Do you have the right to moan?

[exiled on the wirral!]

Are you Prince William?

He sounds like he is Handsworth Villa's brother to me!!

[jeowje]

Obviously we all moan amongst ourselves, and this is nobody's business but our own. I think if i were the type to start complaining to the club or local media with letters or whatever i would probably only feel entitled if i went to more games or invested more money than i do.

[Small Rodent]

Just realised that TA is only 19

Yes.

And I'm really a Small Rodent that can type.

[supertom]

Even if you haven't put a penny into the coffers of the club, if you've chosen them, and stuck by them through thick and thin, then you have a right to moan when things aren't going right.
Most of us have bought kits, gone to matches, watched matches on Sky (and the money goes back to the club), bought videos, whatever. If you ever bought a Muller yoghurt between 93-95 you probably put a little bit of money in the Villa vault indirectly.

If you support a club throughout your life you have the right have a gripe when they do silly things like hire Alex McLeish or sign Alan Hutton.

In this day and age too it's as difficult as it's ever been for fans to actually get to games. Ticket prices keep going up. Jobless rates are up too, and off hand I'd have thought round the midlands through to the North, unemployment is higher than say the south and south east, so that also directly affects the main area that most Villans come from.

[Alan Rock]

I think as long as you've put some kind of money into the
club, or have done over the years be it going to games or
buying Villa merchandise etc, your entitled to moan if you
want. So long as you care about Villa that's the main thing.

[eamonn]

Just realised that TA is only 19

Yes.

And I'm really a Small Rodent that can type.

Dangermouse!

[Sister of Top Cat]

The only thing that irritates me is when non-attendees moan about the lack of atmosphere/crowd. 

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

I have a moan, but I won't be going at all this season. I love Aston Villa but I just hate modern footba££ more. I'm sick of the money and more importantly sky ruining the game I love.

[Sexual Ealing]

I won't be going till Doug stops pulling the strings.

[KevinGage]

I won't be going until they serve shitake mushrooms topped with filled peppers and French canelés in the Holte. 

[Chris Smith]

Everyone has the right to moan but what's the point? It doesn't achieve anything, it doesn't make you feel any better and it irritates people around you. We all do it, although some much more than others, but it's mostly pretty futile.
 

[john in oz]

Slight tangent but does anyone else find that, when at the match, actually watching the game, the nerves are far easier to handle than they are when watching on television / internet / even just following the score on a phone?

If you take two matches of equal importance, frustration, tension, one watched at home, one at the game, I always find the games watched at home way, way more horrible - I frequently end up turning the telly off and just checking the score after it has finished (and walking repeatedly around the house until I know it has done so).

At the match, I suddenly become far more zen about the whole thing.

my wife goes mad as i always turn over when its too close,cant handle it

[TheSandman]

I think the important thing is a passion for the club you claim to support. Moaning is even one possible manifestation of that.

[john e]

we moan about all the Man Utd fans who never see thier team play but have a lot to say about them,
so why are Villa fans any different if they cant be bothered

I don't go anything like I used to when I was a younger, so i'm certainly not as good a fan as I was in past times, so i'm having a go at myself as much as anyone with what i'm going to say

if you want to live in another country or miles away from VP then that's your choice, the Villa experience obviously wasn't to high when you made it
i'm not having a go here, but I'm sorry I know fans on here who go to every game home and away, you cant tell me that they aren't better supporters than someone who never goes but posts a lot

my  church minister, when people used to say they wouldn't be attending and said 'ill be there in spirit' used to reply 'yeah, but that's no good for the offering'
same thing at VP
where your money and time is, that's where your heart is also

you can try and pad it out all you like, and spin it as fast as possible, but the bottom line is the best fans go to games, not post on websites,
 not saying people who do that arnt true fans, but they certainly are not as passionate and committed as them that do


EDIT - by the way, everyone can moan, but those that go are allowed to moan a bit louder

[dave shelley]

if you want to live in another country or miles away from VP then that's your choice, the Villa experience obviously wasn't to high when you made it

It isn't as simple as that though John is it?  Some of us made the choice to move away from home for differing reasons.  Ours was to try to improve our situation and to try to give our children a better lifestyle than they had.  Without getting into a debate over who's the best supporter, something that is a load of bollocks as far as I'm concerned, just my opinion you understand.  I followed the Villa home and away for most of my adult life and they were, and are a huge part of my life and will be until the day I die.  I can't speak for the other ex-pats who follow the Villa but if their situation was anything like ours then being able to go to Villa matches would not have been high on their list of priorities when making their decisions, and you must understand that it really hurt for me to have to give up something that for a lot of my life was, the most important thing in it, sad as it sounds.

I believe you when you say you are not having a go, neither am I, just putting the opposite point of view.  Those are our opinions and we have to respect them, and I do.  My attendance at Villa Park is as often as I can afford and unfortunately on the occasions I have been home during the season we have either been playing away and ticketing arrangements being what they are today, make travelling to an away game that much more difficult.  Combine that with only being home for short stays and that to see our son and grandchildren make that even more difficult.  Throw in to the mix the last couple of times we've been home it has been international week so there are no games.  This is the situation when our next visit home is planned in October.  Like I said, it's not that simple.