I keep seeing a word and it got me thinking. That word is “Transition”. It’s a word we have heard for the last two seasons as Villa fans.
This has manifested itself in several ways recently. Gerrard Houllier inherited a team from Martin O’Neill and oversaw our transition, one where we appeared to transition from a team who could defend very well and only attack one way, to a team who could do neither very well.
After that Alex McLeish came along and recently told us again we are in a season of transition. That transition it appears is to transition from a team who couldn’t defend or attack very well, to a team too timid to even try.
Transition – Changing For The Future Or An Excuse For The Present?
Transition – it is used mainly as either an excuse or as an explanation for all manner of things, whichever way you want to look at it, as to whether it mitigates or clarifies the situation. This article isn’t about how I see it – for all those that agree with my viewpoint, an equal number will disagree.
The point I want to make is this: Transition – so what is the big deal?
“The only thing which remains constant is change” – one of my favourite quotes, and from A P Sloan of General Motors, not even a football man. Every facet of life is changing, change happens all around us every day. Some we like, some we don’t, some we can control, much of it we can’t – but it’s happening anyway, so we had better do our best to make the most of what we can change.
The world of football is changing; it always has and always will. For the better? Well that’s the subject of another article, but some of the fundamentals still apply.
Firstly, the performances of players will come and go, be it training, injury, confidence, ability, focus, passion or a million and one options we could discuss. Playing football hasn’t changed, maybe the distractions have, but it’s still a game played by individuals. If the manager isn’t a man manager, and we fail to exert influence over the areas we can manage in this area, then there are problems.
Secondly, the ever changing nature of the squad. New blood will come in, old blood will go out – happens at every club, and will always happen. Aston Villa doesn’t operate in a vacuum, and the club is subject to all the pressures that influence the squad that affect any other side. This has to be managed successfully if the club is to continue and, let’s face it, it been the big success of factor with Alex Ferguson. His ability to refresh and integrate a new squad every few years has seen them remain one of footballs most successful teams. Coincidence? I think not.
Thirdly, financial and economic factors will always influence the club. The economy is always cyclical – up and down – and many of those factors remain outside our control, but they have always been there and need mitigating or exploiting, the same as every other club.
Fourthly, the varying performance of all the other teams in the league. The performance gap may be closer than ever, but for every team that have a surprisingly good season or run of games, there will be teams going the other way – we can’t always predict them, but it’s a feature of the game.
We’re Affected By Changes, But So Are Everyone Else
One thing is for sure, Aston Villa is a football club – its primary function is to play football, ideally at the highest level. Well part of that will always be managing transition, and the whole organisation behind the scenes should be dedicated to the eradication of factors that stop the club fulfilling its primary role.
Transition isn’t going away, time to stop focussing on the transition, and actually transition to a state where our present isn’t a debilitating factor – that’s a priority. If the club are waiting for a period of absolute stability, they’ll be waiting a long time, and Aston Villa will be a footnote in the history of English football.
But my final thought on transition is this; the word implies that we are moving from one place to another, from one state to something different, from A to B. We all know where we are moving from. The big problem is that no one seems to know where we are going. We know the goal posts are moving, they always have and always will, and the club has to get better at dealing with it.
So there is lots of change out there, and thus managing change is a day to day job for the club, but one that needs either a strong leader with a vision for the club to see it through, making small adjustments to either keep us on track, or it needs the club to move in a whole new direction. Failing that, we need a club ethos that runs far deeper than any one person to keep us on track. Worryingly for me, I don’t see either of these things.
So please Aston Villa, stop telling me we are transitioning. So is every other club to some degree and we don’t require special dispensation or understanding. What I need to know is how we are going to achieve the core aim of the club of putting the ball in back of the goals posts that don’t move. Solve that problem and we’ll all be happy.
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