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Author Topic: Tony’s Statement.  (Read 320772 times)

Offline ASHTONVILLA

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #975 on: June 20, 2018, 01:50:21 PM »

This is true, we are the Second City reaally in name only now.  The media (Beeb especially) and Government bias towards Manchester as the only other place worth talking about than London now is overwhelming!

 It is not even the biggest city in its own region, Liverpool is larger. Birmingham is bigger and better in every metric, except in marketing itself.

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #976 on: June 20, 2018, 01:54:17 PM »
Leeds and Bristol have higher populations as well and Sheffield is only just behind. They cheat with all that Greater Manchester guff.

Online Drummond

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #977 on: June 20, 2018, 02:10:53 PM »
It's the Greater Manchester thing isn't it. Manchester itself isn't huge, but tag on Oldham, Salford, Trafford, Bolton, etc and it soon mounts up.

According to the ONS, 2016 population figures.

Manchester - 549k
Leeds - 500k
Liverpool - 572k
Sheffield - 542k
Newcastle - 282k
Birmingham - 1,141k
London - 8,476k

Birmingham is at least twice the size of anything other than London.

Offline Risso

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #978 on: June 20, 2018, 03:53:05 PM »
I tend to think of everything inside the M60 as Manchester, even if it actually isn't, like Salford.  Everything outside it like Bolton and Bury is very much "Greater" Manchester.  I can't think of anywhere else in the UK off the top of my head where you've got two cities separated by about a 5 metre width of river.

Online paul_e

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #979 on: June 20, 2018, 04:02:06 PM »
I tend to think of everything inside the M60 as Manchester, even if it actually isn't, like Salford.  Everything outside it like Bolton and Bury is very much "Greater" Manchester.  I can't think of anywhere else in the UK off the top of my head where you've got two cities separated by about a 5 metre width of river.

Technically London and Westminster but that really just proves your point.  I'd largely agree with you.


However, by the same criteria I'd argue that Sandwell and Solihull are part of Birmingham.  In both of those cases it's literally a case of crossing a road in a number of places.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2018, 04:04:09 PM by paul_e »

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #980 on: June 20, 2018, 04:21:52 PM »
Sandwell definitely, as an example Bearwood is Sandwell despite being a lot closer to the city center than most Birmingham suburbs.

Online paul_e

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #981 on: June 20, 2018, 04:31:08 PM »
Sandwell definitely, as an example Bearwood is Sandwell despite being a lot closer to the city center than most Birmingham suburbs.

Yeah Bearwood is silly but i you look at the solihull council border map around places like Marston Green, Castle Brom and Kingshurst (https://mapit.mysociety.org/area/2538.html) it's clearly 1 place.

Offline Duncan Shaw

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #982 on: June 20, 2018, 05:17:56 PM »
It just shows what positive media spin can do though doesn't it.  I mean watching the Beeb you'd think Salford (not even in Manchester according to the above) was the centre of the universe

Offline LeeB

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #983 on: June 20, 2018, 05:28:00 PM »
Sandwell definitely, as an example Bearwood is Sandwell despite being a lot closer to the city center than most Birmingham suburbs.

Yeah Bearwood is silly but i you look at the solihull council border map around places like Marston Green, Castle Brom and Kingshurst (https://mapit.mysociety.org/area/2538.html) it's clearly 1 place.

I’ve spent most of my life living in Castle Bromwich, it’s in Solihull by name only. I’ve always written my address with ‘Birmingham’ in, and if I go into ‘town’ that means Birmingham, and the same goes for everyone I grew up with.

And quite besides, Solihull is shit.


Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #984 on: June 20, 2018, 05:40:26 PM »
I still can't fathom how Villa aren't up there with the most successful clubs.

We're the biggest club in England's second city, great infrastructure, lovely stadium, distinctive brand, illustrious history, former
European champions, excellent, loyal fan base and potential for a frankly huge following across the West Mids conurbation and beyond.

The potential is massive. It's a tragedy that for so long we've been run by people lacking the vision and judgment needed to fulfill it.

Over last 20 years we've developed the unwelcome habit of freezing/bottling big chances.

It started in 2000 with how negative we were in the FA cup final. We had a good team in those days but losing that mean likes of Boateng, Ugo, Southgate and David James all wanted to leave and they all did within the next 18 months.

Win that cup and I Imagine they'd have all been happy to stay and we could've kicked on from there.

Lean few years and then Lerner took over. We built up with money to be 7 points clear of Arsenal in February 2009. If we'd kept going we'd have been able to keep Barry (Man. City weren't in CL either when he joined them) and had scope to offer likes of Young and Milner new long term deals.

We then went into decline but there was still a slight chink of light when we reached the cup final in 2015. Let's say we'd have turned in a Liverpool performance and won that and qualified for europa league, maybe likes of Benteke and Delph would've given us one more year and so we could've still been a premier league club when Lerner sold up. That's probably most unlikely of the scenarios though.

We now come to the most obvious one of not winning the 150m game and all the carnage it's now causing.

Fact is in modern football you don't win big games or look like you're a forward thinking progressive club in the league, you're going to lose key players and all the problem that causes.

We just don't tend to be a club that seizes chances to improve our fortunes anymore I'm afraid with hopeless performances in those games so can't complain when those results cause us massive issues as a club.

Offline sirlordbaltimore

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #985 on: June 20, 2018, 07:18:02 PM »
Over last 20 years we've developed the unwelcome habit of freezing/bottling big chances.
It started in 2000 with how negative we were in the FA cup final

It started WAY before then.

Doug failed to take the risk/plunge numerous times when we had greatness within touching distance.




Online dave.woodhall

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #986 on: June 20, 2018, 07:21:02 PM »
Before we start beating ourselves up again, I wonder how many clubs' last six Wembley appearances have all been against clubs above them in the league? We never seem to get a good cup run in a year when the top teams go out early.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2018, 09:16:08 PM by dave.woodhall »

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #987 on: June 20, 2018, 07:23:23 PM »
The recent turmoil has made me realise just how much Villa are a constant in my life, it is ghastly imagining a world without them. I dpn't think I could bring myself to ever support another team if the club disappeared.

Surely with a club as large, old and famous as the Villa someone will pitch up and take it off Tony's hands. I hope so, as I have zero confidence in him to get us through this. When Man City had issues wioth their dodgy Thai owner (Taksim Shinawatra?) they managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat by finding very wealthy new owners. Villa are far bigger than Man City were at the time, lets hope this ends well.

We are still a bigger club than Man City.

I agree. It is a shitty state of affairs when pisspot teams like City and Chelsea have managed to spend their way big, but rules stop larger clubs like Villa from doing the same. I don't see what is fair about FFP, load of old bollocks.

We did spend big though and still achieved nothing.

Have to say spending 50m and not even being able to get promoted from the flipping championship has to be worse than what we failed to achieve under Lerner.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #988 on: June 20, 2018, 07:34:03 PM »
Over last 20 years we've developed the unwelcome habit of freezing/bottling big chances.
It started in 2000 with how negative we were in the FA cup final

It started WAY before then.

Doug failed to take the risk/plunge numerous times when we had greatness within touching distance.








[/quote]

90s were still a relatively golden period for us though. 92-93 we finished 2nd, 95-96 we were 4th. I also remember a 5th place season in 96/97 being described as underachievement on thr VHS season review of that year.

We also won two major trophies in that time.

Think of how many times in that era we qualified for euro through the league or winning the cup. Think of how many times since 2002 we've qualfied for europe directly through league position (Intertoto dosen't count).

That's what progressive clubs do most seasons and we were doing it in the 90s. 2000 cup final changed the mentality and we've never got it back bar the first few Lerner years where we still fell short of our goals although we tried hard.

Offline garyshawsknee

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Re: Tony’s Statement.
« Reply #989 on: June 20, 2018, 07:39:28 PM »
We also nearly got relegated twice in the 90s, I remember it as a period of if onlys.

 


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