Villa's unambitious history repeats itself

Ten years ago an article appeared in a magazine that mirrors to a disconcerting degree the events that are happening at Aston Villa today. The cover of that particular edition of that particular magazine carried an image of an "ELLIS OUT!" placard. Clearly, feelings were running high.

That article is duplicated below but with today's management and players transposed to reflect the disturbing similarities between then and now:

"A club in decline whose squad is diminishing and lacks quality even in a poor Premiership should be demanding a response from fans. But that response has to be somewhat sharper than merely calling in traditional fashion for removing Randy or sacking Faulkner or Lambert. It needs to be based on an analysis of what is actually going wrong and seek to build bridges with the mass of apathetic fans who aren’t going to join protests unless there is a crisis. And then it’s too late.

It is a myth that Villa are not spending money. The problem is that we are spending money badly. Any club which has had Bent and Heskey on its books, has brought in 3 left-backs in quick succession and is willing to bundle up what they perceive as dead wood under the label of "bomb squad", cannot be accused of excessive parsimony.

Bad judgement certainly, and ultimately since Randy appoints the managers that’s his call. But simply splashing out cash is not the answer, if only because the really big players don’t want to come to Villa.

We cannot survive in a situation where the club is injuries to Vlaar, Benteke and Delph away from relegation. And we look to youth to be given its chance, though a relegation struggle is not an ideal time to bring them in.

Using kids may not be feasible in the short-term but it must be the case that we sign experienced players in the transfer window, if only on loan. It cannot be the case that the manager is simply told there is no money. There will be even less money if we drop into the Championship."

History, it would seem, is certainly repeating itself. But where are the "Pound sign" protests, the "Ellis Lerner Out" brigade?
Have we all accepted what the club want us to expect? That we hit a glass ceiling of 6th place and bounced off it so hard that we should be grateful for mid-table mediocrity for the foreseeable future?

It is really interesting how what was said then mirrors what we are seeing now. Almost disturbingly so. The comment that leaps out is the one that references the mismanagement of our spending. It is that which is the big issue today, just as it was then.

As to why we aren't seeing as much fan unrest, I really can't put my finger on it. Is the apathy greater now than it was a decade ago? Was the feeling then that we could not compete because of Ellis, whereas today unless a sheik came along a new owner could only advance us a little higher up the table? So far the only thing we have seen was that call to arms from Mat Kendrick. A theme which I am not sure he has returned to since he put that article out there.

It's also interesting to compare our relative performance now with ten years ago.

2010/11 - 9th 48pts (9 ahead of bottom 3)
2011/12 - 16th 38pts (2 ahead of bottom 3)
2012/13 - 15th 41pts (5 ahead of bottom 3)
2013/14 - ?

2000/01 - 8th 54pts (20 ahead of bottom 3)
2001/02 - 8th 50pts (14 ahead of bottom 3)
2002/03 - 16th 45pts (3 ahead of bottom 3)
2003/04 - 6th 56pts (23 ahead of bottom 3)

The results of 2000-2004 look positively rosey in comparison, don't they?

How have they managed to change our expectations in such a short time?

Manipulation of social media.

Their Facebook account posts up photos of happy families in Villa Kit and good news stories within hours of getting slaughtered. I dare say if they have a twitter account, it's the same.

They have their influence on a variety of fans fora starting with the general and, now he's gone, they have their claws into certain people.

It's all hands to the pump at the moment.

I used to go 'down the Villa' expecting us to win and being really disappointed if we lost. Now when I go 'down the Villa' I am relieved if we score let alone win, and a draw is an acceptable outcome these days.
I used to go 'down the Villa' for the first game of the season bright with expectation to compete for a top spot or even for a cup. Now I go 'down the Villa' hoping for mid table obscurity and if we get a good cup run that's a bonus.
For all the good Randy has done this lowering of the expectations of our club is the biggest failure of his tenure as custodian.
We are a big club and we now have the expectations of a small club. If things continue the way they are we will soon be that little club, what then?

I remember thinking that in 2005-06 six home wins was a new low. At that time it was the club's worst home record in living memory.

Since then we have won four in 2011/12, five in 2012/13, and have five so far this season.

If you could represent single aspect of Lerner's reign in graph form - from his improvements at the training grounds, the money he gave MoN! free travel, etc all the way through to last weekend's pasting at Old Trafford - it would be a downward slope.

In every meaningful, measurable way, we're going downhill.

The only question is, where's the bottom?

Trotters wrote:If you could represent single aspect of Lerner's reign in graph form - from his improvements at the training grounds, the money he gave MoN! free travel, etc all the way through to last weekend's pasting at Old Trafford - it would be a downward slope.

In every meaningful, measurable way, we're going downhill.

The only question is, where's the bottom?

Sheffield Wednesday or Leeds United?

Would Randy sell up if we were relegated? Or would he try and get back into the top flight before trying to offload us?

Fact is, if we keep going the way we're going, it's only a matter of time before we do get relegated. You can't keep flirting with it year in, year out.

I've followed villa since 1977 and never in those 37 years have I been as disillusioned with the club as I am now .

Trotters wrote:Would Randy sell up if we were relegated? Or would he try and get back into the top flight before trying to offload us?

Fact is, if we keep going the way we're going, it's only a matter of time before we do get relegated. You can't keep flirting with it year in, year out.

We won't go down this season but will finish bottom 6 and again next season if lambert stays - lerner should be looking to sell and let this club progress.

Just to qualify my comment above, I realise that home form is not the be all and end all of how to measure the club's performance, however it is the vast majority of the live football that I see as I don't have the time or money to follow the club all over the country on a regular basis. If anything I'm limited to one or maybe two away games per season, but I haven't been away at all this time round.

So that's fourteen home wins in 54 games in the last nearly three seasons. It's not exactly setting the world alight. Put it another way, we've lost 26 (yes, twenty-six) of those 54 games. 48% of our home games over the last almost three seasons have ended in defeat for the Villa.

Meanwhile, we haven't won away since new years day.

It's relegation form if ever I saw it.

There are more fans that go to home games than away, so if you serve up shit each week you're not gonna get fans through the gate.

Trotters wrote:The results of 2000-2004 look positively rosey in comparison, don't they?

They sure do. We are very lucky to have stayed up the last few years,we have had two pretty close shaves and 2010/11 wasn't exactly comfortable either.

This season looks like another 41-42 pointer.

Good work trotters

We need grabbing by the balls and shaking up big time.
Bollocks to Lerner, Faulkner and Lambert. Get rid and move onwards and upwards.
This is just stagnation and not what Villa deserve.

We've been in a rut for the past four years IMO. Was it easier to climb out of a rut a decade ago before the billionaires came into football? It's a compelling argument until you realise that teams like Newcastle, Southampton and Swansea have came up from the Championship and performed better. How have they done that whereas our malaise continues?

Billy McBingo wrote:We've been in a rut for the past four years IMO. Was it easier to climb out of a rut a decade ago before the billionaires came into football? It's a compelling argument until you realise that teams like Newcastle, Southampton and Swansea have came up from the Championship and performed better. How have they done that whereas our malaise continues?

Bloody good question.

Billy McBingo wrote:We've been in a rut for the past four years IMO. Was it easier to climb out of a rut a decade ago before the billionaires came into football? It's a compelling argument until you realise that teams like Newcastle, Southampton and Swansea have came up from the Championship and performed better. How have they done that whereas our malaise continues?

Southampton and Swansea have performed minor miracles. They both look like established premier league clubs with the potential to win trophies and develop further. Newcastle, like ourselves are a big club that should have a natural propensity to re-emerge from the bad times.

We, however, have been asleep for the past four years, going from cock-up to cock-up.

Has lerner got the balls to admit to another managerial failure - I hope so.

Beggars belief that someone would invest huge sums of cash into something and then have a series of complete buffoons running the show.
I mean, really, would you do it ?
It just goes against all logic.

Eastie wrote:Has lerner got the balls to admit to another managerial failure - I hope so.

But would any managerial change go far enough to address the root causes of why we've had three managerial failures? We could end up saying the same things after the next guy in a season or two. It's not a question of people like Lerner or Faulkner going but a root and branch review of why we are not delivering which goes beyond the manager and the players.

Billy McBingo wrote:

Eastie wrote:Has lerner got the balls to admit to another managerial failure - I hope so.

But would any managerial change go far enough to address the root causes of why we've had three managerial failures? We could end up saying the same things after the next guy in a season or two. It's not a question of people like Lerner or Faulkner going but a root and branch review of why we are not delivering which goes beyond the manager and the players.

The answer to that is because neither is a footballing man - a banker and well I won't say it - we need someone with football knowledge to appoint managers etc.

Eastie wrote:Has lerner got the balls to admit to another managerial failure - I hope so.

Does Lerner see Lambert as a failure? We have no idea what he really thinks.

Lerner has always played his cards close to his chest. It was much later in the season than this that people even started to believe that McLeish's days were numbered.