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Nobody loves mediocrity. I don’t, you don’t, and I’m sure no football fan at any other club does either. We all want to win things, but the finite nature of success means that only so many people can win something. On a best case scenario, five Premier League teams could win a trophy in a year (three domestic and two European), in the worst case only one if a Premier League winner does the domestic treble.
PS Yes, I know there’s the World Club Championship too.
So that leaves at least 15 teams in the Premier League who have won nothing in every year. Even on a best case scenario that’s three quarters of the league. If it panned out that every team could win something every year, that would mean a best case scenario of something every four years, but we all know that isn’t reality. The reality is the big teams win more often than not, with the odd smaller team in cup competitions, notwithstanding that two of those five trophies have limited entry criteria given their need for European qualification.
I will quickly add that I don’t suggest for a second that we should give up and accept not winning, rather that we should see that, just like we are trying to improve, so is every other club.
When it comes to football, many teams have to “make do” with not winning most of the time. That isn’t to say that they don’t try, or that they like not winning any more than me or you, it is just that in a world of winners and losers, there will always be more losers than winners. Otherwise winning wouldn’t be of any value anyway, contrary to the politically correct who would love to abolish the concept of losing, in favour of “equality” via the laughable term “deferred success”.
Balls to that I say. Succeeding and failing at things shows difference in ability for all the right reasons. Lose last time? Try harder next time. Simple. Just be aware every other team will be doing the same.
Not Winning Silverware Isn’t Admitting Defeat
Villa obviously haven’t won anything since 1996 when we won two league cups in three years. Back when Brian Little took us to Wembley, I was 17 years old. Nowadays, I am 32. When we won the league, I was 2. So, believe me, it is frustrating to have had my whole adult life without a trophy, especially when supposed “lesser” teams have won them in the interim.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’d rather keep what we have than trade it for a Portsmouth cup win and relegation followed by adminstration, much like I imagine any other fan would. But if there’s anyone who is glad of what we do have, it is me.
Sometimes it is difficult to appreciate what we do have when it is comparatively less than what others around us might have or appear to have. But the reality remains that Villa are not as bad off as many other clubs.
Sure, we aren’t trailblazing ahead of everyone else, but we are high up in the league system, simply by virtue of being in the Premier League. Even rock-bottom Bolton are high up in the league system. Ask any Championship team if they’d swap places with Bolton, and they’d take it in a heartbeat. Ditto for any team in any of the lower leagues.
We do need a plan for the future though and, for me at least, that means planning for the future, not being linked with Bobby Zamora or A N Other older English player looking for a final pay-day contract. Short term planning is suicidal. Hopefully the board will realise this at some point soon before they waste more money on yet more overpaid players.
Getting back to Villa, our history counts for nothing in this game besides fond memories for Villa fans to cherish. Nobody else cares that we used to be great besides us. Forest have more European Cups that we do and are in the Championship. Preston North End dominated early football in this country but are currently in League One and have just sacked their manager. Bradford used to be in the Premier League, but are now in League Two. The list goes on and on.
Often people feel angry or frustrated because “their” team isn’t winning, “their” team isn’t competing. That’s certainly one way of looking at it, but so is the suggestion that we are competing a lot better than many other teams. Sure, we might be worse than a good few teams on paper at present in terms of players, money, or any other factor, but the fact remains we are also a lot better than many other teams in this country, on this continent.
Ask youself this – would you rather we were run by Venky’s who are at Blackburn?
A team who reportedly will be unable to pay players after February because of an outstanding £10m bond debt with Barclays that they can’t pay unless they can sell players like N’Zonzi or Samba (Hoillett won’t generate enough money given his impending contract end) in January?
A team who is run by people who didn’t believe they could be relegated when their owners took over?
A team that has the day-to-day football business run by a guy who had never watched a game of football a year ago?
A club that, should they sack Steve Kean, would make Villa’s recent manager search look like an abundance of choice?
A club, I should hasten to add, who has won the Premier League.
Paul Faulkner and the board may not be to our taste but, trust me, things could be a hell of a lot worse.
Next time you rue the fact that Manchester City got taken over by a rich oil sheikh, and we didn’t, remember that fact that many clubs would welcome Randy in a heartbeat, even if many of us question his methods or strategy. He might not be comparatively as rich as he was in the era he took over, but rather Lerner than many other club owners in the league. Think our attendances are bad? Goodison had 17k for their game against Albion. Yes, SEVENTEEN. Villa are far from alone in having less than packed stadia because of middle of the road football.
It is obviously frustrating for the teams like us that don’t really do much in terms of moving up or down in the league over the years. Go speak to an Everton fan, and you will hear a simliar story. To that end, I totally understand the boredom and anger in some areas of our support. Why bother turning up to see us do nothing? Not worth the money, right? Who wants to watch boring football where we draw lots of games?
After all, even West Ham, who were relegated last year, will be glad that they are beating most teams rather than losing to most now they are in a lower league. On a pure “watching a game of football” basis, there’s something to be said about going to the ground and seeing your team win, whether it is against Manchester United or Middlesbrough. However, I imagine very few would take relegation just to have a season of wins. Wins are slightly hollow if you have to be relegated to achieve them. Better to be middle of the Premier League than top of the Championship.
Changing Things Isn’t As Easy As Some Might Think
Which leads me to the question about how Villa can move forwards. Villa are undoubtedly a “big” club in the grand scheme of things but, because there are numerous “very big” clubs, Villa are likely to continue to drift along in the middle of the road for the immediate future. Middle of the road in every sense. Money. League placing. Draws rather than wins for those around us. Beat small teams, lose to big ones. Kind of expected. However we are only “middle of the road” in a Premier League sense. Hardly a terrible frustration to have.
Now before I get lambasted for saying any situation is “expected”, then understand where I am coming from. Villa are currently a middle of the road team. We could do better. We could do worse. I, like you, want the board to show us a long term plan of what we are aiming to do but I am not holding my breath.
What doesn’t change, regardless of a positive, negative, or ambivalent view is we are where we are. We’re not winning cups and titles. What we are doing is drifting along. Win some, draw some, lose some. Much like most other teams around us.
No matter how much we want success right now, it takes time. It takes time, and it takes money. I know, or at least I hope I know, that fans realise this. McLeish, for all of his faults, has only been in the job for less than half a season. He’s not rock bottom. If he was, I’d be singing a different tune, but he isn’t, and I’m not.
I get that many don’t like him as a manager. As a man on a personal level, I think he’s a good person – friendly, interesting, and knowledgable – but we’re not judging on if he is a good conversationalist or not. We’re talking about his skill at managing football clubs.
I personally have doubts like anyone else that McLeish is the right answer, but he is the current answer. Getting rid of him would just exacerbate the club’s situation of paying out more compenstation than an injury lawyer. It’d be another short term thinking plan and, just as many fans lambast the board for their short term thinking when it comes to player purchases, it’d be foolish to do it again in the future. Some say Martinez would have done things better. Well to that I say Houllier had Villa trying to play good football and they nearly went down. Not what I would call “success”. Very easy to think things might be different under someone else. Very difficult to ever know for certain.
In the present, and certainly in the past, there are far less choices available when it comes to controlling the Villa situation now they are a private business owned by a perceived aloof owner. When you have a man in charge of the team who will be staying in charge because those who own the club want him there, there’s limited things you can do. It’s a bit like if you have a particular house. You don’t really want that house, but you need a house to live in. This is the house you could afford, thus you bought it and live in it.
That isn’t to say that you can’t buy a new house when you get a new job or a raise, but if you haven’t got the money, you can’t have what you want. It’s not intrinsically “good” or “bad” given it is totally subjective, but it is what it is. Spending money you don’t have is a road to disaster. If you don’t believe that logic, glance over at the current Euro crisis, at the debt in the US, and the fact that the West is falling apart trying to compete with cheaper markets which, ironically, they tried to exploit to get higher profits. Again, that worked out well, didn’t it?
In the meantime, re: the house situation, what you can do is get on with it or not. You could complain the house wasn’t good enough, sure, but it doesn’t change what is. Especially if, to make this analogy more consonant with Villa, someone else bought it you.
Amidst all of that tangle of words that I am writing whilst mid-headache/migraine, there’s a point. The point is that the present is only changeable when it can be changed. Sometimes it can’t be because we don’t have any control. At that point, all you can do it actively like it, begrudgingly accept it, or not like it. Three clear choices.
Unless the board enact another culling of a manager that would, in doing so, actually tighten the noose around the neck of them from fans concerned about their “short term thinking”, then McLeish is our manager. You may not like it, but he is.
After all, there’s two things certain in life. Death and taxes. It appears that, at present at least, there’s a third. Big Eck is Villa’s manager.