2-1. To Bolton.
That’s right. Bolton. A team below us in the league, who have, now, beaten us twice at Villa Park this season.
Bolton – a team who lost Gary Cahill to Chelsea, who almost lost Fabrice Muamba to a cardiac arrest, and who languish in the bottom five of the league.
The league table rarely lies when it comes to illustrating how teams have performed over a season. Aston Villa, a once proud team, are now in the very real midst of a relegation battle. They may well escape, but it will not be because of performances like this one, rather because of the fact there are other teams who may be more dire than Villa, as difficult as that may be to imagine.
Alex McLeish, a manager who threw attackers on to desperately get something from the game is, in all honesty, out of his depth. The team are operating like a group of individuals, constantly playing with their heads down, as though they are defeated before games even begin.
I was talking last night on Sports Tonight TV about how Villa’s season has been ruined to date by a series of calamitous errors, where football was the sacrificial lamb in the pursuit of better finances.
Nobody can deny Villa’s finances needing remedying, but the way things have been done has been extremely poor. What value are the extra revenue spinners if we lose £38m a year by going down? Did you consider that opportunity Mr Faulkner?
I ask that because, at present, such a possibility is a real potential outcome for this club. A possiblity that sickens me as a fan.
I’ve offered my support for Alex McLeish, even in the face of increasing fan anger. I’ve defended the man’s reputation, and sung the praises of his attitude as a bloke – friendly, kind, and generous.
However, none of these traits are relevant to this football club. McLeish may well be a good person, but he is not a good football manager. If Villa are relegated he will, in my opinion, struggle to get another job in the top flight ever again.
I have no bad feelings towards McLeish though – he is not someone I hate, even if he does the unthinkable and takes us down – he is just a poor manager.
Even in taking the job, I can’t blame McLeish for seeing it as a payday, as an opportunity to take a big job and earn money. So I don’t actually hate McLeish.
The board, on the other hand, have to take responsibilty for what they have done. Just like you can’t blame a baby for hurting itself on things left out by bumbling adults, so McLeish isn’t the target of the blame in my opinion – that has to sit with the people running the club.
Make no doubt about it though – McLeish needs to be sacked, simply because it is one of the few remaining options we have to change things.
We, at Aston Villa Life, have tried to support him, we’ve tried to be the 12th man, and we’ve tried to see the benefit of what has been done here.
I’ve defended the chairman, the CEO, and the players. I’ve stuck my neck out and said things can change. Well things need to change now, and quickly, and not just at the level of the manager.
It would be easy to let him be the sole fall guy, but the whole club needs to be rethought out because, make no doubt about it, the rot is far deeper in this club than sacking one man will achieve.
Villa face a mammoth game against West Bromwich Albion this weekend, with anything less than a win being further fuel in the club’s race towards the relegation zone. Once seen by many fans as invincible in terms of our survival, times have changed.
McLeish is a lame duck manager now. Despite him not having lost the dressing room, he clearly can’t turn the situation around. Players clearly can’t be bothered with some of their half-interested attitudes, as though they are eyeing up their next contract at another club. I would sack half the team if I was able to as well because they have been a disgrace at many times.
I’ve had enough. Still, as a positive (for the board), if we can go down they can advertise that you get 23 games for the price of this year’s 19. Gallows humour – we are going to need it if our luck continues this way.
There’s only one way to finish an article like this.
McLeish out, and sooner rather than later, hopefully followed by vast swathes of our underachieving team.
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