Are You Ready?

Well it doesn't look as if the Club is listening to us and if they have a credible grand plan, they're not communicating it lucidly.

Bizarrely, Lambert looks as if he's here to stay come what may and as I write we contemplate another heavy defeat, this time against Chelsea.

The January signings have been underwhelming particularly the inability to sign a proven striker, even on loan.

So what's the prognosis?

No change with regard to our inability to score goals and a consequential gentle slide into the bottom three which is where we will stay until the end if the season.

The question is, how prepared are we for this, emotionally?

I know that many of you good folks have never experienced relegation before - what are you expecting?

What is your coping mechanism for this inevitability? Or are you still in denial? (Perfectly understandable but probably unwise).

Or am I just being prematurely defeatist?

I still think we'll stumble across finish line and remain in the EPL by luck not judgement.

But my coping mechanism is the same for this as anything else - alcohol

I'm sure we don't have one of the worst three first teams in the Premiership, but it looks like we've got the worst coach.

It should be impossible to survive in this league when we've only scored 11 goals so far and can't seem to score any more, but there are some really awful teams around and below us so who knows which league we'll be in next season. I'm still hoping for the best, but I'm now preparing for the worst.

I genuinely don't know. I spoke to my dad about relegation, nothing he said really made me feel any better about it! When I asked him about going down in the 80's as well, he said, "Well I suppose it was a bit easier, having already been through it". Not that sure that was any help but it was about the most comforting thing he said.

It's funny, my first memories of Villa are actually as a second division side, but I have no memory of us being relegated. I do remember being utterly confused, finding out we'd won the league and European Cup just a few years earlier, and then we wasn't even in the top division? As a six year old who was just properly getting into football, even I had a sense of just how ridiculous that was.

Can we stay up this season? Of course we 'CAN', there are still an awful lot of points to play for. But taking away the first four games of the season we have been by far the worst team in the division, those four games are the reason we're not bottom of the league and by game 38, those four games won't be enough to keep us up. So either we pick up a few wins or we're done.

The truth is, if we do go down, we completely and utterly deserve it.

Just done the PL Predictor thing to try and cheer myself up.

Approached it with an open but positive frame of mind and tried to be as cautiously optimistic as I could about Villa matches.

Not good - we go down in 18th place with 29 points - Hull also on 29 points but on better GD because they can score the odd goal.

Back to despair.

You may not know but I am only a Villa fan by marriage, I'm not from round here but being with my husband for the past 20 odd years and occasionally going to matches I have witnessed many highs and lows and the past few years has been like a black cloud hanging over our family and it hurts. This is only an opinion but what is so great about being in the Premier League when you have little or no chance of ever winning it or qualifying for Europe, is mid table mediocrity all we have to look forward to? I'm bored sick of playing Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool etc etc, I want to see Villa win games and win well and if that is in the Championship then so be it.UTV

Jo64 wrote:You may not know but I am only a Villa fan by marriage, I'm not from round here but being with my husband for the past 20 odd years and occasionally going to matches I have witnessed many highs and lows and the past few years has been like a black cloud hanging over our family and it hurts. This is only an opinion but what is so great about being in the Premier League when you have little or no chance of ever winning it or qualifying for Europe, is mid table mediocrity all we have to look forward to? I'm bored sick of playing Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool etc etc, I want to see Villa win games and win well and if that is in the Championship then so be it.UTV

A good heartfelt post.

That's a novel concept Jo, watching Villa win matches, and winning well. I'll have to sit here and contemplate this new idea!

Seriously though, when your expectations are lowered to the point where you start to contemplate (and almost welcome) the unthinkable, it speaks volumes about the slow death of the club that we love.

I think we will just about survive, just. It really staggers me how much joliness amongst the players there is, have they been totally mind fucked by the VP Management or do they know something we do not. Total bloody confusion is what i feel at the moment and plenty of sadness.
I will be watching the game today from the comfort of my own sofa because should we get beaten heavily again and one little tosser decides it is funny to take the piss then i shall just lose it, getting myself into trouble and i am not risking that.
Today i would like to see Villa just bloody go for it, running down both wings, plenty of pace and show Chelsea zero, zero respect. A couple of goals would be very welcome indeed. We will see at 4.45 i suppose.

NARLA24 wrote:I think we will just about survive, just. It really staggers me how much joliness amongst the players there is, have they been totally mind fucked by the VP Management or do they know something we do not. Total bloody confusion is what i feel at the moment and plenty of sadness.
I will be watching the game today from the comfort of my own sofa because should we get beaten heavily again and one little tosser decides it is funny to take the piss then i shall just lose it, getting myself into trouble and i am not risking that.
Today i would like to see Villa just bloody go for it, running down both wings, plenty of pace and show Chelsea zero, zero respect. A couple of goals would be very welcome indeed. We will see at 4.45 i suppose.

At least you're still able to get angry about how bad we are. I've passed into the realm of passive acceptance.

villabromsgrove wrote:

NARLA24 wrote:I think we will just about survive, just. It really staggers me how much joliness amongst the players there is, have they been totally mind fucked by the VP Management or do they know something we do not. Total bloody confusion is what i feel at the moment and plenty of sadness.
I will be watching the game today from the comfort of my own sofa because should we get beaten heavily again and one little tosser decides it is funny to take the piss then i shall just lose it, getting myself into trouble and i am not risking that.
Today i would like to see Villa just bloody go for it, running down both wings, plenty of pace and show Chelsea zero, zero respect. A couple of goals would be very welcome indeed. We will see at 4.45 i suppose.

At least you're still able to get angry about how bad we are. I've passed into the realm of passive acceptance.

I am nearly resigned to Championship football vb, but until we are mathematically buggered then i will still keep a wedge of optimism, but it does get harder after every game. Sad and annoying times pal.

If we do stay up it's only because the clueless one has stumbled upon a system that suits the players.

However, the players confidence is at flat bottom and the nervous energy the lose each 90 minutes is a contributing factor why we coincide so many late goals.

I know you don't condone violence but I think you'll side with me when I say I want to punch the shit out of that fat scouse sugarbag on the coral betting adverts.

Well we did play better today but depressingly I think that's the best we can do under the clueless incumbent manager.

Hull pulled off a good result today and they'll be well up for Tuesday. It's amost as if Tuesday will define our fate. Win and we give ourselves a fighting chance, lose and we have a big battle on our hands and I don't think our players are up for it. Lambert certainly won't have a clue how to change things around.

Still the joy I experienced when we scored today brought back memories. Maybe we'll repeat that much more often in the Championship.

Am I ready? Not yet but I'm getting there.

I'm almost at the stage where I'd prefer winning a few home & away games, scoring lots of goals finishing 7th in the championship every year than just treading water being so uncompetitive and boring in the prem

Slightly off topic, but every time I see this thread, this comes into my head...

Jo64 wrote:You may not know but I am only a Villa fan by marriage, I'm not from round here but being with my husband for the past 20 odd years and occasionally going to matches I have witnessed many highs and lows and the past few years has been like a black cloud hanging over our family and it hurts. This is only an opinion but what is so great about being in the Premier League when you have little or no chance of ever winning it or qualifying for Europe, is mid table mediocrity all we have to look forward to? I'm bored sick of playing Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool etc etc, I want to see Villa win games and win well and if that is in the Championship then so be it.UTV

I have also been thinking like this, we do not have the financial power to get near the top, but if we hung in there i still feel a new owner with some ambition and idea's might just blow fresh idea's into our club and do something with us again, so i have been bouncing these type of idea's for a while about relegation for us, but glad others are sick of seeing Chelsea Man Utd etc when we have no chance of winning anything.

I have to say i have experienced us being a 2nd division club twice as a home and away every game season ticket holding fan. What i found was it generated a great togetherness in the fans, more so away than at home and in fairness i had a great time. We were THE team in the 2nd division with everyone wanting to beat us and i remember we struggled at first with lots of draws but then our superior quality started to come to the fore and we were bouncing around 1st and 2nd for most of the season.

What i enjoyed was the experience of going to different stadiums. It was also fun knowing we were the big boys in town too and the away support was phenomenal. Home games were not too shabby especially with us going straight back up of course which created a jubilant mood amongst the fans which was a refreshing change to the doom & gloom of the relegation seasons.

I have to say unless we see a sudden sharpish improvement it does feel like a relegation team this season. There is nothing there, just false promises, hype and no substance... very similar to those previous relegation teams i saw.

Another similarity is the change in words from the club... last season we had statements form PL like "We'll be fine" repeatedly and to be fair he was right.
Notice this season though the language is different, that confidence is not there, our key players are either injured or badly off their game especially Benteke and Gabby.

So i would say it's 30/70 in favour of us going down sadly but if we do, my best advice is after the anger and disappointment has subsided, if you embrace it and take part in the promotion push by going in numbers and singing loud and hard we have the pedigree somewhere to come back up with a bang stronger than before.

We would no doubt lose some players but with some good signings, which to be fair to Lambert he has a decent track record of finding, and some of the leeches we still have attached either running out of contract or running away as soon as they know they will be dropping down a division, we do have the nucleus of a very strong team and would have the finances to rebuild stronger than the other Championship clubs too!

I also hear lots of comments that if we go down we could keep falling and never come back up... Sorry but i disagree, i've been there and seen it before and i just think we have too much ingrained quality and support to allow that to happen. we may take a while to get our bearings but i don't see this club doing a Forest or Leeds. Even in our worst state for as long as i can remember we still beat Bournmouth and Blackpool. But i don't see a club with a very good nucleus of players, a Billionaire chairman with the protection of parachute payments and a passionate fan base sticking around for long in the Championship despite all those who would take great glee in our plight!

UTV

The problem is that when we were last relegated, the other teams remaining in the top league didn't have almost 100 million pounds per season (that's what it will be in 2016) handed to them on a plate, while we were trying to get back up. Going down now could do irreparable damage.

We could quite easily go down and stay down. Times change and we just aren't keeping up, saying we won't do a Leeds is just wishful thinking, they were playing CL semi finals and now look where they are - they were/are as big as us and it changed nothing. Billionaire chairman doesn't help when he wants out otherwise he'd be doing something out our current situation.

I'm sure I'll get mocked for this but if we go down, I think we'll probably do what Newcastle did and keep most of the players, but they came straight back up. If we do that then great, but I think plenty would go if we didn't, and that could be the killer.

Vlaar and Benteke are the only two I can say I definitely see leaving, but then I think that's probably true whatever happens this season.

I think given that he only re-signed in January, Delph will give it a year, but of course I could be wrong. I also think Gil will, but again I could be wrong - and by January we may be having big offers for him. He may go in the summer but I think again as he only signed in January, he may, just may hang around for a bit.

When you look around, who else is there? Okore could go I guess, but I think he'd give it one season unless someone like Man U (who do need defenders) came in for him. Sanchez maybe? But with some of his performances, I'm not sure he'll have loads of offers just yet - mind you, some might say that about Benteke, quite genuinely! Guzan might have offers but whatever people think of him, he genuinely loves the Villa - when Arsenal were linked with him he come straight out and said, "Flattered but not interested" which, again, I know plenty of our fans don't rate him but that's very refreshing from a professional footballer, so I think he'd give it a year too. Kozak has been out for ages and probably won't contribute much this season, so I think he'd be looking to give it a year as well, as any potential suitors will probably want to see how he returns anyway.

Honestly, look around the squad, how many players do we think will actually have loads of offers for them? Hutton? Cissokho? Westwood? Weimann? Agbonlahor? I'm really not sure it will be any sort of fire sale at Villa Park.

I may be wrong, and I could look very silly by the time the new season kicks off in August - and especially silly by May 2016 if we do keep most of the team but we're nowhere near promotion! - but if we do go, then I think most of the team will give it one year, and that will be enough to get us straight back up. I could be wrong, but if I'm not and we do keep most of them, then the real problem happens if we don't come straight back up, because then there probably will be a bit of a clear out, and we may disappear into the Nottingham Forest/Sheffield Wednesday etc filled wilderness.

Pretty much how i see it Kimbo, could well be wrong of course and i take some of the points above that getting back up to speed with teams getting 100m a year will be harder than ever.. But is that any different now? We seem to be the only team getting 80m windfalls who is skint :shock:

Having recently being very angry, I think my last post on this thread may be a bit like bargaining, the third stage of grief.

Burnley and Albion drew so we're still 16th, albeit WBA are now a point ahead.

Interestingly, many people think it's Leicester, QPR & one more, but these are Burnley's next 9 games:

Man Utd (a)
Chelsea (a)
Swansea (h)
Liverpool (a)
Man City (h)
Southampton (a)
Spurs (h)
Arsenal (h)
Everton (a)

Hmm.

kimbo wrote:Burnley and Albion drew so we're still 16th, albeit WBA are now a point ahead.

Interestingly, many people think it's Leicester, QPR & one more, but these are Burnley's next 9 games:

Man Utd (a)
Chelsea (a)
Swansea (h)
Liverpool (a)
Man City (h)
Southampton (a)
Spurs (h)
Arsenal (h)
Everton (a)

Hmm.

Could be why Lambert appears so confident. On the basis that he thinks we don't have to actually achieve much to stay up!

villabromsgrove wrote:

kimbo wrote:Burnley and Albion drew so we're still 16th, albeit WBA are now a point ahead.

Interestingly, many people think it's Leicester, QPR & one more, but these are Burnley's next 9 games:

Man Utd (a)
Chelsea (a)
Swansea (h)
Liverpool (a)
Man City (h)
Southampton (a)
Spurs (h)
Arsenal (h)
Everton (a)

Hmm.

Could be why Lambert appears so confident. On the basis that he thinks we don't have to actually achieve much to stay up!

Story of his time in charge. Lambert hasn't had to achieve much, just be better than some very poor sides.