Weary Of O'Leary

By a concerned Villa Fan.

Dear Mr O'Weary

I am typing this at 9.00am on the day after our ignominious Carling Cup exit. I was out at a comedy gig last night, glad to be avoiding what I thought could be an embarrassment.

I have not been to bed overnight as I was too tense to sleep after watching the match. My worst fears were not merely confirmed; they were exceeded comfortably.

Gutless, spineless, careless, clueless, hapless, hopeless? Did I miss anything out? Oh yes ? Shameless.

It would be flattering to say that one would have thought, based on last night's cup tie, that Rovers were the Premiership side and Villa were the League One team. Not flattering to Rovers, of course; it flatters Villa to think they would be worthy of a place in League One, based on that showing.

Any manager worth his salt would have said, 'We were awful,' 'I accept responsibility for this performance,' 'Tonight I got it wrong.' Of course, I know better than to expect this from you. Your response was that 'a couple of decisions didn't go our way.' I should love to know, as would tens of thousands of other fans, just how 'a couple of decisions' can be solely responsible for a 3-0 defeat to a club two divisions below us. Indeed, I want you to explain how 'a couple of decisions' can result in our players failing to require even one save from Doncaster's keeper. (Their THIRD CHOICE keeper.)

If you had any honour, you would fall on your sword, metaphorically speaking. There again, you should have done that last season. However, you have demonstrated amply that you have no honour. Instead, you will just sit tight and wait to be sacked so that you can get paid off, because it's clear that you have only been in this for the money from Day One.

In conclusion, I should add that my partner is a Doncaster Rovers fan. After a couple of hours of gloating and choruses of 'I'm Rovers 'til I die,' she has decided that there is no point in rubbing my nose in it. It's funny but the last two and a half years of your 'reign' have given her a fair share of misery by association. She's now trying to persuade me to go over to her side and become a Donny Rovers fan. I'll be honest: so long as you're at Villa Park, it's tempting. After all, they have a chairman who has given most of his money to the club and a manager who clearly knows how to motivate players, things I haven't seen for a long time. As we saw last night, they also have a good, young, honest bunch of hard-working lads; they just don't feel the need to bang on about it.

As with previous letters, I won't be expecting a reply because you don't think you're answerable to anyone. It is about time you realised that you are answerable to the chairman, the board and the fans. I think you will find there is only one answer.

Yours sincerely

A concerned Villa fan(name supplied but witheld at authors request).