This season has been an unmitigated disaster, there is no hiding from that.
There has been a lot of concentration on the negative, and on one man in particular; for this article, though, I want to concentrate on the big picture.
I want to think about just what has happened to a club that was on the coat tails of the bigger clubs only a couple of seasons ago.
The answer is a combination of factors…Poor buys, our best players being sold season after season, managerial issues, players, economics, aspirations, and, of course, the fans: yes we are a factor—quite a big one in fact.
So we may as well start with a man who has come in for huge amounts of stick, some justified, some less so, and some downright sickening. Big Eck himself, Alex McLeish, a man who managed Rangers to 3rd place, a man that before this season was reaching legendary status at Villa Park for his efforts with Birmingham, a man that came with a reputation for negative, soul sapping football.
He told us that the latter simply wasn’t true, he told us that he had to do that at Birmingham because of the quality of player he had – Players he had bought I might add. He told us that the squad we had was capable and he couldn’t wait to start.
Some took a step back and said give the man a chance. Others had made their minds up before a ball was kicked.
This is where the media’s interpretation that is was because he was from Birmingham has come from—those few fans who wrote “blue scum, you’re not welcome”. They simply don’t make it up, but often refuse to change their tack after they’ve got a bandwagon rolling. The fans where not the only problem, the squad was too. Not only did he see two of his better players sold, he had the lumps at the back to sort out with Messrs Dunne, Collins, and Warnock all needing to pick their toys up.
He got to spend money and brought in the likes of Zoggy, Hutton, and Given, but really we needed more and his only real option was to get the lumps at the back back on side. Mistake no.1 in my book was his approach to this—accepting them in to the fold as if their behaviour last season was acceptable. This would haunt him through the season because he did make them earn a place back—he gave them their positions back with the stupid notion they’d back him up.
Then, though Alex caused his own problems with poor selection, poor tactics, lack of knowing how to change a game, defeatism – these are the things that really got the Villans annoyed.
We understood that squad was not in a position to be toward the top end of the league; we understood the balance that had to be struck regarding finances; but what we didn’t understand was this apathetic team, with no ambition other than to protect the point you are given at the start of the game.
We had one of the easiest starts to a season I can remember and we defended our way through it. Eck was happy with the run. The fans weren’t because the team was not playing football. Now, I do think the start of the season was massive for him, he had to be cavalier but wasn’t.
I do genuinely feel he had to protect our defence. We’d seen it the season before: can’t defend in open play, can’t defend set plays, and prone to individual errors pretty much every game. This, we were told by Dunne and Collins, was down to Houllier’s lack of defensive work in training, preferring to improve players rather than drill systems. Yet Alex shifted this pattern to suit our senior defenders and I personally am still waiting to see the improvement…Perhaps it is the players after all.
Perhaps we needed to protect our defence and I would agree with that, but I would have tried protecting them by keeping the ball away from them as much as possible, not inviting teams to continually attack them in the hope two defensive midfielders and wingers deeper than full backs would help.
This is Big Eck’s failing. A failure to appreciate the attacking ability this club has and his decision to sacrifice it for the sake of a few very average senior players that he invited back to the fold to walk all over him.
Numerous times this season I’ve seen Collins, point blank, ignore what is being requested of him on the touch line in favour of standing on the edge of the box. One man not following a system screws that whole system and leaves a team wide open.
The fact of the matter is the majority of the problem and criticism he has encountered are of his own making. Do I feel the need to abuse the fella in such a way that his wife and kids are almost in tears in the stands? No. Do I feel some Villans have over stepped the mark? Yes.
There is much more you could talk about, but in honesty a future at Aston Villa is near impossible to see; the void is too big and the feelings too raw for the crowd now to ever support Alex, and this in turn has a huge effect on our team’s performances. At home this season we, the fans, have offered poor support.
Some will say we’re paying customers and have a right to complain. But I ask you—if you buy something in Tesco and it’s not what you expected do you stand in the middle of the store effing and jeffing, throwing mindless abuse at the manager? Or are you reasonable?
Of course we should have our voices heard, but please, for the right reasons—in games is not the time or place to abuse the manager and team. They do need our support when confidence is low. And boy is confidence low at the moment.
Injuries, too, have been cruel to us for the second season running. Losing Bent was huge, even though he was isolated he still scored goals. Petrov, too, was a huge shock to the club and a huge miss on the pitch. People forget Jenas, too, who if fit would have added a lot to our team dynamic. Then a list of niggling injuries the length of my arm. Just one of those seasons where we never actually got the strongest team on the pitch.
Let us also not forget that Alex has also had some positive influence. Ireland seems to have found a fire in his belly and now wants to play football again. We have seen lots of our youngsters blooded and they have done well. He has overseen the club in a time of huge cost cutting, and let’s not forget took up a job that no one else seemed interested in.
Expectation and aspiration are two things that also seem to have been confused this season. Some fans need to realise that Lerner is no longer able to compete with those money-splashing around at the top. If we’re going to challenge, we have to do it a different way. Unnoticed it would seem by many supporters, the tip of the academy iceberg is just breaking through. We have some incredible talent and should be proud of them, these young lads are where our future lies. They will either send us up the league or down.
We will buy players, but the summers of £50m splashed have gone. Lerner is not a bad man and is not a fool. We could do a lot, lot, lot worse. Faulkner, on the other hand, keeps showing just how little he knows about the sport he is in. Aim for Europe… Hmm. This again is a case of a man who has made too many bloopers to be taken seriously by the fans.
So there you have it, it could have been far longer if I’m honest, but simply as an overview the problem is not entirely one of Alex Mcleish. And if we think for one second that simply changing managers again will solve this, think again.
Certain players need to leave the dressing room, too. In fact, I would say our first choice defence needs to leave with Alex to give a new man the chance to start life at Villa with the fans on side, players who are willing to take on board new ideas and systems so to be able to develop a style of football we can enjoy.
This turnaround will not be quick though. Our squad is small and short on experience. Lerner would have to back his man in his first summer in a big way. But you have to believe me, there is so much more to come from these academy graduates and so many more to see, too. It is something we should be very proud of and a reason to hold our heads high. These kids can take us places, they just need our support and the right influences on the pitch.
Lerner must act now. The fans must show more patience—the memory of Houllier being hounded out for changing our way of playing last season was short sighted…toward the end of the season we played some of the best football I’ve seen a Villa side play. But no patience was shown, and the hounding started five games in to his spell. Shocking behaviour.
We need to appreciate that successful clubs in general have the four factors all pulling in the same direction: Board, fans, manager and players. At the moment, each seems to have a different agenda. This is not good for Aston Villa.
I for one think Alex has to go. Do I blame him entirely for this mess though? Not at all.
In fact, had he been a more popular choice of manager I do happen to think we still would have struggled. Only some of the players wafting on the pitch in their smoking jackets would have taken their fair share of stick, too. As it is, we some seem to want to forget the poor performances turned in by some players this season and concentrate on the manager…Unfairly, in my opinion.
Best of luck Eck. No hard feelings. You are not a top manager, but you’re a decent gent. Just walk away, and I hope you make successes of the rest of your life… At Hibs… Shhh…That’s a secret.
The Author
