Aston Villa v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Pre match thread

[PeterWithesShin]

And yet it's how it was. We were all but safe. 7 points clear with 5 to go and 8 sides need to overtake you, you can consider yourself safe.

Here's the post-match thread.

http://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=43129.15

[West Derby Villan]

And yet it's how it was. We were all but safe. 7 points clear with 5 to go and 8 sides need to overtake you, you can consider yourself safe.

Here's the post-match thread.

http://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=43129.15

Check mate!

[Jimbo]

Even Villa fans can find reasons to be cheerful after a win. I don't recall being quite so bullish after the next few games. And in any case, being 'all but safe' with five games to go, with the resources at our disposal at that time, doesn't make Houllier any good. He was shite.

[PeterWithesShin]

Read the thread if you just think they were being cheerful. That way you won't miss the numerous "we're safe" posts. We drew the next match and were 7 clear with 4 to play, then we lost and were still 6 clear with 3 to play. And we had a much better GD. So nope, people weren't panicking, or worried, even then.

[KevinGage]

That's not how I remember it at all. There were a fair few jitters going into those games. But of course, back then relegation seemed unthinkable. It was before our expectations had been sufficiently managed, after all. And still, very few of us were sad to see Houllier go.

How I recall it too.

We had Wigan at home on May 7 and after drawing 1-1, we were still looking at permutations to send us down, as beating Arsenal away and Liverpool at home didn't exactly look like a nailed on 6 points.

Some still try to portray the Houllier era as a missed opportunity.  It is, only in as much as it should have been someone else in the job rather than him. The 7-12th comments (after competing for the CL for the previous two seasons) the toe curling Liverpool love in, the brush with relegation, the whole nine yards.  The rot started on his watch.

[PeterWithesShin]

We could have lost our last 5 games after West Ham and we'd still have stayed up. That's how close to being relegated we were. As it was we lost 4 of the last 17 in the league.

Houllier certainly had his faults, i'll never forgive the cup surrender or his "at 2-0 the game was lost" at Anfield. And some still to try to portray his era as a complete disaster while forgetting we had the worst injury crisis i've ever seen at VP. Once we had players back and had signed some he wanted we went on that run mentioned above.

[KevinGage]

If you go into your final two games of the season not assured of keeping your place in the division, that's a brush with relegation in most people's book.

It wasn't a full on relegation battle that year, I'll concede. That came later.

[PeterWithesShin]

Imagine though, only 4 defeats in 17! Compared to McLeish onwards it was like watching Barcelona!

[Ads]

Don't recall any jitters at Arsenal in the penultimate game. The concourse could be heard a mile away pre-game and was absolutely rocking at the prospect of the Noses dropping.  "Going up/going down" went on for a good half an hour.

[Chris Smith]

Houllier did two thirds of a season so it is virtually impossible to make any sort of sensible judgement on his success or otherwise. We flirted with relegation for most of the season without me ever feeling that is was likely but at the same time I think our final position flattered us massively. There has been a lot of talk about who we might have signed but there is no knowing if Lerner was on the same page so, again, that is not enough to give him any particular credit. In the end I think, like McLeish, it was a gamble that failed albeit for very different reasons.

[Richard E]

On the basis that I have to go to work in Wolverhampton on Monday morning I would really appreciate it if we could win this one.

[Jimbo]

That's not how I remember it at all. There were a fair few jitters going into those games. But of course, back then relegation seemed unthinkable. It was before our expectations had been sufficiently managed, after all. And still, very few of us were sad to see Houllier go.

How I recall it too.

We had Wigan at home on May 7 and after drawing 1-1, we were still looking at permutations to send us down, as beating Arsenal away and Liverpool at home didn't exactly look like a nailed on 6 points.

Some still try to portray the Houllier era as a missed opportunity.  It is, only in as much as it should have been someone else in the job rather than him. The 7-12th comments (after competing for the CL for the previous two seasons) the toe curling Liverpool love in, the brush with relegation, the whole nine yards.  The rot started on his watch.

That sounds closer to reality. How cock-a-hoop were we directly after the Albion defeat? We took two points from the three games after West Ham and we had Arsenal and Liverpool coming up.

As I said before, compared to what came afterwards it seems like we were Brazil ’70, but at the time the very fact that we were thinking about relegation says a lot about Houllier.

We judged RDM after 11 games, so it's quite possible to judge Houllier after 2/3 of a season. He tried to do too much too soon, and his general attitude to the club marked new lows at the time. Didn't he have a run in with the chairman over his departure as well?

[Witton Warrior]

On the basis that I have to go to work in Wolverhampton on Monday morning I would really appreciate it if we could win this one.

Agreed! I work in Walsall - sort of Wolves-lite

[QuintonVilla]

I'm out on Saturday night with a few Wolves and Albion fans (they all want Wolves to beat us such is their obsession with all things Villa), so it could be a long night if we lose. There's a couple of other Villa fans so hopefully we're the ones giving it the big 'un and singing songs long into the night about our saviour Steve Bruce.

3-1 to us.

[passitsideways]

Houllier did two thirds of a season so it is virtually impossible to make any sort of sensible judgement on his success or otherwise. We flirted with relegation for most of the season without me ever feeling that is was likely but at the same time I think our final position flattered us massively. There has been a lot of talk about who we might have signed but there is no knowing if Lerner was on the same page so, again, that is not enough to give him any particular credit. In the end I think, like McLeish, it was a gamble that failed albeit for very different reasons.

I agree that we can't stretch potential signings under Houllier too far (the Benzema and Sissoko links in January were memorable), but I'm pretty certain I read an interview with Cabaye where he basically said he was signing for Villa until it was understood that Houllier wasn't coming back. Given that he cost about 4-5 million and we ended up wasting our budget on N'Zogbia (9.5 million, wasn't it?) and Given, I'm sure we would have accommodated one or two more decent players if Houllier's instincts were right.