With two games remaining in this most forgettable of seasons for Aston Villa, or at least the one we’d most like to be able to forget, we’ve all pretty much arrived in the same general place, with differing dispositions: angry, underwhelmed, adrift, detached, angry, bemused, apathetic, angry, worried, sickened…
All reacting to the same set of events, namely, 36 games that have left no one happy. Thirty-six performances that never made anyone feel good about the whole thing. Or even large subsections of the whole thing. With two more of the same likely to come.
There were some moments, a half here or there that proved what we were seeing the majority of the time wasn’t the team’s best. That we could expect more (not that we were ever going to win anything). But we could see that the sameness of the season, the drab timidity, didn’t need to be what it was—at the very least it didn’t have to look and feel as poor as it did. We could see the underachievement. And we were often embarrassed.
We knew that Alex McLeish was only ever going to win over the fans with results. And maybe not even then. But if it was going to happen, he was going to have to prove the doubters—roughly 95% of the support I would imagine in the best case—wrong. And the only way you can prove people wrong is to confound their predictions.
I don’t think Alex has done that. I’ve been as charitable as anyone could be, but I just don’t think he’s proven the doubters wrong. I don’t think he had much to work with. I don’t think he could’ve walked into a more challenging situation. But whether the team was fit or not, or even very good, there never was a run. Even worse, there never was a sustained progression of cohesion and consistency. For whatever reasons, it just never came together.
What does that mean?
We know the side wasn’t the best. It was thin and mismatched, aging and young, promising and disappointing. It lacked confidence. It needed a deft hand at the helm, never mind reinforcements. And it still needs to be reconfigured, likely overhauled, more than ever. We understand the cost cutting even if we disagree with its precipitousness. And we can clearly see that wise investment is needed going forward.
But if this is going to turn out well, if we’re going to remake the side and redefine Villa, it really needs to happen with everyone on board. It can only happen with everyone on board. And the only way everyone is going to be on board is if you hand the charge to someone besides Alex McLeish.
Respect
I haven’t necessarily agreed with a lot of fan sentiment over the season. I’ve understood it, and I haven’t dismissed it, but I haven’t always agreed.
But what this season has made abundantly clear is that Villans want someone else running the ship, and haven’t been given a reason to change their minds. Really could be almost anyone. Doesn’t matter (well, except for Alan Curbishley. That’s not going to help you.). It’s simply the case that unless McLeish is some sort of messiah and no one’s picked up on that yet, well…He’s no messiah. Let’s just leave it there.
Bottom line, it’s not worth keeping him on. There’s no point to prove, and everyone wins if he goes. The fans get what they obviously want. Randy Lerner, you get to save face and make the fans happy, having cut costs. All you have to do is fire a terribly unpopular manager who has conveniently not given you any real reason to keep him. McLeish gets some sort of parting gift, and he’ll get another job that will be much more enjoyable for being much less poisonous. Like I say, everyone wins.
I don’t pretend to know what you really thought or expected of McLeish going into this. I don’t know how that opinion was formed. I had a vague opinion of him beforehand, nothing considered. But I wasn’t hiring the guy to run my team.
Regardless, it seems that however any of us might have wanted this to turn out better, it hasn’t. And unless McLeish is something we’re not seeing, there’s no reason to keep him for what it’s costing the the club and its relationship to the supporters. As I said before the Bolton match, maybe you only ever expected to simply stay up. But I don’t think you expected it to be as tight as it’s been, or as uninspiring.
Just As Important
So, we can all agree, sacking Alex McLeish is pretty much a win-win scenario. From there, you’ve got to pick someone the fans can’t fault you for. And you’re going to have to invest somehow.
No matter how clever the new guy is, you’ve got to do something about the entire back four. You need another striker. You need a true defensive midfielder. You’ve got creative/attacking options with Stephen Ireland, Charles N’Zogbia, and perhaps Jean II Makoun. You have to hire someone who can keep these guys onside or be able to replace them. You need to build an exciting, athletic, hard-working side around them who play the game well.
Because, what Villa fans want just as much as they want McLeish gone is for Villa to play on the front foot, with a bit of style and swagger. Menace, if you will. We don’t expect to rule Europe, but we’d like to be proud of our brand of football, maybe even excited by it. We’d certainly like to be behind it, if nothing else. We haven’t been for a while, and we’d like to be. Hell, I’m as pragmatic as anyone when it comes to results. But this is what Villans want.
It’s not difficult. Villans want someone dynamic, progressive, ambitious. Someone known for getting along with players and having an eye for talent and connections that find it. It’s simple. Well, it sounds simple. But you know what we mean. We want to attack. We want to score goals and look good doing it. We want to have fun at the weekend, and we want to be able to trade blows with anyone, win or lose. Expensive or unknown, we don’t really care. We just want them to care, be good on the ball, put in a shift and go for three points.
However bad it might seem, the current situation is a cloud with a silver lining. Find it and use it. Everyone will thank you for it.
The Author
