We are Villans and we can’t just give up
Can Aston Villa even begin to dream of pulling off one of the Premier League great escapes or is it just pie in the sky and we’re clutching at straws to even think of it?
Put it this way, if Rémi Garde can pull Aston Villa out of the mire and secure the club’s Premier League status at the end of the season, perhaps only Claudio Ranieri could pip him to the Manager of the Year award, if he led Leicester City to a Top 4 finish.
In a MOMS poll last week only 21% of Villa fans thought Villa would survive relegation this season. The Birmingham Mail also ran a similar poll, and the result was exactly the same – 21%.
79% of Villa supporters can’t be blamed for thinking the club is doomed, after all, from Villa’s current position of six points from 15 games, no team has ever survived. In fact, only one team has ever been in that position in the Premier League. Derby County in 2007/08 were also on six points after 15 games, and they finished the season on a record pathetic 11 points.
This month of December will define what Randy Lerner is willing to do in the January window
Lets not kid ourselves, you’ve just got to look at the young inexperienced Villa squad with its lack of match winners or leaders, to realise the writing is very much on the wall. The new ‘transfer committee’ bought in too many inexperienced young players in at the same time, with little ‘ready-to-go’ players. Normally you bleed in young or overseas players one or two at a time, not have half a team of them replacing your previous best players. It was naive at best.
Yet, while supporters have been slowly drained of our spirit and belief over the past four seasons, we are Villans and we can’t just give up.
One thing is for sure though, those supporters waiting until January for some new players to be some miracle cavalry to rescue Villa out of this mess, are kidding themselves. The key period is NOW. This month of December will define what Randy Lerner is willing to do in the January window and if Villa have a platform of points to launch a fight back.
Villa are four games away from the half-way point and sitting on only six points!
For Villa to escape the drop, it would surely be a bigger achievement than even the below Premier League great escapes.
Five Premier League Great Escapes
3. Fulham 2007/08
After 15 games: 13th on 13 points
At this same stage of the back in 2007 Fulham were in lower mid-table not expecting fully the struggle that was to come. Then Fulham dropped like a stone, as one Premier League team always seems to do after an ok start to the season.
Fulham with three games of the season to go were as good as gone. In the first of those games, which they needed to win all three to have a chance to survive, they found themselves 2-0 down against Manchester City with 20 minutes to go.
Roy Hodgson then made a substitute that changed everything, bringing on Diomansy Kamara who scored goals either side of a Danny Murphy equaliser to give them a dramatic win.
Then Fulham beat the Blues (who got relegated) and beat Pompey on the last day to seal the deal.
what ever happens depnds on the players. In 4 games Garde has used 19. Li ke Kamikaze Tim, he doesn’t knw his best team
trevor fisher