Eric Black

[dave shelley]

Is this bloke thick or what?

It's certainly not what!

[London Villan]

So both the club captain and the match-day captain have disgraced themselves on and off the pitch and he supports them. The pair of those twats should be sacked, but no, the manager backs them.

[Fasth56]

The guy hasn't got a fu!*ing clue, he is treating us with the same contempt as the players.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Metro

Acting Aston Villa manager Eric Black has said the ‘difficult atmosphere’ at Villa Park has made him scared to field young players.

Villa suffered another home defeat on Saturday, losing 4-2 to Southampton just a week after their relegation to the Championship was confirmed.

Some supporters have called on Black to ditch players who took the club down and give younger players a chance in the first team.

But Black says he is scared of exposing young players to the toxic atmosphere at Villa’s home games, which has reached a crescendo in recent weeks.

‘I’m fearful of that [fielding younger players]. I don’t want this to be detrimental,’ he said.

‘This is a difficult atmosphere for young players to play in. Certainly the home games’.

One experienced player who has come in for the brunt of supporter’s criticism is Joleon Lescott.

The former Manchester City centre-back has suffered a poor season at the heart of a Villa defence which has conceded the most of
any team in the Premier League (69).

Against Southampton, fans chanted ‘weight of the shoulders’ in response to how Lescott describing the feeling of going down.

But although Black said improved performances were the only way Lescott could repair his relationship with the fans, the 52-year-old commended the defender’s attitude in the face of all the abuse.

‘He’s a Birmingham boy and he’s been a fan all of his life. I can only imagine that he’ll be feeling it tough. But I can imagine that’s why he’s not downed tools and he keeps turning up,’ he said.

‘I can’t point a finger at Joleon Lescott in terms of his attitude. His desire to be in the team. So I’ll give him credit for that.’

yeah. Piss off Eric. You know damn well whats going on. Stop pretending there is some kind of nasty crowd at Villa park. They are just tired of your shitty team selections and your "cant point the finger" at them players who cannot be arsed to play for you or the club.

[peter w]

I find your responses truly bizarre. What do you want him to say or do? He has to support his players, he has to try and give them some moral support and gee them up. he's trying to deflect criticism from them and more power to him. He is trying to get us back working as a normal football team - clearly the relationship between the fans and players has dipped to a level that we have never seen. Its awful. It has to change. It won't change if Black panders to the fans and drops everyone that we don't like and just throws the kids in to said horrible atmosphere.

Black is doing what he can in what is an intolerable poisonous charged environment and we're so negative to anything and everything everyone is a cnut.

[PeterWithesShin]

How much abuse did Toner get Saturday? How about Ayew? Sanchez? And so on. The atmosphere is shit because Bacuna, Lescott, Guzan, Richards are on the pitch.

[clash city rocker]

I would never boo one of the youngsters but I would boo black all day long.

[Nunkin1965]

Metro

Acting Aston Villa manager Eric Black has said the ‘difficult atmosphere’ at Villa Park has made him scared to field young players.

Villa suffered another home defeat on Saturday, losing 4-2 to Southampton just a week after their relegation to the Championship was confirmed.

Some supporters have called on Black to ditch players who took the club down and give younger players a chance in the first team.

But Black says he is scared of exposing young players to the toxic atmosphere at Villa’s home games, which has reached a crescendo in recent weeks.

‘I’m fearful of that [fielding younger players]. I don’t want this to be detrimental,’ he said.

‘This is a difficult atmosphere for young players to play in. Certainly the home games’.

One experienced player who has come in for the brunt of supporter’s criticism is Joleon Lescott.

The former Manchester City centre-back has suffered a poor season at the heart of a Villa defence which has conceded the most of
any team in the Premier League (69).

Against Southampton, fans chanted ‘weight of the shoulders’ in response to how Lescott describing the feeling of going down.

But although Black said improved performances were the only way Lescott could repair his relationship with the fans, the 52-year-old commended the defender’s attitude in the face of all the abuse.

‘He’s a Birmingham boy and he’s been a fan all of his life. I can only imagine that he’ll be feeling it tough. But I can imagine that’s why he’s not downed tools and he keeps turning up,’ he said.

‘I can’t point a finger at Joleon Lescott in terms of his attitude. His desire to be in the team. So I’ll give him credit for that.’

yeah. Piss off Eric. You know damn well whats going on. Stop pretending there is some kind of nasty crowd at Villa park. They are just tired of your shitty team selections and your "cant point the finger" at them players who cannot be arsed to play for you or the club.

I'll stop the Black bashing after this.

But I reckon he must have been in emotional turmoil at half-time on Saturday.

"Oh crap. My skippers injured I've  only got Kevin Toner as cover"
"My 35 years of experience is telling me not to play a kid. Not to expose him to the toxic atmosphere "
"He won't be able to handle it"
"I'll ruin his career"

Well he coped with the occasion pretty well I thought. He contributed far more than the skipper.The World didn't stop turning and he would have been honoured to wear the shirt Eric.

[London Villan]

The acceptance of the behaviour of the likes of lescott and gabby are part of the reason we are in this mess. After lescotts second idiotic outburst he should have been dropped, let alone the embarressing on pitch performances.

[peter w]

It doesn't need to be targetted to one player for it not to affect someone else. You have two children and shout out one and the other will cry. You have a team roundly booed, mocked, with constant ill will in the crowd and it will affect players that are in credit at some point. how can it not? Do you think Ayew enjoys the fact that he's not being booed more than he'd prefer there to be no booing? As the other thread asks it has to stop someone and again, why would a youngster thrive in that atmosphere? Lyden has looked lost and nervous. What if Toner has a bad game he'll be bricking it. Then what do we have left, keep pressure on for Green to play? That will pile pressure on to him more than he needs.

[Nunkin1965]

How much abuse did Toner get Saturday? How about Ayew? Sanchez? And so on. The atmosphere is shit because Bacuna, Lescott, Guzan, Richards are on the pitch.

Exactly. Remove these players and the whole atmosphere changes. Its that simple.
I would never boo a youngster who will at the very least show effort, commitment, passion and some pride in wearing the shirt.

[Villa in Denmark]

Metro

Acting Aston Villa manager Eric Black has said the ‘difficult atmosphere’ at Villa Park has made him scared to field young players.

Villa suffered another home defeat on Saturday, losing 4-2 to Southampton just a week after their relegation to the Championship was confirmed.

Some supporters have called on Black to ditch players who took the club down and give younger players a chance in the first team.

But Black says he is scared of exposing young players to the toxic atmosphere at Villa’s home games, which has reached a crescendo in recent weeks.

‘I’m fearful of that [fielding younger players]. I don’t want this to be detrimental,’ he said.

‘This is a difficult atmosphere for young players to play in. Certainly the home games’.

One experienced player who has come in for the brunt of supporter’s criticism is Joleon Lescott.

The former Manchester City centre-back has suffered a poor season at the heart of a Villa defence which has conceded the most of
any team in the Premier League (69).

Against Southampton, fans chanted ‘weight of the shoulders’ in response to how Lescott describing the feeling of going down.

But although Black said improved performances were the only way Lescott could repair his relationship with the fans, the 52-year-old commended the defender’s attitude in the face of all the abuse.

‘He’s a Birmingham boy and he’s been a fan all of his life. I can only imagine that he’ll be feeling it tough. But I can imagine that’s why he’s not downed tools and he keeps turning up,’ he said.

‘I can’t point a finger at Joleon Lescott in terms of his attitude. His desire to be in the team. So I’ll give him credit for that.’

Is it me, or is that a retort to Okore's "your not telling the whole truth" tweet as much as it's a trying to big up Lescott?

[PeterWithesShin]

How about not picking any of the 4 or 5 players that are getting pelters. Problem solved. Eric Black seems to be the only person so stupid that he can't see it's certain players copping it and not the whole team. But he'd prefer to pick those players every week, watch them lose every week anyway, and help create this 'toxic' atmosphere every week.

[peter w]

And do you think Toner came of the pitch delighted that he played at home in the Premier League? That he managed to make the step up and loved every minute of it. That the booing isn't directed towards him, or any player, personally is missing the point.

[London Villan]

That quote about Light-shouldered lescott's 'attitude' is also a classic.