Liverpool protest ?

[PeterWithesShin]

Why wouldn't you tell them you're 64?

[PeterWithesShin]

Was it just how it seemed to me or when you were saying the last bit that basically criticised what the PL has become they didn't seem as interested?

[dave.woodhall]

Was it just how it seemed to me or when you were saying the last bit that basically criticised what the PL has become they didn't seem as interested?

Yes, they did seem to move off the subject rather quickly.

[IAmTheOneIanOlney]

Seemed to be an audible tut from Bobby Gould when PL's inconsistency was raised. Managers' union...

[Witton Warrior]

Is this a protest for just the Holte end or can the other stands take part ?

As written earlier in the thread the Witton Warrior One Man Show will be held Upper Trinity by the A1 stairs next to the betting booth

Bring your own pint ;-)

[adrenachrome]

Seemed to be an audible tut from Bobby Gould when PL's inconsistency was raised. Managers' union...

An inaudible tut on the radio would be some accomplishment.

Gould is the resident moron on Talk Shite, a considerable achievement in all honesty when you consider the competition. Most of the time he is giggling like a demented village idiot.   

[Jim Shoes]

Well I'm going tomorrow and I will watch for 90 minutes.  If anyone wants to do this protest then good luck to them, but ID rather do protest after the game.  I don't like the managers tactics, but I'll support them for the whole game.

No doubt if we score in the first 8 minutes then people will start scurrying back in.  It'll probably be the first time a football crowd has chanted "we can see you sneaking in".

I will piss myself laughing if that were to happen, please Villa score within the 1st 5mins....................ain't gonna happen though

[villan1975]

So let me get this right, the protest is directed at Lerner to leave even though he has intimated that he would like to sell up and leave. Lerner does need to be gone, the most mind boggling completely unexplainable thing of this and any season is the extension of Lamberts contract. That really is the head scratcher for me and up there with the appointment of TSM.

[ciggiesnbeer]

So let me get this right, the protest is directed at Lerner to leave even though he has intimated that he would like to sell up and leave.

Yes. As the VillaReview pair were saying this week. If you held a "Lerner out" rally he would join in. If he could be bothered. He already wants to go.

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

The problem with protests like this one is that the emotions that make them necessary – the overwhelming frustration, anger and desperation many of us feel – are exactly the sort of emotions that lead to poor judgment and ill-conceived ideas.  It’s sort of perverse but planning a successful angry protest requires a dispassionate and detached approach.  Otherwise you end up with something like this farce, an idea so half-baked it’s still runny in the middle.

And I’d say that’s being kind.  I’m going to have to assume (as I’m not entirely sure) that the immediate aim of this Huge, Pointed Lateness is to oust Lambert from his dugout.  In which case, I think whoever mooted this protest could barely have done a worse job; it’s muddled, contradictory and objectionable, and it’s so far off target I wonder if Tonev has had more influence than we realise. 

Making the completely spurious “eight minutes” its focus takes all the attention away from the really pertinent issues at hand and plays straight into the hands of our detractors, and alienates people whose support and influence will be essential if Lambert is to be sent packing.

It gives opposition fans and media the chance to accuse us of ungratefulness, to justifiably point at the enormous amount of money Lerner’s poured in over eight years, to brand us fickle again, to suggest we have a sense of entitlement, that we want the moon on a stick. 

It forces lazy pundits to have a cursory glance over our record of the last eight years and draw the obvious and correct conclusion that Lambert’s had relatively little to spend.     

It attacks Randy (the man with the power to grant the protestors’ wish), giving him a reason to assume that it’s mostly about money (it can’t be about Lambert, otherwise they’d be targeting him wouldn’t they?  Surely the mass entrance would be on the symbolic nil minutes).  In which case, it gives him too cause to deem us ungrateful, maybe even to dig his heels in.  (I have no idea what his mindset is, but I do know that slagging someone off unfairly is not usually a good way of getting them to do what you want).  And he’s trying to sell anyway, we know that.  We want him out, so does he.  What are we, thick? 

And, most ridiculously of all (if ousting Lambert is the aim), it deflects blame from Lambert.  It paints him a victim of mitigating circumstances and throws the spotlight off his management and onto his chairman.  He must be bloody delighted.  Way to go, organisers!  What next?  A plan to rid the world of Dairylea Triangles by telling everyone that Laughing Cow is poisonous?   

And that’s just the eight-minute thing; that’s without even mentioning vacuous statements like “We want our Villa back”, a deluded plea that is so ambiguous it ultimately means nothing at all.  If Spurs fans came out with that we’d have a thread to mock them.  What Villa is this we want back?  If it’s any Villa, I’ll have the one of the late 1800s; plenty of success, and Chelsea didn’t exist. As campaign slogans go, it’s toothless.  It’s merely a set-up, waiting for rival fans to provide the punchline. 

Protests during matches always divide opinion (and, as we’ve seen, cause confrontation) so the whole issue is thorny.  I do see a need for a demonstration of some sort and share a lot of the concerns, but the debate surrounding this idea shows that it is surely too flaky to have the desired effect.  I may be proved wrong, but rather than a rousing show of solidarity for a common cause I’m expecting a pitiful and probably tetchy display which sends out the confusing message that the Villa fans are very cross about something but they haven’t quite agreed on what it is yet.  If it wasn’t so embarrassing I’d probably be amused by the irony that a campaign to oust a poor manager was so poorly managed. 

Before anyone shoots me down for slagging this protest off without offering any constructive alternative, here’s my constructive alternative:

Support the team loudly, passionately and as vociferously as you have ever done, for ninety-odd minutes, and make Villa Park bounce, whatever the result, whatever the performance.  Have every journalist, every away fan, every pundit and every television viewer looking on and thinking our brilliant support deserves so much better than we’ve been getting.  The press are already starting to see that, and if things go on as they are, the pressure will eventually take its toll.  Something has to give.  It would be a relief if it did.

[villan1975]

I have no idea what the answer is and to be fair I haven't been to Villa Park for about 20 months and I genuinely do miss it but without stating the obvious Lambert is an awful manager and Lerner as "custodian" of the club needs to near as damn it give it away so we can move on.

[ciggiesnbeer]

snip good stuff

Dropping some truth bombs right there.

[claret and blue blood]

The problem with protests like this one is that the emotions that make them necessary – the overwhelming frustration, anger and desperation many of us feel – are exactly the sort of emotions that lead to poor judgment and ill-conceived ideas.  It’s sort of perverse but planning a successful angry protest requires a dispassionate and detached approach.  Otherwise you end up with something like this farce, an idea so half-baked it’s still runny in the middle.

And I’d say that’s being kind.  I’m going to have to assume (as I’m not entirely sure) that the immediate aim of this Huge, Pointed Lateness is to oust Lambert from his dugout.  In which case, I think whoever mooted this protest could barely have done a worse job; it’s muddled, contradictory and objectionable, and it’s so far off target I wonder if Tonev has had more influence than we realise. 

Making the completely spurious “eight minutes” its focus takes all the attention away from the really pertinent issues at hand and plays straight into the hands of our detractors, and alienates people whose support and influence will be essential if Lambert is to be sent packing.

It gives opposition fans and media the chance to accuse us of ungratefulness, to justifiably point at the enormous amount of money Lerner’s poured in over eight years, to brand us fickle again, to suggest we have a sense of entitlement, that we want the moon on a stick. 

It forces lazy pundits to have a cursory glance over our record of the last eight years and draw the obvious and correct conclusion that Lambert’s had relatively little to spend.     

It attacks Randy (the man with the power to grant the protestors’ wish), giving him a reason to assume that it’s mostly about money (it can’t be about Lambert, otherwise they’d be targeting him wouldn’t they?  Surely the mass entrance would be on the symbolic nil minutes).  In which case, it gives him too cause to deem us ungrateful, maybe even to dig his heels in.  (I have no idea what his mindset is, but I do know that slagging someone off unfairly is not usually a good way of getting them to do what you want).  And he’s trying to sell anyway, we know that.  We want him out, so does he.  What are we, thick? 

And, most ridiculously of all (if ousting Lambert is the aim), it deflects blame from Lambert.  It paints him a victim of mitigating circumstances and throws the spotlight off his management and onto his chairman.  He must be bloody delighted.  Way to go, organisers!  What next?  A plan to rid the world of Dairylea Triangles by telling everyone that Laughing Cow is poisonous?   

And that’s just the eight-minute thing; that’s without even mentioning vacuous statements like “We want our Villa back”, a deluded plea that is so ambiguous it ultimately means nothing at all.  If Spurs fans came out with that we’d have a thread to mock them.  What Villa is this we want back?  If it’s any Villa, I’ll have the one of the late 1800s; plenty of success, and Chelsea didn’t exist. As campaign slogans go, it’s toothless.  It’s merely a set-up, waiting for rival fans to provide the punchline. 

Protests during matches always divide opinion (and, as we’ve seen, cause confrontation) so the whole issue is thorny.  I do see a need for a demonstration of some sort and share a lot of the concerns, but the debate surrounding this idea shows that it is surely too flaky to have the desired effect.  I may be proved wrong, but rather than a rousing show of solidarity for a common cause I’m expecting a pitiful and probably tetchy display which sends out the confusing message that the Villa fans are very cross about something but they haven’t quite agreed on what it is yet.  If it wasn’t so embarrassing I’d probably be amused by the irony that a campaign to oust a poor manager was so poorly managed. 

Before anyone shoots me down for slagging this protest off without offering any constructive alternative, here’s my constructive alternative:

Support the team loudly, passionately and as vociferously as you have ever done, for ninety-odd minutes, and make Villa Park bounce, whatever the result, whatever the performance.  Have every journalist, every away fan, every pundit and every television viewer looking on and thinking our brilliant support deserves so much better than we’ve been getting.  The press are already starting to see that, and if things go on as they are, the pressure will eventually take its toll.  Something has to give.  It would be a relief if it did.

so you're not keen then :-)

[Ron Manager]

If there are few protesting say 30 to 60 it is going to look bad. The media will have a field day with pictures of youths waving their hands about and holding a bedsheet with 'Learner out' hastily painted on it.

Lads as a bare minimum make sure you spell his name right.

I shall certainly be protesting. Probably about the cold!

I blame Michael Fish.

[Dave]

snip good stuff

Dropping some truth bombs right there.

Absolutely, very nicely put