AGM - Protest

[themossman]

We aren't a big club anymore - there I have said it.

Don't be daft we are the 20th best team in this country, supposedly the best league in the world.

That's generous as I'd fancy us against less than half the championship if we played them tomorrow.

[Irish villain]

We aren't a big club anymore - there I have said it.

We are but we don't act like one.

I would say signing Bent was the last occasion we acted like a big club. Letting Dave Whelan take the piss in 2011 and ending up with McLeish  set the tone for a gradual lowering of the bar at villa.

[aj2k77]

Mcleish, Alex fucking 2 relegations sedation football Mcleish. Why? Oh why?

[Villa in Denmark]

I would have thought that the one thing we all agree on is that Lerner's running of the club since 2010 has been completely unacceptable.

Close.  At no point in time has he run it in an acceptable manner.  It's just that for the first 4 years he hid it by asking MON to burn £50 notes for him.

[Dave Cooper please]

Not as eloquent or as high profile as you Dave, and that's what's needed. Perhaps Howard Hodgson could do something. He clearly sussed out Lerner way before the majority of us.

The protests against Ellis at the time of VPL and the £ sign stuff weren't led by anyone who was at the time high profile and I don't remember many of tehm being particularly eloquent. They started small and built it until the time of the more profile VFC which did get a couple of high profile followers including Howard Hodgson.

There seems to be support for it on here and I would assume elsewhere, so why can't it be you and some like-minded souls to have a go if you feel so motivated?

[pauliewalnuts]

When Houllier bowed out, we were at a fork in the road.

That Houllier year was crap but by the end - and it doesn't really matter if it was him or Gary Mac - we had started to finally play some half decent football. We also had some relatively good players in the squad still.

At that point, we needed to make the right appointment. We needed to appoint a manager with the right ethos, one who would build on the gains (slim, but still there) of that year of pain, and one who could work us back to a position where the Houllier year was a blip rather than the start of a decline.

We attempted to do that with Martinez. I wasn't convinced at the time, but on the basis of his style of football, it would have made sense.

What we then did was make the worst appointment we possibly could.

I couldn't give on tenth of one single fuck that McLeish came from Small Heath. For anyone with a brain, that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that he'd just got his last club relegated and was known for a style of football utterly at odds with the way we needed to continue to grow.

Fork in the road - took the wrong direction, and totally fucked it up.

[brontebilly]

When Houllier bowed out, we were at a fork in the road.

That Houllier year was crap but by the end - and it doesn't really matter if it was him or Gary Mac - we had started to finally play some half decent football. We also had some relatively good players in the squad still.

At that point, we needed to make the right appointment. We needed to appoint a manager with the right ethos, one who would build on the gains (slim, but still there) of that year of pain, and one who could work us back to a position where the Houllier year was a blip rather than the start of a decline.

We attempted to do that with Martinez. I wasn't convinced at the time, but on the basis of his style of football, it would have made sense.

What we then did was make the worst appointment we possibly could.

I couldn't give on tenth of one single fuck that McLeish came from Small Heath. For anyone with a brain, that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that he'd just got his last club relegated and was known for a style of football utterly at odds with the way we needed to continue to grow.

Fork in the road - took the wrong direction, and totally fucked it up.

The Crystal Palace story is similar to ours

Experienced manager, Pulis, walks just before season starts.

Club appoint a past it doozy in his place, Warnock.

Club quickly realises the error of their ways and appoint a fairly run of the mill replacement

This is a club just up from the second division mind but they dont sink without trace.

we are a graveyard for the careers of successive managers and players

There is something absolutely rotten at the club that we are as low as we are currently.

If that doesnt provoke an utter war at Villa Park at match day then nothing ever will

[olaftab]

I think the idea of piling up (not setting them on fire mind) our PHBF scarfs in front of  McGregor is a very good idea. I am in if anyone wants to organise?

[supertom]

I would have thought that the one thing we all agree on is that Lerner's running of the club since 2010 has been completely unacceptable.

Close.  At no point in time has he run it in an acceptable manner.  It's just that for the first 4 years he hid it by asking MON to burn £50 notes for him.

The thing is, whilst O Neill burned through cash like he was remaking Brewsters Millions, at the same time, because he was essentially given free reign to run the club as he saw fit, we were in some regards solidly run.  Now budget management wasn't well maintained but again, that falls on Randy.
In terms of football we had an idea of how we wanted to play. Not always evolving in style or pretty but O Neill had his way and it got us three top 6 finishes.

Say what you want about O Neill but he knows football. He might have signed Beye. He'll never live that down, but to all intents and purposes he was running our club for 4 years because he was the main man. That he had football knowledge to burn made some difference.

Trouble is, it of course wasn't sustainable. Randy changed his tac. He bought in Faulkner, then later Fox. The following managers weren't given the same level of control as O Neill, which Randy retrospectively probably felt was a mistake. In many ways it of course wasn't.
Houllier continuing could have made a difference. He could have moved up while a younger man came in to take over management. Ideally that would have been Martinez.
It didn't happen.
So what next? We have clueless marketing men overseeing while the disinterested and brainless Randy gets ever more remote and we make poor management choices. We give them an unrealistic plan to follow.

It all leads to this mess where Fox is farting out "winning isn't everything" soundbites and Garde comes in thoroughly unprepared for the mess here and relegation is finally certain.

So whilst we recognised that financially the O Neill regime couldn't continue, what we've yet to do is replace someone above the on field management level, with some footballing knowledge. If that's a new chairman, chief exec or DOF, or whatever, so be it. We need it and we need it soon. We also not to bomb out the likes of Fox, and then get people like Reilly back into positions they can actually perform in.

[luke95]

I think the idea of piling up (not setting them on fire mind) our PHBF scarfs in front of  McGregor is a very good idea. I am in if anyone wants to organise?

Throwing them on the pitch just as a designated home game kicks off would be more effective.

[Damo70]

We have gone from one extreme to the other. From MON and his three best mates to a revolving door of coaches, fitness experts, data analysis experts, scouts, sporting directors, marketing experts, executives and chief executives and non executive executives. The latter is getting us relegated. I think I preferred the 'outdated old school approach' that had us in the top six.

[Villa in Denmark]

Supertom - that's why I said that he's NEVER run the club in an acceptable manor. The MON years were just a different way of getting it wrong.

[pbavfckuwait]

We stumble from one bad decision to another and have done since Randolph walked into the club, now I believe he is at the point where he will give time to Garde, even if Garde may not be the man we need ( if Garde wants that time of course), especially to get us out of the Championship. Then comes what do we do about it, I am thousands of miles away so easy for me to say, demonstrate about this or about that, as I would have no direct involvement, but I will say that I think a certain amount of venting this anger that is obviously present is required, if not I really fear for the venomous atmosphere that will build up at Villa Park and at away games between now and the end of the season, rather someone organize something that may give a sense of supporter identity and solidarity to each other, not the poxy players or Randolph's cronies Fox et al, than have Villa fan fighting Villa fan, mark my words that will happen before May comes round.

[brian green]

I have had the same "fork in the road" vision as Paulie.

The first big, and potentially club destroying mistake was McLeish. I don't know if the legend is true that Lerner threw a wobbly when Whelan pissed us about, got into his plane, flew to Corsica and signed McLeish personally but it does not matter, the end product was the same. Everything we had ever hoped to be or become reduced to an air punching for a draw with Stoke existence.

It is only just becoming clear that that terrible road forked again when the club finally scraped enough will power together to sack Lambert a year and a new contract too late.

Enter wunderkind Tom Fox. The whole and fundamentally essential job of getting the club back on the rails was reduced to an act of cronyism with the appointment of Sherwood.

We needed the calm, coherent conservatism of Remi Garde when we finally got rid of Lambert but due to Fox throwing his weight about got a faker, a chancer, a liar, an empty vessel in the thrall of the media. Again we took the wrong fork in the road and it has plunged us into Pilgrim's Slough of Despond.

I can only conclude with the metaphor I used about Sherwood last week when I referred to Garde's comment in L'Equipe about arriving at Villa Park in an ambulance.  Sherwood found us sick in the gutter.  He gave us a swig of whisky and moved on.  The person who enabled him to treat us that way is still in place and giving us his version of badge kissing with fantasies about building something great.

[lovejoy]

How is Sherwood a liar?