This is the season...

[Pat McMahon]

I wonder what odds on all six west Mids teams being in the second division next season? Blues and Wolves aren't going anywhere, we'll be there and Walsall look a good bet for promotion. Cov are there about and West Brom aren't entirely safe. West Mids Police would have a field day.

I think Albion will have enough. Important win for them today. 4 is a distinct possibility.

I truly can't see Albion getting relegated with Pulis in charge. If he kept a marooned Palace up 2 years ago he can certainly keep Albion up given where they are now. I expect them to finish around 14th. He knows what he is doing.

[adrenachrome]

Someone on here described the modern day AVFC as grotesque and I think that's the most apt description. Over time we've gradually morphed into something horrid yet most of us on here grew up with a completely different Villa. The ground felt different, the club carried itself with pride and players were proud to represent us. Today we have a pretty stadium with disillusioned inhabitants, players who treat the club with utter contempt (gabby, Richardson, bacuna...) and a rudderless leadership team from a planet far far away. My default line on here is l could weep and with a couple of minutes to go today I nearly did. What the hell happened to our club?

The vampire squid has sucked out the marrow from our backbone and deprived us of our essence.  Many argued that we had not lost our spine, but here we are flopping and flapping around like fish out of water. Even the crustaceans from the murky swamps of the lowlands where inbreeding is endemic (Norwich) are feeding on our fleshy parts. 

[OzVilla]

Like most of us have been saying for ages, it's been coming for a long while. Just shame it had to happen this way. I don't know what's worse though. Going like this or going last day of season. Either way it's horrible. A big fuck you to everyone at Aston Villa shame on you from Randy, to Fox and the playing staff. They don't deserve us

I think it's easier this way, we've time to come to terms with it and you don't get the shock of the last day drop.

Everyone at the Club from Randy down to he players should be utterly ashamed and embarrassed at our current plight though. Every single fucking one of them.

I think any crowd goodwill for Remi and the team could well be gone now too, I expect a backlash at VP next game, especially if we don't beat Sunderland.   This could get very moody now.

[Bad English]

Go back to your player cribs and prepare for Championship!

[Toronto Villa]

I'm almost at the point where I will be happy when it is confirmed that we are relegated. It's murder this week after week thinking this is when it all turns around and then you are met with a firm kick in the groin. A few more defeats and I will actually look forward to playing new teams and possibly even having a chance to win a few games. I can't even recall what that is like anymore.

[Gato Barbieri]

This is my first post.

Not sure what I can say that is not already out there. We beat Sunderland 4-0 away (by half time) last season- so there is still a chink of light now. They really are a pretty dire little football club and big Sam is not saving them this time around and we must take advantage of it.

This is NOT the season - until it's mathematically impossible to survive. Small steps (the home form - not getting beaten) Yes it's been awful this season so far but 2016 will see us rise again - once we clear out all these sh it players and hangers on and bring in some hunger for the fight.

Come May Lerner, Fox etal can then do one and give us our club back

[OzVilla]

I'm almost at the point where I will be happy when it is confirmed that we are relegated. It's murder this week after week thinking this is when it all turns around and then you are met with a firm kick in the groin. A few more defeats and I will actually look forward to playing new teams and possibly even having a chance to win a few games. I can't even recall what that is like anymore.

I've felt like that since Watford tbh.

[PaulWinch again]

I think it's fairly clear to most now that it is the season we go down, which to be honest is sadly fully justified. It's important now that we start the preparations for next season, so that we're fully prepared to give it a proper go of coming straight back up. Part of that is identifying the numerous players that need the boot, the new players we need in and also hopefully winning the odd game before the end of the season. We also need to get the coaching staff fully in place. The only luxury our uselessness has afforded is that we have plenty of time to prepare.

[ChicagoLion]

I think it's fairly clear to most now that it is the season we go down, which to be honest is sadly fully justified. It's important now that we start the preparations for next season, so that we're fully prepared to give it a proper go of coming straight back up. Part of that is identifying the numerous players that need the boot, the new players we need in and also hopefully winning the odd game before the end of the season. We also need to get the coaching staff fully in place. The only luxury our uselessness has afforded is that we have plenty of time to prepare.

Agreed and I said similar on the Lerner thread.
The huge worry here is that we don't do this. We should use this January window to ship out those that are not up for the Championship.

[maidstonevillain]

I am already starting to look forward to away days at Fulham.

[auntiesledd]

I'm not sure anyone would buy Traore, not for the money required. What's he done that is going to get someone paying £15m or whatever? And up to now he's played for Barcelona reserves, a year in Division 2 is hardly going to be a step down.

Maybe he'll even get at least half a game.

However, if he tries to much of his 'stand still, knock the ball past a player and run after it' tactics in the Championship, someone's gonna kick him into the middle of next week

I've seen a lot of Championship football in recent years and I don't really think the 'kick the flash bugger into Row Z' mentality is prevalent these days. The quality of football isn't far off Premeirshite standard, and it won't surprise anybody on here to hear that among the qualities teams MUST have in order to compete are: organisation, resilience, a strong defence, a strong spine (!), strength in depth, an ability to create and score goals and a canny Manager & Board. We've yet to see how our mob will do next season, but I don't see any of those prerequisite qualities at this club now. I can only hope that any surprise will be of a pleasant variety - and not the one I'm expecting with the clowns we have supposedly running (ie ruining) us.   

[Walmley_Villa]

I said a couple of months ago that I thought we would need 16 points going into the New Year, we have scraped half that. We had to win the three Xmas games, a draw and a defeat have hammered the last nails in the coffin.

[olaftab]

This is my first post.

Not sure what I can say that is not already out there. We beat Sunderland 4-0 away (by half time) last season- so there is still a chink of light now. They really are a pretty dire little football club and big Sam is not saving them this time around and we must take advantage of it.

This is NOT the season - until it's mathematically impossible to survive. Small steps (the home form - not getting beaten) Yes it's been awful this season so far but 2016 will see us rise again - once we clear out all these sh it players and hangers on and bring in some hunger for the fight.

Come May Lerner, Fox etal can then do one and give us our club back

Welcome Gato. I doubt it if Lerner and Co will be vacating any time soon.

[adrenachrome]

This is my first post.

Not sure what I can say that is not already out there. We beat Sunderland 4-0 away (by half time) last season- so there is still a chink of light now. They really are a pretty dire little football club and big Sam is not saving them this time around and we must take advantage of it.

This is NOT the season - until it's mathematically impossible to survive. Small steps (the home form - not getting beaten) Yes it's been awful this season so far but 2016 will see us rise again - once we clear out all these sh it players and hangers on and bring in some hunger for the fight.

Come May Lerner, Fox etal can then do one and give us our club back

Welcome Gato. I doubt it if Lerner and Co will be vacating any time soon.

Our tormentors are devils and this is but the antechamber to the The First Cycle of Hell.

[Dave]

Aston Villa: No chance, no hope, no surprise


‘Done. Finito. Over. F**ked.’ By any and all measures, Aston Villa’s fate is sealed. Nineteen games in this most remarkable of seasons remain, but Villa escaping relegation is the most unfathomable outcome of all. A season in which Leicester are level on points with the leaders at the halfway stage, where Crystal Palace sit one point above Manchester United, and where reigning champions Chelsea are bravely staving off relegation teaches us that nothing is impossible. Villa provide a painful anomaly. They are doomed.

Bookmark it, screenshot it, print it off and laminate it: 19 games in, Villa are out.

Inability to secure a first victory since the opening game of the season against either West Ham or Norwich over the Christmas period has not condemned them; not even half a season of terrible performances has truly done that. The club has been afflicted by mismanagement for years. This is merely a culmination of numerous failures from boardroom to pitch.

Blame must be apportioned between Randy Lerner, Doug Ellis, Tom Fox, Hendrik Almstadt, Tim Sherwood, the players and even the relatively untouched Remi Garde. The Frenchman, with no prior Premier League experience, was handed an unenviable task, but four points from eight games is simply not good enough. Nor was Sherwood’s haul of four from 11, ‘transfer committee’ or otherwise.

Yet hopes of a revival linger. They are misplaced, and horribly so. Only one team has suffered a bigger points gap from safety after 19 Premier League games. Sunderland were 13 points adrift in 2005/06 by December, and finished bottom, a further 10 points behind. Since the first 20-team Premier League in 1995/96, only three sides have survived after sitting bottom at the 19-game stage. The ‘miraculous’ exploits of West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester are well-documented, but they were only five, two and three points from safety at this stage. Swansea, in 17th place, are 11 points ahead of Villa. Derby were on seven points and nine behind 17th after 19 games of the 2007/08 season. Villa still need four more points to breach their record low points total.

The finger is pointed firmly in the direction of the owner. Lerner purchased a controlling stake in the club in August 2006, and has overseen close to a decade of spiralling results at Villa Park. An 11th-placed finish in the 2006-07 season was followed by three consecutive finishes in sixth. Villa have placed ninth, 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th in the following campaigns. It has become an oft-repeated statistic that Watford have accrued more Premier League points in 2015 than Villa despite only being promoted in August.

But the rut was carved a long time ago. Since the start of the 2011/12 season, Villa have accrued 163 Premier League points; no ever-present in that period has fared worse. Southampton have 181 points in that timeframe, and were only promoted in 2012/13. West Ham have one point fewer having played three-and-a-half seasons to Villa’s four and a half; Crystal Palace have 39 points fewer in two-and-a-half seasons. Villa’s tally from the 2011/12 campaign to now averages out at 36.2 points per season, enough to finish 17th in each of the last four campaigns. For too long Villa’s survival has been the Premier League’s recurring abnormality, achieved more through the incompetencies of three other clubs, rather than their own efforts. Such luck has expired.

“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,” Lerner said, when announcing he had put Villa up for sale in May 2014. He has ‘owed’ the club, the fans much more for much longer. More glib excuses came a year later this May: “The responsibilities that I have at home in the US both personal and professional come first. I don’t disagree with the (fan) criticism. And what I should have done several years back was bring in a chairman. The club remains for sale. I have had interest from nearly every corner of the globe.”

But what investor, sound of mind and bulging of wallet, would maintain an interest in Aston Villa? This is a club destined for the Championship, with a largely uninspiring and inexperienced playing staff, a wage bill not suited to second-tier football, and a boss whose management career extends to one previous club.

On the other hand, this is the fifth most successful English side ever, a former European champion, one of seven Premier League ever-presents, a club with a proud record of producing youth players, with the eighth biggest stadium capacity in the country, and with a set of fiercely loyal fans. Fans who deserve better. If Steve Parish can claim Crystal Palace have the “biggest potential of any single football club in the country”, what of Villa? The club has spent over £120million on players over the past five seasons; only eight clubs boast a bigger outlay. With this comes the caveat of net spend, with Villa spending less than £7million on average per season, more than only Everton and Spurs of the fellow ever-presents. If 11th is seen as gross under-performance for the former, how can Villa’s diabolical last five years be described?

January often provides struggling sides with an opportunity for respite, but such transfer profligacy only threatens to deepen Villa’s mire. Only five clubs spent more on players in the summer, but just Liverpool and Manchester United generated more through sales. Villa spent £52.5million on 12 players in preparation for this season; ‘over-achieving’ sides such as Leicester, Crystal Palace, West Ham and Watford all spent around £20million.

“I’ve got some ideas on players who hopefully could still believe we can improve,” said Garde earlier this week. “Aston Villa is still an attractive club for some players. You can find players who fight everywhere in Europe. But we also have to get some good football players to play good football as well.” How can further expenditure possibly be justified? Garde has imprinted no discernible identity on this Villa side, so why would he be trusted with further funds?

The common claim is that relegation can help a club. The idea is that dropping to the second tier would send a shockwave through the club. For Villa, Lerner would finally sell, players on big wages would find other suitors, and promotion would be guaranteed within a couple of years, if it even takes that long. It’s a common misconception; rarely does it ever work. Over the past five seasons – excluding the bottom three of last year – 10 of the 15 relegated clubs still reside in the Championship. Two, West Ham and Norwich, have returned to the top flight, but the same number have dropped further into League One. Portsmouth, relegated in 2010 and fourth in England’s fourth tier, provide a troubling outlier. To expect Villa to emulate Southampton or Leicester is foolish; mirroring Leeds or Wigan is just as likely.

Yet relegation is a certainty. Considering the owner’s intentions, a reckless transfer policy, and the club’s worrying lack of identity, it remains the only guarantee in their future.

A couple of eyebrow-raising claims, but gets more right than wrong.