We are in a mess, a right mess. We all know who is to blame, and we all have our opinions on how to fix it – the answer is obvious though.
The club are releasing stupid statements that are, if we are honest, empty words, and the football world is looking on, some with grins, as they watch our great club implode.
Well if the club can’t release a decent statement, then I will, but mine is to the senior players, and not the fans:
Chiefy’s Statement To The Players
The majority of you have underperformed all season. Yes, the manager has the biggest amount of blame, but you are also accountable.
You knew this season was going to go like this because of circumstances but, as a fan, I expected some of you to grab the team by the scruff of the neck and lead us through this.
We have seen the best of some of you, over time, so we know you can do it, but it is almost like you have given up because you can get a move away, and you know the manager will get the blame.
Yes, the manager will take the blame, and probably pay for his part in it with his job, and rightly so, but to you, the players, why would you let this happen?
You can change this course – you are the men on the pitch who have the power over our fate after all – even though the odds of our relegation have been slashed. Our destiny is in your hands!
Which one of you is going to step forward, help the kids, and drag the team through this mess? We have three games. Three games to get as many points as we can. Three games! Your failures and the failure of the manager has put our survival on the back of three games!
As players in the team, your failure to play well has played its part in getting us into this mess, now step up, like men, and get us out of it! Make yourself a hero for the fans who pay your wages. Even if you can’t do it for the fans, do it for your own self respect!
We can still survive, but it means your commitment to our cause in our time of need. We’ve paid you when you have been injured, so pay us back in effort to save the club that we love.
We can still be one of the Premier League ever-presents if we try hard enough. It will take bottle, balls, and playing to the best of your abilities. We have faith in you to make a difference, so prove us right and show us that you are capable, and not the useless bunch many media outlets try to call you.
We know you can do it – we have faith in you, but faith has to be two ways.
Take Emile Tuesday night. It was a vintage display, and Warnock had one of his best games out of position. That is what we need to see as fans. Be men like those pair – they haven’t escaped criticism over the course of the season, but they have shown that they aren’t going to give up. Follow their lead and show some fight!
You have three sets of 90 minutes to help fix the mess that the manager and players have caused, so just do it!
Chiefy’s Final Thought
For the fans, this season has been a complete mess. You know me, and you know my Thursday rally cry, so it is no different this week.
I am hurting, and I am angry my club is dying in front of my eyes, and it feels like my heart is being ripped out, but for the 270mins of football we have left, for every single one of those minutes, us fans have to support the club.
We have to get behind the team, and they have to get behind us. We have to give them a chance so they can survive, so we can survive. If we don’t, we are in real trouble.
We need to be loud, and we need to be proud. Forget the idiots behind the scenes and show that we love the club – don’t drop ourselves to the level of the people who just care about money and not the club.
Once we are safe, and the storm has passed, the club needs reform from bottom to top. Not just the manager, but the players, and all the way up to the top, and we need to do everything we can to make that happen as fans.
I have done what I felt I needed to do, on personal level, and it is time for others to follow suit.
I had to prove a point and I feel I have. Now we must all join together to support the club, or else it really could be curtains.
Ignore the owner, ignore the CEO, ignore the manager. These people don’t matter to us now. All that matters is we, the fans, survive to fight another day in the Premier League.
Keep the lions flag flying high, because Aston Villa will never die!
The Author
