briny_ear

Having been a Villa fan since 1961, and so having seen the fans' boycott of the late sixties, the slump to the old Division 3 in the early seventies, but also the climb back to the glory days of the early eighties, I have no hesitation in voting "yes". In my list of low points for Villa over the years, the end of the O'Leary/Ellis era, with its almost complete loss of direction, players' letters, etc., actually features quite high - probably as bad as the late sixties problems.. The renewal of enthusiasm, optimism, and skillful, attacking football since Lerner/MON came on the scene has been exceptional. Last season we saw glimpses of the sort of exciting and successful football that MON will bring to Villa if he is given time to do his job and build up the squad as he wants. Just get off his back and let him get on with it. Don't forget we need him more than he needs us.

Let's hope Man C get them, then

What IS it about Villa players called Gareth?

The regulations on registration are probably more complex than the EU Treaty but teams have several bites of the cherry. Players have to be registered by midnight on 24 July for the 2nd qualifying round, 7 August for the third qualifying round and 1 September for all further matches from the first match in the group stage up to and including the final. There is more to it for that but those are the key dates for the fat waiter and his crack team to keep in mind over the summer.

You should be even more worried if the bloke who phones up has a broad Madrid accent and there is the sound of two middle-aged American men in the background squabbling over money... While we are on the subject of Rafa, I couldn't help but smile at the Google cache for his Wikipedia entry as of 23 Jul 2008 08:39:29 GMT. It's been cleaned up now but at that point it started Naughty, naughty...

The main article and some of the responses are very interesting. However, the idea that in general Villa fans are starting to get twitchy and are losing faith in the new regime does seem a bit at odds with the news that season ticket sales are at higher levels than last season. That suggests an increase in confidence, and I think an article claiming to detect a general trend of opinion amongst Villa fans needs to explain this seeming contradiction. I was particularly struck at the suggestion (threat?) that, if MON doesn't produce more magic this season, fans will start protesting and bringing out banners. This reminded me of the events in the third year of Alex Ferguson's managership at Man U, when the fans unfurled a banner at the end of the season saying: "Three years of excuses and it's still crap. Ta ra Fergie." Fans are by their nature impatient and have a simplistic view of what is needed to make their team successful - buy us the best players, play fantastic football and win lots of trophies and titles. Simple. When it doesn't happen, as, sadly, for most clubs it won't, they start to complain and the club's owners then have a choice. It is easy to sack the manager and get a new one in - ideally, a popular former player, as Newcastle did with Keegan. But, as the Ferguson example shows, fans are not necessarily very good at judging the worth of a manager,and the other choice is for clubs to back their own judgement and stick with their manager through periods of unpopularity as teams like Man U and Everton (and in a different way Arsenal - though Wenger is never criticised by the fans) have notably done. Those few clubs are rare in their approach to supporting the manager and, as ChrisVillan says, it remains to be seen whether Randy Lerner will support MON through times of unpopularity with the fans. So many clubs go for the option of switching managers frequently - Spurs, Man C, West Ham (and, in a former era, one deadly Doug) for example - without obvious success. But it is an easy way to appease the fans. I would like to think that the regime at Villa is not so weak and that they will continue on the course they have set and create enough stability to enable us to build consistently season by season to a position where we can challenge the top teams. But nothing is predictable in football and I certainly wouldn't bet on it. What I would bet on is that Villa fans will get impatient and call for MON's sacking. He must know that and Randy Lerner probably does. If Villa fans were to succeed in getting MON sacked, it would in my opinion count as a fairly spectacular foot-shooting operation.

Ummm... Because Friedel is a better goalkeeper than Robinson?

So what action would you prefer he had taken over the Barry situation, J-V?

I voted yes just because I want this saga to end - there is a risk it will start to be a major distraction as we prepare for the new season. And we would have forced the Redscum to come up with 70 or 80% more than their original offer depending on how you value Finnan, which is not a bad result. I certainly don't think we need to accept the bid to enable us to buy new players. Does that mean you think that if we hadn't sold him we would not have been able to buy any players this summer?

We don't need Finnan so much as to concede to Liverpool if we think it's a bad deal. Maybe Arsenal would offer cash + Hoyte. There are other options so let's not start talking as if Liverpool have us over a barrel and let's not allow the general "we are doomed because we haven't bought a right back with only 5 weeks of the transfer window left" panic rampaging over the rest of this site affect this issue.

McGrath was magic. His main strength was that he always seemed to know where the ball would be, so never had to strain to intercept it. Olly was great but it was always a case of "if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"

Harewood has the same number of goals as Crouch!

Chicooo-ooo Chicooo-ooo (For Chico Hamilton, for the benefit of younger fans )

Thinking about how ignorant, and ultimately foolish the West Ham fans looked an Sunday when they booed NRC at every move, I think it would be pretty silly to boo him. Having a song ready, "You should have stayed with Villa!" as we put the winning goal past Liverpool, on the other hand, would be very good.

Still, some of them seemed to be happy enough after Sunday's match.

But apparently it was only the "morons" amongst them! Maybe that explains another headline in the mail: "Start over there by hammering the goalposts back in to the ground, please!"

General. I know we are not supposed to use this thread for anything else but questions, but I couldn't resist celebrating this comment: Good on you, General, the Liverpool mob must be quaking in their boots!

I agree with almost all of the comments in the article, except for the headline. We are not by any means back to square one. We will end the season somewhere between 5th and 7th and this is fantastic progress. But I do agree it will be very annoying and depressing if we miss out on European football by some route, having had it clearly within our grasp for the past few weeks.

Absolutely, Nick, you called it right. Any more tips for stardom?

Ha ha. It's changed to 53-46 now!

Please don't go, I beg you don't go...

Speaking of John Lerwill, he has this image on his web site.

Ha! found a picture of him. I remember the Villa Villan well from the Sports Argus (although I could swear at one point it was "Villa'n") but sadly I have pulped my lifetime collection long ago in the interests of marital harmony and living space. This is described as an enamel badge from the '80s, so it doesn't deny the memory of older fans that it used to be "Villain" but it is pictorial undeniable evidence that Villan was so much an established name that enamel badges were made! I'm with Nick on this one, and it's not often we can say that! :winkold:

My recollection is that they used to call him "Villa'n"? So they were sitting on the fence.

89% in favour so far. Eat your heart out, Robert Mugabe.