'Waste of a Club'

[Toronto Villa]

The MON obsession is obviously fuelled by his immediate success at Sunderland and given sharper contrast by our problems. It's oxygen for the mystique that the media encases him with. However, for us, we are in danger of making MON the new Moscow. We really need to get on with trying to back the new bloke however hard he makes it for us sometimes.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

It's surprising how many people are obsessed by him, a friend who i drink with pre-match worships the ground he walks on.
Gandalf who sits in front of me (So called as he will not allow anybody to pass whilst he's having his half time coffee) said to me
'As far as i'm concerned, the sun rose and set with Martin O'Neill'

When i've pointed out the shit signings he made and money wasted, he's always come back with the same thing
'But what about Ashley Young?'

The big problem with the MON-obsessives is that they're giving plenty of fuel for their fire, due to the unremitting shitness of our current Manager.
 

[Percy McCarthy]

Great post kt, and you're right - our lack of success in the last 90-odd years absolutely reinforces Billy Walker's points.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

  The massive potential is still there, where it's been for the last 90 years, but it isn't going to be realised by yet another dimwit owner who barely goes to the club and whose idea of a Villa manager is Alex McLeish.     

Well said.

[MarkM]

  The massive potential is still there, where it's been for the last 90 years, but it isn't going to be realised by yet another dimwit owner who barely goes to the club and whose idea of a Villa manager is Alex McLeish.     

Well said.

I can't see how you can run two resource depleting organisations [Brown's and Villa] and make both a sucess

The evidence from both clearly shows that you can't.

I think our owner will at some point soon need to decide which one will take the majority of time, money and attention in order to make it a sucess. Or we will both continue on a downward trajectory

[levico]

The articles reminds me of an away match at Leeds the season before ther were relegated. Big ground, 40,000 gate, loud intimidating music, croud noisy and cocky ...... The world was their oyster. Not been back since ... Long may they languish. I think that might be our story soon though.

[damon loves JT]

If bedwetting were an Olympic sport I reckon you could pick the British team from this thread. And guarantee gold in the individual, team, freestyle and rhythmic events.

[Jimmy Smash]

HUGHTON.

The man's name is HUGHTON.

That's better.

Oh yeah... thanks for that.

[ktvillan]

  The massive potential is still there, where it's been for the last 90 years, but it isn't going to be realised by yet another dimwit owner who barely goes to the club and whose idea of a Villa manager is Alex McLeish.     

Well said.

I can't see how you can run two resource depleting organisations [Brown's and Villa] and make both a sucess

The evidence from both clearly shows that you can't.

I think our owner will at some point soon need to decide which one will take the majority of time, money and attention in order to make it a sucess. Or we will both continue on a downward trajectory

That would be a fair point except my understanding is that Browns were rubbish under RL even before he took over Villa.   He just doesn't seem to be very good at running sporting enterprsises.

[Dr Butler]

  The massive potential is still there, where it's been for the last 90 years, but it isn't going to be realised by yet another dimwit owner who barely goes to the club and whose idea of a Villa manager is Alex McLeish.     

Well said.

I can't see how you can run two resource depleting organisations [Brown's and Villa] and make both a sucess

He just doesn't seem to be very good at running sporting enterprsises.

then maybe Randy should surround himself with "football people" ie: someone like Steve Stride ?  and then Randy would be just the money-man and the clubs figurehead.

UTV
The Doc

[Pete3206]

I think its important to remember that MON is still in the honeymoon phase, and I it's inevitable that one day he will fcuk them over as he has done everyone else.

Who else did he 'fuck over'?

At Leicester he turned Leeds down mid-season. At Celtic he left to look after his very ill wife. At Norwich he was lied to by their crooked chairman and so walked when he realised this.

Contrary to what's said on here, Celtic fans don't hate him - many of them still call him 'St. Martin'.

Dave, what did Gregory ever do with any other club?

MON didn't turn Leeds down. In fact, he was very vocal about wanting to talk to Leeds. The Leicester chairman denied him permission to talk to them and that was that. Later on, he nearly joined Leeds from Celtic, but it fell through

Even if that's true (it's contrary to my memory, but that doesn't mean much), how did he 'fuck them over'?

I didn't say he did. That was the other fella.

[not3bad]

people can't keep blaming MON for what has happened since he left, as some do.

He was our manager.  He isn't anymore.  Let's move on.

While he's still working 'miracles' at Sunderland that will be impossible because we'll be constantly reminded.

[Rob92]

It's interesting to read people's perspectives on the size of Villa, the potential of the club and our "place" in football.

As someone who has no connections to the Birmingham area and started watching Villa in the late 90's, from my point of view Villa were always a mid-table club, with the odd spell in Europe and the odd flirt with the drop. Some great results in the league, but more embarrassing exits in the cups. We've had some decent players over the years and some good teams, but apart from the MON years, I've never really had genuine expectations or ambitions about seeing Villa compete at the top of the league or win trophies. Not knowing anyone else who supports Villa, I guess I've formed my own views on where we are and while I'm very aware and very proud of the club's heritage, the reality on the field is that generally speaking we've been mediocre at best.

With regards to the fanbase, while Villa are very well supported in the midlands I think it's fair to say that clubs like Newcastle and Leeds have a much bigger fanbase across the nation, whereas Villa's support is mainly local. To be honest, I've never understood where Newcastle's nationwide appeal comes from, but with Leeds (as with Liverpool and Man Utd) their fanbase seems to come from their sustained glory days. Villa have never really had that in modern times, despite 81 and 82, it wasn't a sustained period of success or dominance. I guess this is another reason that Villa aren't seen as a fashionable club in other areas of the country, a bit like Man City, but I'm sure their nationwide fanbase will grow as time goes by.

I think it's fair to say that under MON we had our best chance of ever breaking into football's elite and with the money that would have come with CL qualification, we could have pushed on and had a period of relative success. I think the most soul destroying thing for fans of Villa, as well as Everton and other clubs that aspire to be in the top four, is that Man City needed to spend £500m to get where they are. Who on earth can compete with that? As much as I find our transfer activity frustrating, the reality is that we simply can't compete with clubs like United, City, Chelsea or Liverpool in terms of finances. Even Stoke City do better than us in the transfer market for fuck sake.

It's frustrating and we all dream of this club being amongst England and Europe's elite, but unless we get a ridiculously good manager in or someone with hundreds of millions to throw about, I can't see it happening any time soon.

Having said that, I'm in full agreement with people who say we couldn't have done much worse than hiring McLeish. I remember my mate texting me saying that there were rumours of him coming to us, I told him to stop winding me up and how it'd simply never happen. No one wanted him from the start, he was never going to get any time and frankly, he had to do something extraordinary to get people on side. By extraordinary I'm talking top four, or an FA Cup win. Even if he finished 8th, I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one thinking that's nothing particularly special.

I haven't been to a game since the WBA home defeat. Frankly, I can't be arsed to travel 250 miles, spend 6 hours on a train by myself and spend £80+ to watch his shite, negative, boring football. I don't mind us losing games, it's always happened and always will, but when the lads don't even have a go, I can't put up with that. I'll probably be back before the end of the season, because I love my club. I just hope that people don't get the idea that we're too good/big to go down - Because we're not.

[not3bad]

Even Stoke City do better than us in the transfer market for fuck sake.

?

[N'ZMAV]

They sign world beaters like Cameron Jerome.