Over the past few weeks we’ve published a couple of open letters from Aston Villa supporters who have supported the club for 40-plus and 50-plus years. Both put the current terrible plight of the club in the context of history and previous relegations. They also suggested that the club’s current circumstances were the worst they’ve experienced.
‘Maybe if you try, instead of walk around like a melon, you won’t get relegated!’
Both letters mirror MOMS and a lot of Villans thoughts on the current situation at Villa, but at least we’ve seen some good times during our time supporting the club and always had some kind of hope. What of the latest generation of Villa fans?
Aston Villa Season Ticket Holder, Aged Seven
Bar a good FA Cup semi-final day out at Wembley, it’s been misery piled on top of misery for younger Villans and if you want an example of how they’re feeling at the moment, Guy Hocking, sent MOMS the letter his seven-year-old son Ben wrote to the club (below).
[Ben’s letter typed using original colour scheme]
I’m really disappointed. Even of you don’t win every match you could still put effort in. I play football we use (sic) to be rubbish but we still put loads of effort into it. No matter what the score is you should still try hard and you’d look a good team still. When my team lost for example 4-2 or 10-1, we still put effort in every sec of the game. If you did that every commentator, inspector, fan and manager would be proud. As my team worked harder and harder we one (won) more games and some times we thrashed them. Maybe if you try instead of walk around like a melon you won’t get relegated!
If You Tolerate This…
Imagine being a Villa fan aged seven to early teens and going regularly to game at Villa Park in recent seasons. Kids should be having fun and being entertained at that age. There’s plenty of time for misery, suffering and heartbreak when you get older!
Ben has done a great job of sticking to the Villa cause, but others will have drifted off to follow teams that perhaps make football more fun to watch. It’s not just about being a young glory hunter, kids become football fans from seeing a team play on TV or even because of seeing one player. It doesn’t help when a team is always last on Match of the Day and past most kid’s bedtime, and imagine the sh*t you’d have to take at school as a young Villa fan.
The younger generation of Villa fans at the moment deserve medals in MOMS’ book.
As the Manic Street Preachers once sung ‘If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next’. A lot of Villa supporters have tolerated Randy Lerner and his elected Villa board members who were entrusted to look after our great club Aston Villa. They have failed miserably.
We should tolerate it no longer.
UTV
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