What the **** is going on?

[pauliewalnuts]

I think we have a number of problems, but there are three which, until they are sorted, loom over everything else and ensure things won't get much better in the meantime.

One is that the owner doesn't know what he's doing. The second is that he wants to sell us but thus far nobody has bought us, and the third is he doesn't seem to care much anymore.

I find it pointless to worry about a lot of issues - the manager, the CEO, for example - while those three big problems are still there.

It's a shame. Who'd have predicted this state of affairs eight years ago?

[Gregorys Boy]

I think we have a number of problems, but there are three which, until they are sorted, loom over everything else and ensure things won't get much better in the meantime.

One is that the owner doesn't know what he's doing. The second is that he wants to sell us but thus far nobody has bought us, and the third is he doesn't seem to care much anymore.

I find it pointless to worry about a lot of issues - the manager, the CEO, for example - while those three big problems are still there.

It's a shame. Who'd have predicted this state of affairs eight years ago?

Without doubt, until the ownership issue is sorted and the club has clear direction then we can't really think about the long term.  Until, then its a test of the manager, and his new number two to get the best out of what we have.  We also need a few experienced heads who we know on their day can be decent players (Zog for example) to lift the team.

[brian green]

You are correct with your a reading of the core problem Paulie. My views are turning increasingly towards the lopinion that only we, the loyal fans, hold the power to have the club's problems addressed. There has grown up over the last four years a culture of shoulder shrugging and buck passing - bullying, bomb squaddery and U turns to name but three examples. Only when thirty odd thousand of us turn nasty at a game. I mean vocal not violent - will the owner come out of his torpor.
As for the season ahead I see us shipping a lot of damage in the first third of the season with improvement later. The only unknown being whether it will be enough to save us. Bad times.

[Des Little]

In all seriousness, does anyone believe that this year will be anything other than one long relegation scrap?  Or am I the world's biggest pessimist?

[rob_bridge]

In all seriousness, does anyone believe that this year will be anything other than one long relegation scrap?  Or am I the world's biggest pessimist?

It will be exactly that. Probably for us and 7 or 8 others.

[Tony Erdington]

Graham Taylor when he first came into the Villa, said something along the ines, of, there was a lot wrong at the club, and a big club can sink faster than a small club. Now i aint sure but if Sir Graham could see that then, and have the know how to right it, how come our current lot seem to be making that B line for the ice burg Randy wake up , your scupering all our hopes and your families money.

[DaveD]

In all seriousness, does anyone believe that this year will be anything other than one long relegation scrap?  Or am I the world's biggest pessimist?

I don't believe that. I think we'll be bottom of the table by October, adrift by Christmas and relegated by February. So not all that long, and not much of a scrap. And apparently you're not.

[Dave]

That's nothing, I think we'll be bottom by the end of August, adrift by September, relegated by Christmas, bankrupt by March and liquidated by the end of the season.

With Villa Park bulldozed and replaced by a new landfill site by August.

[brian green]

Too much asbestos in the North Stand to get permission for landfill. We could get up a petition to have the demolition rubble put with the remains of the old Trinity HDE so wantonly destroyed.

[Richard E]

That's nothing, I think we'll be bottom by the end of August, adrift by September, relegated by Christmas, bankrupt by March and liquidated by the end of the season.

With Villa Park bulldozed and replaced by a new landfill site by August.

We're not even going to get to December. After 5 minutes of the Stoke game we will be so doomed that Aston Villa will implode under the weight of its own contradictions and will cease to have ever existed, erasing all of its previous history.   

[mr underhill]

a tad too optimistic I think.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think we are in for another season of struggle but to say we are as good as down seems pointless when the season hasn't even started.

Hopefully we will avoid the drop again, but they prospect of another season of crushing grimness doesn't fill one with joy.

[Damo70]

This thread is turning in the NTNOCN That's Life! spoof. During the season Benteke will get appendicitis, Villa Park will be hit by a typhoon, Keane will push Lambert through a plate glass window, Vlaar will be shot by a police marksman and Delph will be eaten by a killer whale. We will all phone the electricity board and they will say "This really has nothing to do with us and the fridge we sold you".

[joe_c]

Doug Ellis ploughs the millions he made from the sale of the club towards research into time travel. He whisks himself back to 1975 to retain his chairmanship and thus reap the rewards of being at the helm during the glory years of the early 80s.  Incumbent manager Ron Saunders resigns in protest at his continued involvement to take the helm at neighbours Birmingham City. You can guess the rest.

[RussellC]

I'm afraid it'll be much, much worse than any of you fear. Nathan Baker will continue to hold down a regular starting slot at centre-back.