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
1. WEST HAM 2006/07
After 15 games: 17th on 14 points
Villa will know it’s important to at least stay in touch to have a chance of escape in the final run in, although after 29 games of the 2006/07 season, West Ham were bottom on 20 points, 10 points adrift of safety and the team in 17th place, Manchester City also had two games in hand.
But with the January buys of Tevez and Mascherano settled in, West Ham went on the rampage and won seven of their last nine games to stay up, including a last day 1-0 win at Old Trafford. The Hammers finished on 41 points, three points above the relegation zone, while Sheffield United were left fuming and relegated.
Blades fans believed Tevez and Argentina teammate Mascherano should have been banned from playing for West Ham that season after it emerged that the club had breached third-party ownership rules over their signing.
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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