Six Whammies

[brian green]

It is almost impossible to overstate the damage done to Aston Villa in the last 21 months.

During the time I have been following the Villa there have been terrible blows we have had to suffer but there has been nothing which compares with the series of hits we have taken recently.   We have gone from being a respected club of note with the name of a children's hospice on our shirt to being a complete basket case which promotes a chinese gambling organization.

The first blow was the departure of O'Neill.   My own personal opinion is that it was premeditated and timed to cause the club as much damage as possible.   O'Neill is not the sort of man to do things on a whim.   I believe that there must have been clear signals that all was not well with him and the directors failed to pick up any of the storm warnings.   Doug Ellis's spies would have had HDE informed of every straw in the wind.   Our directors were either naive or incompetent or both.

The second blow was that the club had to take a very large, undisclosed financial hit for its treatment of O'Neill without any public word ever being uttered in defence of the club.   Of all the hits, this is the one which pains me most.   The club was made to look ridiculous and toothless.

The third blow was the loss of Houllier.   The appointment of a man with heart problems into a massively stressful situation exacerbated by rampant player power disruption left behind O'Neill's tenure was a ticking timebomb which duly exploded.

The fourth hit was the decision by the owner that the books had to be balanced.   No harm in that.   Money is money.   The damage was caused by the instant change from big spending club with aging players on huge wages and very long contracts to cheap and cheerful club reliant upon cheap home grown players thrown into the deep end prematurely.

The fifth torpedo amidships was the absurd pantomime of attempts to find a replacement for Houllier.   It was a public relations cock up of monumental proportions and because it was such a shambles it led to -

Disaster number six namely the appointment of Alex McLeish whose shortcomings and failings have been too well documented for me to elaborate upon them.

The net result of these six whammies is the complete breakdown of trust between the club and its fanbase.   The fans have been disregarded on an almost weekly basis and I think it will take years for that trust to be restored.

No more free flags and scarves.   Give us proper, open communication about what the club is doing and why it is doing it.   If you want to keep the fans, trust them.

If the club can once again start to treat the fans as intelligent responsible adults the healing process can begin.   If it is more "Dunne Says Lay Off McLeish" PR bullshit things will never be the same again. 

[Monty]

This thread may get locked or merged, but you've summed the matter up very well there Brian.

[Toronto Villa]

Genting is Malaysian and are worth billions. Fuck me another new thread to discuss the same thing.

[spangley1812]

Genting is Malaysian and are worth billions. Fuck me another new thread to discuss the same thing.

yup.......I make this the 25th at least

[Legion]

Brian's post is excellent, but moderating this board is nigh on impossible right now. I just don't know which way to turn.

[Kingthing]

Brian's post is excellent, but moderating this board is nigh on impossible right now. I just don't know which way to turn.

Its like lord of the flies.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

Brian's post is excellent, but moderating this board is nigh on impossible right now. I just don't know which way to turn.

Its like lord of the flies.

Sounds more like 'Lord of The Ring'.

[KevinGage]

It's worthy of a thread in isolation IMO, as it charts our decline from a reasonable high point in 2010 (when we were being tipped by the likes of Fergiescum and Wenger as outsiders for the title - as bizarre as that seems now) to the present day.   It doesn't just focus on the ineptness of the current patsy.

Must say I don't have a particular problem with the shirt deal though, one of the few things Faulkner has actually got right over the past 21 months.

[Irish villain]

Great post Brian. It's been a dizzying fall from grace.

Two years ago we were posting about the need to increase the capacity of Villa Park and what was needed to finally break that hoodoo identified by Graham Taylor all those years ago. That there was something preventing Aston Villa making the next step forward to becoming a giant. We thought one or two new signings, a bigger stadium, better football would do the trick. Two years ago I think we were joint fourth.

Look at us now? Praying the teams below us don't win, over 10,000 empty seats on a weekly basis and looking more and more like a Championship side every week. It's just shocking. It's spectacularly scary just what a mess the club has made of the past 24 months.

[Billy Walker]

It is a great post Brian.  Randy has been shown to be totally out of his depth over the past couple of years.  He needs real, top quality, modern thinking football men in at the top advising him.  He needs blue chip people who understand the business of football too.

I've got to be honest though, my brain's fried thinking about how Randy has buggered things up.  I need Villa positivity just for the next three games...after that, when we have assured ourselves of survival, I hope Randy will take a long hard look at himself and start the process of putting things right.

[hawkeye]

This would be of great value if the people in charge read it, if not just another we are fcuk thread

[ozzjim]

Brian's post is excellent, but moderating this board is nigh on impossible right now. I just don't know which way to turn.

Its like lord of the flies.

Please don't break my glasses!

[James]

Excellent post Mr Green!

[villasjf]

It's worthy of a thread in isolation IMO, as it charts our decline from a reasonable high point in 2010 (when we were being tipped by the likes of Fergiescum and Wenger as outsiders for the title - as bizarre as that seems now) to the present day.   It doesn't just focus on the ineptness of the current patsy.

Must say I don't have a particular problem with the shirt deal though, one of the few things Faulkner has actually got right over the past 21 months.

We probably paid Genting £10m to put their name on our shirt.

[darren woolley]

Top post Brian.