What is our priority?

[Paul.S]

Winning a Cup is the first step for any club.

[Des Little]

Getting Olsen a new club would be mine.

[Toronto Villa]

Continuous improvement. It’s not one thing that is exclusive or emotional the day after a cup defeat. It should be all across the club. I’m sure next year if Emery, Monchi, Heck, the owners etc get it right, then we will be further ahead in a number of areas than we are today.

[Risso]

Continuous improvement. It’s not one thing that is exclusive or emotional the day after a cup defeat. It should be all across the club. I’m sure next year if Emery, Monchi, Heck, the owners etc get it right, then we will be further ahead in a number of areas than we are today.

That's a big 'if' to be fair. Heck doesn't appear to be making too many friends, and I think with the benefit of hindsight that the summer recruitment has left the squad really undercooked, and has hamstrung Emery to a certain extent.

[Deano's Mullet]

It will be interesting to see how the club reacts to the attendance. A 3rd round FA Cup Tie at home would be another game you'd imagine they'd target for a big ticket fee.

[Ads]

The league is any clubs priority. I suspect Europe is probably second and we lack the capabilities to compete on anymore fronts.

The clubs ambition is to generate more cash; we agree with them. We lag behind significantly in commercial revenue with not just the top earners, but some real average fare too. We don't like what they're doing, but I suspect the Upper Holte will be remedied, as they're after every pound and they're currently leaving a couple of thousand pockets fuller than they'd like and actually, even us as the consumer would like.

[Toronto Villa]

Continuous improvement. It’s not one thing that is exclusive or emotional the day after a cup defeat. It should be all across the club. I’m sure next year if Emery, Monchi, Heck, the owners etc get it right, then we will be further ahead in a number of areas than we are today.

That's a big 'if' to be fair. Heck doesn't appear to be making too many friends, and I think with the benefit of hindsight that the summer recruitment has left the squad really undercooked, and has hamstrung Emery to a certain extent.

Heck has been here two seconds as has Monchi. Emery only a little longer than that. I’d give them a minute more to get it right. The getting there is going to have some things that go wrong on the road to getting it right. And at least on the pitch Emery has got way more right than wrong.

[pablo_picasso]

The problem is, first impressions are actually important & Heck in particular comes across as a bit of a dickhead...

[Vegas]

I’m a “legacy fan” who has my first season ticket in the mid 80s.

I think I’m in a minority of this group in that I’d probably take top 4 over winning the ECL or Carabao (and fairly close even to winning the FA Cup, which I know is sacrilege).

I want to see a successful Villa challenging for the very top honours over a number of years, and really establishing ourselves in that group. I think champions league qualification is a more likely route to doing this than winning a cup.

I would take one cup win over one year of champions league; it’s more the future that one year of champions league could open up.

[Stinkin_Thinkin]

If we were genuine top four contenders I could happily take inglorious exit from the cups, however even though the stats say we are the third best team in the league in 23 I dint believe the squad has enough in the tank to actually make a CL place.  Europa is the realistic target therefore we should absolutely take the cups seriously. It always rankles seeing man city out and easy pathways to wembley when you're eliminated.

[john e]

As I’ve said on another thread the Premier League is king

Thing is if you read on here people talking about how important it is to them to win the FA Cup or winning silverware is what we should be about
I know they’ll be a few exceptions including the post above but I can guarantee most will be 40-50 age group and above, I fall into the above bit

Why, because we remember what it was like to win stuff
We were there standing on the terraces of Highbury, Rotterdam, Old Trafford and Wembley, we know what it feels like, and we want to feel it again
That’s why to a big group on here cups will always be priority, we grew up winning them, not as many as we would like but we had a fair few good days between say 1975-1996

Now believe me I’m not having a go I could almost cry when I write this but if you fall into the younger category you’ve seen us win nothing
You don’t know what it feels like and you’ve been conditioned into believing that the team we put out last night albeit not too weak is worth it because three points on Saturday is far more important
brainwashed if you like into thinking that cups are worthless, compared to finishing a bit higher in the Premier League

As I’ve said before that’s where we are there’s nothing I can do about it it’s the new reality
For me if the team whatever it is on Saturday was the team we put out last night and the team we put out against Everton was the team we play on Saturday it would be fine with me

But then I just want that feeling again, it’s the best feeling in the world

[ez]

I definitely think our younger fans have much lower expectation level than us oldies.

[chrisw1]

I fit into your category.  I suppose the thinking is, if we can establish ourselves as a regular top 4 club the trophies will follow (I know this isn't the case for Spurs, but they are just Spursy).  I'd love an FA cup.  But right now I'd rather see Emery's long-term project succeed and for us to be firmly at the top table again.  The alternative is Emery moves on and we start again, probably with someone far less qualified to take us to where we want to be.

So I want it all.  But first, I want Emery to turn us into a formidable team that expects to be top 4-5 and going deep into Europe and cup competitions.  Top players won't hang around or join us if we finish 12th but win the Carabao cup.  Finish 4th and the game's afoot.

[darren woolley]

Would be brilliant if we could win something.

[TonyD]

I think after the last 4 games it might be the league.  Just a guess.