The end of another season looms. Another unwanted record (of the most home defeats) has entered the record book to accompany last season’s record competitive defeat, the 0-8 result at Chelsea. And there was also the Culvergate affair.
However, the cynic might say that the rare home win last Saturday came at precisely the psychologically right time for the club to convince the Villa fans that all is well: the apparent avoidance of relegation gave chance for the club to infer that the situation is under control and that all we have to do is wait for next season to see that everything will be okay.
Meanwhile, noises are uttered from Villa Park that the club (now) realises that better quality players are needed and, with the club already being top-heavy with strikers, yet another striker is referred to as a possible target. Yes, better quality is needed, but will the right kind of players arrive – and will the team start playing Premier League football? Will the width of Villa Park be narrowed as we rarely play with any proper wingers?
Assuming that Mr. Lerner remains in his seat, are we now to see Paul Lambert remain as manager and supervising the acquisition of relatively expensive players that produce ‘nil points’? I seem to recall the manager last January admitting that Villa needed a wise head in midfield yet signed Grant Holt as his answer to the issue.
While being happy to see the passing of this season, I feel that the inferred continued presence of both chairman and manager gives us a situation that might cause any right-thinking Villa fan to take himself to some distant cave to meditate and pray that when he returns normal service (whatever that is!) is resumed. I suspect that, deep down, we really regret accusing Doug of being mean with with his expenditures and wish that we could switch the clock back some 20 years. But we wanted change, got it, and we have had to live with the consequences. Perhaps the best that we can now hope for is that, sooner or later, David Cameron will arrive on his white Arab charger with a rich sheikh in tow.
But, with little other option apart from changing our habits of many winters, let us fix our attention on realism and the positive and assume that all will be well. Perhaps there will be light at the end of the tunnel; perhaps (as Doug intended) Frank Lampard and Paul Gascoigne may yet be seen in a Villa shirt. Yep, I assure you they are ‘real men’.
The Villa’s 140th birthday passes by without hardly a sound. Where will Villa be when the 150th comes around in 2024?
However, the cynic might say that the rare home win last Saturday came at precisely the psychologically right time for the club to convince the Villa fans that all is well: the apparent avoidance of relegation gave chance for the club to infer that the situation is under control and that all we have to do is wait for next season to see that everything will be okay.
Meanwhile, noises are uttered from Villa Park that the club (now) realises that better quality players are needed and, with the club already being top-heavy with strikers, yet another striker is referred to as a possible target. Yes, better quality is needed, but will the right kind of players arrive – and will the team start playing Premier League football? Will the width of Villa Park be narrowed as we rarely play with any proper wingers?
Assuming that Mr. Lerner remains in his seat, are we now to see Paul Lambert remain as manager and supervising the acquisition of relatively expensive players that produce ‘nil points’? I seem to recall the manager last January admitting that Villa needed a wise head in midfield yet signed Grant Holt as his answer to the issue.
While being happy to see the passing of this season, I feel that the inferred continued presence of both chairman and manager gives us a situation that might cause any right-thinking Villa fan to take himself to some distant cave to meditate and pray that when he returns normal service (whatever that is!) is resumed. I suspect that, deep down, we really regret accusing Doug of being mean with with his expenditures and wish that we could switch the clock back some 20 years. But we wanted change, got it, and we have had to live with the consequences. Perhaps the best that we can now hope for is that, sooner or later, David Cameron will arrive on his white Arab charger with a rich sheikh in tow.
But, with little other option apart from changing our habits of many winters, let us fix our attention on realism and the positive and assume that all will be well. Perhaps there will be light at the end of the tunnel; perhaps (as Doug intended) Frank Lampard and Paul Gascoigne may yet be seen in a Villa shirt. Yep, I assure you they are ‘real men’.
The Villa’s 140th birthday passes by without hardly a sound. Where will Villa be when the 150th comes around in 2024?
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