Played 13, won 1, drawn 2, lost 10. Aston Villa have made a shocking start to the season. After flapping around like a headless chicken, the club have suddenly wandered into a seemingly fatal looking fox trap.
Relegation has been clearly signposted for Aston Villa for the past few seasons, the club’s previous main asset on the pitch, Christian Benteke pretty much saved them single-handedly. The Lerner administration thought a thrifty policy could keep them a float while he looked to sell, when if they build a proper team around Benteke with shrewd purchases of better quality (for example, why not buy one decent left-back earlier, rather than four sub-standard ones ala Stevens, Bennett, Cissokho and Richardson).
MOMS has already stated that there was not enough net spend in the summer to make the squad better. Not only did Villa sell it’s best players, but also it stripped away the spine of the team and also lost the only on-pitch leaders it had. What did it replace them with?
Villa have been mismanaged on and off the field, it’s as simple as that. If Villa go down, it’s time to get very angry with those who serve the club.
In the meantime, here’s five reasons to be cheerful as Aston Villa fans…
2. VILLANS
The 1800 Villa away faithful at Goodison Park were terrific. While the club may have been over-cautious in only accepting a lower allocation this time round (we took 3000 last season), those that went sang their hearts out even when 4-0 down.
It’s a shame that it is the supporters that suffer the most from the failings of those that run the club. Those people also get paid for ruining the club on every level, while our away fans have to dig deep to watch the dross that is served up, like at Everton.
Last week, I saw a poignant quote on the website of Spurs supporter group 1882 Movement (that tries to bring more atmosphere to White Hart Lane), that kind of summed up what has been going on at Villa recently in terms of the club’s attitude to own fans.
“I have never had so much fun at a football match. Never laughed so much and never sung so much. The irony is we never came to watch a football match. We came to support our football club.”
That is the premise of the support we see from Villa supporters at away games. The focus is supporting the football club. While at Villa Park, those who do the same at home games, are valued less by the club than those who come to just watch a football match.
There is a difference and both should be accommodated. In the current climate, the team needs all the support it can get and the more vocal the better, but the club continues to cut its nose off to spite its face.
