When I started on my deep research into the Villa history at the beginning of 2006, I was not to know that Randy Lerner would be taking over as the new chief later on that year. When he did, and going by the utterances that exuded from his office, it seemed to me that a new era had dawned and that the new era would see a return to some olden and golden values. His support of the Acorns charity seemed to epitomise those values, but hard business seems now to have taken over, almost desperately so: Genting is now the name on the famous claret and blue shirts. How times have changed; Rover and LDV once seemed more appropriate to me (even Mita), but where are they now? Couldn’t Land-Rover or Jaguar be persuaded? I can’t help feeling they represent the better ‘names’ that the club should be parading.
In 2006/7, my hopes for Villa were based on the wonderful attitude of Villa’s heroes of old, both the players and the managers of the club. Through a great many of the years from 1874 through to the 1920s, the club’s standards in probity and in leading the country as the yardstick of a good football club were greatly manifest. But they were different times and my hopes for what Randy Lerner might accomplish have probably been proven to be unrealistic.
It is sad that I allowed myself (at my age) to dwell on a return to idealism, more so as other clubs (once contemporaries of the Villa) had taken the big money route: Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and then Manchester City sold out to big money, leaving perhaps only Arsenal as a leading club possessing a more traditional management structure. But Arsenal's choice of Emirates as a business partner seems to me a cleaner choice (than Villa’s). Why did I leave north London? Perhaps I should have changed my allegiance to Arsenal or Spurs to save my agony, and stayed where I was.
It is also sad that I assumed that Villa’s new owner would retain football experience within the club to advise on footballing management matters. It is sad that I expected that Villa managers would be proud of the club and would do their utmost to keep the fans enthralled just as the Villa management of those halcyon days of yore used to do. In those first 50 or 60 years, the fans were not let down by the quality of play at the club, apart from the odd blip.
In short, I appear to be a very sad case. My pride (and the club’s) is fading fast; the lion is whimpering and needs some milk.
.
In 2006/7, my hopes for Villa were based on the wonderful attitude of Villa’s heroes of old, both the players and the managers of the club. Through a great many of the years from 1874 through to the 1920s, the club’s standards in probity and in leading the country as the yardstick of a good football club were greatly manifest. But they were different times and my hopes for what Randy Lerner might accomplish have probably been proven to be unrealistic.
It is sad that I allowed myself (at my age) to dwell on a return to idealism, more so as other clubs (once contemporaries of the Villa) had taken the big money route: Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and then Manchester City sold out to big money, leaving perhaps only Arsenal as a leading club possessing a more traditional management structure. But Arsenal's choice of Emirates as a business partner seems to me a cleaner choice (than Villa’s). Why did I leave north London? Perhaps I should have changed my allegiance to Arsenal or Spurs to save my agony, and stayed where I was.
It is also sad that I assumed that Villa’s new owner would retain football experience within the club to advise on footballing management matters. It is sad that I expected that Villa managers would be proud of the club and would do their utmost to keep the fans enthralled just as the Villa management of those halcyon days of yore used to do. In those first 50 or 60 years, the fans were not let down by the quality of play at the club, apart from the odd blip.
In short, I appear to be a very sad case. My pride (and the club’s) is fading fast; the lion is whimpering and needs some milk.
.
1 comment:
Just found this on the net, me thinks Tommy (Motherwell fan) is non to keen on amc, join the club Tom.
Tommy
McLeish’s biggest asset is his media friendliness. Nothing negative sticks and only his successes are ever mentioned in articles like this.
When he took over at Motherwell, we had a great side and finished 3rd in the league the season before he arrived. Finishing second wasn’t the achivement it’s painted as, Celtic were in complete disarray at the time and Rangers were struggling at the end of their 9 in a row era. He broke our budget, pay structure and youth system in the process and left a successful, financially healthy club broke and at the bottom of the league. He jumped at the first offer that came along (as he’s done several times).
Sure he won the 1st division with Hibs but with a budget many times greater than every other club in that division and a squad of over 50 players at one point. He also left them broke and at the bottom of the league when he high tailed to Rangers.
At Rangers, he presided over the worst run of results in their entire HISTORY. 11 Matches without a win. That last day league win mentioned actually occurred as a result of Motherwell’s Scott McDonald scoring two goals in the last 5 minutes against Celtic to beat them 2-1 and allow Rangers to win the league.
As Scotland Manager, he took over Walter Smith’s reasonably successful side mid-campaign and did OK until he changed the team and tactics in an away match in Georgia where we were utterly hopeless against a team with 3 players under 18 in it.
He ditched Scotland without a backwards glance after 8 Games to join Birmingham City who he managed to get relegated twice (any other managers allowed to keep their jobs in those circumstances?) and built teams that are the lowest scorers in the division.
As soon as the chance arises he abandons them having dumped them in the Championship and joins their biggest rivals. He’s already getting his his excuses in early having been quoted as saying he can’t compete in the transfer market with the “big” clubs. That must have come as a complete shock to him?
His MO at club level is to keep signing players and hope something happens. You won’t see much youth development, that’s for sure, just overpaid, mediocre foreigners. Every club he’s managed has been left poorer and in poorer shape after he’s finished but the media will make sure he ends up at Chelsea or Man U (who he’ll dump to take over at Man City because they have more money).
Yeah, great manager.
http://footballblog.co.uk/alex-mcleish-career.html
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