So we are roughly half way through the season. Half seems to be a recurring word in the Aston Villa vocabulary in recent times. Players giving half-efforts. Only being able to play one half of a game of football. Half-time team talks. Yes, one way or another, this has been the season of halves.
As we all know, Aston Villa are in a cost-cutting period and finances need to be… oh blah blah blah. You’ve heard it all before. I’ll save everyone the hassle of trotting out the same old trite phrases about business necessities and how Villa have to tighten their belts.
We’ll Start At The Beginning
In order to fully understand where we are, which is 13th in case you were wondering, neither dire not great, I should really start at the beginning. Only the main problem is where exactly IS the beginning? Do I go back to the beginning of the season when Alex McLeish was appointed? The beginning of the season before when Martin O’Neill walked days before the season started? Do I go back to the beginning of the Randy Lerner era?
To make things simple, and to save my tired brain from too much taxation given that I haven’t slept since Monday morning till I’m writing this piece, which is the early hours of Wednesday morning in case anyone is interested, I’ll start at the beginning of the Alex McLeish period.
Often managers get honeymoon periods when they start at a new club, complete with suitable love-ins, and the associated positive results. McLeish, by comparison had fan protests. Before he even started the job. So, no, the Glaswegian was not going to be a “usual” appointment by any stretch.
Well, when I say “usual”, I should clarify to say I mean “usual” by normal standards. However, Villa don’t seem to operate under the same circumstances as many other teams, but then that’s the Villa way – arbitrary decisions that make limited sense to anyone on the outside. Well, limited for anyone who is unable to detach themselves from the emotion of the game to be more precise.
Villa’s logic seems to bear little to no resemblance to the rules and regulations that other clubs follow.
I should add now that I don’t mean that we are punished unfairly because of rules, although when three handballs went unpenalised in the game against QPR, you could be forgiven for thinking that him upstairs – God that is, not some kind of lodger in the loft – had it in for the claret and blue army. Which, by proxy would probably mean he was someone who attended St Andrews, so that’s more than enough argument for atheism in my eyes. Nietzsche may well have said “God is dead”, but only in a Villa hell would God be a Bluenose.
The rules I speak of are probably better described as criteria. Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner have been using criteria to pick out football managers for the club. So far, I’d have to say their selections have, well, let’s say lacked a little something to be polite.
In fact, sitting here and thinking about things, probably through sleep deprivation hallucinations, it had me thinking that some of the employees of Aston Villa have a lot in common with the characters of the Wizard of Oz. No courage, no heart, and no brain. Sound familiar? Yes, I thought so too.
This isn’t meant to be divisive, it is merely an observation. There is a place for criticisms of player performances without every less-than-favourable statement needing to draw predictable statements about how being less than being an eternal sycophant isn’t “supporting the club”.
At times, you’d be convinced our back line were distant relatives of the lion in the Wizard of Oz. No, not because they have golden hair and a tail, although James Collins’ hair does have a certain sheen, and if our players did have prehensile tails, they would be firmly between their collective legs, but the comparison with the lion comes because they lack courage, borne out of fear. Fear which is largely because the support has turned on the club, which fans will argue is because the board turned on the fans with the recent managerial appointments. Oh there is finger pointing a-plenty, that’s for sure.
Should We Support Unreservedly Or With A Degree Of Expecting Something Back?
Some might say that marking individuals for criticism is being too harsh, that the only thing we should do now is “support the team”. I’ve supported the team all season, and that’s not really done me much good. Supporting whatever happens isn’t productive, nor does it make a fan “better” than any other fan. So put down the rulers – this isn’t a penis measuring contest, and fans aren’t better or worse solely on the basis that they agree or disagree with your view. Opinions are, by their very nature, subjective and thus people are entitled to them, so long as they can delineate between opinions and facts.
As for this season, I’m still down the same amount of money spent as at the start of the campaign, only this time instead of wondering if things will go badly, I can just look back and see how badly they’ve actuallyvbeen. I’m not about to start booing, or whining, or organising a pointless protest, largely because I expected a dull cost-cutting season to largely pan out as it has, but I can’t just laud any old rubbish that gets served us as though it is total football and, earlier in the season at least, there has been some rubbish masquerading as football.
No matter how often a half might tease us with promises of something more, we generally only get our hopes up to have said hope stolen away from us again and again. Even now, after improvement to the play, we are still a half a game team. Something has to change to fix this issues, and the sooner the better. As for who needs to make changes, everybody does – from the players to the fans, from the manager to the board.
Getting back to the business of paying for football, for the price of a season ticket, is it too much to ask to see Villa win, I don’t know, maybe half of their home games? Even as a mid-table team, largely what I would call Villa in theie current form, surely wanting to see half of the home games won isn’t too much to ask? It’s not even like I’m asking for top eight, never mind the Champions League. No, just to, God forbid – oh yes, I forgot, I denied his existence earlier – imagine that the money paid out for a season ticket might, just might, actually provide me with some kind of excitement and entertainment.
At present, Villa have won six games. Not six games at home, not six games in a row, just six games. Yes. Six games. Of which several have been won away from home which, funnily enough, is not covered by the cost of a season ticket. So that’s a poor amount of games won, many of which haven’t been at home. Bargain. The interesting point though is that the results aren’t much different from Martin O’Neill’s first season, but the difference in reaction is like day and night. So maybe, whether we like it or not, or care to admit it, we aren’t treating McLeish the same way as we treated Martin O’Neill, which is a little unfair, especially when many say his Birmingham City past is irrelevant to them.
Of course, if you haven’t caught the heavily laden sarcasm pervading the last few sentences, this season hasn’t been a bargain as a fan. In fact, in comparative value terms, I might well have had more fun just cutting out the middle man and, quite literally, burning the money. At least then I’d see flashes of brilliance. Well flashes of light at least. Either option would probably have left me as mesmerised for a suitable amount of time, just without the hassle of having to get to and from Villa Park.
We’re Off To See The Wizard…
Getting back to the Wizard of Oz, we’re left with no brain and no heart. Who to pick first to lay the titles on? Sadly for our number nine, it’s Darren Bent who is picking up the lack of heart option.
Yes, yes, I know. How can I possibly criticise a 20 goal a season striker when we’ve cried out for one for so long? Well, firstly because in order to be a 20 goal a season striker you have to, well, score 20 goals a season with some regularity. Sadly for Darren, the amount of season he has scored 20 goals has been, wait for it, twice, and that’s including once when he was at Ipswich, where his 20 goals came in the Championship. So this oft vaunted statement of just how good Bent is is as misguided as how poor some think Charles N’Zogbia is – the facts state otherwise.
Anyway, getting back to Darren’s commitment – there is a distinct apathy about the player. This isn’t a massive surprise, as he was the same at periods during his time at Tottenham and Sunderland, although fans might be surprised to hear Spurs fans I have spoken to say they would gladly take Robbie Keane back tomorrow, but wouldn’t take Bent if you paid them. Surprising?
It really takes a special kind of player to show less interest in making movement than a startled rabbit in the headlights of an 18-wheeler. Goals may be a valuable commodity, but when said player is causing division internally, partially because of expecting precise killer balls to finish the move, and partly because Bent is paid bonuses for goals whereas many others aren’t, then such an impact can’t be ignored forever.
This isn’t a tirade again Bent, as there are many others who are lacking in commitment, but no other player causes as many issues in the dressing room as our currently apathetic top earning striker.
What lesson does Bent’s attitude give to our squad, in particular the younger members? Especially when the man who does the least gets paid the most and, perhaps more importantly, is staunchly supported by many fans who will, at the same time, unreservedly abuse other players online or elsewhere.
I think Darren Bent needs to work harder, but I would never consider abusing or harassing the bloke, not even for a second. Sadly, many fans of our club consider abuse and harassment as acceptable. Criticism is acceptable. Abuse is not.
I’ll tell you what lesson paying the most money to a player who does very little teaches – apathy and ambivalence – and we are reaping the rewards of those investments right now. Just look at the fragmented spirit of the team. McLeish hasn’t lost the dressing room, but there are clear differences of opinions between some groups of players who want to do their best and other groups who clearly don’t care, for one reason or another.
The final Wizard of Oz award is for the lack of a brain. Given the fact that the club appointed Alex McLeish as manager, ignoring in the process the whole culture of local rivalries, this award has to go to the board. Whether you like McLeish or not, and I actually think he has more potential than many are making out, ignoring the fans is probably one of the quickest ways to business suicide.
You can’t, whether you’re a football club, or a mobile phone manufacturer, or a car salesman, start ignoring the views of your customers. Sure, nobody is expecting the fans to turn up at board meetings offering their suggestions on what can be done for the club, but appointing McLeish was likely to go down a tired, boring, almost too predictable path. Is that path right? Maybe not, but it was very predictable, just as the anger has been predictable, just as the squad malaise has been predictable, coming, as it has, after a year of turmoil under a man who nearly died because of the stress levels.
Many of the fans weren’t going to like McLeish, so a couple of bad results was always going to put pressure on him and, after a season where Gerard Houllier diced with death as a result of the stress of managing our sometimes rag-tag squad, such pressure was always going to show in team performances, sooner or later, regardless of if McLeish’s instructions were to play like Barcelona, or play like Stoke City.
The whole situation regarding McLeish? Utterly predictable, but simultaneously an indictment of both the fans and board alike for differing reasons. Literally everyone saw it coming though. Well, it would seem, everyone except the Aston Villa board.
Sometimes Being Passionate Helps
As much as being dispassionate can often be good in business, such ignorance paints a picture of polar opposites between those running the club, and those of us who have grown up with this club forming a solid part of our collective childhood, whether you are currently 2, 22, or 62.
From where I am standing, my club, and I feel strongly enough to call it my club, is being dragged through the mud because of an amalgam of issues amongst the club’s playing and management staff, the fans, and the owners, whilst we all are forced to stand by and swallow said offerings like they are gourmet meals, and not the proverbial lunch box of excrement sandwichs.
We know money needed to be saved, and we know business isn’t always passion-filled, but can we please have some passion back in our club Randy? Because, try as I may, I can’t believe for a second that the board feel as passionate about Aston Villa as everyone of us reading this article do.
Roberta Flack sang of a lover killing her softly, for Villa fans, we are having our passion slowly killed, between anodyne statements from the board, fan unrest, talk of protests, and disjointed performances, all of which are undoing years of financial and time commitments the fans have invested in a club we have all known and loved.
If Villa is our long term collective lover then, right now, I am numb just like any other long suffering partner who is, to all intents and purposes, all cried out.
I just hope that someday soon the club and I can be friends again, because it hurts too much to pay to watch it happen again and again. I may be fortunate to be able to afford to follow Villa, but I am wondering just how good value next season might be, basing my thoughts on the last year and a half of games I have witnessed.
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