Time to turn on the moaners?
Monday, 05 February 07, 10:26 AM · Comments (5)
Last week I dipped my toe into a debate on Villatalk.com - under this "nom de plume" - about relative attendances. At the root of that debate was the following question: why do Villa seem to attract a far lower average crowd as a percentage of ground capacity than most similar clubs?
All sorts of demographics, including affluence and population pyramid dynamics (!) were mooted as potential explanations to the figures. I wanted to come at it from a slightly different angle.
Regular readers of the threads on this blog will have seen exchanges with both Newcastle and Spurs fans of late, two of the clubs with significantly higher average gate/capacity ratios than Villa.
Regardless of the fact that some of these fans have clearly never watched a football match in their lives, one thing struck me: some of the fans of these and similar clubs clearly live in cloud cuckoo land: Spurs fans obviously believe themselves to be part of some imaginary "Big 5", only temporarily usurped of their rightful London crown by Arsenal and Chelsea.
And Newcastle fans, as far as I can make out, believe themselves to inhabit the mystic and long lost football Garden of Eden, only kept from their destined glories by a string of treacherous and incompetent chairmen and managers.
We Villans may well know and understand that this is all utter tosh (apart from the treacherous and incompetent bit), and that the Magpies and the Cockerels have no greater right to be seen as challengers to today's Big 4 than any of the other big but under performing clubs in the Premier League mid-table (including Villa).
But it does illustrate something: there is a blind and adoring devotion in Newcastle and North London - amongst others - which as well as filling football blogs with nonsense also fills stadia with noise and passion.
Milan Baros may have struggled and may have gone - and good riddance to him too - but I do ask myself whether he would have been booed onto and off the field at either St. James' Park or White Hart Lane in the way he was at Villa Park. Perhaps we need to look at ourselves in the mirror from time to time.
You may be thinking that the atmosphere at Villa Park on Saturday for the home debuts of John Carew and Ashley Young was nothing if not passionate and positive - and indeed I commented on that atmosphere in this week's Diagnosis.
But, at the risk of sowing discord, I'm forced to comment on the terminal "negativos" who sit one row behind me and who threaten to loudly ruin my enjoyment of the Villa revival. Two generations of cynics sit and complain about pretty much every player to pull on the claret-and-blue shirt.
Example: Carew, who gave a fabulous performance on Saturday, was dismissed after five minutes as "not looking like a footballer" and being a "clumsy great carthorse".
Ashley Young was derided after about the same amount of time as being "a complete waste of money". Sorensen is snorted at, and Freddie Bouma - repeatedly and with an almost comical lack of wit or novelty - referred to as "Chicken Bouma". Saturday's quite hilarious quote - one minute after kick-off - was "thank God Chicken Bouma isn't playing".
It won't surprise you if I write that these "fans" usually arrive five minutes late for each half and always leave their seats five minutes before the end of each period. I was pretty pleased that they missed both Villa goals against Watford - trust me, they don't enjoy it when Villa do well.
But that's anecdotal stuff. The point is, there is a streak of negativity and moaning still evident at Villa Park despite the promise and excitement of recent months. Quite frankly, I'd rather have 35,000 at Villa Park roaring the side on than fill the extra seats with fair-weather cynics and knockers.
What I'm really hoping is that the Randylution gathers such pace and momentum under O'Neill, Robertson and Walford that the cynics and knockers can't stand the fun any more. I'm sure there are far more miserable places for them to have a crap time: things are pretty dire at the Ricoh, for example.
It's time to straighten the negativos out. I see a campaign coming.
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5 Comments · Add yours
The ground isn't as full as it could be because of the lack of investment that has gone on for years. We have lost a significant part of our fan base and it will take time to build up. People gradually wised up that all Doug could promise was a bit of jam, or rather butter, or marge tomorrow. We saw our best players leave as soon as they were worth a bit and the morale of the team and the supporters undermined. It will pick up again, but Randy will have to stump up a few more million in the summer, then watch the gates go up.
As for the football illiterate muppets behind you, move seats.
bring on the campaign!
I think a lot of fans are too used to recent seasons and just expect us to fall over. Look at Newcastle, we were beaten from early in the game despite us being the best team thereafter. It's typical DOL and HDE Villa.
Time will bring back the true faithful when it becomes evident that we'r enot going back toe the previous era.
its a shame that the villa attendence is down. at the end of the day it's mainly deadly dougs fault. he was the one who stopped us becoming part of the big four. when we won the european cup, he wasn't chairman. it seems to me that the glory days of villa were when he wasn't chairman. this all contributes as the team doesn't play well, and the lack of investment shows. however with the randy lerner in charge, i thnk its a exciting time for the villa, give it a few more years an we will show that we are one of the biggest teams in the premiership and europe.
I'm a villa fan and love villa and villa park but I am surrounded by the kind of people you talk about. I was born in Nottingham and still watch the odd forest game and it takes the fans there at least 12months of bad play before they get on the back of a player. Unfortunately Brummies are known country wide for being a moaning whinghing lot and I think that is for most part Villa's problem. (before anybody has a go i kind of like that trait and i'm even marrying a brummie!)