Relegation Possibility

[django]

The problem is, we still think that we are a big club. Sadly it appears that no one at the Club has the same belief. I mentioned some time ago, Managers and players when they joined would allways refer to them joining a massive or big club. Even MON did that. Look at the statements coming from Mcliesh, look at our players reaction to Ashley Young. There is something very wrong SGT addressed that and provided leadership that is absent right now.
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Yeah there is a small time attitude from top to bottom at the moment. Lerners willingness for us/him to be patronised by the letter from fergie, the 'theatre of dreams' shit from Oh Eck, the players chumming up to the enemy in the middle of a defeat. And the marketing department trying vainly to sell tickets for games by calling them 'cup finals'. Its embarrassingly amateurish.

Now i need to get collecting those ticket stubs for the cup final tickets.....whats that? should just be able to turn up?

[KevinGage]

I don't delude myself that we're on a par with Man U, Arsenal and the like anymore.

But by Christ, lets not go the route of fawning over them, happy just to share a pitch.

That mindset comes from the top down, and is one of a number of things that needs to change.

[Lee]

I don't delude myself that we're on a par with Man U, Arsenal and the like anymore.

But by Christ, lets not go the route of fawning over them, happy just to share a pitch.

That mindset coms from the top down, and is one of a number of things that needs to change.

The worrying thing is how that mindset has changed so quickly. At least last season under Houllier, it didn't make sense at times, but by and large the was at least an under current that there were things that we required to be changed post PoisonDwarf. Since then it has been a constant car crash, and the fault lies with Lerner period. There is no goodwill left for me, his cosmetic spiel is no good if the product on the pitch is not up to scratch.

I'm  too long in the tooth to expect CL football anytime in my lifetime now, but what I do expect is a Villa side at least trying to win football matches. Ecks incompetence means that we will struggle to do that. The sooner he departs the better

[Greg N'Ash]

Think Mcleish let the cat out the bag when he said he thought the season would be difficult when he took over. He'd didn't say that at the time, nor did the club, but i think they're happy to see us bump along the bottom till the kids suddenly come good and lead us to the promised land along with presumbly 4 or 5 free transfers to make up the numbers.. Personally i don't think Mcleish is convinced this plan is going to work anymore than i am, but Lerner and Faulkner have gone for it hook line and sinker and really believe they're going to turn us into the ajax of England. Total muppets the pair of them

[hawkeye]

Well Greg Mcliesh only does difficut seasons, thats his forte. It did not need to be this difficut.

[Vanilla]

Think Mcleish let the cat out the bag when he said he thought the season would be difficult when he took over. He'd didn't say that at the time, nor did the club, but i think they're happy to see us bump along the bottom till the kids suddenly come good and lead us to the promised land along with presumbly 4 or 5 free transfers to make up the numbers.. Personally i don't think Mcleish is convinced this plan is going to work anymore than i am, but Lerner and Faulkner have gone for it hook line and sinker and really believe they're going to turn us into the ajax of England. Total muppets the pair of them

The really worrying part is how quickly we have slipped from the top six, through the middle eight, right into being a bottom six outfit.

If you were a neutral observer, new to English football and had seen our approach to games, you would probably think we had only just recently been promoted into the EPL.

[tomd2103]

Think Mcleish let the cat out the bag when he said he thought the season would be difficult when he took over. He'd didn't say that at the time, nor did the club, but i think they're happy to see us bump along the bottom till the kids suddenly come good and lead us to the promised land along with presumbly 4 or 5 free transfers to make up the numbers.. Personally i don't think Mcleish is convinced this plan is going to work anymore than i am, but Lerner and Faulkner have gone for it hook line and sinker and really believe they're going to turn us into the ajax of England. Total muppets the pair of them

The really worrying part is how quickly we have slipped from the top six, through the middle eight, right into being a bottom six outfit.

If you were a neutral observer, new to English football and had seen our approach to games, you would probably think we had only just recently been promoted into the EPL.

The warning signs were there last season though Vanilla.  Remember when we had a lot of injuries around Christmas time last year, fielded a lot of the players who are featuring now and dropped right down the table (weren't we in the bottom three at one point)?  Luckily we signed Bent in January, a few of the injured players returned and we were able to climb the table.  We haven't been so lucky this time and the injuries have come at the worst possible time. 

[Matt Collins]

I agree that Faulkner's vision of us being the Ajax of English football is very risky. We're still waiting for a single one of these kids to really prove themselves, and mcleish took such a view pretty early on.

West ham got relegated with Ferdinand, carrick, lampard, cole and defoe. We certainly don't have a batch of kids in that league, I doubt any of them are at that level.

[pauliewalnuts]

I agree that Faulkner's vision of us being the Ajax of English football is very risky. We're still waiting for a single one of these kids to really prove themselves, and mcleish took such a view pretty early on

Not only that, but Ajax manage to keep their best players longer than we would, as they're in the CL year in, year out, and are the biggest club in their league.

It wouldn't be the same for us, and to my mind raises big questions over how valid a comparison Ajax is (although it's a very nice one).

[PaulWinch again]

To be Ajax as well you need a passing football philosophy. So that's right out of the window with this clown in charge.

[VillaAlways]

To be Ajax as well you need a passing football philosophy. So that's right out of the window with this clown in charge.

We have that philosophy all though the academy, which is why the appointment of Mcleish is an absolute joke and was not thought through in any shape or form.Sheer negligence

[richard moore]

Think Mcleish let the cat out the bag when he said he thought the season would be difficult when he took over. He'd didn't say that at the time, nor did the club, but i think they're happy to see us bump along the bottom till the kids suddenly come good and lead us to the promised land along with presumbly 4 or 5 free transfers to make up the numbers.. Personally i don't think Mcleish is convinced this plan is going to work anymore than i am, but Lerner and Faulkner have gone for it hook line and sinker and really believe they're going to turn us into the ajax of England. Total muppets the pair of them

The really worrying part is how quickly we have slipped from the top six, through the middle eight, right into being a bottom six outfit.

If you were a neutral observer, new to English football and had seen our approach to games, you would probably think we had only just recently been promoted into the EPL.
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In truth, there is scant difference between the quality of the teams in 6th to 8th place and most of the bottom 6 clubs. It's not as far a journey as I suspect you make it out to be