There seems to have been a consensus formed in agreement against the current owner, not just on this Blog, but amongst Villa supporters everywhere. But is it a consensus without a corrective end to it?
It would appear that if the matter stays as it is – simply an opinion against Randy – then with the likely relegation of the team to the nether regions, the support base may well just evaporate. As an older and distinguished Villa supporter friend of mine said to me the other day: “All those lost jobs! Upper Trinity mothballed! Trips to Burton Albion with a share of the 4500-person gate and Parachute money used to pay off the duds we have under contract, which is 90% of them, at least. etc etc etc. This ain`t 1986 and ‘coming back up’ is as hard as winning the PL.”
It’s not a recipe of hope, is it?
I am one of those that, despite the apparent reality, kept on looking for an optimistic strain until the Sunday just gone. The attitude of the players in the match then just killed the optimistic spark that was still flickering in me. The subsequent £120,000 Mercedes Twitter then put it all into context: this is not a football “club” any more and it hasn’t been for a long time.
Back in 1924, one of Villa’s legends from that time (Arthur Dorrell) wrote:
“… Is there some special magic in the old claret and blue? I am not more superstitious than any other footballer, but I do believe there is something in tradition. It is impossible to turn out with a Villa side without feeling it. A record which sparkles with great deeds and great names is bound to give you inspiration. When a youngster first puts his name to the form which binds him to Aston Villa, he is bound to feel something of this pride of club.
“What helps to keep this appeal so vivid and so real is that so many of the men whose names written large in Aston Villa history are still actively connected with the club. Their value-I mean their actual playing value-cannot be overestimated. Think of the help it is to have the assistance of such great players and such close students of the game as Mr. Howard Spencer and Mr. John Devey.
“The Villa spirit, believe me, still exists and is a very real asset to the club. Perhaps I feel it especially because my father has told me so much about the great players with whom he was proud to he associated, and so many stirring tales of the club’s early history. Who, for instance, could hear of the pathos of the end of that fine player Archie Hunter, without feeling a great respect for the man, and admiration for the club that could inspire such devotion. Archie, as every old footballer knows, died of consumption in a house situated on the road from the city to the then Villa ground. To the last the dying man insisted upon his bed being so placed that he could see the crowd hurrying past to Perry Barr. …”
This extract from a piece written 90 years ago is clearly from a different age. But it’s the remnant of that feeling that was carried through to people like me (post-war) and re-ignited in 1957 through the smile of Johnny Dixon, and more so when Villa had it’s glorious 10-year run ending with the lifting of the European Cup in 1982. Expectations and feeling were again raised in the 1990s.
I think Dorrell’s piece precisely describes my feelings about the club, the descendant of which thought it knew better when it evicted me into the streets six years ago without notice, and who denied me any compensation (later corrected by a tribunal). Worse, those regular fans and season ticket holders who have been treated so miserably by the management in recent years.
Mr. Lerner now seems to claim poverty, but back in 2008 he just put his hand in his pocket to dish out £50,000 for a stack of mostly useless photographs (having been advised that someone should at first evaluate them), and in 2009 was actively planning a great North Stand re-development. It had got to the detailed planning stage. Suddenly – coincidentally with the rise of Paul Faulkner – the North Stand plans were put on hold and then came the exit of Martin O’Neill. Mr. Lerner has had to pay out a lot of compensation to him, and others.
Mr. Lerner was advised by Jonathan Fear (who had close rapport with him at one stage) that someone who knew about the club should be on the board to advise on developments. Mr. Lerner rejected that idea, and following his appointment of a new chairman in January just gone, the new chairman admitted that Mr. Lerner had openly stated he did not want a football man in that job. But Mervyn King has acquired a place on the board: nice guy maybe, but is he another who invented the bicycle kick?
How do we re-instate the values that were clearly once paramount? I fear that the answer can only lie in either (1) the acquisition of the club by a very wealthy Villa supporter, or (2) the acquisition of the club by a group of very wealthy Villa supporters. Without proper empathy with the fans any sense of the club going in the direction of the common good is going to be lost: the club has to be led by someone who has a Villa heart – and who is accessible.
Without that idea coming into fruition, I blanche at the thought of what might happen. Arthur Dorrell and all the old greats would be appalled at what has come to pass, as would that great group of more recent stalwarts who died around six years ago: Harry Parkes, Johnny Dixon and Vic Crowe. Even Brian Little and Dennis Mortimer seem to be worried.
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