The main question this article asks is this – “What were we expecting?” as the increase in frustrations against our manager seem to ebb and flow like the tide.
Let me be brutally honest and tell you that I don’t like being in the bottom three of the league. Truth be told, I hate it – I hate it because it shows we aren’t performing and because I have to suffer all manner of “banter” from people who support clubs who are having their fifteen minutes of fame or, in the case of Blues fans, trying to shift the focus from their own miserable plight to something else.
Sometimes I get the impression from people in the wider community that I’m happy with our plight, and that I want nothing better than a future filled with nothing more than mediocrity because I’m not ripping my seat up in the Witton Lane stand, or exploding in rage like a Brummie Incredible Hulk (though I’d love the real Hulk at the Villa – the former Porto player that is, not the green fella).
The reality is that anger does nothing for me, and achieves nothing. Sure, I could sit here, conduct the merry (or not-so-merry) horde of angry fans who amass on social media sites and stoke their fire like a coal furnace with rhetoric – last season I was approached to front the “Alex McLeish Out” campaign because someone clearly thought I was media friendly (or had a face for radio, I can’t remember which it was).
I could do that, but I have to realise that nowadays, galling as it may feel for us as paying punters, my opinion and view matters nothing in today’s game – one controlled by rich playboys who use their punting of cash into football’s vortex as some kind of phallic measuring contest. Sure, I pay for the matches, and I have Sky TV, so I’m entitled to a view, but unless I and everyone else just give up and stop watching, they clearly aren’t going to take notice.
They’ve got the cash, we’re too scared to hold it back
Truth be told, why should rich men listen to the voices of us mere peons (in their eyes, not mine) who gladly stump up the cash to watch our beloved club kick a bit of leather around for ninety minutes at a time (match time variable when playing Sir Alex United) whilst they are still getting their revenue?
The problem is we, the fans, see there to be an eternal game of chicken going on in the league, and one that means we have to enter into a war of attrition to keep ourselves bobbing just above the brown and sticky stuff. If all Villa fans stopped going to games, stopped paying TV money, and stopped funding our club, we’re afraid that it would just leave us going backwards, and everyone else laughing (more) at our sad plight as a former giant.
Instead, we’re forced to blindly throw £600 a season just to turn up because we’re scared. That’s right – we’re scared of not funding the project and we’re angry when we do fund it and it does nothing. However, we’re not that angry that we’re happy to pay £2000 for a season ticket to balance the books – after all, we do have some idea of what value is.
I wrote an article a while back stating that Lerner could adopt such a price hike to balance out recent debts, albeit far from likely, but it is a sobering point – we could be paying out more money to compete at a higher level. Truth be told, we wouldn’t because many of us couldn’t afford to spend three times the money we already do on tickets just to see a vaguely better team.
Do you want to pay more for a disproportionate increase in quality?
Because, if we are honest with ourselves, that is exactly what it would be – marginally better. We’re not in a position to be competing right at the very top at present, so we’d be middle of the road, middle of the table, and that is it. Are any of you happy to pay that price for a bit more success?
Or, if we extrapolate it into the infinitely larger realm of Randy Lerner’s investing in the club, is he going to see real value in plumbing another ton of money into the game just to move up a bit when, all things being equal, if he builds the foundations right with the academy and good accountancy we will rise of our own accord.
There’s no value in football when it comes to being an owner. Being an owner holds little solace when you plough hundreds of millions only to be told you are a moron, idiot, and you need more cash. Being an owner of a football club is probably a guarantee if you’re looking to get laid, or attract a bunch of gold diggers on your turf, but little else – Villa are suffering the hangover of having the professional version of the gold-digging footballer variety whilst being royally screwed in the process. Perhaps there is some kind of parallel after all.
So, at the end of this ramble, I just want to point out that Villa are where they are because of simple consequences, and that we will dig our way up from the dirt that was piled on our heads mining for gems and ending up with fools gold. It may not be simple, it may not be quick, but we’ll get there eventually. Rising up any faster just isn’t good value, and thus neither we or the owner are likely to pay that price.
Hold on tight – it could be a long ride ahead.
Savile Row Scarves Discounts
As a thanks to those who didn’t win a scarf in our recent competition, we are offering 10% off any of the range at Savile Rogue with our coupon code VILLALIFE – enter it at checkout to save! Coupon expires at the end of November. Visit the website at http://www.savile-rogue.com/
The Author
