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

[LeeB]

I can see it from both sides.

I really think how this season ends will define how I feel in the immediate future. Miss out on champions league, have to sell best players to comply with some arbitrary rules, accept our place back in 'the chasing pack' and hope for the occasional cup win (or even one before I die would be nice please Villa) or Europa spot, while other teams can seemingly do whatever they want. Maybe end up looking back fondly at the couple of seasons where we really looked like we were going to kick on.

Having said that, I still love it. I've gone with the same few lads since school, we're all going through our lives at the same stages so now we're taking our young son's with us, and love watching them get excited, wearing their (fucking expensive) villa stuff, and playing together before the games.

Massive sliding doors moment next few months.

Your massively lucky - my biggest disapointment is I couldnt get either of my kids into sports.  Its always been such a big part of my life - and most of my social life has recolved around it in one form or another.  Dont get me wrong - there wonderful kids - but I would love nothing more than to sit next to them at the football or cricket

Exactly the same with my kids mate, and a big part of why I'm drifting away. I think had they got into it it would have been a 'new' thing, passing on the baton, instead it's just something I disappear off to do by myself.

[Olneythelonely]

I’ve started feeling this way myself. Think the realisation started at Old Trafford at the end of last season. It became obvious that this is not likely to bring me any happiness. The wins have stopped giving me the same sort of buzz and the defeats don’t affect me as much.

I’ve got a 13-year old son and whilst he enjoys going to the odd game, he won’t watch a match on TV and barely has a passing interest in who the players are. I could tell you all their middle names by that age.

VAR, FFP, SCR, the “big 6”, the price of tickets etc, have all had an effect, and I think the subject of this thread does say it all for me. The best I’ve ever known us, but as far away as we’ve ever been.

Still, will be there on Thursday and Sunday.

[Nunkin1965]

I'll have a moan at the state of VAR or favouritism towards the big 6, or the ever growing reliance on the corporate shilling.
I'll listen to a friend who tells me I'm wasting my money and suggest I watch Halesowen every other week for a fraction of the cost.

But alongside the rebranding and the pricing and the WWF fireworks and tifo spectaculars, I still am fortunate enough to go.
I'll never lose the appetite or the appeal because its too ingrained.. Its too much of a routine or ritual that I cant walk away from.
From discussing potential Champions League blowout to wailing about Grant Holt leading the line , I cant let go.

 I still get the buzz, just like attending gigs and I think that will only change when its time for me to fly.

[SamTheMouse]

The always excellent Adam Clery explains why it's all becoming so shit on the pitch.

[Witton Warrior]

Being 66 I am lucky enough to have witnessed more success for Villa than most but even when we were not winning trophies going to Villa Park was part of my life from 1974. The irony was I never particularly cared about the game, it was everything else around the match. The rabid passion for Aston Villa is now a warm glow but they are the only team I ever look out for. As for attending matches that is now such a faff I haven't bothered for a couple of years.

I watch in dismay as football has become just another money-making exercise amongst all the other non-essentials. So I celebrate us winning and coming on here to get a vicarious experience from people more engaged than I am but have pretty much had it with the modern game

[Mister E]

I love the Villa but hate modern football. The eight hour round trip for each home game is becoming more difficult to justify. However I would love to see Villa win just one more cup before I say I'm done. I'm 63 so I do wonder how old I will be before I can retire...

Your round trip is almost double what mine is but last season I decided would be my last as a season ticket holder. I've just turned 68, and have to say that not going to VP has been difficult in some respects (I feel guilty - yes, guilty! - for having stopped going to give my support in person), and easy in others. I don't miss the journeys; I don't miss the hanging-around between arrival, parking and entry to the ground; I don't miss the poor catering and other services provided by the club. Now, my main concern is to not have my wife witnessing my angst, bad language and foul tempers!
I remember in 1981 thinking that we were at the beginning of a golden era for Villa: after all, my formative years coincided with the best years in Villa's history, from third-division embarrassment to First Division Champions. Little did I know that those years were the outlier!!
Until now.
Now, our optimistic outlook collides with all the disillusionments so well articulated by Nii and others above. Chelsea's 'lucky outcome', RedManc's obscene debt, Spuds' blatant self-entitlement, Forest's gangster-owner: all these, and other factors, form a toxic sludge enriched with the arrogance of FIFA, the vagaries of VAR, the protectionism of the Premier League for the scab6 and the scourge of variable kick-off times. Let's leave the financial cock-cage out of this!


I'm still emotionally welded to Villa; can't shake it off (it's in the blood). But every week, the unconditional love is tainted, little by little, by the drip-feed of cynicism.

[brontebilly]

VAR does tend to layer on refereeing incompetence but the FA Cup game v Newcastle showed what it's like without it. So many games were decided pre VAR on the back of offside goals and phantom penalties. Refereeing corruption going back to 70s and 80s, English teams in Europe and even likes of Ireland were completely robbed qualifying for tournaments.

It's the instant hit we all get when the ball hits the net that has been watered down with VAR but it's better than the alternative.

[ChicagoLion]

The Chelsea settlement is just setting us up for the Citeh deal.
No points deduction, no transfer embargo and a cash settlement to a charity of your choice.

[Smithy]

The Chelsea settlement is just setting us up for the Citeh deal.
No points deduction, no transfer embargo and a cash settlement to a charity of your choice.

They have made a big deal of the fact that Chelsea only a fine because the new owners 'self-reported' the irregularities after buying the club.  I don't agree with the decision to make it only a fine, but I also think that the 'self-reporting' line means it doesn't set any sort of precedent for Man City. 

I think if City get any punishment that doesn't include points deductions/embargo, then the footballing world will explode.

[Monty]

The Chelsea settlement is just setting us up for the Citeh deal.
No points deduction, no transfer embargo and a cash settlement to a charity of your choice.

They have made a big deal of the fact that Chelsea only a fine because the new owners 'self-reported' the irregularities after buying the club.  I don't agree with the decision to make it only a fine, but I also think that the 'self-reporting' line means it doesn't set any sort of precedent for Man City. 

I think if City get any punishment that doesn't include points deductions/embargo, then the footballing world will explode.

The one thing I'll say gives me a bit of - well, not hope, but something a bit like hope I guess - that City will get an actual punishment is that it suits the powers-that-be clubs to punish upstarts who try and find ways to work around the rules and inject external capital unconnected to revenues. Clubs like us, in other words - and if we're fucked over, why not Man City, in the end? And what would they do, start a Super League by themselves?

There are all sorts of counters to this point obvs, but it is one shred we've got yet.

[Pat Mustard]

Money ruins everything in the end.

[Flamingo Lane]

The Chelsea settlement is just setting us up for the Citeh deal.
No points deduction, no transfer embargo and a cash settlement to a charity of your choice.

They have made a big deal of the fact that Chelsea only a fine because the new owners 'self-reported' the irregularities after buying the club.  I don't agree with the decision to make it only a fine, but I also think that the 'self-reporting' line means it doesn't set any sort of precedent for Man City. 

I think if City get any punishment that doesn't include points deductions/embargo, then the footballing world will explode.

However, as I understand it the report setting out the Chelsea wrongdoing and explaining the punishment does not even contemplate the possibility of a points deduction, with or without the mitigation of the 'self reporting'.

[TheToffnar]

The Chelsea settlement is just setting us up for the Citeh deal.
No points deduction, no transfer embargo and a cash settlement to a charity of your choice.

They have made a big deal of the fact that Chelsea only a fine because the new owners 'self-reported' the irregularities after buying the club.  I don't agree with the decision to make it only a fine, but I also think that the 'self-reporting' line means it doesn't set any sort of precedent for Man City. 

I think if City get any punishment that doesn't include points deductions/embargo, then the footballing world will explode.

However, as I understand it the report setting out the Chelsea wrongdoing and explaining the punishment does not even contemplate the possibility of a points deduction, with or without the mitigation of the 'self reporting'.

Listening to a number of experts chat about it on various podcasts (including the excellent 'The Football Boardroom' with Purslow giving his opinion), a points deduction was considered early on, as was a straight transfer ban and a heavy fine, but as the case developed and Chelsea co-operated further, the first option was written off entirely. The extremity of the further two options where also hugely reduced.

Every expert on the matter is however in total agreement that the PL has been far too lenient, not least when taking into account the severity of the punishments handed out to Forest and Everton for arguably lesser infringements. The PL makes little to no mention of how the payments in general could have effected the clubs general overall improved odds of winning what they did, or indeed how said players purchased after the fact influenced performance and club trajectory overall.

It's fucking criminal, literally.

[The Edge]

Money ruins everything in the end.

Is depressingly very accurate.