Bigger Than You And Me. That's Aston Villa

by Proud to be a Villan

So here we are, with the final home game of the season upon us, about to go into battle with Spurs.


You don`t need me to tell you all that this season has been tough, disappointing and ultimately one that has needs to be forgotten as soon as possible.

Right from the start of the season, the club has been surrounded by an air of controversy, negativity, apathy and lack of unity.

Who`s to blame? The board? The Manager? The Players? The fans?

The four major components of a football club are those listed above, and the answer in short is all of them!


The board at the beginning of the season made a very arrogant and controversial appointment in Alex McLeish which set the tone, and they did this despite a very public and well publicised outcry from a large proportion of the fan base. Not only did they appoint a manager from our biggest rivals, they did it following the relegation of his former employers. To add insult to injury in many fans eye`s they then paid a large compensation deal to them for the privilege of his services.

Fast forward to today, and it is plain to see that sadly he has not been up to the task. There have been some circumstances such as a long list of injuries to senior players and Petrov`s illness has truly knocked the club for six. However, we should also have to look to when we had a fully fit squad and in those games we simply were poor. Too defensive, too many players not playing in their natural position, tactically sitting the team far too deep, and most importantly an inability to kill a game off.

This, I feel is what has incensed the fans most, he arrived with a reputation for defensive and uninspiring football and quite frankly he has lived with it. I know a lot of fans (me included) can take a defeat if we see the players going for it.

At times some of our players have looked uninterested, unorganised and unwilling to fight for the cause; some of this blame should be shouldered by the manager for sure, but also with the players on the pitch.

All this has led a large proportion of the fans to apathy, anger and frustration. Sure some were on his back from the start, there is no denying of that, but what we were seeing started to turn the opinions of those who had decided to give him a chance.

This has led to some dire attendances, with a crowd who gets on the players and the managers back right from the outset. This in turn saps confidence from the players, resulting in a even poorer level of performance, and the appearance of players not giving a dam, which frustrates the crowd even further..... do you see where I`m going with this?

So here we are final two games of the season and we are still not 100% assured of our survival in this league, with protests planned before our final home game. Whilst I won`t be attending the protest myself, I can understand how and why people have got to that point. Do I think it will do any good? I`m afraid I don`t, and I think a decision may have already been made about the manager`s future anyway. But if people feel it does do some good and it blows off some steam for them, then that`s their own personal choice and I wish you well.

One thing is clear; tomorrow we need all four of the club elements to perform.

So during those 90 minutes let`s really get behind our boys, and I mean the whole 90 minutes. If we go behind let`s shout louder, let`s show everyone, including the media what this club is about!

After the next two games you can take the club to task if you so wish, personally I`m expecting some big changes anyway. Then next season we can start to develop something we can all be proud of.

There is only one thing bigger than the board, the manager, the players and the fans.

That`s Aston Villa

Together we have the power to inspire them, we have more to gain than to lose!

Thanks for reading

Proud to be a Villan (you can find them on Facebook)

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.