Your interest in the villa

[peter w]

i was nervous as hell when we started the second half on Sunday and shat myself as that free-kick was hurtling goalwards. i also coincide any return back to the UK with a game. Myself and my dad have indoctrinated my 11 year-old nephew and now he is bitten by the bug. When I go home in October as the missus is having number two (due Oct 14th) I'm already pencilling in Fulham away on 20th and taking my 3 year-old tohis first game the following week against Norwich. No, I am still hooked.

[willywombat]

Last year I not only stopped getting up in the middle of the night to watch games, I only watched the recordings if we had won. Even then I often only watched our goals and then turned it off.  Like a lot of others though I feel completely different about this season, win lose or draw I've got a feeling we're going to be worth watching again

[littlevillain]

It's been full on for me since the third division days. I'd say the only thing that's changed as i've got older is
realizing that 'we' the fans are Aston Villa not the players. This was even more apparent to me after chatting to some of the current squad in philly and chicago in july. Made me really think about the unbelievable support this amazing club has had over the years and the places I'd been to just because.
Win or lose we will still be there regardless of who's playing in the shirt.

[Percy McCarthy]

Great post lv.

[villajk]

I've even looked forward to leaving the pub.

Fecking hell, steady on son

That's what I'm supposed to say to him.  Not that I believe it (unless he's been in the pub since the crack of dawn).

[villajk]

I am as mad for it as ever I have been.   Makes no difference to me really if we are shite, which we are as often as not, or if we are brilliant which is an extreme rarity.   I have been swallowed whole by Aston Villa and life without them would be meaningless.

My only fear is not relegation or being bought up by Carson Yeung, it is some twat moving the club to the M6 M42 junction or somewhere similar.   I stand (I do stand most of the time) where my grandfather stood on the Holte End, my sons and my grandsons will stand where I stand.   Having the worst manager in the known universe or losing all the games in a season pale into insignificance to those kind of feelings.

I think this manager is the real deal.   I think this is the new dawn not the false dawn of O'Neill's perfidy.

I forgot.   I never want them to play in any other colours.

Not all,obviously, but more or less my sentiments.  Well said, Brian.

[dave.woodhall]

I've even looked forward to leaving the pub.

Fecking hell, steady on son

That's what I'm supposed to say to him.  Not that I believe it (unless he's been in the pub since the crack of dawn).

I wonder where he gets it from?

[villajk]

Like father, like son.

His Dad wouldn't be able to keep up with him these days.

[dave.woodhall]

Like father, like son.

His Dad wouldn't be able to keep up with him these days.

His mother, however...

[villajk]

Like father, like son.

His Dad wouldn't be able to keep up with him these days.

His mother, however...

Drinks far too much soda water!

[Vancouver]

A few years ago I would be in a terrible mood if we lost to the point that my GF would cancel evening plans if it was a bad one. I used to get incredibly excited about going to the games that sometimes it would boil over the top on match days.

Now days I get up in morning and watch the game, if it's on TV, and go about my business as if nothing happened.

[Hookeysmith]

This might sound non-sensical but it's Lambert's few words that have got me excited again. It reminds me a lot of the great Ron Saunders where he would rather say little and show more. There is a very quiet, no nonsense attitude about Lambert that I like immensely. He has restored a sense of calm and dignity to the club. The players are buying into it and so are the fans. He has brought in by design players that wanted to come to the club. Young, up and coming players that as many have pointed out bring with them an intriguing sense of the unknown. I just like it. He made short work of dumping Collins, Hutton and Warnock and has issued fair warning to others in dropping Given. Nobody is safe for the first time in a long, long time.

I'm not going to enjoy the result of every game but I know full well that at the start we'll have set out trying to win it. That's what I have wanted for ages it seems. For my team not to lie down and take it. If we go down we'll go down fighting. Football has changed and the chance to win the title has likely gone for good. But I just want to enjoy the pursuit of it and the cups again knowing my team will do their best every time. And as for the so called experts. Let's just let the style of play and the results talk for us.

This just about sums it up for me
I could just add that at only 2 times in my life have i felt that the villa was becoming a chore - the first time was under DOL and the 2nd was obviously TSM. You worked all week to enjoy a game of football and we were served that shite from TSM that i nearly gave it all up  - and as most know i actually get paid to watch them!  how bad could it be

I like the whole philosophy of PL and the way the club is going - I know it was only one game against newcastle (we all got excited last year when against Arsenal we actually had a go at them and that proved to be a false dawn) but the effort they put in means that anything less and he will not be afraid to drop them - the Given move on Sunday was a catalyst for me and there was no way that the likes of GH / MON / TSM would have ever done that to such a senior pro - that above all else will inspire the younger players to think"If i get a chance i have to take it"  and that can only be a very good thing

[Chrisupnorth]

I'm content with the thought that we appear to have appointed a manager who has the potential to improve us without necessarily spending big to achieve it. How long is it since we've been able to say that?

[Hookeysmith]

As for modern football - i really do question why i subscribe to Sky anymore (I do really as its for the golf coverage) i used to watch almost every single live game - now i cannot stomach supadupamegasunday bollocks

Liverpool have not had a great start and now we have had Talk Shite have an inquest over 3 days - ffs

As for the Villa - wives and girlfiends have always been told that they were there before them and they would be there after them - so please dont ever try and get inbetween us as its a greater love than family and there would only be one winner

[damon loves JT]

I was at a family do with the in-laws on the first day of the season. One of them - a Spurs fan - announced the Villa result gloatingly just as we were sitting down to eat. I didn't react but my missus was ready to kill him - she thought I was going to sink into an angry depression and spoil her evening.

I didn't, which surprised her. The truth is I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of being upset. I just made pleasant conversation with his new and very pretty girlfriend, which he didn't like at all.