The battle now raging

[dave.woodhall]

https://heroesandvillains.info/2024/09/09/the-battle-now-raging/

Something to make you think a bit.

[Des Little]

Nail on head, as ever. Good work, Dave.

[ChicagoLion]

Great article but so sad that it is so true.
It feels like the soul of the club has been removed and it is hard to see how it will ever come back.

[Clampy]

Excellent read.

[Sleeuwenhoek]

Spot on as ever, would be nice to know what the owners think.

[VillaTim]

Nail on head . Thank you .

[Nunkin1965]

I, like us all, don't like what we're becoming.
We're starting to look soulless and people who have followed Aston Villa for years will drift away.

[Chip Butty 111]

Great read... has the moral compass been discarded overboard as the good ship Villa disappears over the horizon?

[PeterWithesShin]

We're now what we hate in other clubs. I doubt it's going to change any time soon.

[Stu82]

Great article, and the feeling we have crossed over to be a different kind of club makes me sad.

Let us hope they realise and step back before damaging Villa further.

[Villan82]

This is an inflection point. Our one hope is to dislodge Heck. He is the poster boy for all this. He might be just the poster boy but if he was forced out it might force a rethink.

2018 until now has been some journey. I hate the sense that they've decided to shake us off, disgusting

[Accent Guy]

Great read and a very poignant last sentence.

[adrenachrome]

This is an inflection point. Our one hope is to dislodge Heck. He is the poster boy for all this. He might be just the poster boy but if he was forced out it might force a rethink.

2018 until now has been some journey. I hate the sense that they've decided to shake us off, disgusting

Yes, this is indeed an inflection point.

My guess is that they think along the lines that Randy Lerner was very rich and tried the fans friendly route, and it didn't work. We've made good progress on the field, but now it's time to get real if we want to compete with the elite clubs.

They know the demographic data of our supporter base and the social and economic polarisation which is taking place, and have made decisions accordingly.

Unai successfully implemented the new way of playing football, and this could not happened without their investment.

Now we have the new phase of commercial operations.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Free market forces decide how football has gone in this country. In financial terms the model works and will continue to work offering ever greater returns for those that own the assets.
If we want something more like the German model with accessible prices for most it requires intervention. That would probably have to be at government level which is unlikely to happen.
It would then still be a very long process. Stadiums being redesigned with substantial areas of safe standing as overseas owners drifted away.
 

[Mister E]

Well summarised, Dave.
It is the 'small time' comment that resonates for me: like Rachel Reeves, we've alienated a lots of our core base for a relatively small, one-off financial benefit. Will the money be worth the loss of credibility? - I don't think so.