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

[itmustbe_it is!]

It's the kickoff times that are spoiling it for me. So few Saturday afternoon games, the time I have ring fenced for 40-odd years for my Villa fix.

Now it's  Sunday teatime, Monday night, Friday night - I miss more games now than I've ever done because I have other stuff I need to do at those times.

I never thought I'd say "there's more to life than football" but these days for me there is. I suspect I won't be renewing next year and that's genuinely the main reason. Live fans aren't important , at all.

[algy]

It's the kickoff times that are spoiling it for me. So few Saturday afternoon games, the time I have ring fenced for 40-odd years for my Villa fix.

Now it's  Sunday teatime, Monday night, Friday night - I miss more games now than I've ever done because I have other stuff I need to do at those times.

I never thought I'd say "there's more to life than football" but these days for me there is. I suspect I won't be renewing next year and that's genuinely the main reason. Live fans aren't important , at all.

That’s largely why we gave up our season ticket at the end of the 98/99 season. Absolutely impossible to plan around fixtures that were increasingly moving away from Saturday 3pm. Then I moved up to Scotland and my parents to Wales, and that was that. Still get to a few games a season, but when the ticket prices are as they are it’s hard to justify going on a regular basis.

That becomes even more so when …

1. There’s no incentive for clubs to blood young players. I know it’s daft, but I want to be able to *believe* that it’s possible for me or my kids or whoever to play for the Villa if they’re good enough. But as it is, anyone who’s saleable gets flogged on. That and the whole Grealish thing makes me think that it’s just not going to happen ever.

2. I’m not a glory hunter, I don’t want or expect Villa to win stuff all the time. But I want to believe that we *can* win stuff, that we could win the league and assert a dominance like we do at the turn of the 20th century. The rules make that so it seems little more than an unobtainable pipe dream.

3. Not to do with Villa, but I disapprove of how cup competitions and in particular the FA Cup have been devalued.  Again it’s that dream that in theory any club, even one who plays in the local league, can effectively be crowned champions of England. Obviously they can still win the FA Cup, but it’s kind of a second rate thing compared to the league now. I don’t understand why we can’t lobby UEFA to allow us to give a champions league place to the winner of the oldest, longest running football competition in the world.

I do understand, is because it’s not guaranteed or near enough to one of the sky 6. But it *should* be given near parity with the league, and I don’t approve of it not being.

—
Problem is that for all this bluster, I love the Villa and struggle to separate myself from the club. But still, it doesn’t mean that I’m not totally pissed off about it.

[Sexual Ealing]

To drop the irony for a moment, the reason it's all fucked is the VAR checks for goals. You can't charge people upwards of £70 a week to deprive them of the one thing that makes it all worthwhile. It's like a drug dealer or a prozzie doubling their prices and giving you a glass of milk and a handshake and telling you it's better for their margin. I don't know why people still go, frankly. They're literally making it worse and charging more for the privilege. I'm not a massive fan of using market forces as an excuse to do anything. This ought to be the opposite of market forces, but the market keeps buying. They won't learn until we do.

[dave.woodhall]

For my twopennyworth i think that the ever increasing cost of going to games and clubs milking fans is not a Villa thing it is almost every normal fan you speak to.

My beef is always with the way that certain clubs are favoured in everything from in game decisions, VAR, Media coverage and certainly punishments.

Go all the way back to Cantona and the infamous Kung Fu kick - if that was players of the time Wise, Vinny Jones, Venus, Hartford - properly considered hard men of the game - they would of, quite rightly been banned for life.
Before any one says it was driven by a racist comment by a single fan, i say all think of the pioneers like Regis, Batson and Cunningham had to endure week after week and they never attacked a fan in the stands. When that twat attacked that fan he was adjacent to women and kids - total cnut

He played for any other club... well we know the answer.

No we come to the modern game and the biggest killer for me is not the endless rules any ambitious club have to endure it the fact that when the scum 6 break them they do so with almost carte blanche and get away with it, The Chelsea outcome this week is a joke and if we ever get to the point of City being sorted - it will be the same

All we want is an even playing field but there are too many vested interests for that to ever happen

That was when it all started. Cantona ushered in a wave of philosophy-football that got the chattering classes interested. It was noticeable how that incident went from Eric is Guilty to Eric is Guilty with Extenuating Circumstances to Eric the Anti-Racist Crusader. As you said, anyone else would have got jail time.

[Behind Bluenose Lines]

I thought it was theoretically Nick Hornby who got the "chattering classes" interested in football when Fever Pitch came out.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

I thought it was theoretically Nick Hornby who got the "chattering classes" interested in football when Fever Pitch came out.

Yeah, and Gazza blubbing to Nessun Dorma.

[SaddVillan]

If we could become a successful cup side, winning one every 3-4 years (inc the Conference/Europa), would you trade 5/6/7/8 on a regular basis for all the Champions League qualification bollocks and angst?.

We'd still get European football, with trips to interesting foreign places: and we'd probably have a better chance of winning the Europa League and Conference that the Chumps League.

Let's be honest, football at Villa has been deadly dull in recent years and going to games seems more of an obligation than a source of enjoyment.

Is it unreasonable to expect some excitement and entertainment for my £50/£60/£70/£80 ticket?

[Hillbilly]

We have an uncanny ability to dodge trophies. The club motto could be changed to “Close but no cigar”.

[Baldy]

It just seems like a 'perfect storm' at the moment brought on by:

1) Injuries to three of our best players.
2) Subsequent loss of form of other players.
3) Bad transfer dealings to address above problem.
4) Injustices of the elite (Man City*, Chelsea* etc)
5) Re-emergence of Man Utd (really pisses me off)
6) Ever escalating costs

Football aside, throw in the Trump factor and no wonder we are all feeling 'doom and gloom'.

But, but, but if we stuff Lille and the Hammers we will be on cloud nine again. When Tielemans returns we will all explode in a fit of ecstasy and the world will feel right again.

And always remember, you could have been born a Birmingham City supporter.