So what happened?

[IQLowe 33]

Ok I'm a bluenose but I try to be objective as possible and I find myself rather baffled by Villa's transformation to a team that deservedly beat Liverpool in the semis, lost very unfortunately to Man C around that period to a team that finished with 17 points over an entire season. When I watched Villa at the early part of the season I thought "not bad" they're going through a bad patch but they probably have enough to get themselves out of it.

SO what happened that caused the absymal collapse against Liverpool? It was all quite inexplicable (and I won't pretend I didn't enjoy it) but I'm still a little puzzled by the swiftness of the decline. Where was the turning point? I'm sure youve all analysed it to death but all the same I'm somewhat intrigued.

[Jimbo]

A serious question: why are you so obsessed with us?

[IQLowe 33]

I'm not. I go on a lot of other forums too. Sad, maybe, but true.

[peter w]

The problem with your question is that we've analyzed it to death. Should you really want to know read any one of the many threads in Heroes discussion and you'll get an answer.

[IQLowe 33]

Will do. Perhaps your forum buddy might learn a trick from you.

[oldham_villa]

It's a perfect example of what happens when there is no leadership from the top, and the players are overpaid pre-madonnas.

Where's the punishment if someone acts unprofessional...... a stint training with the kids, and an absence from the playing squad. They still pick up their salary

Until football gets to the bottom of this, many clubs will go through the same process.

[cdbearsfan]

We sold Benteke, without whose goals we would've dropped in any of the previous three seasons.

We bought in a lot of players but no real stars anywhere near the Benteke level.

Some were promising, others less so.

They needed looking after and integrating slowly. We had a manager who was interested in doing neither. We kept picking the same dross who seemed to find favour under Sherwood regardless of form.

We had the tiniest chance of getting out of it had we acted decisively but we dithered. Sherwood stayed for an extra couple of games, and a couple of defeats, when we should've sacked him during the international break. We then suffered a couple more defeats under MacDonald who was, if anything, even more incompetent than Sherwood.

Garde came in. He may prove to be a decent manager somewhere in the future but it was too big a task. The players never took to him and he had no chance to stamp his authority having being left with the poisonous dressing room he inherited.

In the transfer window the Board showed that they had given up. The players already seemed to have done so.

I don't think the squad was good enough go stay up, but they were easily good enough to get more than seventeen points. The lack of character and piss-poor attitudes of many of the players, particularly the most senior ones, were shockingly bad.

[pauliewalnuts]

The failure to get anywhere near replacing the player whose goals kept us up the last few years, that was for me the biggest contributing issue.

Not even trying to stay up in the January window was another. That was humiliating, the limp, pathetic surrender.

[paul_e]

Honestly, I think we started badly because we were disorganised, Sherwood had no idea how to prepare a team for the season.  We got rid and replaced with Garde who wanted the team to be much fitter and was trying to focus on that but was struggling with the lack of professionalism of some of our players.  In January he seemed to get something out of them but when he didn't get players in the window he seemed to lose a bit of focus and that translated to the players who, for me, saw him as a deadman walking and eased back on training, etc.  That led to us taking a couple of beatings and him getting sacked.  Finally Black acted up as caretaker and decided to try to defend his way to some points but with our ropey defence that was just a terrible decision.

[supertom]

Basically it's like one of those videos where some idiot is putting his arm in and out of an alligators open jaws. He keeps doing it over and over, thinking he can get away with it each time. And then the video ends with him getting his arm dislocated when the gator gets a grip of him and rolls.
Randy made error upon error and didn't learn from it. We're far too big a club to have been scraping over the line every year. The outcome was inevitable, and the odd run of form, or standout game, such as Liverpool in the Semi, papered over a lot of cracks.

[Fasth56]

Why don't you f**k off back to the Alliance website with all the other mongrels who are wetting themselves over the takeover and hoping beyond all hope that we end up in a situation your shite club.

[cdbearsfan]

Any need? He doesn't seem to have behaved too badly.

[Fasth56]

You think we would be treated with any respect on a nose forum. I would say that is mild to what would be said to us. This is a Villa website for Villa fans if I'm not mistaken.

[Sexual Ealing]

Honestly, I think we started badly because we were disorganised, Sherwood had no idea how to prepare a team for the season.  We got rid and replaced with Garde who wanted the team to be much fitter and was trying to focus on that but was struggling with the lack of professionalism of some of our players.  In January he seemed to get something out of them but when he didn't get players in the window he seemed to lose a bit of focus and that translated to the players who, for me, saw him as a deadman walking and eased back on training, etc.  That led to us taking a couple of beatings and him getting sacked.  Finally Black acted up as caretaker and decided to try to defend his way to some points but with our ropey defence that was just a terrible decision.

I was talking to a client on Friday (Spurs fan) who met Kyle Walker, Aaron Lennon and Danny Rose in a casino not long after Pochettino arrived at WHL. He said Walker ignored him, Lennon was an actual knob but Rose was pretty sound and chatty. He asked him (Rose) what life was like under Poch. Rose said it was different, intense and there was a bit of ambivalence as there was no evidence at the time that the hard work would pay off. He apparently added 'it's very different to Tim Sherwood. He just let us do what we wanted."

I think that's what went wrong for us.

[paul_e]

You think we would be treated with any respect on a nose forum. I would say that is mild to what would be said to us. This is a Villa website for Villa fans if I'm not mistaken.

what does that matter?  The rule on here (as far as I'm aware) has always been that if you don't act like a complete dick trying to cause arguments you'll be allowed to stay.  IQ hasn't been particularly annoying and he's asking a reasonably sensible question here so I don't see the need to send him away.