Requiem to The Five ... or Six!

Tis a long time since Gareth was claret and blue;

Ten years at Villa Park: phew, that time flew!

Last eve the Bulgars felt his form resurgent,

had Stilyan forgotten that left foot pageant?

But look, he was not alone in those shoes:
Cahill's point reminding us of him and Blews;
And Young's sweet pass across the box,
giving Wayne a chance, bless his socks!

And two more ex-Villans played last night,

For Villa fans, that was quite a sight ...

of Downing 'upping' his game,

and super-sub James much the same.

Five old Villans: half an England team;
Their like in Aston no longer seen.
Will Bent, Villa's last England piece,
soon go on to grab a new lease?

What is going on?

After all the PR from RL’s henchman since 2006, for the club to suddenly freeze up and not say anything that is meaningful to the ordinary fan is a big mistake i.m.o.

What is also of concern is that – accepting all the arguments why Villa have to be less profligate – players of the ilk of Parker, Cole and Hargreaves (players who are good but probably past their best) this week chose to say ‘no thanks’ to coming to Villa Park.

And with the lack of in-depth cover for the first-team players of any quality that we do have, this could be a rocky season – again.

And will attendances recover?

We saw how many attended the Wolves match - a derby for goodness sake! - even Wolves' fans stayed away.

To bring in the crowds, better signings were badly needed, and not only signings to put us higher in the League (for morale purposes at least) but also to help Villa win a cup or two. By "better", I mean creative.

We keep talking about League, League, League, but the cup competitions still mean something - in the fans hearts at the very least, I suggest. Until 2009-10, it looked as though Villa was willing to give up on cup competitions in the 21st century, but I say Villa need to get back into that theme.

I still clearly remember those four cup years between '57 and '61 (1 FA Cup win, 1 League Cup win and two FA Cup semi-finals), which greatly helped to raise the fans' morale.

More of it please. Whether we can with the squad we have remains to be seen. Bolton in the League Cup may provide a glimmer of whether we can.

Taking a Preliminary Stock of Things

This week-end, I hit upon this extract from an old 'Something for the Weekend' article by an old (or not so old!) friend and writer extraordinaire, Steve Wade. This was the part that caught my eye from early November, 2006:

"The club is as much reliant on youth on the terraces, as they are in the team, while for a lot of the aged Villa fans the revolution has come a bit too late, as too many are burnt out and still nurse their bitter disappointments and disillusionment like the shell-shocked from a war that is over - they still mumble their discontents and still relive the old nightmares. For some it has come too late and the changes will take too long, for many. It is the youth who must keep the faith and see the project through, the old will fall by the wayside - its going to be a long march.

"But Villa need more fans and fairy-dust is just so much froth. The things which bond a fan to a club, are not just nice words but the shared feeling, that you have witnessed something special and the management desperately need a 'was you there?' event, for the fans to really feel part of a revolution. You know the sort of thing - Didier Six beating United on his own; the last-gasp result against Tranmere, Phil King's winning penalty against Inter. These are the things which bring the doubters and dissenters back. Fairy-dust is fine but the other stuff is like quasi-religious experience of Damascene intensity. Get the burnt-out old duffer in a good mood and even he will tell you a tale of some distant match, drawing with United (4-4), in a totally amazing thriller."

The particular phrase that caught my eye was that in (my) italics.

This phrase begs a question in my eyes ... after all the nice words, re-structuring of buildings and making things 'nice', and gestures (good as they were at the time), have we yet (i.e. after nearly 5 years) witnessed "something special"? Has there been a "was you there?" event at the club since 2006?

If not, then presumably we do not feel there has been a true revolution.

If not, then presumably we feel that we may have lost something ... or is that just football as it is now?

For me, I'd say that we've still not really recovered since Yorkie's departure. Having said that, if Gabby can reproduce his goal of yesterday a wee bit more then perhaps I might get that feel good factor once more. In fact, Gabby's been in a bit of a wilderness so it was good to see him shoot himself back into the limelight.

Nevertheless, I can't believe how Rovers gave the Villa strikers so much time to set their sights before shooting. I don't believe that many teams will be so generous.

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