Naturally, I’ve now had time to read through accounts of what Aston Villa’s Stephen Ireland and Charles N’Zogbia have said to various audiences. Which is to say I don’t know anything more than I did before, though I suspect the story is not the over-simple narrative being trotted out by the usual suspects.

Starting at the beginning, in terms of facts, I seem to have gathered that:

Stephen Ireland apparently had something to say in response to Alex McLeish following Demba Ba’s goal, and then did or didn’t have an ankle injury that might’ve had something to do with it all in the first place and was ostensibly the reason why he didn’t take the field for the second half.

And Charles N’Zogbia doesn’t seem to be enjoying his football…To which some Villa wag predictably responded that he wouldn’t either if he were playing as poorly as Charles. One supposes being subbed off for the enigmatic Emile Heskey might be compounding N’Zogbia’s unhappiness.

Poor jokes aside, one might also assume, on good authority, that Charles has a different sort of reason he might not be enjoying football at Villa Park, one that doesn’t reflect well on us, as opposed to Alex McLeish, Randy Lerner, or N’Zogbia’s own form.

Now, it might all well mean less than nothing. It might all signal the Apocalypse. I couldn’t say as of now, but I’m hoping the Apocalypse isn’t tied to Villa’s form, as I’m still young and have things to do and places to go. Or women to please at the very least.

But it did leave me feeling disappointed given these two players are arguably the two most skillful difference-makers Villa have at the moment (Robbie Keane’s just a loaner, sorry), and likely have rather important roles to play as Villa head down the stretch looking to avoid flirtation with the relegation zone. We need these two focused, on their game, and continuing the upward trend in form they’ve been showing.

It wouldn’t hurt if they felt like the fans are with them, and not against them.

Players Are Human, Too

I can imagine both players are frustrated, as Captain Stiliyan Petrov intimated of the entire squad in comments defending McLeish, given that Villa have been playing better over the last few weeks, but can’t seem to get any (good) luck or clean sheets.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen deflections fall as invitingly for Villa as they have done the last two weeks for QPR and Newcastle. We’ve worked harder, fashioned some good goals and a number of opportunities, only to see whatever they have achieved undermined by a moment of ineptitude or misfortune translated into maximum damage.

And naturally, there’s frustration within the squad, as there is within any group of individuals who are supposed to be working toward a common goal, but are perhaps contributing different levels of effort and commitment.

Reading Between The Lines

As I say, I believe there’s reason for frustration in the side. I also believe, for my own reasons, Captain Stan when he says McLeish hasn’t lost the dressing room.

In other words…Mutiny? No. Frustration, yes. And not just with results.

You see, here’s a tricky bit we need to get our heads round, all of us: No matter how much they’re paid, no matter how readily we’d trade places with them, footballers are just people who happen to be good at something we’re all willing to pay money to watch. Hell, we pay money to watch pretty people having sex. Does that make them superhuman? (Never mind, stupid question.)

We like to think that because players get paid to play football they should somehow be immune to anything, including criticism, which often is delivered via the sort of abuse that would earn any of us a good hard beating if we had the nerve to deliver it in person.

Simon Goodyear wrote about the Twitter-verse a couple-three weeks back, and he had a point. If people said the sorts of things to you or your family that are routinely said “to” Villa players, but not to their faces, you’d be outraged. You’d be wondering why the hell you should play for the badge or the shirt. Trust me. It’s ugly, and it doesn’t reflect well on our club. Or us.

We wonder why some players don’t quite seem to care as much as we do. But when someone like Gabby, who is every bit as much Villa as any of us can ever claim to be, is subjected to abuse from fellow Villans, you know something’s wrong. He may not be the greatest striker ever…But he bleeds claret and blue, and gives everything he’s got. He’s that rare player nowadays who wants his club to succeed.

There’s Criticism And Then There Are Pathetic People

I agree that players’ performances shouldn’t be above criticism. That’s a given. We can talk about the game, and we can talk about it honestly.

After all, I’ve criticized the fundamental attributes and play of several players. But not with rancor or insults (beyond what I might think is simply ‘humorous’, or helpful to the reader). I generally say things like, “So and so should be pressing harder…” or “So and so doesn’t have a quick enough first step…” or even, “So and so is lazy…” based on what I’ve seen in a match.

That’s okay. Players expect that, and know who they are in relation to the other guys they go up against every week. Gabby doesn’t think he’s Didier Drogba or Wayne Rooney. He’s honest enough to know what his strengths and weaknesses are. That applies to the vast majority of players in any dressing room.

They may not cover themselves in glory every week. But players like Gabby, N’Zogbia, Ireland, Petrov, Bannan, Albrighton, Heskey, Clark…They train hard and play as hard and as well as they can. Maybe you, maybe I, don’t think it’s good enough on a given day. And that’s fair enough. They don’t begrudge you that.

But when they’re on the pitch in claret and blue, I’m cheering them on, whatever my post-match analysis might be. I don’t have to think they’re all Messi. They’re Villa. That’s all that counts. And unless they’re pissing on the badge or the club, they deserve our support. Yet naturally I screamed “Goddamn it, Warnock!!!!” as loud as anyone when he gifted Rangers such an undeserved goal.

But I don’t have to abuse him ad infinitum…If I’m at the ground in earshot I can just as easily yell, “Come on, Stephen!” as I can say “You’re shit!” I can try to lift him or bury him. But, really, I want him to recover and play as well as he can thereafter. Does that mean I think he’s the best left back we can aspire to? No. But there’s not much we can do about that between now and the end of the season.

If he’s out there, I want him to succeed. And he can change my mind anytime, just as I changed my mind about Bent over ‘time’ (it’s not really been that long, has it…just a year?).

So, I’d rather try and lift him than bury him if he’s wearing the shirt and honestly trying…which, I think, he is. (It’s just not going very well.)

After all, what do you think will help him and the team more? What would you respond to?

Come On, Villans

This is bigger than McLeish or Lerner. This is bigger than stereotypical Brummie pessimism. This is about whether we have class as a club: whether we have class as supporters.

You don’t think players are thinking, in addition to whether a team is in London, or the Champions League, “Yeah, it’s a big club and good money, but the fans will turn on me in an instant…?”

Anyone who has ever considered protesting, or signing a petition, or staying away, or hanging a bed-sheet, tacitly acknowledges he believes supporters have an influence on proceedings.

So, what will it be? Is negative emotion the only thing uniting Villa fans? Is it hatred of McLeish? Disillusionment in Lerner? Pyrrhic victories and self-fulfilling prophecies? Is this how we want to be known? Is this who the Agbonlahors and Albrightons and Bannans and Gardners and Clarks should grow up hoping to please and curry favor with?

I should hope not. You don’t have to love the player, or the manager, to love the club. And players can’t give any more than their best.

Yet there’s apparently a belief that if Villa fans try to lift their club while they’re playing, and treat the players decently at other times, the astonishingly dimwitted Randy Lerner will believe anything goes and that Alex McLeish walks on water…even if Villa are being relegated (because Yanks naturally can’t understand that getting demoted to a lower league is a bad thing and bad business…it’s not like they’re competitive or anything).

So, the logic goes, we’d better make life miserable for everyone associated with the club just to make sure Lerner and McLeish understand that we’re really bigger than Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and whoever else has won more than us in the last, oh, 30-50 odd years. And, in case anyone has forgotten, even if we’re not bigger than any of these sides, we’re still better off failing under Alex McLeish than succeeding with him.

You’re right. It doesn’t make sense, does it?

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