Liverpool protest ?

[pauliewalnuts]

Is anyone else getting a bit tired of the general "stand up / applaud / take a swig of your Bovril / pick your nose / leave your seat / take your seat on x minutes where "x" is a number with some relevance to what ever they're referring to" thing?

This protest is a stupid idea because, even if you can get over the whole thing of how it will be perceived and what it will actually achieve, the "8" doesn't even have any relevance to what they're complaining about.

I am as depressed as the next man at the last four years and the increasing pointlessness of our situation, as well as the dreadful "leadership" shown by Lerner, but of those eight years, the first four were absolutely nothing to complain about.

And I hereby predict that that "8 years they're saying, but what about the first 4" is precisely the thing these dimwits will get picked up on in the media, which will only increase external support (think Joey Barton last week) for Lambert.

it all looks pretty fucking stupid to me, on a number of levels.

Yes it's all a bit stupid but at least it draws the media's attention to the atrocious way Aston Villa is run from top to bottom. We hardly get a mention in the media these days so anything that shines the spotlight on the damage Lerner and Lambert are inflicting onto the club is fine by me.

But that doesn't mean it is going to be positive attention, does it?

Wait and see, but if it happens, I bet you what you like we're all on here after MOTD that evening moaning about how they started talking about what a great job Lambert is doing etc etc

[edgysatsuma89]

I don't disagree with protesting, however this is bollocks. It will just look like a load of people have arrived late. Bad traffic? Oo must be somewhere.

[gpbarr]

Is anyone else getting a bit tired of the general "stand up / applaud / take a swig of your Bovril / pick your nose / leave your seat / take your seat on x minutes where "x" is a number with some relevance to what ever they're referring to" thing?

This protest is a stupid idea because, even if you can get over the whole thing of how it will be perceived and what it will actually achieve, the "8" doesn't even have any relevance to what they're complaining about.

I am as depressed as the next man at the last four years and the increasing pointlessness of our situation, as well as the dreadful "leadership" shown by Lerner, but of those eight years, the first four were absolutely nothing to complain about.

And I hereby predict that that "8 years they're saying, but what about the first 4" is precisely the thing these dimwits will get picked up on in the media, which will only increase external support (think Joey Barton last week) for Lambert.

it all looks pretty fucking stupid to me, on a number of levels.

Yes it's all a bit stupid but at least it draws the media's attention to the atrocious way Aston Villa is run from top to bottom. We hardly get a mention in the media these days so anything that shines the spotlight on the damage Lerner and Lambert are inflicting onto the club is fine by me.

But that doesn't mean it is going to be positive attention, does it?

Wait and see, but if it happens, I bet you what you like we're all on here after MOTD that evening moaning about how they started talking about what a great job Lambert is doing etc etc

It's rank stupid and will do nothing to help the team on the day - but it will appease the small minds of those who will do almost anything to force yet another manager change.

Thanks for helping the team

[Dave]

Is anyone else getting a bit tired of the general "stand up / applaud / take a swig of your Bovril / pick your nose / leave your seat / take your seat on x minutes where "x" is a number with some relevance to what ever they're referring to" thing?

This protest is a stupid idea because, even if you can get over the whole thing of how it will be perceived and what it will actually achieve, the "8" doesn't even have any relevance to what they're complaining about.

I am as depressed as the next man at the last four years and the increasing pointlessness of our situation, as well as the dreadful "leadership" shown by Lerner, but of those eight years, the first four were absolutely nothing to complain about.

And I hereby predict that that "8 years they're saying, but what about the first 4" is precisely the thing these dimwits will get picked up on in the media, which will only increase external support (think Joey Barton last week) for Lambert.

it all looks pretty fucking stupid to me, on a number of levels.

Yes it's all a bit stupid but at least it draws the media's attention to the atrocious way Aston Villa is run from top to bottom. We hardly get a mention in the media these days so anything that shines the spotlight on the damage Lerner and Lambert are inflicting onto the club is fine by me.

But that doesn't mean it is going to be positive attention, does it?

Wait and see, but if it happens, I bet you what you like we're all on here after MOTD that evening moaning about how they started talking about what a great job Lambert is doing etc etc

When Newcastle fans were getting angry about Pardew and Ashley a few months back, I seem to remember that most of the coverage was along the lines of "look at these oiks and their bedsheets, protesting about something and nothing with their unrealistic expectations". Rather than actually putting much scrutiny on Pardew's record over the last couple of seasons.

[dave.woodhall]

Talksport are covering it this afternoon. Make of that what you will.

[montague]

You can hurt the club other ways without affecting the team - eg boycott the club shop, online sales, and food and drink outlets.

[pauliewalnuts]

Is anyone else getting a bit tired of the general "stand up / applaud / take a swig of your Bovril / pick your nose / leave your seat / take your seat on x minutes where "x" is a number with some relevance to what ever they're referring to" thing?

This protest is a stupid idea because, even if you can get over the whole thing of how it will be perceived and what it will actually achieve, the "8" doesn't even have any relevance to what they're complaining about.

I am as depressed as the next man at the last four years and the increasing pointlessness of our situation, as well as the dreadful "leadership" shown by Lerner, but of those eight years, the first four were absolutely nothing to complain about.

And I hereby predict that that "8 years they're saying, but what about the first 4" is precisely the thing these dimwits will get picked up on in the media, which will only increase external support (think Joey Barton last week) for Lambert.

it all looks pretty fucking stupid to me, on a number of levels.

Yes it's all a bit stupid but at least it draws the media's attention to the atrocious way Aston Villa is run from top to bottom. We hardly get a mention in the media these days so anything that shines the spotlight on the damage Lerner and Lambert are inflicting onto the club is fine by me.

But that doesn't mean it is going to be positive attention, does it?

Wait and see, but if it happens, I bet you what you like we're all on here after MOTD that evening moaning about how they started talking about what a great job Lambert is doing etc etc

When Newcastle fans were getting angry about Pardew and Ashley a few months back, I seem to remember that most of the coverage was along the lines of "look at these oiks and their bedsheets, protesting about something and nothing with their unrealistic expectations". Rather than actually putting much scrutiny on Pardew's record over the last couple of seasons.

Indeed, right up to the day he left, totally ignoring the fact that Pardew managed one good season and the rest of his reign, they were as bad as we are now.

The football establishment protects itself. That's why they can never get their heads out of their arses for long enough to consider what it is like to be a supporter watching such shite.

They can't even imagine paying to watch 7.5 hours of football without a single goal for their team, for example.

[Toronto Villa]

THE VIEW FROM ASTON VILLA: Enough is enough, we want our club back
Aston Villa supporters are planning a protest against owner Randy Lerner
Villa are 13th in the Premier League as another relegation fight beckons
Aston Villa blogger shares his thoughts on the current situation
By DAVID MICHAEL OF MYOLDMANSAID.COM
PUBLISHED: 13:03 GMT, 14 January 2015 | UPDATED: 13:04 GMT, 14 January 2015

Aston Villa look set for a third consecutive Premier League relegation battle this season and supporters are beginning to turn on manager Paul Lambert and owner Randy Lerner.
The Midlands club are currently 13th in the league just three points clear of the dreaded drop-zone and Villa have only scored 11 goals from 21 games this season.
Supporters have proposed a large-scale protest in the Holte End of Villa Park ahead of the visit of Liverpool urging fans to leave their seat vacant for the first eight minutes, the number of years Lerner has been in charge of the club.

David Michael of Aston Villa blog MyOldManSaid.com says supporters want their club back.
 
There’s a saying among Villa fans, that you don’t chose Aston Villa, it chooses you. At the moment though, supporting the club feels like having to serve a sentence for a crime you didn’t commit.
Since Martin O’Neill stormed out of the club after having drained chairman Randy Lerner’s resources in a bid to reach the honeypot of the Champions League, Villa have been in free fall.
O’Neill ultimately failed, Lerner wasn’t impressed and Villa supporters simply suffered.
Current boss Paul Lambert said after Villa’s last game, when responding to questions about agitated supporters calling for his head, that ‘the expectancy levels outweigh the realism’.
Lambert knows, though, considering his 41 and 38-point season finishes and the unwanted records he’s collected, including having the worst Premier League record of any Villa manager, one thing fans have been is patient with him.

I’ve lost count of the number of managers local rivals West Brom have fired during Lambert’s time at Villa Park.
Even in the face of constant humiliation (losing to Bradford City in a semi-final, being beaten 8-0 by Chelsea, suffering a record 10 home league defeats in a season, and losing six games in a row this season), we’ve always hoped Lambert could turn it around. But he hasn’t.
With 11 goals in 21 league games our ‘expectancy levels’ have now dropped to praying for shots on target and maybe seeing a Villa goal some day.
It’s sad.

Certainly in my lifetime, Villa have traditionally been considered a top-half team with ambitions of European football. I’ve personally seen them win everything bar the FA Cup. Yet, as the club enters its fifth consecutive relegation battle, fans' ambition has been dumbed down to Premier League survival.

Relegation shouldn’t even be in an Aston Villa supporter’s vernacular, and you have to feel sorry for the younger generation of Villa fans who have experienced nothing but the bland decay of their beloved club.
The overriding problem is a lack of strategic consistency.

There was a change in transfer policy from young and hungry (and cheap) to low-cost journeymen, an astonishing U-turn on the exiled ‘bomb squad’ players. While on the pitch, Lambert, recently switched to the same possession-based ethos he abandoned during his first season in charge.
The latest edition, again offers a chronic lack of cutting edge in the final third, but hopefully the signing of Carles Gil will remedy that and make the increasingly disillusioned Christian Benteke a threat once again.

Off the pitch, the last we heard directly from our chairman was a statement in May last year, saying he was selling the club.
He told us: ‘I owe it to Villa to move on, and look for fresh, invigorated leadership, if in my heart I feel I can no longer do the job.’
He’s still the chairman, yet we haven’t heard from him since, although we are often reminded by Lambert that Lerner owns a telephone and television, so he knows what is happening at the club.
But do you know he gave the Villa boss a new four-year contract, a mere four games after he ended the previous season with relegation form of 38 points? It’s baffling.

The new Villa CEO Tom Fox talks about the club’s future being in Europe, but increasingly-worried supporters feel it’s more likely to be in the Championship.

After all, we’ve heard the Europe line before from Fox’s predecessor.
The proposed supporter demonstration of vacating the Holte End for the first eight minutes of the game against Liverpool is simply saying ‘enough is enough’. This compromised version of Aston Villa can’t continue.
We want to be confident of what the custodians of our club are doing. We want clarity. We want ambition. And most of all, we want our Villa back.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2909863/THE-VIEW-ASTON-VILLA-want-club-back.html#ixzz3OnkSeM3e
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[rob_bridge]

I think it is a bad idea.

The total apathy in, around and within the club will not be galvanised by this 'protest' involving a few hundred people at most.

Lerner is trying to sell. There are no buyers. He is not willing to part with more than minimum amount of money as wants to at least cut his losses.

His failure is in not getting rid of Lambert, though I suspect his thinking is that we have been effective at avoiding relegation in the previous 4 seasons without making a change half way through the season.

After all there were calls for Houllier to be binned (justifiably in my opinion) in late December 2010, calls for McLeish not to be hired at all (justifiably) and Lambert in January 2013 (understandably) and again in the spring of last season (justifiably).

Lerner didn't blink on those occasions so I suspect this 'protest' will be largely ignored and effect little change.

[Chris Jameson]

All this we want our club back nonsense makes me think of this every single time. Leave that sort of nonsense to West Ham and Spurs fans.

[Drummond]

I don't think a protest would work.

However, if that's the plan, Surely a sit (sleep) in after the match would be a better protest. That way everyone gets to watch and support, the team doesn't get a bad atmosphere, there's no crap influence for our new signing and the point is made.

Attendances what they are, it's pretty obvious there's a protest of sorts going on from thousands of fans already!

[andyaston]

THE VIEW FROM ASTON VILLA: Enough is enough, we want our club back
Aston Villa supporters are planning a protest against owner Randy Lerner
Villa are 13th in the Premier League as another relegation fight beckons
Aston Villa blogger shares his thoughts on the current situation
By DAVID MICHAEL OF MYOLDMANSAID.COM
PUBLISHED: 13:03 GMT, 14 January 2015 | UPDATED: 13:04 GMT, 14 January 2015

Aston Villa look set for a third consecutive Premier League relegation battle this season and supporters are beginning to turn on manager Paul Lambert and owner Randy Lerner.
The Midlands club are currently 13th in the league just three points clear of the dreaded drop-zone and Villa have only scored 11 goals from 21 games this season.
Supporters have proposed a large-scale protest in the Holte End of Villa Park ahead of the visit of Liverpool urging fans to leave their seat vacant for the first eight minutes, the number of years Lerner has been in charge of the club.

David Michael of Aston Villa blog MyOldManSaid.com says supporters want their club back.
 
There’s a saying among Villa fans, that you don’t chose Aston Villa, it chooses you. At the moment though, supporting the club feels like having to serve a sentence for a crime you didn’t commit.
Since Martin O’Neill stormed out of the club after having drained chairman Randy Lerner’s resources in a bid to reach the honeypot of the Champions League, Villa have been in free fall.
O’Neill ultimately failed, Lerner wasn’t impressed and Villa supporters simply suffered.
Current boss Paul Lambert said after Villa’s last game, when responding to questions about agitated supporters calling for his head, that ‘the expectancy levels outweigh the realism’.
Lambert knows, though, considering his 41 and 38-point season finishes and the unwanted records he’s collected, including having the worst Premier League record of any Villa manager, one thing fans have been is patient with him.

I’ve lost count of the number of managers local rivals West Brom have fired during Lambert’s time at Villa Park.
Even in the face of constant humiliation (losing to Bradford City in a semi-final, being beaten 8-0 by Chelsea, suffering a record 10 home league defeats in a season, and losing six games in a row this season), we’ve always hoped Lambert could turn it around. But he hasn’t.
With 11 goals in 21 league games our ‘expectancy levels’ have now dropped to praying for shots on target and maybe seeing a Villa goal some day.
It’s sad.

Certainly in my lifetime, Villa have traditionally been considered a top-half team with ambitions of European football. I’ve personally seen them win everything bar the FA Cup. Yet, as the club enters its fifth consecutive relegation battle, fans' ambition has been dumbed down to Premier League survival.

Relegation shouldn’t even be in an Aston Villa supporter’s vernacular, and you have to feel sorry for the younger generation of Villa fans who have experienced nothing but the bland decay of their beloved club.
The overriding problem is a lack of strategic consistency.

There was a change in transfer policy from young and hungry (and cheap) to low-cost journeymen, an astonishing U-turn on the exiled ‘bomb squad’ players. While on the pitch, Lambert, recently switched to the same possession-based ethos he abandoned during his first season in charge.
The latest edition, again offers a chronic lack of cutting edge in the final third, but hopefully the signing of Carles Gil will remedy that and make the increasingly disillusioned Christian Benteke a threat once again.

Off the pitch, the last we heard directly from our chairman was a statement in May last year, saying he was selling the club.
He told us: ‘I owe it to Villa to move on, and look for fresh, invigorated leadership, if in my heart I feel I can no longer do the job.’
He’s still the chairman, yet we haven’t heard from him since, although we are often reminded by Lambert that Lerner owns a telephone and television, so he knows what is happening at the club.
But do you know he gave the Villa boss a new four-year contract, a mere four games after he ended the previous season with relegation form of 38 points? It’s baffling.

The new Villa CEO Tom Fox talks about the club’s future being in Europe, but increasingly-worried supporters feel it’s more likely to be in the Championship.

After all, we’ve heard the Europe line before from Fox’s predecessor.
The proposed supporter demonstration of vacating the Holte End for the first eight minutes of the game against Liverpool is simply saying ‘enough is enough’. This compromised version of Aston Villa can’t continue.
We want to be confident of what the custodians of our club are doing. We want clarity. We want ambition. And most of all, we want our Villa back.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2909863/THE-VIEW-ASTON-VILLA-want-club-back.html#ixzz3OnkSeM3e
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Erm its not our third consecutive relegation battle but our fifth, that is why we are so pissed off,

[aj2k77]

Well then I propose a booing for 4 minutes. 1 minute for each poor season we've had in a row. Or 11 minutes, 1 for each goal we've scored. Or boo non stop until the 82nd minute signifying the players of 82 turning in their graves at our plight.

I can see an obvious flaw in the latter.

Why isn't there a memorial at Villa Park?

I don't think Randy would allow it because he's jealous of what we achieved before him.

[nick harper]

Even if the protest is a damp squib, the media spotlight on his record and the fans disullusion has taken this a step forward in the last week and that represents progress to me. For the first time since he's been here, his record is now firmly in the spotlight.

[dave.woodhall]

Well then I propose a booing for 4 minutes. 1 minute for each poor season we've had in a row. Or 11 minutes, 1 for each goal we've scored. Or boo non stop until the 82nd minute signifying the players of 82 turning in their graves at our plight.

I can see an obvious flaw in the latter.

Why isn't there a memorial at Villa Park?

I don't think Randy would allow it because he's jealous of what we achieved before him.

There are some people who'd believe that.