You could say Aston Villa have reached core meltdown this week. While, it’s not the first time they have been beaten at home by Liverpool, the eleven players might as well have planted a white flag in the centre circle before kick-off and driven off home in their flash cars (see player’s instagram pictures).
Early doors in the weekend’s home game against Liverpool, I commented to a friend on the difference of intensity in Leicester’s closing down of Arsenal players in the day’s earlier fixture compared to Villa’s lacklustre and casual zonal marking against Liverpool. The warning signs were there, throw in some Sunday League defending and the 6-0 was no surprise.
The players let themselves down, Garde let himself down (maybe get your team to press the opposition, if they have decent players like Liverpool do?) and Villa’s relegation was as good as rubber-stamped.
Liverpool had scored five when they visited Norwich, the difference though was Norwich scored four in reply and should have got something from the game.
Villa’s recent finding of some semblance of form against average teams has been too little, too late. Thus they needed to step up against the bigger teams. You only have to see what Sunderland did to Manchester United to see the level of what Villa needed to achieve on Sunday.
“Randy Lerner what a wanker, what a wanker”, rang out from the Holte End several times during the Liverpool game as the goals rattled in. The fans know who is ultimately responsible for the club’s downfall, but the Villa owner now sits in an ivory tower in America having relinquished responsibility to Hollis and Fox.
During the game, several Villa fans were thrown out with stewards declaring marshall law on any supporter using Tom Fox’s name in vain. The Villa CEO has employed personal security guards, as MOMS first reported at the AVST AGM (while he lays off other staff). This is a sad state of affairs and there was no surprise when an ex-Villa worker broke her silence on the toxic atmosphere at the club.
While as supporters we plan to get our club back, here’s five reasons to be cheerful as Aston Villa fans…
1. Active
One thing that has allowed football club’s greed to go unchecked is that football supporters are very tribal in terms of their clubs. Over the years, we’re either winding each other up or fighting with each other, however now the things that have divided us are now smaller than the things that united us.
Liverpool fans displayed their ‘Football Without Fans is Nothing’ banner in the away end at our recent game, MOMS has marched twice behind that banner, alongside Liverpool fans, through the streets of London on route to the Premier League offices.
Slowly football supporters are now uniting across tribal lines as we realise we are actually a powerful ‘consumer group’ together and can fight exploitation by the money and marketing men, and also honest working people being priced out of their own game.
MOMS will be meeting supporter reps from the other 19 Premier League teams today in London to discuss action on ticket prices.
Enough is enough.
A week ago the Liverpool supporters’ walkout from Anfield on the 77th minute was a real game changer. The fact that 10,000-15,000 supporters showed that they had enough, forced a U-turn by the club and they scrapped the idea of a £77 ticket.
Villa fans need to put their foot down now too. There’s a lot rotten at our own club from supporters being thrown out unnecessarily, to conservative attitudes on away ticket allocations and pricing (in cup games they’d rather have an empty stadium than drop some tickets a further £5 to get an atmosphere).
You’ll be kidding yourself if you think tickets for matches next season will be drastically reduced without any pressure being put on the club.
The attitudes at this club increasingly sicken me. Bar the name ‘Aston Villa’ and the claret and blue colours, there’s little left of the club I supported as a boy. It could and should be SO MUCH BETTER at Villa Park.
Equally, the greed in the game and the exploitation of supporters by the Premier League, TV companies and FA, increasingly make me less interested in the sport by the day. As does the low frequency the media around the game operates at.
I see on social media few Aston Villa fans who have followed the club and football for decades now saying they’ve had enough and are considering turning their back on the game. I know how they feel.
However, this year is pivotal to how the club and league will evolve going forward, so lets at least put up a fight for ourselves and future generations. UTV
so what is the plan you refer to? Its time to let us know
trevor fisher