Where Did It All Go Wrong....

[brian green]

My view entirely Hilts.  The first card to be pulled out of the Aston Villa house of cards was Randy Lerner cutting and running.  There has been a compedium of fuck ups since then but that was the match that set us ablaze.

[richtheholtender]

Not marketing ourselves properly in the 90s when we were finishing in the top 4, winning cups and consistently in Europe. This coupled with Doug selling 5 years too late in my opinion is where it all went wrong. More specifically would be want could have happened if we had signed a better option that Collymore for £7 million when we still had Yorke.

[ez]

The 21st century has been mainly dull for us.

[RamboandBruno]

the events of ten years ago - and longer - have no relevance whatsoever in my opinion. We have spent money profligately both in the PL and out of it. Money can be a curse and is to most top division teams, very few get it right and most are technically bankrupt, which the pandemic has  brought into very sharp focus.The most important signing any club can make is the management team. Leeds haven't had a pot to piss in for years but took a leaf out of Wolves' book and made an inspired managerial appointment, the same is true of Sheffield United. It's not money it's management, and that's what we simply have to get right next time.

I’ve disagreed with much of what you’ve said this season in relation to Smith. However, I think your largely spot on here. The idea of blaming O’Neil for our current plight, 10 years after he left is a bit bizarre to me. Unlike society where Thatchers decisions 30odd/40 years ago still haunt us, football for me moves much quicker than this.
We were mismanaged after winning the European Cup leading to a fairly rapid decline and relegation 5 years later. However, with some bumps and low points along the way within 3 years of relegation we were challenging for the league, leading to a relative golden decade of high league finishes, league cup triumphs and other semi final/final appearances.
The point I’m making is we came back from a period of mis management quickly to have a period of success with largely good management appointments (SGT, BFR, Brian Little) And largely good signings, there was the odd poor season, but largely a successful era.
The idea then that we haven’t had time to recover from O’Neil walking out is wide of the mark, we’ve had plenty of time.
Lerner pulled the plug and also hit us with the double of whammy of not selling straight away that led to lots of poor managerial decisions, no investment etc and eventually relegation. Unlike the relegation in the 80s there was no stability at boardroom level and no inspired managerial appointment such as Taylor.
The three years in the championship were a shambles saved only by lots of things clicking into place in the most unlikely of the ways from the end of Feb onwards last year, manager, grealish, Mings, McGinn, Tammy.
With all that in hindsight, it was going to take the most astute of signings and a stable inspired management to keep us up this season. We needed at least and older head at the back and centre mid and a goal scorer.
There are a catalogue of mistakes and wrong turns all the way through the last decade, O’Neils departure is the bottom of that list.

[Damo70]

I do sometimes wonder how it would have panned out if Houllier hadn't been taken ill and had taken us into the next season instead of McLeish.

[KevinGage]

Or even been moved upstairs and let Gary Mac continue.

From the list of targets we had lined up Houllier wanted to spend money though. Appointing McLeish gave Lerner the chance to offload Ashley Young and Downing in the same summer (a manager in a stronger position than McLeish wouldn't have tolerated that) and paved the way for our own austerity drive.

[SoccerHQ]

Not marketing ourselves properly in the 90s when we were finishing in the top 4, winning cups and consistently in Europe. This coupled with Doug selling 5 years too late in my opinion is where it all went wrong. More specifically would be want could have happened if we had signed a better option that Collymore for £7 million when we still had Yorke.

At least we were a genuinely big club still in that decade. Decline from that started by losing FA cup final and half the squad wanting to leave.

From being top 6 regulars in the 90s and higher we've only now finished four times in the top 6 in twenty years in premier league which is a sobering thought.

[Jon Crofts]

By my schoolboy maths, our investment of c£140 million has bought us 27 points, that’s almost £6 million pounds a point. Fucking hell.

[Villan82]

Our CEO was given a pretty simple objective, stay up.
So right now and until the end of the season it’s his call.
I can not see him surviving relegation.

Twelve months ago I thought we were fortunate to have Purslow.

After Watford away, I wondered why the man had thought sleepwalking to relegation was acceptable for Aston Villa after all his big talk in the summer.

[Risso]

That cringey interview Purslow did with Smith just after the Play Off final hasn't aged especially well, particularly the bit about the comparison with Norwich.

[AsTallAsLions]

Purslow is gutless.

[Richard E]

Agreeing to go to Villa 1 Blues 0 as an 8 year old on 3rd March 1979. Just think how many years of wow I could have spared myself if I’d stayed at home and played Scalextric instead.

[SoccerHQ]

That cringey interview Purslow did with Smith just after the Play Off final hasn't aged especially well, particularly the bit about the comparison with Norwich.

[Risso]

Urgh, burn it with fire.

[Richard E]

In fairness, we are above Norwich.

Below everyone else, but as ever so humble Aston Villa we shouldn’t ask for too much.