At home but where is the comfort?

[saunders_heroes]

The 1960's and now is probably just about the only era when we haven't been regarded as one of the top sides.

The fact we have won one league title in the last 100 years and one fa cup in the last 90 years suggests your opinion is not quite correct.

But we've spent all but about 12 seasons of our entire history in the top division of English football. Surely that makes us a top club?

[eastie]

It is the perennial argument as to what makes someone a top side - is it judged on being in the top flight or winning trophies?

Mr gage referred to us being regarded as one of the top sides for all but the 60s and now - you refer to us being a top club .

As a club , I would tend to agree but as his argument was as a side then our playing record would suggest not .

[Mister E]

Maybe it's my perspective but anytime we cannot be looked upon as one of the premier clubs in the country not one that is continually looking behind us, we are failing.

Well, we're one of the 7-8 clubs that have been in the Premiership since its conception (even if the last three have been nail-clinging stuff). We've been to four Wembley Cup Finals and two semi-finals at Wembley in the last 20 years. And we were runners-up in the last top-flight before the Premiership. I won'd add the Intertoto and the Peace Cups to this list; they are perhaps a little 'junior' in nature.
We have a ground that away fans seem to rate highly and our away fans are often applauded for their whole-hearted support of the team.
Last season we earned many plaudits for the support we gave to Stylian, and our sponsorship of Acorns was widely praised.
Our youth academy is regarded as a model for others, and winning the last NextGen seems to endorse that. Securing and then selling on players at a profit - like Barry, Young, Cahill - may not be something that we wish to dwell on, but it shows some acumen.

There are lots of clubs that would kill for a record like that, even if we have won very little compared to the Sky 4. So, I think it's your perspective, ROBBO.

Home form? - for me, it's about better leadership, better training against soft goals and set pieces and having more tactical options. At the moment, we are fallible and predictable as a team and away managers must love coming to VP.

[oldtimernow]

I hope you are right Brian , as we all want the club to be successful - the game has changed for the worse in recent years and is not the game i once loved - it is now too much about money and players rarely have the passion and loyalty for clubs we used to take for granted.

I share your hopes and wishes for the future but I think it may be a long time before they come to fruition - In some ways I wish the sky 5 would fuck off and form a European league so we can compete for England's finest trophies again .

eastie, that is one of the best posts for a long time. The top 4-5 are miles infront of the rest of us. Put them in a European league, increase promotion from the lower leagues. But , unfortunately pal, that would not do the Devil, that is Sky, sorry , Devils, BT Sport aswell, any good with their plan to take over football and turn it into a sterile gathering of nobody's, with no clue of history or anything else. Muted support from the stadium,  no standing, no expressing yourself with passion for your team, fear of ejection from the ground. We will just sit there and clap and go home happy, i suppose.
Me, i want safe standing to be introduced to all clubs in the English Premier League. I want atmosphere, singing, jumping around a bit, safely.
Amfy is on a crusade, and a fine crusade it is, to at least get this listened to. Long may she continue, but not to long. We should be able to stand in designated areas of every stadium, safe standing is the way forward.
When the Holte was a standing area away teams would shit themselves at the sheer magnitude of Villa fans behind that end, although it was a bit empty for a few years, but you get what i am trying to say.
We need that atmosphere back at VP. Amfy and her helpers are well on the way to trying to change things.
Lower Holte should be safe standing, lower North should be safe standing. The atmosphere then would scare the hell out of every visiting team. The way it should be. Villa park should be an absolute fortress, at the moment it is not. It has become a sterile, mobile phone using, 4G using theatre of wanabee Villa supporters.
I know we come from the old days but i still feel that we have been forgotten. Proper fans who have spent thousands, over the years, supporting our club, only to be forgotten, because of the Sky Era.
Just my point of view you understand.
Go Amfy, get some atmosphere back into our stadium. All the best to every Villa fan on the planet. 3 lagers, 3 large bacardi's and to finish, a lion bar, and some pickled onion Monster Munch.

Absolutely agree with the two posters except for Dan's Monster Munch.....all those e numbers explains a lot!

[Navin R Johnson]

The only bit of that I would disagree with Mister E is the selling of Gary Cahill for a profit.   The sum for which the current England centre back was sold by MON to Bolton barely covered what his time at the Academy had cost us.   I rate it as one of the biggest blunders in the transfer market Villa have ever made.

[Mister E]

The only bit of that I would disagree with Mister E is the selling of Gary Cahill for a profit.   The sum for which the current England centre back was sold by MON to Bolton barely covered what his time at the Academy had cost us.   I rate it as one of the biggest blunders in the transfer market Villa have ever made.

point taken.

[Dr Butler]

I am right eastie.   We are living through a phase when the belief that money can buy anything is regarded as indisputable.   Money does not generate success, it generates failure ultimately.   Man City are the lab rats in this test.   They have unlimited money.   Has the level of their success been in direct proportion to the money they have spent?  No.   Are their fans any happier?  No.   Can they beat a screwed up bunch of kids from B6?  No.   Will their arab owners grow bored with them and buy Red Bull Racing?   Probably.   What about that pillar of football history and tradition Chelsea?   Well, the Communists got over 25% of the popular vote in a massively rigged election.  Let them get a whiff of a return to power in Russia and the oligarchs will all be living with their bullion under the pavements of Zurich.  Man U?   A  bubble of debt waiting to go pop.

Kids with no shoes on their feet playing with a rag ball in South Africa is the future of football.   Sky and their ilk are fleas on the back of football.   Nothing more.

Good post indeed , can almost feel your passion and heart as you write - truly excellent.
All reigns come to an end as Man U are finding out now , and Liverpool found after dalglish departed.
The day avramovich leaves Chelsea will be a day for real football fans to rejoice.

indeed about Chelsea, I always think everytime the camera pans on to Abramovich that he looks completely bored with the game.

[Ads]

Didn't we sell him for five million? It did not cost five million to produce Cahill from our academy.

[Mister E]

Didn't we sell him for five million? It did not cost five million to produce Cahill from our academy.

For me, it's more about the potnetiall value than that which we got from Bolton.
But this wasn't really the original point - this is a detail.

[Ads]

A detail that undermines an argument that we barely broke even on him, which is not remotely true.

[andyh]

I am right eastie.   We are living through a phase when the belief that money can buy anything is regarded as indisputable.   Money does not generate success, it generates failure ultimately.   Man City are the lab rats in this test.   They have unlimited money.   Has the level of their success been in direct proportion to the money they have spent?  No.   Are their fans any happier?  No.   Can they beat a screwed up bunch of kids from B6?  No.   Will their arab owners grow bored with them and buy Red Bull Racing?   Probably.   What about that pillar of football history and tradition Chelsea?   Well, the Communists got over 25% of the popular vote in a massively rigged election.  Let them get a whiff of a return to power in Russia and the oligarchs will all be living with their bullion under the pavements of Zurich.  Man U?   A  bubble of debt waiting to go pop.

Kids with no shoes on their feet playing with a rag ball in South Africa is the future of football.   Sky and their ilk are fleas on the back of football.   Nothing more.

Good post indeed , can almost feel your passion and heart as you write - truly excellent.
All reigns come to an end as Man U are finding out now , and Liverpool found after dalglish departed.
The day avramovich leaves Chelsea will be a day for real football fans to rejoice.

indeed about Chelsea, I always think everytime the camera pans on to Abramovich that he looks completely bored with the game.

Thats very tru about Abramovich, he does look bored.
But, at least he's there.

[Ads]

What difference does Abramovich's pressence make to Chelsea?

[Clampy]

What difference does Abramovich's pressence make to Chelsea?

So HE can decide which players to buy.

[Dr Butler]

What difference does Abramovich's pressence make to Chelsea?

So HE can decide which players to buy.

and which manager to sack/hire....maybe he is still not over Sir Herbert shaking his hand down the Villa...

[MarkM]

The poll is interesting as almost 60% feel that the manager is to blame for the home form be it just him or the tactics.

[As both are the same thing]

This is interesting because on other threads the manager gets support for his 'plan' but in reality a majority of those polled feel that his 'plan' is not working especially at home