'Waste of a Club'

[Mister E]

It's interesting to read people's perspectives on the size of Villa ... that people don't get the idea that we're too good/big to go down - Because we're not.

Thought-provoking, Rob.
Question: why did you start following the Villa?

[Rob92]

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

?

I'd have Palacios and Crouch at Villa...

It's interesting to read people's perspectives on the size of Villa ... that people don't get the idea that we're too good/big to go down - Because we're not.

Thought-provoking, Rob.
Question: why did you start following the Villa?

Well... When I was 5 (1996/97 season) I noticed my Dad and brother both talking about/watching football quite a lot and I wanted to get involved, so my Dad bought me a Merlins sticker book, which is where most of my football knowledge first came from. They both support Man Utd, so at that time I followed them and took an interest in United. At the end of that season, I needed Simon Grayson to complete my book and was obsessed about getting his sticker and I finally got it. Because of this, I always remembered his name and the next season when the new book came out, the first sticker in the first packet I opened was Simon Grayson again! But this time he played for Villa and for some reason, I decided that they were now my team. My Dad took me to a pre-season friendly at Wycombe in the summer of 98 (we won 3-0) and he took me to Villa Park for the first time that season for the game against Forest (we won 2-0, they got relegated) and I was hooked.

It's a ridiculous story and not really worth all the heartache, but there were go!

[andrew08]

The thing is we're so stuck in the middle. Although we worry about relegation no one else in the league would think we have anything to worry about. It's like the odd week when Everton are 15th, then they win a couple and are 9th or 8th. And they moan about it as much as we do. Fulham are the same except in their case it's alternated home games to away games and they seem to just like being in the Premier League, don't tackle anyone and qualify for Europe that way. Stoke are this generations Wimbledon and will eventually go away, although I like the 'all in it together' spirit that  they have up there. We will draw our way to 40 odd points boring the pants off any neutral and even though Sunderland have the managerial Messi in charge we will still finish above them this season.  All of us winning nothing, playing results focussed drab footy and getting nowhere near qualifying for Europe.

[hawkeye]

I think we lost the potential to be a Big Club some time ago, I remember the Serpentine being filled with coaches from every county in the Midlands, the 70s despite being in the 3rd division proved that we were a big club because of the support we attracted from far and wide, now all the sons of those guys that used to travel to support the Villa are wondering around in Manure Chelsea Citeh shirts.
The club have continued to fail to recognise that Aston Villa is not just about Birmingham.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think we lost the potential to be a Big Club some time ago, I remember the Serpentine being filled with coaches from every county in the Midlands, the 70s despite being in the 3rd division proved that we were a big club because of the support we attracted from far and wide, now all the sons of those guys that used to travel to support the Villa are wondering around in Manure Chelsea Citeh shirts.
The club have continued to fail to recognise that Aston Villa is not just about Birmingham.

I think they realise it. I just don't think they know how to do it.

[hawkeye]

I think we lost the potential to be a Big Club some time ago, I remember the Serpentine being filled with coaches from every county in the Midlands, the 70s despite being in the 3rd division proved that we were a big club because of the support we attracted from far and wide, now all the sons of those guys that used to travel to support the Villa are wondering around in Manure Chelsea Citeh shirts.
The club have continued to fail to recognise that Aston Villa is not just about Birmingham.

I think they realise it. I just don't think they know how to do it.

If you think about it, it is not that difficult

[rutski]

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

?

I'd have Palacios and Crouch at Villa...

It's interesting to read people's perspectives on the size of Villa ... that people don't get the idea that we're too good/big to go down - Because we're not.

Thought-provoking, Rob.
Question: why did you start following the Villa?

Well... When I was 5 (1996/97 season) I noticed my Dad and brother both talking about/watching football quite a lot and I wanted to get involved, so my Dad bought me a Merlins sticker book, which is where most of my football knowledge first came from. They both support Man Utd, so at that time I followed them and took an interest in United. At the end of that season, I needed Simon Grayson to complete my book and was obsessed about getting his sticker and I finally got it. Because of this, I always remembered his name and the next season when the new book came out, the first sticker in the first packet I opened was Simon Grayson again! But this time he played for Villa and for some reason, I decided that they were now my team. My Dad took me to a pre-season friendly at Wycombe in the summer of 98 (we won 3-0) and he took me to Villa Park for the first time that season for the game against Forest (we won 2-0, they got relegated) and I was hooked.

It's a ridiculous story and not really worth all the heartache, but there were go!

i read your previous long winded post rob and did want to start picking it apart, but i cant be arsed!

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

So far he's done nothing more for them than John Gregory did for us, and the similarity doesn't end there.

Care to expand?

They both had plenty of money available, both had a transfer record best described as mixed, both played crap football, left in circumstances that suited them rather than the club and had a hold over some of our supporters that I couldn't understand then and still can't.

John Gregory had a hold over some of our supporters? Really? I don't ever remember that, even when we were top of the league. Everyone I have ever spoken to has never held Gregory in high regard - it was clear we were never actually that good under him (when we were flying high, the team was just playing on confidence (if only they could now!!!)).

To compare Gregory and MON is ridiculous. One flourished with a half-decent team handed to him and then it went downhill quickly, whilst playing shocking football and went because we were shit. The other was consistently good when handed a fairly crap team, whilst playing, at times poor football, but at other times entertaining, if not "total", football and left because he did not want to sell our (possible) best player, Milner (and did not want Ireland (and we've all seen why)).

Under one manager I expected nothing, under the other I went into every match believing we could win. Since I've been going (1995), I've never experienced that under any other manager. It's something I thoroughly enjoyed, even though it may not have turned out how we would've liked it to in the end.

[TheSandman]

... and left because he did not want to sell our (possible) best player, Milner (and did not want Ireland (and we've all seen why)).

Did he??? Everything I've heard suggests exactly the opposite,

[Ian.]

So MON has come out and said that has he? I thought he was quiet on the subject.

[KevinGage]

I thought that theory had bit the dust when MON didn't proceed with his claim against the club. 

MON was the first one to officially flag that Milner wanted out and -according to one of our ITK's here- he'd fallen out with Milner as far back as the Chelsea mauling.

Stephen Ireland was also quite philosophical about his treatment under GH just prior to his loan move to Newcastle.   "I don't blame him.  He didn't sign me, it was the last manager who wanted me."     I assume he didn't mean Kevin Mac who was caretaker manager when the deal was completed, I can't see a temporary manager having that much say.  Particularly when Ireland and cash to us in exchange was mooted way before MON's departure.   The hold up was SI's reluctance to move from his boyhood club initially and then waiting on his payoff.  Not any reluctance on MON's part to do the deal.

[cheltenhamlion]

That deal was long sorted before pubehead chucked his toys out of the pram. And this nonsense about him being desperate to keep Milner won't go away will it.
 

[Percy McCarthy]

A motivated Steven Ireland, plus Robbie Keane and money in exchange for Milner could have been a great deal for us.

[nigel]

Super article.
This is the paragraph that, for me, hits the nail on the head:
"This is a club with the infrastructure, history and support to be a top six side in the Premiership. Everything that has been achieved at Spurs could easily have been achieved here with the same ownership and managerial appointments."

Let's hope that this season was just to balance the books and with a few summer signings next season we start to climb again.

That'll be the same Spurs who sacked Martin Jol while he was managing a game, hired Juande Ramos and didn't get a point until October, hired Christian Gross and Jacques Santini to general incredulity and spent most of the last decade dribbling hopelessly while trying to hang onto the coattails of their more illustrious rivals. I would argue even the hiring of Redknapp was a lucky strike - it wasn't as if he was hugely successful at West Ham or Southampton, and Portsmouth didn't have the capital to sustain the man's approach to the transfer market. I think that like every club, Spurs have found it's all come together at the right time, and once their purple patch is over they'll be back with the also-rans like us.

That's not quite what I was getting at, Curious.
We'd finished 6th three seasons on the trot and could, should, have kicked on from that. Thus we'd have been playing Champions League and been part of this elite top 6, as it is now.
You could also probably go back to when Doug failed to back John Gregory's bid for a young Robbie Keane, too, as a time when we failed to kick on from a promising position.

[ajmant]

In terms of missing the opportunity to kick on, that kind of sums up Villa for me on and off the pitch. Everytime we have had a great chance to get right to the top or very close to it, we find a way of missing it.

I've supported the Villa as long as I can remember. I'm now 37 and I just accept that making it difficult for ourselves is the Villa way!!