So close, but never felt so far....

[Rigadon]

I don’t think it’d take much more than Emery ending up at somewhere like Man Utd next season for me to lose enough enthusiasm that I’d probably be less inclined to watch so many games.  We’ve qualified for Europe 3 (maybe 4) times in a row and not much has really changed.  In past years, with this coach, we’d be genuinely title contenders and winning cups, of that I’ve no doubt.  But we won’t be able to do that and that’s the killer.

The fact we have to pay so much money to watch this makes it an even bigger piss take. 

[Villan82]

OK I was flippant last night but I stick to my guns.

The last three years have demonstrated, clearly, that the right manager can take a club far. There was an established top six and we have smashed right through it. Even before Emery, Smith gave us the 7-2 game and wins at Arsenal and Old Trafford. The next step is the hardest, but it always was. Newcastle and ourselves came close in the 90s to winning it and just fell short. If we hadn't the injuries that would probably be us this year coming 2nd or 3rd.

I get it that the Ci££y and Chavski stuff stinks to high heaven while Manure and Liverpool have always had the advantage of cashing in on the fact their success came with television giving them a big casual following. Spurs and the others were lucky in that they were in the right place to cash in on being good in the early 2010s when social media burst on the scene.

Which brings me to us. The clubs above played smart but until NSWE have we ever played smart? The ghosts of the past still lurk. We didn't kick on in the 90s and inexplicably Randy Lerner just gave up at precisely the worst time. When we needed eyeballs on us circa 2010-2016 we served up McLeish, Lambert, Remi Garde and the rest.  Playing devil's advocate, that's more our fault than it is anybody else's. Again, it's interesting how similar Newcastle are to us- they had a similar 2010s to us too.

To bring it back, I hate the FFP/PSR/SCR shite and the 'big six' shite. I don't gave Sky a penny of my money. I hated the price increases and the Heck stuff as is well documented. But nothing is forever and whatever shape the game is in  by 2036 the Unai Emery years have given us back some hope that our great club can compete and I hope there is 50,000 inside Villa Park to roar the team on.

[Nev]

Take the social side away and I wouldn't go. I like a drink in Town with mates before and after a game, but Sunday just isn't the same. Midweek, the public transport is appalling so I end up driving and I know the club neither wants me nor values my support whatever game I attend.

There's nowhere to congregate pre or post match, the Warehouse things sounds horrific, plastic glasses and godawful music, the Barton's and the Heart the latest to go and the most recent development in the ground, a singing section, has pushed me further to the day I jack the lot in.

[Chris Smith]

I can understand the sentiment but going to the Villa is too ingrained to consider it at the moment. I’m fortunate I suppose in that travel in straightforward for me, I go with my middle son and the other two come when circumstances allow and I also meet my brother, nephews and assorted mates for a pint before and after. I’m in the senior season ticket bracket now but as long as body and mind hold up I reckon I’ll stick with it.

[LeeB]

I'm done, I'm just not enjoying going anymore.

[Billy Walker]

Chelsea getting away with cheating their way to trophies (as per yesterday's judgement) certainly does not help.  Everything they "won" in the period they were cheating should be struck off the list. Alas the game has zero integrity or credibility when it comes to that kind of thing.

[TheToffnar]

I just couldn't. I was fairly late to fall in love with the game, but 4 generations of my family being supporters, living in Great Barr, relative with blood ties to someone very prestigious in the clubs history, all of it keeps me going and supporting and I don't think that will ever change.

As others have also said, the game is at times almost secondary to social aspect of attending, or even just the discourse that follows a game in general. I'd really struggle giving that up for many reasons.

I do get it, the deck feels stacked against us and hyperbole or not, it does feel like we're witnessing a real sliding doors moment for the club. Regardless, football gives me too much for me to give it up, good and bad.

[Drummond]

The problem I have is that the game has always been about money. So it's not just that but the fact that other clubs now aren't allowed to have money even if they have it.

That the clubs with it still exploit the system unfairly (Chelsea) have charges to suggest they did (ManC), have huge amounts of debt (ManU) means the new rules just don't stand up to scrutiny.

But you only have to look at what our neighbours are doing, to see that money still counts for something.

We're richer than most, yet we are still underdogs.

Even kids football is about the richest clubs, and it's been like that for as long as I can remember.

But I get a lot of satisfaction in just watching a hard fought game that could go either way. We can compete again and that makes a difference. When were a bit shit (as we are at the moment) we feel more despondent, but we'll come good again.

[Baldy]

Fantastic post Nil.

Before seeing your post I posted this on the FFP thread earlier today:

'In the last twenty years Man City have won the EPL 7 times (115 cases outstanding), Chelsea 5 times (proven cheats), Man Utd 5 times (nearly a billion in debt), Liverpool 2 times (well run club), Leicester once (5000/1).

With the odds stacked heavily in the favour of the so called 'big 6', Arsenal and Tottenham should be embarrased they couldn't win a league title in twenty years when there are effectively 6 teams in the league.

What a 'joke' the Premier League is.'Crime never pays'. It does in the Premier League.

Enough to make me sick.'

[kippaxvilla2]

I’ll argue it’s not Manure, Liverpool, Arsenal that have fcuked it for us.  It’s the Johnny come lately Chelsea and Man Citeh that have.  Got in before the drawbridge was raised. 

I last went to Villa regularly when lambert came in and stopped due to kids etc.  I’ve been back to a few games since but don’t miss it at all. 

There’s so many things making my blood boil that have turned it into a perfect storm for the also rans like us. 

1. The blatant fixing of the rules to make it impossible for us to compete. 

2. The blatant cheating going on elsewhere and not properly punished.

3. The constant selling of our best players which incidentally has been going on a long time before PSR.

4. The cack handed double whammy that if you’re successful enough to qualify for Europe you’re punished for it.

5. That the soul of the club is being stretched by the constant fleecing of fans who were around when the trinity road stand was closed during low attendances in the championship.

6. Our own fucking ineptitude in the transfer market in the last few windows which has exacerbated our own position.  Onana, Malen, Elliott, Ramsey, guessand, Sancho, Bailey.  To name a few.  Fancy spunking all that money whenhaving limited funds then letting one of our brightest academy talents go.

7. The constant constant media wankfest over those clubs.  Everyone in the media is desperate for spurs to stay up.  They don’t catch the public mood music at all.  The rest of us are desperate for it to happen.  Then manure.  Twatterface ‘the premier league is a poorer place without a strong and successful man united.’  No it fcuking isn’t it’s comically funny.  Everywhere I go these days even the bbc it’s constant.  Not even veiled anymore.  Then having biased pundits commentating on their own teams.  Then our own local media having a massive agenda against us for as long as I can remember. 

8. The atrocious state of refereeing.  And no consequences for it.  I’m one of the few that agrees with VAR as it is one of the few things that can actually potentially keep the big six from getting unfair decisions.  But its execution is just beyond amateurish.  They literally don’t know what they’re doing from one match to another.

So yeh all in all it sucks and I don’t like it a quarter as much as I used to.  Enjoy the relative pain free experience of watching Doncaster matches instead!  Football is about entertainment and pulling people out of their mundane lives with a fix every weekend.  It’s now a chore for a lot.

[Rico]

They don't even attempt to hide the corruption anymore. Referee from Manchester. VAR from Manchester. They might not be Man Ure fans, but they sure as hell will know plenty. It's gone beyond a joke. I was convinced on Sunday that they would find a reason to disallow our goal.

[wince]

Im almost done. I am not and never was a regular attendee of football due to a myriad of reasons. Last time I was a regular was in the DiMatteo/Bruce years. It has all become a circus to me to be honest.

The glass ceiling, the leaking of our talent and the blatant corruption as to not damage 'the brand'. Coupled with media coverage that is biased against anyone not in the scab 6. Deep down, it is the internal strife that pisses me off the most in that we get so far to doing something then we bottle it. FA cup 2000, 2015, last year in the semi. It is as if the club gets so high, stops, then shits the bed, gets a nose bleed, whatever.

Meanwhile, teams who consider the League Cup beneath them hoover them up year after year.

Going to VP now is beyond my means. It feels like how massive arena concerts are. An event within an event to fleece fans.

Then there is the case of Sheffield Weds who have been royally cooked whilst the Oil barons and Russian backed johhny come lately lot get away with a slap on the wrist or delayed actions.

It has all become boring beyond belief. Much like any sport Sky gets their hands on (see F1).

It isn't about entitlement or a slide in form. It is that we never really look like competing and there are active forces preventing us from doing so. Get into Europe, get slapped with restrictions, dont get into Europe, lose our top players. How can anyone get to the top under this way of working and sustain it long term? The anomaly of Blackburn and Leicester winning the league means that in the 30 odd year existence of the Premier League, Man U, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool (albeit took the latter a long time) have dominated either by winning the league or by getting the CL spots. As pointed out, Liverpool are an amazingly ran club (no beef with Liverpool at all) but Man City and Chelsea basically cheated their way to the top and stopped anyone else cracking on.

It also annoys me deeply it is 30 years since we won any silverware at all. A club of our size, that is not good enough and I honestly have given up any hope of us ever changing that.

We got to the edge of greatness but feel something has gone very wrong at the club and that this is as good as it will get for this period of our history. But I am feeling, even when we were doing well, something felt off and that I just have never felt so distant from Villa as I do right now.

[Drummond]

We've not won enough recently but we'll all feel better when we do

[Flamingo Lane]

Yep. I've only just come to this thread having been mulling over by myself for a day or two the exact same sentiments as I have now read in the thread, my own feelings best encapsulated by Nils, Exeter and Kippax.

[walsall villain]

I’ve found this thread a depressing read. I had no idea so many posters are feeling so disillusioned with the game. Maybe the ever changing nature of the game leads to a yearning for how it was? Is this an age thing? Villa park attendances are consistent higher than I’ve ever known them, is it mainly younger fans attending? I fully understand that the exorbitant prices are not affordable for those with families.
I know once you stop going it’s hard to reconnect. I stopped in the late 1980’s and rare visits in that period always felt weird.