock fans have expectations of behaviour and loyalty from players paid such obscene sums of money is where the rebuilding must begin.I think we may just scrape out of the bottom three this season but that in itself will only make matters worse if the sickness which ails our club is carried into next season. I see Sid and KMac being in charge by Christmas, nearly two years too late.
a win today and this thread will be redundant
The 2000s are the first decade since the 1940s that Aston Villa have not won a major trophy. I'm not so sure the PL era has been that good to us. Also, we finished second twice between 1990-1993 and haven't been within an ass's roar of the title since.
canker
Get the football right and the finances will look after themselves is a simple truism lost on the Villa board.
Quote from: Irish villain on April 07, 2012, 10:41:45 AMThe 2000s are the first decade since the 1940s that Aston Villa have not won a major trophy. I'm not so sure the PL era has been that good to us. Also, we finished second twice between 1990-1993 and haven't been within an ass's roar of the title since.The defining moment for the Villa was the expansion of the Champions League in 1997. At that time Brian Little was on the downward slope with the Villa and having finished 4th and 5th the previous two seasons, with a League Cup trophy thrown in, he couldn't repeat that. The year before Arsenal put Wenger in charge and finished 1st or 2nd in every one of pretty much the next 10 seasons. That meant they got the Champions League money and we never qualified. Then Chelski came on the scene in the early 2000's whilst we put DOL in charge.The Premier League has neither particularly benefited us or put us at a disadvantage but the expansion of the Champions League and the fact we missed the boat left us in a situation where even Randy throwing the best part of a quarter of a billion pound at the club still meant we couldn't make up the gap.
Quote from: john e on April 07, 2012, 11:10:19 AMa win today and this thread will be redundant A lot of people thought that after the Fulham game when we went 11 points clear.
We will be o.k now.A battling point at Anfield dosen't usually translate into losing the rest of the seasons games.
Quote from: SoccerHQ on April 07, 2012, 08:45:24 PMWe will be o.k now.A battling point at Anfield dosen't usually translate into losing the rest of the seasons games.A win at Stamford Bridge doesn't usually translate into a home defeat against Swansea either.