Aston Villa, where are you? Let's be 'avin' you

first time post from chris, so please be gentle

We lost to man utd yes, but it was also the fashion in which we lost the game. That said, it wasnt just the man utd game, we have had some poor results, but maybe more importantly performances, leading up to the Utd game which has led to Villa fans, including myself, to question some things- which we are totally in the right to do.

Yes we are in the dizzying heights of challenging for sixth position, and we have to congratulate MOn and players for that, and fans have only been eager to see the players and manager continue the fine form from the beginning part of the season through the rest of the season. But it seems we have hit a bit of a slump- could it be that some players are underperforming, down to a small squad which should have been added to in the January Transfer window and wasnt really. Fans wanted to see us in the Window, adding to the squad in order to prevent issues that are rising now. However for whatever reason , MON couldnt get the targets he wanted or clubs werent selling.

We have good nucleus, but constantly relying on that nucleus doesnt help anyone. Teams can figure out how to play us. The top clubs operate rotation policies and bring in equally quality players for the same standard- we arent remotely in that position yet and maybe its that which is stopping Villa achieving more.

love the way you say "please be gentle"

Lets forget about Cahill. He's stunk the house out since he joined Bolton. Getting money for him, J-Lloyd and McCann was a fantastic bit of business by MO'N.

Creatively we rely too much on Ashley Young. If he doesn't turn up, then we struggle as Barry and NRC and Petrov aren't good enough playmakers to carve out options through the middle.

But lets not be too hasty. This season has been the best since the early years under Brian Little. We should let the recent disappointments outweight the far more numerous highlights. Keep some perspective. We ARE improving year on year.

Couldn't agree more, top first article. The whingers won't agree with you, but you'll never please them. They need to remember the dark days of O'Leary and staying in the division by the skin of our teeth. Some people have memories shorter than Shaun Maloney.

I agree with Davida, letting Cahill go was no mistake by MON, he'd have been a great reserve to have, but he's not the sort i'd want at the heart of my defence week in week out, he's got quality, but as we can see at Bolton, he's all too clumsy. I think MON knew all along that Melly and Cahill were going to have to make way, and he probably doesn't see Laursen making another full season, so expect a recognised CB coming in the summer...i'm going to put Kompany and Mertesacker into the pot for MON to consider...he'll probably go with someone closer to home though knowing MON. And this slump is nothing to worry about, it's simply because we have so few players, and MON knows that, but i believe that he tried as much as could to get in the players he wanted in January, but you can't just put money on the table and expect it to be accepted. If someone came in for Agbonlahor in January for 10mil we would never have accepted it, and so probably was the way with MON's targets. I'm not happy with the recent form, but by the same marker i'm not that worried about it, because we've already over achieved, and if we can get Intertoto football, i'd be very happy. I don't know why everyone is getting so worked up now that we've lost to United, because any team in the world would have lost to them when they played like they did. Just have a little faith now and we'll come out of this slump a lot stronger for it. UTV.

This is a great post, nice to see a positive Villa fan every now and then. We're still in the building process and its going to plan, if not even better than expected, the way some whingers go on, it's like they expected us to be winning the title this season.
Recently we've run out of steam, simple as that, there is no competition for places, the team picks itself every week, and everyone knows thats not good in the long run, just look at how Gabby and Young have been performing recently, they'd be dropped in a bigger squad in that form. But I have no doubt "sqaud size" and "quality additions" problems will be addressed in the summer (if not you might see the biggest boycott by fans in football history).

Also I'd like to mention the Villa fans, especially the away support. I live in Ireland so obviously, I can't get to matches, but they really make me proud when watching games on TV, when Villa Park is buzzing, but even more so when I can hear them singing their hearts out at places like Anfield, the Emirates or 4-0 down at Old Trafford. Surely there is some prize for best fans in the Prem, I don't know of any better than ours.

Nice to hear someone talking sense for a change and not getting carried away on the we're going to win the the league/we're all doomed bandwagons. How many Villa fans would, at the end of the day, swap where we are now, with Lerner, O'Neill and a good, if admittedly thin bunch of hungry young lads for Doug, O'Leary and some washed-up has beens? Yes I've been really disappointed with recent results but looking back we've had some great times this season, progress is being made and with a few more new players a push towards the top 4 is on the cards. Keep the faith boys.

well done chris great post try and rub a bit of your faith into damians heart i think he lost the claret faith a few weeks ago

Well done chris for some positive talk on this site(for a change( .......... I live in spain and had to sit and watch saturdays game with a load of man ure "fans" and yes it was embarrasing, yes it was crap, but we did play the future champions. MON is nobodys fool and just looking at our bench on saturday surely would of told him what needs doing in the summer,but for now we all have to stick with what we got and continue backing the AV........................
REMEMBER KEEP THE FAITH AND S''T ON THE CIT!!!!!!!!

OK, we've hit a bit of a bad patch but we can still finish strongly like last season. We went unbeaten in the last 9 games and we need a similar run now to regain confidence. But all in all it's been a good season and hopes were high after the draw against Arsenal. I really did think that we would end up on 60 points and I still think we can.

I just hope the squad is improved in the summer so we can challenge again.

Couldn't agree more, great to have some positive writing again, keep it up Chris

Totally agree - although I think this is a nationwide problem. Half a dozen bad results then it's 'sack the manager'. New man comes in does well and then it's sack him..

I think expectations are way too high too soon. Champions league? We've been mid table and almost relegated twice in the space of the past 10 years or so.

John Gregory tried to buy short term success. It didn't work.

If Martin O'Neill is cautious then that's fine by me. If he wants to wait longer until he gets the right players then that's also fine by me.

Before his arrival, I began to think we were never ever going to see a decent Villa side. He hasn't come here to mess around in 10th place. He wants to not only get into europe and challenge for the top 6 but win the title.

We have improved this season and we will improve next season.

Sacking him would be suicidal.

As everyone keeps banging on, its a 5 year plan.

I buy into it but my glass is always half full 8)

10th the 1st year under MON, 6th - 8th the 2nd.

Whatever you say its PROGRESS

It maybe not as instant as some people want it but its fine buy me

I reply back in 5 years............................ ;)

wow, i had the razor blade hovering over my wrist and then i read this little ray of sunshine!!! very nice article chris, well done!!!

i don't want to take anything away from you, but it's a shame this needed saying at all. this should be obvious to all.

and if the rumours coming out of portugal are to be believed it's not like MON hasn't been trying to bring in a quality RB and also says he does have the money.

oh, and damian, credit where it's due; well done on publishing a balancing opinion.

This is the most refreshing article i have read, regarding the villa, in months. I suppose people are entitled to a good old 'moan' just after a 4 - 0 slaughtering. People do come around. I personally think we played well on saturday. We drove forward enough, we retained possesion, came close to scoring. But manchester united are exceptional, on their own ground, on their own terms, beneath their own foul weather. I enjoyed the game, it is a document of which we can all refer to when addresing key issues. Mellburg, gardener, and Reo are all inclined to flock to centre field, that is why Rooney was sliping behind carson, tevez was hounding that back post. It all happened on our right. So lets take comfort in knowing that perhaps a more seasoned right back will prevent such events taking place next season. Petrov looked good on the ball i thought, When Reo isn't tied to the holding position, his aggresion can be quite captivating up the wings, his passing game is better when it isn't pressured like it is just infront of the back four. Gareth Barry would not have recieved the praise he has done from pundits everywhere if he was as bad as some of these alleged fans claim he is. His inteligence is respected, he marshals the middle, he is a pacifier, a passer, his vision is fantastic. Maybe he should be in that holding role. I think Ferguson, being the tactician that he is, told his squad to rip that wound on the right wide open. He knows that Reo gets frustrated when he is outclassed. He knows that we have no right back, only central players that have an innate desire to play in the middle. I enjoyed the game, maloney, harewood, petrov, on any other day would have been hailed as warriors of the modern game. However saturday was always going to be about damage limitation. Yes we are optimists, in a city as dank and unforgiving as Birmingham, we have to be (The chants 'we're gonna win 5-4' with 20 minutes left says that much). But this article shows that we have reasoned, battled with our collective pride, and accepted that we have been shrugged off by a European super power without losing all faith in the notion that one day we can destroy them and leave their blogs filled with unrest and outrage. May that day come soon.

Yes we are behind Villa, and yes we "had" a good nucleus of players to build around. My criticism is that the good nucleus is being replaced by a weaker one. O.K it's a 5 year plan blah blah blah but presumably the players being bought now are intended to be here in 3 years time. Does anyone see the likes of Harewood, Routledge, Knight, Petrov, Reo Coker and Maloney pushing us into the Champions League? I accept we can't buy Drogba and co, but Yakubu and Diarra have both left clubs recently and are far superior to these players. Bentley is making noises about moving but on past form will Villa be involved in the bidding? I believe if MON put every player he has signed up for sale there would be very little interest ( bar Young ) and we would certainly make a huge net loss overall if we did move them on, which tells me we don't have many good players, and consequently no chance of Champions League in the next 3 years.

Written by Chris AKA Delia Smith :D :D :D

We wont get anyone better than O'Neil, he's quality. Although i dont believe half of Anthonys post i do believe there is something in that and we certainly dont have the kind of money to splash around as most people think.

The reason we cant sign "Superstar" players is quite simple, we cant offer european football at the moment, as soon as we do it will give the big players an incentive to move over. I could never see Aston Villa spending more than 15 million on one player, and in this seasons climate thats very small change indeed, look at Bent lol

I will always be behind Martin O'Neil, more than anything else he has injected hope back into the Villa fans both this season and last, the talk of actually signing anyone at all for any real value certainly makes a change froms Dougs rule.

Villa will come good, i honestly think that next season, given the right attitude in the summer transfer window we will get at least 4-5 players, 2 of which will be very good (Hopefully Nelson being one of them) and the other 3 will be martin o 'neil gambles. Hopefully 1 of those will turn into an Ashley Young!

Anyways, lets not moan, lets not gripe, Villa are in the best shape they have been in for years and years. We are playing fast, counter attacking football which when we play well is great to watch. The last time we could say that was in the time of Tony Daly!!!

If anyone think europe is still possible thru the leauge i think you should get out of fantasy world it will not happen now

How can anyone expect our players to push till the end of the season when they are completly burnt out

What i want to no is this Why most of the african players in the prem leauge started playing when they were brought yet the one we have in salifou according to martin is not ready to me that is typical aston villa

Nice article Chris, I look forward to your next contibution to Villa's proud history. Thanks.

very gud article chris,fair play!we hav had a few disappointing results but overall not a bad season..get behind da manager he is 1 of the top managers in premiership and will make us a force over da nxt fews years.. r we gonna turn in2 newcastle like fans and expect 2 much 2 soon..lets b realistic,we were relegation material not so long ago in da taylor and o'leary days..

Who cares about waiting 5-6 years to see predicted success, its been 10 YEARS or so since we beat united, WHEN ARE ASTON VILLA FC GONNA BEAT UNITED, when?????? you tell me!!!

If we had a good exciting game and lost most fans would have been happy, but we didnt! it was far from average
we lost 2-1 at home to them? that is was a good match that we should have won? so i wasnt to mad, then came the f.a cup and we all know how that went.

I REALLY MISS Ian Taylor, Ehiogu, merson, carbone (when he shaved his hair he went rubbish), Delaney, Wright, Joachim, Yorke, Milosevic and even southgate. these types of players have never been replaced..... would united not replace giggs or rooney if they wernt perfoming(veron)

That was my team i liked them players because they had passion and heart, do these players we have now care about villa, i think not.

Gerrard really loves liverpool, Terry really cares about chelsea, gallas cares about arsenal he proved that the other weak who in our own team is like that answer?? nobody.

When have we had a decent cup run, it hasnt been since mon's been here, but it will come in 3 more years RIGHT i mean the SUCCESS you fans are so blind, we better no lose to city (save those razor blades mate)

YOU FORGET

man utd will be stronger in 3 years, so will arsenal and can you see the other teams around them gettin weaker? answer NO

Put in into perspective, and STOP going on and on about 5 year Nonsense,
if we had better players a rotation system those 10 bore draw could have been WINS, you stupid dumb fans??? its been 2 years oneil please get what we need in the summer! :o

ITS VERY SIMPLE

1 - Keeper
2 - Rightback
3 - Striker
4 - Playmaker
5 - Midfielder
6 - Defender

Fans are not expecting world class players we have never had world class signings before, we just want good players, like keane, OWEN, lets bid for owen, there are brilliant players abroad. lets go there gets some player from the egyption team its a big world and we have ZAT KNIGHT AND CARSON.

Thats a Start for you m.o.n

Well said, Chris. And dannydestructor.

If his performances for England are any indication, Barry is obviously well suited to playing the holding role. I imagine MON thought Petrov would be his Gerrard, and sadly he's come up short. That, more than anything, has been Villa's missing link.

And, as dannydestructor said, against Utd, players kept getting sucked into the middle, and forgetting their responsibilities. But Villa were very stretched out, and I put this down to trying to play with Utd vs. packing it in, and I applaud that. Petrov did bring the ball up the middle, and at times there were flashes of that creative midfielder playing off the forwards. Barry distributes the ball very well, has great vision. Villa's problem was off the ball...players weren't making themselves available, weren't keeping the ball, and, funnily enough, not getting rid of it quickly and bogging down in attack, then getting caught out on the counter.

I agree about the fans, could hear them still singing on the telly in the waning minutes and was very proud.

More important, I do think the critical fans should get off MON's back. Villa have played about 35-36 games total, and no professional athlete should be knackered for the season as a result of that, so I'm tired of the "team's too small and tired" argument. MON only offers that up to help lower expectations and keep the pressure off the players. He's never publicly bought into the high expectations that he privately holds. The side have simply hit a wall. And they're going to have to fight their way through it. That's what makes better footballers, and I don't think anyone's asking for a sit-down.

The manager must have time. All the sack-the-manager talk directed at MON after a rough patch, and around the league, is just nonsense. The teams with better players win, and signing the right better players is not at all the same as identifying them. If all the brilliant critics were actually dropped onto the training ground, given a chequebook and the squad MON inherited, Villa would be in the drop zone right now and on their way out of the Championship next year.

We've waited this long, another year or two isn't going to kill us, and success will be that much sweeter when it isn't fleeting, bought on the backs of mercenaries who would move on at the first offer from Utd, Arsenal, Barcelona, AC Milan, or what have you.

Come on you Villa lads! And don't listen to the whingers, MON. We know you'll do us proud.

I appreciate the sentiment and I'd love to share it..but I've seen it all too many times, too many false dawns etc.

Fact: if this summer Villa don't spend, and spend big, we may as well relax and settle back into the usual expectations of mediocrity.

I think the fact that we did so well at the start of the season definately raised our hopes considerably. But not many people can honestly say that they thought we would qualify for a euro spot this season, next year perhaps,so people acting frustrated means that most anticipate that we can or should be competing at a high level in the premier league. This is an expectation we didnt have a couple of years ago. Our transfer policy has been interesting to say the least, giving lifelines to several players that im sure MON thought could extract some good football from. But look at Carson, he hasnt been great but at the start of the season most were lombasting MON saying `"just pay Liverpool the £10 mil you tight arse", as it turns out we got a good look at Carson and found out he might not be the keeper we need (at that price anyway) Kasper Schmeichel anyone? Im not going to say that i agree with selling many of our young guns, but none of them play for a team sitting higher on the table than us, which means they simply dont have what it takes to wear the claret and blue. Basically MON has backed himself to get the most out of a smaller squad full of players who have an upside or have had once before and it almost worked except for the fact that the squad is so small. He surely wont make the same mistake again next season. The latter parts of the season has been disappointing as we all know, but we know we have a couple of rising stars to build around and we really arnt too far away from breaking into european football, its just not going to be this season.......So im going to give it one more window, which hopefully lands us another couple of components to a promising core of players...

Milosevic he was s#%t

ne1 c that porto might be kicked out of there league if we get europe hopeffuly some of there players cud b playin at villa pk next year

At stuartAVFC how can you say John Gregory bought for the short term and it didn't work!! I seem to remember him taking us to the top end of the table and challenging, didn't he leave cause smug ellis wouldn't give him that extra bit of cash that would have allowed us to have kicked on!!!! if only half the team showed the type of passion he had for the villa maybe we would have already qualified for europe!! UTV

LINK

Take a look at this our club has a section about take that

In the one line they have called take that fake that lol

Just when i thought some of my spelling mistakes are bad thats the best ever :D :D :D

Fake That are a Take That tribute band like The Bootleg Beatles or NoWaySis.

When you look at Villa's squad, they have definitely over-performed particularly at the start of the season.

They're just coming back to the field now with little to play for. However, it was a very tame and somewhat embarrassing 4-0 defeat against Man United.

LINK

at the risk of sounding like a homophobe why are a mens football team advertising a fake tribute band aimed at young girls? are villa that desperate for money? why cant this fake band find places that are more suitable for their expected clientel? this seems pointless and pathetic aston villa is a football club not a pub needing bands or even tribute bands.
:'(

proud history -- bright future -- CONFUSED PRESENT!!!
:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

None of the comments are showing up :(

Brilliant article, couldn't agree with you more!
fans are fickle sometimes, it's been a great season so far upto recently and really given it a good go and played some nice football. We should have taken points from games more often like Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool but i think MON will sort out the leaks at the back and will really start competing next season and i still think we can salvidge something from this season.

Common sense at last! Great article. You take the rough with the smooth and overall we've had more of the latter this season. This spell is a bit of a reality check for us all. A timely article.

Spot on about Ash! I feel that, sometimes, he is waiting out on the left waiting for someone to spot him early and deliver that killer pass. Hope he has a real go at them on Saturday.

Come on the Villa!!

Finally Some hope!! I wish i Had martin Oniel's email address, i'd send him this link and tell him to stick it on the dressing room wall on saturday. The team need to know how we really feel, and that we are right behind them til the very end. COME ON YOU LIONS

you cant say our seasons over just because we got beat by a class side, yes they 'battered us' but since last season the improvement is immense, full credit to the fans who travelled to united we were awesome!!

roll on next season good times ahead!!

Cool article, Chris. Thanks for interesting reading.