Will we ever be that happy again?

[newtonsballs]

You cynical bastard Villadroid, and the truth you have spoken really hurts - but as you say, we will learn to live with it. Still we don't stop supporting our club just because we're floating in shit with a little boy paddling our boat.

[john e]

Everything will turn out alright in the end

[martin o`who??]

If we stay up this season I will be overjoyed.

That goes without saying, but unless some radical changes are made, it will just be a stay of execution.

[eamonn]

It's ok John Joe, it's ok.

[richard moore]

I'm quite looking forward to us invading some 'Division 1' clubs' grounds next season

Will take me back to 87/88 and the early 70s

[ez]

Will we get a mindset of stopping up being a successful season?

[pauliewalnuts]

Football has always largely been about money buying success, but these days, it is more so. It is a prerequisite.

The majority of clubs dont really have a history of winning things, or competing, so it will be easier to accept, but it always seems to me that certain clubs - and I am thinking the likes of Villa, Everton, Spurs, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sunderland, the sort of clubs who in the past have won stuff, and who might have a history of being competitive, these clubs are going to find it much harder to accept.

The ability to compete is not there any more, because the only way to do it with any permanence is to have someone with a gigantic amount of money behind them who can buy this for you.

It is also fine and dandy to suggest breaking the top four means "arriving" at the top table in some way, but it doesn't, really. It didn't really do that much for Everton when they were in it, for example, because they were in it one year. These days, you need to be in it pretty much every year, and it's not going to happen without huge money.

I'm 44, and consider myself lucky, because in my time following / supporting Villa, I've seen us win a league title, a european cup, and four league cups. The newer generations of fans aren't going to get to see that.

[Witton Warrior]

I'm quite looking forward to us invading some 'Division 1' clubs' grounds next season

Will take me back to 87/88 and the early 70s

Only it won't happen Richard - can't just turn up and pay on the gate these days.
Would we even be the best supported club in the Championship?

[danlanza]

Will we get a mindset of stopping up being a successful season?

We would then be called Wigan FFS.
We are Aston Villa and we will be at the top again. So keep the faith and keep smiling and soon we will be there again.

[Pete3206]

Would we even be the best supported club in the Championship?

Brighton have the current best crowd average with 25,550. So yes, I think we would.

[Risso]

Would we even be the best supported club in the Championship?

Brighton have the current best crowd average with 25,550. So yes, I think we would.

That could be our new motto for the Championship: "Marginally bigger than Brighton".

[Dante Lavelli]

When has happiness been fundamentally and exclusively linked with success?
Equally just spending oodles of cash will not guarantee happiness.  There are many other facets that will dictate happiness, such as pride effort, endeavour and honesty.

[adrenachrome]

When has happiness been fundamentally and exclusively linked with success?
Equally just spending oodles of cash will not guarantee happiness.  There are many other facets that will dictate happiness, such as pride effort, endeavour and honesty.

That is all very well, but happiness does not feature in the product line of the factory of sadness.

[olaftab]

Did you even read the opening post?

Well...actually I didn't as I thought the page I hit (2) was the start! So apologies I should have realised it was another doomsday  thread in the first place from the start.

[old man villa fan]

Until something is done to change the madness that is English football, I do not believe we will compete at the top again in my lifetime.

There is too much money at stake for the 'governing body' that runs football in this country to want to change the status quo.  This 'governing body' is now TV and other media.  The ruling bodies of the game just kowtow to TV as they are dependent on the money they give.  With a top four that is almost guaranteed entry in the Champions League,  TV do not need more than four teams to compete at the top of the PL.  From four teams, there are enough games between them and against 'cannon fodder' that they can generate enough interest to sell their product.

This idea can work in other countries where there are less 'big city' clubs but in England we have a big league with far more than a handfull of clubs that could support a team at the top, given a chance.  Foreign investors are starting to realise that there are too many very rich clubs in England now for them to come in and buy their way to the top.  Man Utd are almost self-sufficient in supporting a team that will always be at the top.  Man City's backers are here for the forceable future.  Abramovich does not seem to be losing his appetite for the game.  The big backers are looking elsewhere across Europe and beyond, so anybody hoping that an arab from the desert supported by oil $s rolls up at B6 are sadly living in dreamland.

As I said, nobody with a say in how the game is now run wants to change it.  There are many things that could be done to make the PL more competitive, if only there was an interest.