Majority Say Villa Will Finish 4th

I know that when i saw Spurs and Man City buying a lot of good players, and Everton already ahead of us in terms of previous finishes in season, that i would have been very happy to finish as the best of the rest. I know that we've done really well thus far, and can see the 4th place as a realistic target, but i think if you looked at it at the beginning of the season you'd be happy enough about 5th. It's wrong to sprint at the beginning of the London Marathon for a few miles and say "I'm fourth, i don't know how i lost it" because we've got to play a full season before we're where we're meant to be. If that turns out to be fifth, then i'll be happy enough.

well if you look at it like that class of 82, I could have put 82% say top 5!

5th is only failure in some "arm chair" fans eyes Class of 82. Finishing 4th would be incredible and we have given ourselves a great chance but to say finishing 5th is a failure is short sighted to say the least. We're building something at the moment and as long as the fans can see that then I think we'll keep moving in the right direction, i'm guessing you're one of the boo boys!!! Are you telling me if someone asked you 2 years ago how you would feel about finishing 5th you'd say it was a failure? Don't think so!!

So 53% say we will not finish top4.

Where the hell has o'neil said he doesn't think much of the Europa cup???. What he did was saw the chance (MAYBE the ONLY chance) of finishing 4th this year and keeping players like Barry. Ok so winning the cup meant silverware - but Barry clearly stated a desire to play champions league football - he'll be off if someone like Arsenal,Chelski, Liverpool or Man City (who WILL spend big this summer) and probably be fighting for a top 4 spot too and maybe Spuds also. He probably won't do the same again next year as I think he would have learnt from his mistakes (as all good managers do) but you seem to be predicting next season already. NOT ONE SINGLE fan (Armchair or attending) could possibly have predicted we would be 4th at this time. No matter what happens this season has been a success regardless of 4th or 5th. I have been a fan since 1962 and this is probably the best setup and chance we have of success since Saunders and the Bendalls. It took Saunders time (after we sold Gray) to win the League. We are building - we have to compete with the best and the ones who will join the best (Everton, Man City & possibly Spurs), Tell you what - some fans demand quality signings - they will only come to the top 4 or Man City and Spuds (for the money) - they won't come to Villa just yet - but maybe just maybe if we manage 4th (or higher) they will come to us. And that is what MON is thinking - the future. I have patience (have learned to with Villa and the old regime) some are so impatient. Hindsight is good isn't it.

"NOT ONE SINGLE fan (Armchair or attending) could possibly have predicted we would be 4th at this time." Ummmm..I think we should try and dig out some of the articles/polls at the beginning of this season. I think you will find that you are wrong here! At the end of last season, when we finished in 6th and MON still had a whole transfer window to spend his millions on a decent squad, plenty of people thought we had a good chance of finishing in the top 4. But now that MON has ballsed up 2 transfer windows since then, you are asking us to see 5th as some unbelievable, majestic, front page news worthy, occurrence!! Let's not move the goalposts now please (pun intended), just because MON has scooped all is eggs into one basket and appears to be tripping over!

.....would you prefer Arsene Wenger then

Being a supporter for 100 years doesn't make you a better manager or pundit than someone who has supported for less time. A lot of people expected the Villa to finish top 4 (above Liverpool at that.) MON has done an amazing job but anything less than 4th is failure no matter how far we have progressed and no matter what the pre-season expectations were.

"Kicked out of the club" .LOL. You didn't need to explain the UEFA cup moan as that has been done in your previous posts. You need to move on from the past and look to the future as MON is. The bigger picture is not the FA or UEFA cup this year but the gamble of risking everything for the holy grail of Champs League which would bring success for years by the income and influx of higher quality players. The 2 managers mentioned have never been near the prem so we will never know, (probably why you have hedged your bets by saying their names.) R U AVFC48 IN DISGUISE

Fair play to you for posting your opinion (at last ;-D.) I would see us finishing below 4th and INDEED Liverpool to be a disaster after the way that we have performed in most games this season. Everyone has an off day or two but we have failed to turn up too many times for my liking and lost 3 points in 2 games at Stoke with seconds to spare. There is no end of the world scenario in my opinion if our wonderous leader falls short come the summer. If however he fails again next year then I might reconsider but Rome wasn't built in a day etc. and we are progressing. I agree with him RE: the cups, which are insignificant in comparison to fourth or above and I am also very impressed with how the closeknit squad has been formed. My main worry now is that Heskey has spoilt everything being the teacher's pet that he is and would have been a great asset had he been bought in the summer but not now. Also, we had a poor run this time last year and then turned it around to go on a run(which most of the armageddon predictors seem to have forgotten) so I am counting on us to do the same again. MON is not above criticism and no-ones perfect, but we could be doing a lot worse even with Randy at the helm

I don't think MON is the Messiah, Class, and nor do I think he is beyond criticism. I simply happen to totally disagree with you on two major points: 1) I believe that MON was absolutely right to ditch the UEFA cup in favour of a greater CHANCE (not by any means a certainty) of grabbing a top four place; 2) I am absolutely sick and tired of hearing people insist on labelling anything less than 4th place a 'failure'. At the start of the season (when the UEFA cup was still a great opportunity, which is why we entered it, by the way) we would ALL have taken a top four place in a heartbeat, and you know it. The team are victims of their own success - nobody expected top four, but suddenly MON is a failure if we don't achieve just that. Fickle, or what?