So, the Queen’s birthday today and some kind of hint that she also quietly follows the (er) exploits of Aston Villa FC. Happy Birthday, Ma’am, but in which case can you spare an ailing club some of your Maunday Money?!

What am I saying? This is Aston Villa (right?) and according to Lescott the weight is now off the players’ shoulders. The pride is back apparently, and now – yes, only now – the players seem relaxed enough that they will be able to thrill the crowd as they’ve never done before – this season at least. Well, cor blow a shisha pipe!

Ahem. Let’s get back to the basement issue.

There are four games left and there’s now no excuse at all not to ‘blood’ the youngsters some more. The future starts now, so let’s do what is necessary (now) to meet the heavy challenge the club will face next season. After all, at least half of the main names in the current Villa first-team squad will surely not be around next season, so why play them again?

I suppose the danger of that policy would be that some positions may not have adequate cover – like at right-back.

Well, the remaining games are effectively practice matches anyway, so let’s just have players selected who (1) can play and (2) have the interests of the club at heart. I would see Clark as being the captain of a side that would include Lyden, Traore, Grealish, Gil, Gestede and Green, and next season would be augmented by the return of Baker and Gardner, both players who should serve us well in the Championship in my view. In addition, Hepburn-Murphy and (perhaps) Kozak. Will Amavi be still around, I wonder?

Surely, all we need on top of those would be two or three more experienced (and quality!) players to guide the youngsters.

Proud History, Bright Future? Could be, given time: er, non-Lerner time.

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John Lerwill
I'm a Villan of more than 60 years standing and an occasional writer on Villa history. For me there is only one football club worth supporting, but I am now wondering whether I will again see anything like the pageant that was paraded under Ron Saunders or even that by Big Ron and Brian Little. My glass, however, is always half-full! Click here for my Villa website.

Comments 237

  3. steamer

    Agree 100% with everything.

    Up to 8 different groups hovering doesn’t sound great does it ? apparently they waited for relegation to get a good price. Oh well, if it gets this dummy out of the club its got to be ok.
    So Larry lets us down again, Lionel & Cristiano will be devastated.

  5. Trinity

    John
    Nice tongue-in-cheek leader-cheers.
    Sounds like Villa will be under new ownership soon. It must be good news if they are Villa supporters and know something about football and what it takes to get promoted.

  7. Trinity

    Steamer
    Yeah I hear Mark’s rich on those 20 pound notes he’s been saving for how many years.
    It’ll be good if a takeover deal is done and dusted shortly. Better sooner than later.

  8. steamers75

    i got one of them 5million lumens torchs so l can see the light

    MK better not of spent my fucking £20s on this shite , to go into the fat frauds pocket . ill shoot the fucker (fat fraud that is )
    JL can l use your blunderbuster Gun mate , should be an easy “take -out ” as he cant fucking run ,

    Steamer l hope you aint chewing on that pigeon millet and as for the Oracle .. which one ?? not that gas street basin barge bloke . surely .

  10. steamer

    S75,
    That pigeon is stalking me, every time i look around he’s sat in a different place watching me, and chirping in a sinister pigeon language, he’s waiting for me to nod off so that he can peck my eyes out like that hawk did to Kirk Douglas in ‘The Vikings.’ If you don’t here off me tomorrow you’ll know he’s got me and your next. Got back from the shops and the TV was on, he was watching Hitchcocks ‘The Birds.’ i’m done for.

  12. steamer

    Three separate groups are believed to have been granted access to the books as owner Randy Lerner looks to offload the relegated club.

    Potential buyers from the United Kingdom, the United States and China are understood to have all offered the £100 million asking price and have been allowed to carry out due diligence.

    Reports elsewhere today have suggested that the mystery British consortium – said to be made up of wealthy Villa fans – are closing in on a deal and that it could progress towards a conclusion by the weekend.

    That scenario would seem premature, according to the version of events that we have been given.

  13. Mark King

    St75 fear not mate I’ve converted it to euros and am sharing it with the bars in lancerote

    It’s all gone mad back home could be rid of unclear Randay soon can’t wait for te next chancer

    .

  14. Mark King

    Oh and st75 I’m not worried because if your aim is like your directional sense I’m safe as houses, you never seemed to find the bar when we last went out

  16. James Gill

    Looking at villas books
    Well can someone explain how two clubs for one season( villa Newcastle) have books showing about 60 m swing( villa lost 30 m Newcastle made 30 m) with one club only spending 10 m reaching cup final, other Newcastle spending 21 m no cup finals

  17. runtings

    JC i think you ma have answered your question on the previous leader – either way i don’t buy that randy is out of pocket from his ownership

  19. steamer

    Blimey Runtingz, mind i read he pulled out of a tour or something a couple of weeks ago. Dropping like flies.

    Lots of sceptics on other blogs. Villa have loads of VERY wealthy fans and also top businessmen in industry and finance so why can’t they make a go of it ? One bloke on TVB knocking the theory but if MK, DB, Howard Hodgson, Digby Jones, Nigel Kennedy and a few others got together we could have a wealthy ambitious board similar to the one in 1967 which Ellis destroyed with his scheming.
    Regarding Ellison, TBAR was buzzing last season about him, one chap had a pal working for that company handling the sale and he was told things about ‘the Oracle’ being involved. OK we may not be his biggest project but he may throw a few quid i and become a silent partner.

  20. Heroes-and-Villans

    It would be bloody marbellous to have a multi billionaire but its not like randys not spent money. The trouble is spending it correctly. And after this nightmare id take sensible ownership with villa fsns than a few extra bob.

  21. Trinity

    Sad to hear about Prince. I enjoyed his hits from 1983-90s.

    Andrew
    Me too, I’d rather sensible/footbal knowledgable Villa fans took over than someone who has greater wealth, but doesn’t know how to use it or employ people who do.

  24. Heroes-and-Villans

    Learner talking about romantic notions or whatever and acorns on the shirt.

    Maybe addressing why the football board was in place for a month and then resigned.

    A comment on the 500 odd staff losing there jobs.

    The gabby situation

    The manager situation

    Clearing up hollis comment on being in talks with selling the club.

    Or does any of that not matter

  25. DarrenO

    Is Lerner on drugs, relegation lies at his feet, no the last 10 years lies at our feet.

    In the clamour for the absent landlord who has owned us for 10 years to provide some response to the situation, we get a handful of paragraphs and one line of contrition about relegation only.

    The man is a complete fool, can’t wait for his departure.

    Just feck off and bring Riley, Krulak and Hollis with you.

    VTID

  26. Heroes-and-Villans

    Not going to slag hollis yet….he is the only one left who i kunda trust selling us to someone decent.

    Learners statement is taking a battering in the press and on twitter, good to see.

  27. DarrenO

    I did trust Hollis but why not back Bernstein and King as his appointed board members and stand up for himself and Villa. Which indicates to me that he knows which side his bread is buttered on and for all the power Lerner has allegedly given Hollis, he’s still an employee.

    As for negotiating a deal to sell Villa, jury’s out because we don’t have a buyer just press speculation.

    I’d prefer a single multi-billionaire, the two linked had vast fortunes compared to Lerner and have interests in companies that generate wealth for them as opposed to a family trust that generates wealth from investments and in this market were trading is down and negative interest rates, that wealth is not growing, not least with a divorce.

    Despite the relative supporter comfort of multiple millionaires who love Villa rocking up to buy Lerner out, I’m less concerned by the ability to match the buy out price and more concerned about the ability to invest after that. How is that investment controlled by multiple interests, who gets to elect the board, what chance of the board or owners being in disagreement to the detriment of Villa.

    After years of nothingness, while i’m not prepared to sell my soul to the devil, i’d love an owner with massive wealth that could bypass FFP and invest heavily in making Villa great again like the no history clubs Chelski and Money City, i want to enjoy being successful and not have to explain how shit we are to supporters of nothing teams.

  31. John Lerwill

    DO’R: “I’m less concerned by the ability to match the buy out price and more concerned about the ability to invest after that.”

    but don’t you think that “Villa-supporting businessmen” would be more in tune with the needs of Villa?

    I don’t trust the idea of one loaded person one bit.

    Haven’t we learnt that riches (by itself) gets you nowhere?

  32. DarrenO

    Hi JL

    Tell that to Chelsea and Man City fans where they’ve employed the right people and bought the right players to progress.

    I’ve no issue with rich people supporting Villa and professing an interest in buying the club, but if they don’t have the financial clout to buy Villa on their own then i’d have concerns about their ability to invest the required amount to get Villa back to where it should be.

    How do you make a billionaire a millionaire get them to buy a football club, if we have several millionaires clubbing together then they don’t have the financial where with all to be able to progress Villa

    I’d agree they’d have a greater understanding of what Villa needs but running a football club isn’t rocket science, invest on the pitch and generate revenue from being successful. TV revenue, sponsorship, bums on seats all follow if the football product is good. Better players are attracted to success and that terribly vicious circle of getting better and better starts to spin

    The next owner will have surely seen the glaring mistakes made by Lerner in key appointments and controlling how money is spent and not repeat them.

  33. runtings

    i am with DOR – i don’t care who owns the club as long as they have the ability to take the club forward and maximise it’s potential

    I would love someone like Allison of course as not every billionaire throws there money up the wall , in fact randy is the first one i have heard of that seems to have little business sense and has a reputation destroying sports franchises —- most billionaires would enhance any institution they get involved with

  34. steamer

    Talk about stating “the bleedin’ obvious” no-one can say Lerner’s not on the ball can they ?
    Well Randolph, why the feck didn’t you give Garde funds in January if you knew we were in the crapper ? Inadequate, moronic, pathetic, pitiful all can be used to describe you, just sell up at any price and sod off, you’ve had offers and they’ve fallen through at your side and you’re not going to get your full whack back so get what you can before you end up on skid row.

  36. steamer

    DOR,
    Sorry to keep chirping about 1967 but the entire city changed with Pat Matthews buyout, the fans turned out in huge numbers, we had folk painting and doing jobs on VP, the club shop did a bundle, everyone wanted to help in the rebirth of Villa, players wanted to join, others wanted to stay, it was amazing. If Lerner went and Villans or even somebody with a sack of cash showed enthusiasm for the club we can repeat it only keeping gobshites like Ellis away. Perhaps any new owner will do the right thing and re-name the Witton Lane stand after someone who’s contributed in a positive way and not leeched of it.

  38. steamer

    If Okore refuses to play dock his wages, why should he receive his wages for doing bugger all ? These twats at VP are beginning to get on my tripe, total shite and yet walking all over our club, get Gordon Taylor in he may have grown a backbone.

  39. runtings

    that is a great reply you posted steamer

    it seems every single day another stories worthy of a eastenders duff duff is revealed in the sham that is aston villa

    Okore like most of our senior players are a disgrace — i would only keep clark ,amavi -toure and jack from the seniors at this stage

  40. steamer

    I would say the only players at VP who have come out of this season with any credit for performances AND attitude are Clark, Amavi, Cissoko and Ayew, all the others have either sulked like children, played like idiots or actually sabotaged the club. To be fair to Black, it a horrible club and i think he’s shown a lot of guts.

  41. James Gill

    Don t know what to think of okore?,at same time black has picked lescott and Richardson to play( both have been horrible at villa,even goal last week came from lescott error,can’t remember which recent match Richardson missed from 3 yards) so if both are getting picked ahead okore something not right
    Okore and Clark have been our steadiest pairing last couple seasons
    Black has more power as caretaker than remi as manager why
    Off track now but on sky today showing reruns of Leicester winner showed where all our problems come from
    Crap keeper guzan
    Clueless useless fullback Hutton
    Clueless deluded centre half ricards

  42. steamers75

    Steamer
    i can safely say your pigeons gone mate ……………..l shot it for you as l know you didnt want me to wring its neck . that rifle is brilliant mate .
    l did come round today but you were not in and lm going to stick that mobile up your jacksy so each time it rings at least you will know someone is trying to contact you and it will be with you all the time .
    jeez on the the villa fans buy-out l dread to think that limahl look-a-like is something to do with it , the plastic hooligan and we dont really want someone who spends money to look like a total prick do we , wheres my docs …l feel a kicking coming on , anyway will ring you in morning .

    D.O.R
    l dont know if its up your street , but a mate of mine has a silver shadow Roller and he told me about the car shows coming up this year , there is one where cars from the victorian era even turn up and there is a very serious race that takes place , just a thought
    Have a good weekend all
    jenny xxxxxxx

    Ps . SWV got turned down by Ester , so she does have a modicum of taste and l did tell her to look at MKs picture but she said “looks like Right said Fred” and l dont like baldies . so no surprise with them two , oh hum

  44. John Lerwill

    DO’R: “Tell that to Chelsea and Man City fans where they’ve employed the right people and bought the right players to progress.”

    Well, I’m certainly not enamoured with the way Chelsea has been run – despite their trophies – and I’m not that overkeen on Man City either, to be frank.

    From my ow experience I feel that if there is a proper heart-felt relationship with the club then there will be good things done.

    You could say that Lerner has thrown money at the club (in relation to his bank balance) but has it been spent wisely? Not in my book: he simply has not understood, period.

    Not to say someone else might not do a better job, but I’d sooner trust people who have an existing connection. And if the likes of Mervyn King are involved I’m sure that would indicate some serious cred and investment from sponsors etc.

  45. steamer

    Agree again John, the entire football public are now against City and Chelsea, two clubs smaller than Villa but staggeringly wealthy. Don’t get me wrong, i’d take their situation but would prefer to grow organically. Obviously Ellis prefers crepe which is why he sold to Lerner rather than Mahmood.
    I think Merv should be made President if we have new owners.

  46. John Lerwill

    Steamer: “i’d take their situation but would prefer to grow organically. “

    Oh I LUV that word “organically”!!! 🙂

    Just imagine putting some manure in Gabby’s boots and seeing how fast he would run then!

    In all seriousness, though, I’m with you on that.

  47. runtings

    great points jl and steamer
    i would say about citeh that they have developed there youth set up massively and are gearing up to be in the position to create a talent team coming mainly from that system

    chelski have a great youth set up but up til now just sell them on in almost every case

  48. James Gill

    John l
    I don’t agree Lerner spent a fortune on villa ,about 100 million buying us plus an average spend of about 11 m ,not forgetting deadly said he left a kitty for players
    Yes the wage bill went mental,but Mon was buying from a position of weakness last 4 years under deadly Taylor and O’Leary spent pennies on squad so when Mon went buying( Dunne) they wanted maßsive money to leave city who were spending crazy,so when. Mon had decent sq7ad and just one or two additional players Lerner changed course( Mon walked) and we are relegated because of lerner

  49. John Lerwill

    James,

    He DID respond to spending needs (e.g. £18m+ on Darren Bent), but conversely allowed the player spending to go any old way and lost money in various ill-conceived ways.

  50. Ian

    Wasn’t it a case of Lerner choking on Mon’s spend on absolutely awful players. The monument when Lerner shut off the tap and Mon threw a fit not to mention all his toys out the Window? I wonder if it was just a way for Mon to leave the club. I think it was this point when things went sideways. Lerner second guessing and getting it wrong every time which led to less and less money. Ferguson didn’t help by pushing Mcleish’s boat out either. Lerner is a control freak and even when good people come along it isn’t long until they can’t stand the shackles.

  52. Ian

    Not living in Birmingham I never got the rivalry/hate between the two clubs. So mcLeish to me was just another appointment. The ensuing shitstorm was a eye opener for me even though my uncle’s loyalty to the Blues was a thorn in my father’s side. That appointment, like Steamer said was a gaff that couldn’t be fixed with the fans. You have to appreciate the obvious shit disturber that Ferguson was to Lerner to mention McLeish.

  53. James Gill

    john l
    bent for houillier was like a jilted boyfriend buying massive present for new love,

    steamer
    agree totally mcleish was start of the end ,i am a long time away from birmingham but rivalry still the same,only time i ever hit anyone was a scum fan at school i was only 5

  55. steamer

    Mike McKenna (on VT) wrote:

    Dear Randy,

    Back in 2006, a ‘nagging sense of inevitability’ forced me to accept that you were the only person to take ownership of our club. Having had extensive experience of working for American Corporations/Billionaires I had severe doubts and frankly did not like your tactics when you were in the process of buying the club. Over the course of several months I met with various individuals and groups who wished to buy Aston Villa but the Lerner bandwagon was unstoppable.

    Behind the scenes your PR machine rubbished the alternative bids, and persuaded various high profile fans that you and your money were the next Villa ‘Revolution’. Any dissent or alternatives were dismissed. Those that championed ‘Ellis Out’ or published books were ‘on board’ and the debate was over. At the time i was personally mocked and criticised for backing other horses.

    Recently when I proposed “Out the Door on 74” v Everton, I am told that your lackey Steve Hollis met with some of said ‘high profile’ fans and gave them the inside track. It wasn’t therefore unsurprising that some of the former high profile Villa protestors were critical of OTDO74. One made a distinct point of stating online that he would be staying for the full 90 minutes. Another refused to back OTDO74, said it was premature and that we should wait till the end of the season. I don’t doubt said individuals love for the Villa but I do think their heads were turned.

    Guess what Randy? Despite all your money, influence, power etc etc ultimately it counted for **** all. I doubt those that have backed you for the last ten years have been ‘romantically nourished’ either. They backed the wrong horse!

    Mike McKenna

  56. steamer

    Randolph is in Birmingham according to Sky and other sources. The apparent reason is to sign off on the takeover so we could have new owners this weekend.

  58. B62 Villa

    I’m not so sure the rumours regarding a takeover, are anything else other than to shift ST at a time when the club is an absolute disgrace and falling apart.
    The club have released the prices for next season, my St goes down from £510 to £500!!! Thanks for that Villa , so I get a whole £10 off and get to watch the likes of Rotherham, Huddersfield, Preston etc instead of Man Utd, Arsenak, Liverpool etc etc. they have also confirmed the closure of the Trinity upper and the North stand lower being changed to the disability section. Randy is destroying the club and has almost completed the job, the wool is firmly being pulled over our eyes at a time when we have been relegated on a pitiful points total, have no manager( or even look like getting one), two of our most respected board members resigning following being betrayed by the owner and a snake( Riley), the club captain acting a cunt, okores refusing to play, severe disconnect between the club and fans, the players walking around without a care in the world.
    Proud history What future? We are a club dying off and there’s nothing happening to stop it.
    Well done to Gestede helping out at a homeless charity in Brum , he just rocked up with a mate with some food and got stuck in.
    Another massacre at home today in front of an empty VP

  59. Frem

    Hopefully Ellison is sat next to Randy today.

    I can’t make it to the game today thankfully ( or Newcastle) because I’m going on shift now at work. Night shift tonight.

    I hate Eric Black. He’s a coward who’s scared to play the youth. He s going to play the same wankers again and I don’t want him or them winning

    So, come on Southampton

    I still think all this take over talk is crap. Randy will stay and Hollis will appoint Bruce

  60. B62 Villa

    And just to cheer us all up Black says it’s going to get worse, hinting there are players we want out who won’t go, players who we want to stay who want to go and we still have to bring players in!! It’s a cluster duck, there is absolutely no chance we will be competing for promotion next season, we are a mess from top to bottom.

  61. Jenny Truman

    Morning all and thanks for the leader John – and your optimism !!

    Two days ago SSN said buyer would be announced within 48 hours . 48 hours later my breath isn’t baiting having had so many false claims before .

    Love Rudy Rudy Rudy for doing that with the homeless peeps . It’s a welcome change from all the vitriol being aimed at the senior players . Yes , they’ve been stupid but we don’t know what is going on at BMH – I’ve said for ages they don’t want to play for the club and whilst this is wrong given their obligations , don’t judge too harshly until you know all of the facts.

    I don’t like Gabby’s mom being used by Bham Mail . She is t the most media savvy and I feel printing her story had no other aim than selling more papers .

    I know this won’t be a popular view but I actually feel Lescott, Gabby and Richards don’t deserve the degree of hate and spite that’s been coming their way . Lescott been pilloried for saying “weight is off our shoulders “. This was said five minutes after he’d finished playing and he was being honest . They have been under stress as a team which collectively couldn’t compete . He didn’t mean they hadn’t been trying before he was being honest about the pressure they’ve felt . It’s not great going out in front of 40kppl to be booed and jeered when you know in your heart of hearts that you don’t stand a chance of winning . I think it was unfair to jump on his words and misinterpret them just to continue the villa player baiting .The press have been on their backs for ages (you may say for good reason but I’d say in a particular sensationalist nasty way ) commentators like Collynore have humiliated them (whilst making a fool of himself too) and my biggest fear is that this combination of hate will take its casualities . I am thinking of Gabby who Petrov has said needs help . He does as I’d guess he’s a very unhappy man right now .

    Call me daft or naiive , but I really don’t see Gabby as the ring leader of dissent that the press have made him out to be . If you’ve ever heard Gabby being interviewed you will know why – he isn’t clever enough . AvFC is a horrible mess – it has been a mess for years – and the dissent we have seen by Okore , Gabby’s escapades and all the other embarrassments are symptoms of this but not the cause . That comes from having no leadership or interest by the owner and the employment of the wrong ppl .

    The players haven’t been good enough , they were the wrong recruitments and they haven’t reacted in the best way . But they’re human beings , they do have feelings and just because they’re rich doesn’t mean they are not vulnerable like the rest of us .

    I know this will anger some : but it’s something I had to say so apologies , it’s not meant to provoke .

  62. James Gill

    B62
    If you were okore and knob head black was playing lescott ahead of him what would you do
    Black seems to have more authority than remi why ?
    Lerner came out yesterday and showed the world he is a deluded and utter fool
    Why is Hollis still here if his men walked?

  63. Jenny Truman

    Thing is Janes Okore is in fundamental breach of his contract refusing to play – which surely he knows – club can lawfully terminate his contract. Is he trying to force a move ? It all points to what we know that BMH is out of control and this is what Black implied when he said they would implode . Going to be so interesting to see who is fit to play today – wouldn’t surprise me if there’s not another virus going round !

  65. B62 Villa

    James
    Ultimately you can’t refuse to play, he should be professional for the money he is in, Okores isn’t great anyway , certainly not good enough to act like he has the talent of a McGrath, Melberg or Laursen demanding a start.
    He should work to prove his fitness and put in performances in training/reserve games to show why he should start, can’t be arsed with millionaires acting like spoilt toddlers.

  66. John Lerwill

    Jenny: ” I think it was unfair to jump on his words and misinterpret them just to continue the villa player baiting .”

    Yes, I think you have a fair point … if taken in isolation.

    But the trouble is that it’s been an ongoing PR nightmare since goodness when, with players underperforming for good measure.

    On balance I’d say there *is* a problem with both what the players say and how they present themselves. These are pale shadows of the players we used to have and they should know that.

    Having said that it’s also probably a symptom of footballers in general. Apart from the apparently exceptional likes of Rudi.

  67. James Gill

    5 reasons okore right in not playing for black
    Guzan
    Hutton
    Lescott
    Wastewood
    Bacuna
    5 total knobs starting in every losing match ,Hutton missed our 3 league wins it’s not rocket science he is crap

  68. southwestvillan

    Well are we about to be bought let’s hope so because I can’t think of anyone out there who could do a worse job of it than old Randolph.
    And to be fair we can’t afford to be picky about who it is because beggars can’t be choosers we are a club in the mire and just need someone to take us on.

    As for Okore going on strike we should sack him but this never happens and the players know it they know they are worth x amount and can dictate to the football club, that’s why the working class fans are walking away from the game the prawn sandwich brigade are welcome to it.

    SWV

  70. B62 Villa

    Daily star have printed the wages these thieves are on, most are on 30k with the likes of Gabby on 55k Richards on £50k per week. The line up is shocking, the club as described on football focus is a complete shambles on and off the pitch, Kevin Kilbane said he thinks we will continue to implode and tumble through the divisions as the club lacks leadership and direction

  72. B62 Villa

    I doubt many ST will be renewed or sold, they haven’t cut the price by much, mine is down to £500 from £510! Cheers for that , some big saving that is, it’s £100 more than at the blues for an equivalent seat, and £200 more than a ST at West Ham next season.
    Whoever is running the business side is getting it all wrong, cheaper tickets equals more bums on seats, bigger crowds mean better atmosphere and you might not have to close stands down, it’s embarassing truly embarassing, I see the AVST weren’t listen to, not that it bothers the spineless wankers.

  73. B62 Villa

    Charlton fans have had some terrific protests this season, Tennis balls on the pich, mass protests outside, squash balls on the pitch and today beach balls on the pitch all holding up play. Ours have looked tame by comparison, mind you there is no one there today to protest, VP is empty, even I haven’t bothered ( but I will be counted as being there )

  77. steamer

    WTF Lescott
    1st goal, how many do we concede on the break ?
    2nd goal, why doesn’t the bloke mark the only saint in the box ?
    Wastewood took his goal well.

  80. B62 Villa

    Steamer
    Nowhere near that gate, if we are talking about those who actually there!!!
    I see Newcastle look like they may stay up after all, who’d have thought it, a bit of investment in proven players and a manager who actually knows what they are doing.

  81. James Gill

    Not been racist but no more scotch managers black is a bigger wanker than all the rest,okore is the villain but God Almighty lescott picked ahead of him????,black is either been made play the clowns for fans to abuse them or just clueless then again fox appointed him

  82. B62 Villa

    Another home defeat, more comical defending, 4 goals shipped again and still nothing changes, I’m hoping there just keeping the kids out of the firing line, because these bellends aren’t starting on form, ability or effort.
    Eric Black doesn’t want the job( thank god), he has no affiliation with the club or its fans and is literally going through the motions.
    No takeover( and FWIW I don’t believe one is near) will mean more misery and relegation, Lerner is not going to invest in a lame duck, he hasn’t in the PL so he’s definately not in the championship with greatly reduced income revenues.
    I would love to wrong regarding the takeover, but it all smells of BS.
    Why would Ellison want to invest in a sport he knows nothing about, in a foreign country, in a second rate club that’s in the second tier of English football( so not on the TV in the states so no chance of growing the U.S. fanbase) and why would he need to lump in with a consortium, he doesn’t need the hassle at 71.
    The consortium rumour also seem bollox as does the Wang rumour, I fear we are stuck with our irreverent billionaire who is hell bent on destroying the club, for a good while yet.

  85. Heroes-and-Villans

    Riley to stay and pearson looks likely. What does that mean re take over! Randys jet up for sale.

    Pearson has massively grown on me last few weeks, be very happy with him. Unless randy goes its futile though

  86. Frem

    Pearson- Better than Bruce.

    But, worryingly, we offered Mcarthy a job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Moyes isn’t coming

    owners- I still don’t think anything will happen

  88. Heroes-and-Villans

    Frem

    Would not be upset with mccarthy.

    He is the godfather of the championship, to sort us out and get us up a shrewd appointment. Youd have to get rid if back in prem though.

    Imo i think we will sell

  89. B62 Villa

    Please not mad mick!!!
    How can Riley remain in post when so many have lost theirs?? He doesn’t offer anything, Collymore summed him and his ilk succinctly on Monday night.
    Everything is pointing away from a takeover being anywhere near, especially if Pearson is appointed.
    Who would want to get involved with this joke of a club, whether that’s a new manager, player or new owner. We are a laughing stock, fans are understandably deserting in their droves and the ones who are attending games are rightly giving the players hell, I still think we need to follow charltons lead and get the next home game held up by throwing tennis/squash/beach balls on the pitch( the club are worried about pitch invasions).
    The vermin took a villa coffin and wreath to Huddersfield such is their obsession and delight in our relegation and demise.
    The end of this nightmare unfortunately won’t end when the season finishes, I fear next season will be just as bad

  90. B62 Villa

    Watching the championship show on CH5, we will really struggle in that league, never mind the physicality or amount of games, most of those teams are BETTER than this shower of shite, we could be in for another relegation battle, the vermin can’t wait for the derby games, as they rightly feel they will win them and unless we have a massive overhaul of playing staff and get a decent manager, I agree with them . Who actually feels confident going into next season which is only about 15 weeks away, factoring in the final few weeks of this season, the Euros and summer break, it doesn’t actually give us that much time before the big kick off.

  91. James Gill

    You think of cup games lower teams have a better record than 3 wins out of 35
    Another this clown black has to go God he’s worse than last 3/4 put together, lescott is biggest 2aste of space yet black prefers him to okore???lescott ficks ups have been going on all season,traore can’t get into square yet bacuna is a complete tosser,read on another site he was getting booed early turned to fans smiled 2 mins later assist for soton 2 nd goal
    His subs yesterday ayew over Sinclair,Richards over lescott Sanchez over bacuna you couldn’t make it up,on top of bringing ponytail Richardson back into team not a bit wonder black scraping a living at league 1/2 levels ,he must thought all his classes came at once when fox appointed him

  92. James Gill

    On okore put yourself in his shoes,Danish teammates ask him who does he play for cue laughing,then have to tell them that manager rates lescott( at fault for 3 goals yesterday,1 last week gave away foul talks threw his ass( phone) Richards Hutton and even Richardson what would youse do ,me I would deck arsehole black

  93. Jenny Truman

    Morning all .

    Would like to know who Sky Sports News gets its info from and all the other pack of fantasy news hounds . It’s over 48 hours since the news flash that villa buyer will be announced – but no announcement . No surprises there then.

    Mr Riley has nine lives. Whilst all around him fall , he survives when he had the most influence on our success . Bottom line is if you dot have the right players , even a Ferguson won’t keep you up .

    This talk of Mad Mick is I hope a joke .

    It’s inevitable that the better foreign players will go – GanA and Okore are planning exits . Okore is hoping to be sacked so he can get away ASAP . I think we should pay off the remainder so that the new manager can start afresh and so can the new AV team. the disjoint with club – players – fans has gone beyond repair . Watford brought in about 29 new players – I thought that would be disastrous but seeing their team spirit and watching them play proves it can be done – with the right scout and the right manager . Riley has shown he’s not the right recruiter and Mad Mick : well !!?????

  94. steamer

    To be honest i wouldn’t feel confident of surviving in any of the leagues with this team and i think our recent record against lower division teams supports that theory.
    Bacuna shouldn’t play again, as JG hinted, he seems to be, as polite as i can be, be hindering the team.
    Lescott is a complete liability and to play Richards at CB after 37 years in the game shows that the newspapers and fans CAN pick a better team because he is probably the worst CB i’ve seen in a Villa shirt.
    The complete coaching staff should be booted with the admin, IMO apart from Grealish, Amavi & Clark EVERYONE at in any department at VP should go, not one competent feature in the club.

  95. James Gill

    Last 3 matches,new caretaker 3 Rd of season put out a team of
    Bunn
    Reserve right back
    Sissko
    Clark
    Sanchez
    Gana
    Wastewood
    Grealish
    Gil / vertout
    Ayew
    Traore
    Fill the bench with young lads,name team on Thursday at least for matches fans would back most of team

  97. James Gill

    Jenny
    Yes agree with that,but I don’t accept black is a manager capable of making decisions above his pay grade
    And I don’t accept that villas players are professional on their behavior all season,okore problem was he was naive and honest funny you defend the two biggest wankers I have a virus flabby,the phone tweeted in my pocket lescott yet a 24 kid you hammer

  98. Jenny Truman

    Well we agree James
    🙂 Black doesn’t command respect and can’t control the players , Gabby and co haven’t acted as professional sportsmen anD there’s been no one at BMH to stop it . Was this why Roy Keane was brought in – and ultimately walked away . Now you have new players coming in like Okore who can see there’s no respect and discipline so has said to the press if we are relegated he is off (later denied ) and then goes on strike . The club couid put in a stronger manager but maybe thinks lets linp on with black seeing as we’re relegated anyway . Meanwhile AV are becoming more and more of a joke . IMO they should get new manager in immediately : if we are to attract professional decent players we need to get sort this embarrassment out .

  99. John Lerwill

    Black, and the team

    Let’s get things a little in perspective, here! 😉 Black is *only* the caretaker … we know he has just a little time before he’s replaced so it’s not worth taking him and his period too seriously.

    Yes, I’m disappointed he hasn’t tried more youngsters, but at least he thought that even Toner could do better than Richards.

    As for Lescott? As was said on the panel on MotD you have to look at what is going on collectively rather than point just at him. In fact, it’s clear their first goal was offside, so no blame there – it was the other defenders that did not provide proper support … plus Bacuna’s super pass-back that was a good through ball in fact.

    Also on MotD it highlighted that Grealish can be a luxury. He didn’t exactly help the defence, did he, just sauntering away from the opposition instead of getting in and doing something. Perhaps we have to accept that he can’t defend, period. Not sure he does much up front either, despite his ability. Too much easy-going i.m.o.

    Westwood, on the other hand, had perhsps one of his best, if not *the* best game of his Villa career. Have you noticed that his corners and centres have improved? That his tackling is far less error prone? He was also Villa’s most dangerous attacker yesterday!! I think he will be of great help to Villa next season. – he seems to care.

  100. James Gill

    One comment from moxley today scares the life out of any serious buyer
    Fox on behalf of Lerner handed out over 70 seventy years of contracts last 18 months with a total cost of 115 m yes one hundred and fifteen Millon criminal by fox
    Johnl
    Their is no saving of lescott MOTD just trying to cover up ex English international, if lescott was any good pullis would kept him
    I could give you over 12 goals lescott was at fault for,plus he supposed to hold defence together the line across box for longs goal was like a dogs pee in snow

  101. steamer

    Why is Traore facing a fine for an honest opinion on how the club is treating him yet Fat Gabby escapes for dragging the club through the mud TWICE ? I also find it offensive to the customers that Riley is not only still employed by the club but also assisting in the selection of the new manager.

  102. B62 Villa

    James
    That Moxley peice if accurate, shows exactly why we won’t be taken over or players contracts paid up to get rid, the finances just don’t add up.
    The world has gone silent over Villa takeovers and managerial appointments , neither seem to be happening anytime soon.
    RL will pocket this years TV cash(approx £70-75m) then next year will see our first parachute payment of £40m followed by £20m for the following 2 seasons followed by nothing. Quite simply we have to get back in the first 2 seasons or it becomes an almost impossible task, we will be lucky to stay up let alone go up.
    We have become a nothing club , no one outside VP gives a shit about our history or triumphs in de aides gone by, we are now the national joke with the media putting the boot in at every opportunity.

  103. James Gill

    What are Lerner’s business in USA ,we need to come together to attack Lerner in USA media,how much harm can he do to villa,its obvious he took a wallop of money last accounts and all rest the thieving bastard

  104. John Lerwill

    James,

    I think you mis-read me. I am not saying that Lescott hasn’t been guilty of errors, but it does seem to me that whenever he plays with Richards the problems exacerbate. Take Richards out and I think you find Lescott’s faults are not as prevalent, although I am not saying he’s without criticism.

    Apart from Richards, both Villa full-backs tend not to be as supportive as they should be either. In other words I see Lescott having to cover more than he’d like.

  105. steamer

    JL,
    Agree, Richards is completely unaware of where his fellow defender is and is also a ball watcher. It must be a dream to play against someone who allows you to dominate what should be the defenders space, absolute tripe. Even at right back Richards ignores the bloke he’s marking, the only way you could accomodate him is by using him as a wing back in a 5 – 3 – 2 . I don’t expect him to play again once Clark is fit and hopefully Slumberland will come back for him.

  106. steamer

    Regarding the proposed takeover, i don’t think Brian Little would lie to the customers who spoke to him on Saturday, i also don’t think he would have stayed on the committee if something was a bit dodgy.
    If Lerner is actually pulling a flanker or if the negotiations fail then i can see the vast majority of customers walking away. In reality Lerner has to sell because if he does think he can get anything like his money back then he’s got a shock coming.

  107. B62 Villa

    Steamer, maybe it was the punter bullshitting pretending to be ITK? Who knows, I just can’t see anything happening given the shambles that is AVFC, watching Leicester there is a lot of reasons to be impressed with them, however those fan clackers aren’t one of the them #AMF they need shoving up those pikeys chocolate corridors.
    Still nothing on a new gaffer, it’s like Groundhog Day and extremely depressing

  108. John Lerwill

    B62: “Steamer, maybe it was the punter bullshitting pretending to be ITK? “

    Could be, but then why would Mervyn King say something very similar.

    No, I agree with Steamer that Little (and King) did/do know what’s going on, but, as Steamer says, Lerner is very capable of doing “a flanker” and bamboozling everyone – including himself!

  109. r0bb0

    James Gill, you describe Lwrner as a theiving bastard.
    Not much of a thief that enters the house by the front door and then leaves with over £100m less than he went in with!

  112. B62 Villa

    I have zero sympathy for any loss Lerner makes, he paid £62m for the club and if reports are true will be selling for £75-£100m, therefore making a profit on the ‘product’ he bought. Now any other money he has lost is down to his own ineptitude and poor appointments/business decisions.
    I’m not even sure how much he will lose as the accountants are that shady, it wouldn’t suprise me if by the time sells he breaks even or better.
    Another emphatic win by leicester (4-0) 8 point lead with Spurs able to get a max 12, looks like super Marc will be getting a PL winners medal, fair play to him, I never wanted him to be chucked out , just utalises properly, especially when we are paying £50k rising to £60/70k pw for Traore!!!!! No wonder Villa are haemorrhaging cash and are shambolic on and off the pitch.

  113. r0bb0

    Seems to me that Lernwr is either totally inept or a very clever man who will walk away with his finance intact despite the shambles. . . . it can’t be both.
    I’m very confident it’s the former

  114. Jenny Truman

    Glorious Leicester. Raneiri did well to set up without Vardy and achieve their best win of the season with so much pressure on . Listening to Ulloa and Mahrez after the game and you can’t help but admire the team spirit Ranieri has instilled . Ulloa , has been patient on the bench , stepped up when he got his chance . Marc Albrighton came on to hear Leicester fans singing his name : and then scores . Delighted for him – not given fair chance at AV then let go by Riley . Now he’s winning the league – you’d never have dreamed this one. Ranker Has been generous and honest in his gratitude to Pearson who he said had got everything set up so well there . I hope that we can get Pearson but what happens to Riley ?!

  116. James Gill

    Robbi
    Explain how villa and Newcastle two similar clubs,one loses 32 m villa other Newcastle makes 30 m
    Only good thing Lerner has done for himself appoint yes men way above their heads
    Fatty Faulkner, crazy deluded fox
    Mcknob Lambert black anD finally Hollis

  119. r0bb0

    James Gill, Lerner’s poor stewardship of the club isn’t in doubt so there’s no need to ‘invent’ stories about him siphoning off cash or asset stripping.
    Which year are you talking about which showed Newcastle making £30m and us losing £32m?
    Have you allowed for their more loyal fans generating tens of millions more in income than ours?
    Have you allowed for their higher player wages?
    You can say there’s no harm in making up accusations where Lerner is involved but it just distracts from the real issue which is incompetent management rather than fraud.

  120. Heroes-and-Villans

    Rumours of a takeover getting done this week.

    A lot of us think clarke is one of the ok ones but lots of reports of him out all the time on the ale and one time at thr darts waveing lots of money about. Another knob

  121. Jenny Truman

    Randy Lerner has lost money in his involvement at AV. It’s never made a profit since he took over and he’s invested in BMH , Holte pub etc etc , wasted money on players. wages etc. In 2014 he’d spent 300 million . This won’t be recoverable in the sale price . He’s a typical trust fund babe : easy to spend money you haven’t earned yourself . No one will feel sorry for a supremely wealthy man who by his own ineptitude and lack of involvement has let a huge club slide into chaos and malaise . But make no mistake , he has lost money. He’s lost more since this article printed in 2014 and sale in the championship is going to see him make a huge loss http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-randy-lerner-spent-7131673

  122. r0bb0

    Jenny,
    Pearson has never been on my list of preferred managers but with every new story that comes out about arrogant, uncaring, self centred players (I don’t actually include Lescott in that . . . . I think he’s just been a very silly boy) I come round to the thought that we probably do need an uncompromising manager at this time.
    His players seem to respect rather than fear him so presumably there is more to him than just aggression . . . . . maybe we are about to find out.

  123. Jenny Truman

    Andrew , Ian Taylor admitted it is anarchy at BMH. He also said that Brian Little has little control over what is going on as he’s in an advisors role which is frustrating . This is why it’s not ok to let Black carry on albeit in caretaker role. How many more players are going to go on strike before they do something. Is this why King and Bernstein resigned because RL wouldn’t appoint a manager or get rid of Riley?

  124. southwestvillan

    Okores denies going on strike now if that is the case why has Black told the nation that he refuses to play, there is a stench coming out of Villa Park and every day it gets worse.

    Talk of takeovers and new managers to be fair I would not believe one word of it, can we trust anybody at VP to tell us how it is.

    SWV

  125. steamer

    The general concensus on the blogs is that its DEFINITELY Larry Ellison and the deal IS done and will be announced in the next few days, however Wang is also being strongly touted. I think Lerner would probably prefer to sell to an American because he’s never heard of China

  126. Jenny Truman

    Andrew – he wasn’t on my list either but I think there’s more to him than the hot head he’s shown on pitch side . Leicester fan I know say the players loved him and anyone who can keep them believing the way he did for their great escape must have something special . Raneiri does credit him for putting the foundations there for their meteoritic rise and it was he who persuaded Vardy not to give up football when he had a bad season there . That’s incredible when you consider what vardy has become . Our choice isn’t the same as a premier league club and as Pearson seems a no nonsense leader he could be ideal .

    Okore has been at the club since 2013 – he also said a couple of months ago he owed the club nothing and wanted to move on and was basically open to offers . He’s had four managers and hasn’t been first choice for any of them. Sooner we can move on unhappy players the better and or get a proper leader manager in . There will be more outbursts you can bet .

  127. Jenny Truman

    Steamer : I hope you’re right but I can’t see it . I read just a couple of weeks ago that RL was changing law firms to find a buyer – would it happen this quick . Also , why did King and Bstein resign if we were about to be sold . If it is true I can only think this is a redirected deal from a year or so ago. (Ellison ). What’s happened to mystery man ? Seemed to disappear with Paul Faulkener .

  129. steamers75

    Had to drop daughter to school in city center and whilst waiting for her to go in some bloke tapped my window and said “bet your happy ,you got Ellison” he must have seen the villa sticker on my windscreen , didnt know him from Adam , but he looked pleased , and thats all he said ,
    but until its signed l really am just ignoring all the speculation ,
    steamer . trying to get hold of you mate . both phones going to answer machine mate , if you read this give us a bell.

    Morning Gorgeous (Jenny) xxxxx

  130. Heroes-and-Villans

    A few weeks ago i was 100% for Moyes but im more in favour of Pearson now! Mental that the watford chaps going to get the chop! whats he done wrong!!

    I actuall watched motd for the first time in months and i broke my heart to bits seeing the empty seats, toxic atmosphere with own players being booed and leaflets everywhere. It really is a bloody disgrace to get like this. It kills me everyday thinking about us. All i have to cling onto is these new owner rumours. If it does not happen it dont mater who manages us, were screwed.

  131. steamer

    Andrew,
    Agree, whether its BS or not its the oly thing that keeps you going. Personally, i think somethings happening whether Ellison or Wang or any other, the important thing is to get this moron out of the club otherwise we’re finished.

  132. southwestvillan

    See the great unwashed having a party at Huddersfield, what a bunch of winkers will they ever learn, by the way noses you had better book the buses for next seasons trip to VP you wouldn’t want to run the risk of walking through Aston, vermin the lot of them.

    SWV

  135. Paul Pears

    Have just caught up with the blog again, and everything else that is happening in the world.

    The nice touch from Raneiri, was playing Albrighton as a sub, to ensure his 100% appearance record this season, and also the fans singing his name.

    Interesting that after all the comments about Black on here, he has made a statement, that his main reason for not paying youngsters, and playing the team he has, is because he is afraid of subjecting them to the toxic atmosphere at Villa Park, and I have to say, that I am in agreement.

    How much the team and players have been affected by the atmosphere, and sometimes lack of atmosphere, at Villa Park , cannot be measured, but the constant barracking and jeers, when , before the kick-off , players are booed, cannot be of any benefit.

    When you look at the smaller clubs that have succeeded, like Leicester, Watford, Bournemouth, the fans have been solid and behind them no matter how bad they have been, and helped to lift the team…..So perhaps Villa fans have helped to contribute to their own downfall.

    Certainly, in recent matches, I have felt completely embarrassed by the attitude of some fans towards the players. They may be overpaid, but they are still human, and need encouragement to succeed.

    It was nice to see on Saturday, Gana and Westwood playing with more freedom up front, and being encouraged to get in the box to shoot, rather than the usual lobbing the ball in from the wings. If only they had received the same freedom at the beginning of the season Villa may have been in a different position, with a more confident defence.

  136. runtings

    i think Black is being very disrespectful the the villa faithful if he thinks our fans would boo our youngsters
    clearly he knows nothing about villa fans

  137. southwestvillan

    Can you imagine how deflated we will be if its Ellis.

    Runtz,

    Absolutely there is only Little at the club who understands the fanbase, Kevin Toner is getting rave reports all over twitter for his performance from the Villa fans, Black does not have a clue and the Okore situation baffles me Black says he refused to play and JO denies it only one can be right, if he did refuse to play the club will fine him so lets see who is the Villain so to speak.

    SWV

  138. Paul Pears

    Black has not said that fans would boo the youngsters, but that the atmosphere would have a detrimental effect on them.

    When the fans are singing “you are not fit to wear the shirt” , it affects the whole team, and he is using seasoned players who can cope, and just get on with the game.

    I have the feeling that the vitriol towards Gabby, is one of the reasons, apart from the other matters, are why he is being kept out of things.

    I understand, why some feel the way they do, but it has not helped in the end. Support the team 110% during the match, and keep the protests for before, or after the game, and make sure it is in the right place.

    Nothing will improve until the club, the players and the fans are in complete harmony to support what is Aston Villa……toxity, festering wounds ,grievances, and hatred will never bring about change for the better.

  139. steamer

    PP,
    One thing the players can’t complain about is support, until it became obvious that the club was relegated the support was fantastic, the tributes from other clubs fans were fantastic. This shower of shite are looking for excuses for a complete lack of effort on their part, being crepe i can forgive, being gutless and letting down our supporters i can’t. IMO they’ve got off lightly for basically taking the P for five years.

  141. John Lerwill

    Okore

    My ‘take’ on this matter is that….

    1. Black said that Okore didn’t want to sit on the bench in the Bournemouth match – *not* that he didn’t want to play.
    2. Okore (or the press?) seem to have misinterpreted what Black said. Or maybe Black did say afterwards (to the effect) that “well if he didn’t want to sit on the bench then effectively he didn’t want to play”.

    Whatever it is, the press are enjoying it.

  144. Paul Pears

    I have no desire to enter into any deep discussion, and know that Villa’s away support cannot be faulted, and that the fans are behind them all the time, but support at Villa Park has not been anywhere near the same, there are a significant minority have wanted to do nothing but slate the manager and the team………………Something which never happened once at Leicester last season….the crowd stayed focused on supporting the team, and this season it has reaped the rewards.

    I believe a 30000 crowd fully backing their team can make a difference…..You never heard of Leicester players being ripped apart on and off the pitch like Bennett and one or two others were…

  145. John Lerwill

    Paul,

    Yes, I agree, but then Leicester have *never* been a major club before – and with success goes expectation. Villa were European Champions, where they not?

    Your sentiments are right, but it’s also the general way the Villa fans have been treated for 5 (five) years that has helped to create this situation.

  147. B62 Villa

    I agree with both Paul and John, yes the atmosphere at VP is poor and has been for a while bar big games and local derbies, but like John alludes to this is down to the way we as fans have been treated, the crap being masqueraded as football, the lack of effort from the players etc and our expectations being somewhat higher ( unreasonably so ?). However even Leicester fans were up in arms when they were getting beaten every week, not at the same level as at VP, because survival was seen as a success at the King Power having only just come up, but enough dissent to cause Pearson to tell one of his own fans to fuck off and die!!
    As for Villa all I see is Groundhog Day, No sale( I don’t believe we are any closer than in previous years), no board of note, a shambolic squad, no manager close to being appointed( Pearson waiting til the summer, Moyes waiting to assess his options), links to Mcarthy, Warnock, Bruce etc, an owner happy to see the club drift into obscurity and self destruction.
    I see no end to this turmoil, Hollis is looking like he is panicking by mentioning bogus take overs, and foolish given the men he brought on board have resigned yet Lerner’s lap dogs like Krulak and Riley remain, add to this we are closing large parts of the stadium, making 500 employees redundant and have some of the championships highest ST prices at a time when we can’t shift them for love nor money( gates as low as 11-15000 are predicted on polls unless something changes).
    There is literally nothing to be positive about going into the summer following this debacle of a season.
    RIP Aston Villa

  148. Mark King

    Hello folks back from Lanzerote tan pealing already 🙂

    been a bad news week overall, could not believe my eyes when I saw Randys love letter, what a knob.
    He knew we were down or in trouble after 5 games and still employed Garde and promised him backing, what a complete arsehole. Could of kept Tim and achieved the same if the white flag was up in September and saved Garde the agony, no wonder he held out for his money.

    I see Mr Hanks is making light of our position, no idea what it means to the fans or club to be relegated. I’ll write a coffee table book and give the proceeds to to Villa he quipped what a wag twat.

    As for the fans reactions? in an ideal world yes we would support through out but in an ideal world we would have something to cheer too like effort, professionalism and skill? I cannot put into words what we have witnessed this season from day one of the rebuild, incompetency of the highest order.

    I see on the blogs people are still pointing at the managers as the problem, wrong formation? wrong players in the team? I honestly cannot understand how they think anyone could change the ability of some of the players? because to me me that has been the main problem, we managed to downgrade an already poor defence and weaken both the attack and the midfield supplying the chances. Rumours from Tim that he was told who to play by Amstadt as well, what a joke, looks like we have had about 6 managers this season.

  149. steamer

    JG,
    Rooney’s been getting away with his antics for years and so have Untied. The FA are cheats, you can bet Deli Ali gets away with punching the yam yam too.

  153. Paul Pears

    Morning guys,

    Thanks for the comments, which I may understand more than anyone, as during these, my twilight years, I have become a season ticket holder in my beloved Holte End.

    Unfortunately, before that due to work and business commitments, I could only get to around half a dozen games a season, and Villa won most or drew them, in fact I used to take pleasure in my visits, especially if I had a friend with me who was not a supporter.,

    Now in the last five years, as a s/t holder, I have seen less and less Villa wins….only one I missed, was Bournemouth on the first day.

    I agree with all that has been said, but wonder on Villa’s tactics over this time, which has never really changed with this game down the wings and lobbing the ball in the box, when often the easiest, quickest, most direct, was through the middle and keeping the ball on the ground.

    So are the tactics down to the coaching staff, the manager, or both, or no-one , because there is no real coaching….

    Interesting, listening to MON’s comments about working with Roy Keane last night..!!

    I am sure this takeover is going through, which is why we have no manager, why King and Bernstein fell out with Randy, as he changed his mind from letting them run the club on his behalf, and decided to revert back to selling, but it will take time, and as Steamer and I have said before, it is likely that all will happen at the end of the season, in a coupe of weeks time.

  155. runtings

    PP I totally agree that coaching has played a huge part in our demise

    We have looked less organised that every single club in the prem – with no real structure to our defence or attack

    this is partly down to players and errors but a well organised side would have picked up much more points than us

    and when i look at some teams in the lge and what quality they have and also how well some of the players have done at clubs before joining villa — it makes you wonder how players seem to become completely useless after joining us

  157. Mark King

    Well if two managers come in with 50% win ratios and fail to get 25% win ratios you have to think there is a problem with the blend of players. Hutton,Richards and Guzan account for the majority of our mistakes and goals. No surprise Garde wanted a rb CB and goalie. We have nobody that can cross the ball accurately to gestede and his movements shite. We did not have the players to implement an attacking style without conceding and no ability to score. If we sat back it was just a matter of time until we conceded then no way back, we certainly lacked the pace to play counter attack. That is why I struggle to see what big Sam would of done other than pick up his pay, even he had to bring players in that we wanted, I’m sure he would of met the same problems Tim and Garde did and with no backing it would end the same.

    In one period Garde at least got us playing better and went 5 games unbeaten, we lacked potency going forward and lost too many players from a small squad of players worth playing. As soon as Richards etc had to be played we nose dived.

    Richards left lescott with 2 players constantly on sat and all of our goals conceded were poor

  158. Heroes-and-Villans

    All quite on the takeover talk….usually wouldnt be too bothered about this but its our only hope. Everyone on social media are peeing in the dark about who it could be. A consortium is most likely imo. Those 2 chaps sound ok….worth 500m each, could do with a few more like that in the group though.

  159. Heroes-and-Villans

    Th only concrete thing we have is hollis sayin in extensive talks and king saying hopefully something good can be done in 2 weeks! And supposedly sir brian said to a fan a takeover was close but i dont believe that at all.

    I think the main chap on twitter who said its ellison has deleted his account!

  161. runtings

    could be one up one down for next season – well done our under 21’s

    takeover seems hopeful to me – however if we start employing managers and other staff in the coming weeks that would be a good indicator that there is no takeover

    so no news is good news ?

    welcome back MK or should i say cuz as i am sure you have topped up your tan 🙂

    we both liked Garde i think and thought we pooped the ball around better than we had in ages dispite the lack of wins

    however – it has been suggested that we were still not a greatly organised unit — and to me there are teams with less talent that are just a lot more solid and organised – how many suderland or norwich players would we take — apart from defoe i don’t see too much i would like at are club from those sides

  162. Jenny Truman

    Evening all
    I’ve just seen a hilarious video called Pigeon Place some will know what I’m going on about including georgeous st 75 (language Timothy !)

    Jnterstimg to hear Ian Taylor’s comments re Okore . Apparently Peter Smeichael had rang him and said the incident was very topical in the Dutch media as they call him ‘glass legs’ over there . Whatever the truth , he’s clearly hacked off being on the bench . Maybe he should look at the way Marc A behaved in his last season with us when inspite of being best player on the pitch one week , he wouldn’t start the next . He didn’t complain and he always gave 100 per cent .

    I can see where black is coming from – the atmosphere is bad and whilst the fried might not go out to boo the youngsters , they’ve only got to go a few goals down and the vocal minority start getting abusive. It’s also not grrat for them when ppl are booing the other team members and the manager . In fact I don’t think it’s fair and VP can be incredibly intimidating . I remember the Bolton game when the crowd turned on McLeish as I was there . It was horrible .

    As for booing Lescott and co every time they kick the ball , I think it’s pathetic . Boo them off but when they’re in the game , give the team your support . Why bother going if it’s just to harass the players . It’s really pissing off some of the villa fans that I know and who have phoned up radio programmes . It makes the fans look stupid IMO .

    Fantastic news re Petrov . What an amazing man he is : to get fit enough to play pro again after what he’s been through is awesome . I really hope he makes it .

  164. James Gill

    If black came out and said right I am going to bin
    Guzan Hutton Richardson Richards lescott Gabby and zog for last couple games,the fans would back the team,how in any sane world can you keep picking same crap week in,out and expect different results
    As for lescott go back to first goal conceded in remi reign at spuds lescott ran back to goals marking space as he has done all season,sky picked up on that ,at same time taking piss out of gabby

  165. John Lerwill

    Jenny: ” Boo them off but when they’re in the game , give the team your support . Why bother going if it’s just to harass the players . “

    That remark is spot on. It’s just counter-productive on the part of the so-called fans who do that, and is probably the main gist of what Paul Pears was talking about.

  166. John Lerwill

    James,

    I think to get the fans to back the team it would mean having to select virtually the whole u-21 side to avoid the fans rancour entirely.

    Any player selected who is tarnished with this season’s performances would run the risk of rude cajole from the fans whether the youngsters were playing or not, and I think it’s because of that Black is reluctant to play more youngsters.

  167. James Gill

    John
    I think the ones I named are the main culprits, leaving Westwood out because it’s not his fault he ain’t good enough but is honest enough not to cause bother
    Guzan lescott apart from been crap,chewing gum,tweeted
    Richardson rubbing his fingers together saying money money to fans
    Richards been crap( as mk wrote earlier what a let down) run in with fans
    Gabby where do you start,3 stone overweight, parting while on suspension, trip to Dubai along with flabby
    Bunn
    Reserve player
    Sissko
    Sanchez
    Clark
    Gana
    Wastewood
    Grealish
    Gil/ Sinclair
    Vertout
    Ayew
    Subs
    Toner lyden rudi green traore even okore ( think black bigger wanker of lot)
    Would be my choice don’t think fans would mind either

  169. Mark King

    Runtingz- yes cuz I am a different shade 🙂

    I think Garde soon worked out we could not sit and defend as we did against City in his first game, we had nowhere near enough pace to hurt them. he made the side more stable but we lacked quality in too many positions IMO to play most formations effectively. We looked tidy but never hurt teams and were always a careless pass away from conceding. I remember him saying we have to take the chances we create and they were not many.

    I think Sunderland had more cohesion than us anyhow by virtue of knowing each other better from last season even if their players are individually worse they are a team, our players seem incapable of the basics and that is poor. Whatever way we set up we always lacked 2 or 3 players to make any of them work. Most of all they had Defoe.

  170. Mark King

    Allardyce is very sports science minded though and I think that it where Pearson got his ideas from when he was sams coach and took them to leicester. We will never know if he could of done it, I jsut cannot see it with this lot.

    Steamer- are you feeding St75 now? try porridge through a sock

  171. runtings

    the more that times goes on i am beginning to think Sam may have found a formula to win games

    the senior players we have looked better at other clubs compared to now ,

    agree with Jen re player abuse – never done it myself hopefully not even on a blog

    I think its the festering mess that is Villa that has caused it . however some feel it there right as a paying customer to shout what they like regardless

  173. Heroes-and-Villans

    Telegraph say it may be a chinease consortium! With david comoli tech director…..he has allready been over the youth set up.

    Mirror say pearson as manager but no buyers close.

    Chinesse consortium sounds a bit iffy. Better than randy though

  175. Mark King

    runtingz- mutton binned by spurs, Richards binned by city, lescott player of the year let go as legs gone, Sinclair never did a thing at city, Guzan replaced by given. for me to many poor players bringing the quality down. Add all the crap from gabby and the general unprofessional mindset. I respect sam but the squad was put together by amateurs at least Sunderland had a decent manager pre-season.

    Stan Petrov everything this teams prem experienced player’s are not, a legend who demands respect no matter what you think of his time at Villa, hope he makes a return.

  176. Frem

    Stan back ? Why not. A captain, a better player than anything we have. He won’t play every game but having around will be nice

    Chinese owner. Still not convinced there is anything in the takeover

    Would we be appointing Pearson of Randy was going ?

  177. steamers75

    sorry but l find all this Stan talk a bit amusing, it would seem some fans have very short memories , even upto some of his last games l heard some fans calling for him to be” took off ” and” how come he’s been picked ” , and l can honestly say sometimes l said it , yes we didnt know he had the build up to full blown cancer , but ever since he came he was never really welcomed by many , and Legend he is not in my eye’s , sunday in the pub l said to a mate “look me in the eye and tell me you were never calling for him to be took off ” you know they lose when the smirk comes on their face , l know we all have our favourite players , but this clamour for Stan i find is stretching it a bit , and as for a comeback , yes he probably was better than anything we have playing for us , but l think we are scratching at the very bottom of a barrel for a bit of comfort to cheer us up . yes maybe as a coach of some capacity ,

  178. John Lerwill

    S75,

    Yes, Stan was not the world’s best but you could always see sweat on his face .. and real determination. That’s a quality that’s been missing these last few years and if it returns in the form of Stan then that’s good is it not?

    And to come out of cancer and even want to be back on the field to do his best for Villa *does* warrant ‘legend’ status in my view.

  179. steamers75

    l see what your saying JL , but like l said people have short memories as to his playing days at the villa , l was there when the slagging off started ,in the ground and the bars after , on FB its all over it , but some are saying the same as me and lv pulled a few mates up about how they did slag him off, like l said we all have our favs , he did remind me of a bit of Des Bremner so l liked him , but hero No ,
    but its great to see he’s beat the big C , but to try and play again l find a bit hard to take , lv read he’s 37 so age wont help him either , As a person yes a hero beating his illness ,
    anyway l think in a coaching capacity yes , player No , and another thing , would he get insured , l think not as any little chink in your armour your out as l have found out myself .

    Frem
    tomorrow lm on a job with TC , he did ask after you , and wants to know how are the women in your life , he’s not working as such , just cracking the whip ,

  180. steamer

    The Scottish Herald is repeating the Petrov story only to Celtic instead of Villa. My personal opinion of Petrov was that he was utter crepe, legend ? yer having a laugh 90% of the crowd wanted him booted during his last two seasons, he made Wastewood look like Iniesta.

    Archie,
    Some knob making it up, deleted now.

  181. B62 Villa

    Stan returning to lead our midfield? This is a little to Hollywood and will end in tears I fear. At almost 37 , even if he wasn’t coming back from a life threatening illness and years out of the game, I would have serious doubts. The championship is a demanding , physical league and Stan isn’t up to it, I’m glad he’s recovoured and won his battle, but I think he could contribute more as a coach/mentor getting some grounding and fight into our younger players who we will need next season.
    Even when fully fit I didn’t think he was all that as a player, he often slowed down play and frustrated me as a fan( he was certainly better than the likes of Bacuna tho). We need to move forwards not backwards, the cynic in me believes the club are pushing this as a good news story because of the constant negative press they are receiving from all quarters. Still no sign of a takeover Or managerial appointment, with both Moyes and Pearson now heaving linked with IRA fc up in Glasgow, are we gonna just gonna go for the one that doesn’t get that job !!
    I get the feeling the club are that arrogant they cannot see the Abyss that awaits given our current course, either that or they just don’t care, we are shambolic on and off the pitch and no one seems to have any desire to turn the situation round.

  182. Jenny Truman

    I agree with the Petrov comments in that many villa fans used to get on his back towards the end and called him the crab : then all of a sudden he’s a villa legend . But I admire his goal of playing pro football again as not so long ago he was turning out fur a Sunday league side . It shows his love of the game and his determination . He could so easily put his boots up and retire . I hope he succeeds : it’s a huge mountain to climb at 37 when players who haven’t been through a devestating illness are happy to take it easy . It’s a measure of the man , who helped out on his mare burger van when he came to the uk just so he could learn English , who always gave his all on the pitch, to contemplate such a potentially exhausting and hard challenge . Putting his body through the rigours of training at 37 after 2 years is a brave decision .

    That said , I don’t think he should return to AV . Far better to leave as the loved Aston Villa player captain whose fight and determination recovering from this awful disease is awesome than return as a 37 year old villa player. It would be too tragic if it didn’t work out .

  183. Jenny Truman

    Steamer , he’s probably said he wants to return to pro football – which could mean anything from Hereford FC to Chektenham Town . That’s an achievement in itself . The journals have prob made the rest up – insert which ever club you want .

  184. southwestvillan

    Agree about Petrov not a great midfield player for us but I respect the man for what he did and his continued fund raising, he can never play for the Villa again it all sounds very romantic and something probably made up by Tom Hanks when he is not taking the piss out of his favourite soccer team, I hope Stan plays again in some capacity but we need to aim higher, rumours down here that the Villa have been watching Bristol City midfield player Marlon Pack, now if we do sign him I would take Petrov back tomorrow although it is probably his agent angling for a better deal, just goes to show where we are in the grand scheme of things when these agents mention AVFC in the same sentence as an average league one player.

    SWV

  185. Mark King

    On stan, no we never saw the best of him at villa, at Celtic he got forward more and scored goals assists etc. I’ll offer you a potential reason why we did not see the best from him, Leukaemia does not begin overnight it can take years to surface, Stan was an excessive sweater at villa and that is one sign of the disease, god knows how long he played with the condition building up for? maybe all his villa career? one thing he did have was effort and positional sense, if Gueye had his brain he’d be at Madrid.

    The reason I said legend is not because he was great for us but because he gave a shit to the point of nearly killing himself. He can be a massive example to the youth team of what effort really is. Gabby should hang his head in shame along with the other so called pro’s.

  186. John Lerwill

    Villa’s Oldest First-team Player…

    Something came up yesterday from a member of ‘Mush’ Callaghan’s family that, after all, ‘Mush’ was *not* Villa’s oldest outfield player at age 39.

    It seems that someone – yonks ago – dug out the wrong birth certi9ficate and found the one relating to his cousin (born 1907) not ‘Mush’, who was born 1910. That means he was 36 when he finished playing.

    So, who was Villa’s oldest-ever outfield player? It begins to look like Johnny Dixon, who was 37 and 4 months when he played his last game in April, 1961. He scored a goal that day, too – I wuz there.

  187. John Lerwill

    Mark,

    I agree entirely with your comments on Petrov.

    I reckon that at a lower level – and if used sparingly – it’s possible he could still make a contribution.

  188. Heroes-and-Villans

    Yeah i agree on Petrov, was always dissapointed in him, felt he could/should of done more. Like said above he was played too defensive. Prob had the best debut i have ever seen though away to west spam, he was incredible. Great that he is trying to target something though but dont need him back playing for us. Mark i remeber stan always sweating. scary looking back on it.

  189. Mark King

    If Pearson is coming keeping Black as spud face has suggested wouldn’t be the worst thing. He knows the players and can help with a quick assessment of the staff. Also talks French and other languages, I was told that one coach from Leicester has already said he would follow Pearson to villa regardless of Leicester winning the title.

    http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/04/27/report-steve-bruce-tells-pearson-to-have-eric-black-on-his-aston/?

    JL- I think fitness at stans age is not a problem as long as he recovers from his illness, he always had stamina. As a defensive mid he needs a brain more than pace and he has that. God was no speed merchant except between the ears and hardly trained

  190. Mark King

    It will of course depend on his effectiveness and who owns us and the budget we have. If its still lerner a stan at the level he left us would be better than nowt

  191. steamer

    If the rumour is true that Bernstein wanted Hodgson as manager then all i can say is a big thankyou to Lerner for getting rid of him, why would AVFC want to staff itself with FA cretins ? Look at the staff coaches and hierarchy, Danny Mills, John Beck, Noel Blake, 3 really skilful examples.

  193. runtings

    I was always pro Stan during his time at villa – i always thought he was an important engine in the middle for us and used to scratch my head when reading the blog of how he was viewed by so many villans

    hope you plays for us in the championship and i am sure we will reap the benefits if he is fit enough to do so

  195. B62 Villa

    I see the Geordies are moaning that they can’t have more tickets, quoting our embarrassingly low crowds( we had 13k empty seats last game). They are bringing thousands anyway to revel in our misery.
    Those empty seats any time soon, WBA have released their ST prices, now bearing in mind they are in the top flight, there’s are £409 or £438 if you pay over 10 months for an equivalent seat to mine on the Holte which is £500. Yes we’re were at the cheap end in the top flight, but now we are way above average bordering extortionate in the championship, I wouldn’t mind if we were building a team to run away with the league and get promotion at the first opportunity.

  197. B62 Villa

    Runtingz
    I like the thought of fan representation, however I’m not sure the club will listen, they haven’t on pricing or the issue regarding the North stand Lower. I get they can’t go into detail re sale or managerial appointments, but from reading that response it doesn’t look like anything is close on either front, reading between the lines, no takeover means no investment.
    As this was the first meeting I doubt many issues would have been discussed or ironed out, let’s hope future talks are more positive and yeald more, although with Villa being run like the eastern block during the Cold War , I’m not holding my breath.

  198. John Lerwill

    B62,

    Well, it’s certain that many issues are being discussed behind the scenes.

    I had a formal reply from the Villa through the post today to my letter sent last week to the Chairman (as shown in the previous thread).

    It’s basically a “thank you” and a statement that the management is “saddened and deeply hurt with the events of this season and the decisions over the years that have led us to where we are now”, and a promise that my letter will “form part of what is presented at the next Board meeting”.

  199. runtings

    Awesome JL – perhaps the club has realised how important the fans are and your efforts will not go to waste

    trying to be positive about a takeover

    i just can’t see any advantage for Randy hanging onto something he has been completely unsuccessful with for so long much longer

    it won’t do him any favours in the press and the fans will become more and more hostile

  200. steamer

    I do believe that a TO is happening, Brian Little wouldn’t lie to a fan and his kids and the meeting has been verified by another customer who works with the bloke and vouches for his integrity.
    I certainly DON’T believe that the hierarchy at VP give a monkeys about the fans and haven’t done so since well before i started supporting them, if ever.

  201. steamer

    Looked in the OS and Taylors picking his Watford/Villa team, he must be the only bloke in the Universe who’d pick Ross Jenkins over Yorke, unbelievable.

  203. James Gill

    Steamer
    Looked up jf comments on meeting another 5 year plan lol,
    Ticket prices stay high for financial fair play ,what about fans,4 home wins on average for 5 years now,they are going to contact fans who don’t renew,good luck with John Doyle
    Newcastle,Leicester stoke and baggies are making a profit yet villa make massive loss?
    Lerner’s a cnut

  204. steamer

    Which so-called player said this in the Manure programme in August ?

    “Micah and i, along with the manager and the staff, are going to make sure the club is being run properly and we’re going to enjoy the responsibility.”
    “You are going to learn different things over the course of your career, become more professional year by year and make that transition from boy to man. You do things right.
    “But we’re working hard to get fitter and fitter and we’ll be trying to get three points.”

    Some long words in there for a dummy so i suppose it was ghost written as well as BS.

  205. steamer

    JG,
    Had a char with a couple of long term ST holders this morning, neither is renewing.
    JD’s going around the hat rack, 100% he won’t renew judging by his comments.

  208. B62 Villa

    I see chaos will reign in our last home game, as loads of seats in the villa sections have been put up for sale on seat wave , they are being snapped up my NUFC fans, at this rate their could be nearly as many away fans as home!!!

  213. DarrenO

    Just adding my best wishes on your birthday Runtings

    All quiet on the Villa front, makes a change from the shitstorm of the last few weeks

  215. steamer

    Lambert to leave Rurvers at the end of season, wonder who he’s blaming. I thought he said it was ideal for him when he joined. Ye gods, are we having him back to finish us off or is he going to Ipswich ?

  218. James Gill

    Happy birthday runtings
    I hate that yellow line running on sky sports, has flabby lost 3 stone,got fit inside ten days,didn’t think so,so how is he fit to play
    Only time I want to see yellow heading and villa is when cnut Lerner’s left the building

  222. steamer

    Bad behaviour over last few weeks !! years like, he’s just trying to make certain he doesn’t get booted and lose his 60,000k per week. A typical gutless Aston Villa response to a complete waster, should have been sacked.

  225. runtings

    thanks mk – bless up fella

    bit of mixed messages on the conditions of someone buying the club -Hollis says no one will be appointed until the club is sols , so that the new owners can choose there own man

    always on a good level when i drink mark – us midlanders can hack it 🙂

  227. Paul Pears

    Many happy returns Runtings,

    no doubt , you are still celebrating…!!!

    Won’t be long now, before we know if the Chinese, Yanks or Locals have won the race for the take-over…!!!

    Once I know the outcome, I will decide about renewing…..and see what incentives the club are willing to offer…!!!

  228. Paul Pears

    It sounds like Fear had a good meeting, with Steve Hollis, and that Hollis has a proper understanding of what fans are looking for…..recognition to start with…!!!

    Had a great day in Brum today, with a very good friend, and enjoyed a few beers in the Railway, whilst confirming that above used to be the Savoy hotel, and below was the Alhambra Rooms (which apparently still remain untouched, with the furnishings, pictures on the wall, all still in place)….and where my friend was a resident singer..!

    We then eventually ended up in The Windsor, in my search for the original Yates wine lodge, only to realise that it is JD Sports…………the bonus was to find that Monday afternoons is special prices for pensioners….!!!!

  229. John Lerwill

    Paul,

    I think there’s a slight misapprehension in your comment about the Fear … what has been reported is to do with the 1st Fan Consultation Group Meeting *not* a meeting of Fear with Hollis.

    In fact Jonathan was not sure to start with whether to be part of this consultation, and in fact couldn’t attend the first meeting and sent a delegate instead.

    But JF is seen by the media as the main contact on issues like this, and perhaps rightly so.

  231. steamer

    They look good to me.

    The statement by Agbonlahor was obviously BS, anyone who’s seen him interviewed would know that he’s incapable of putting a statement like that together, plus, he’s never shown any sign of humility before, its just the club attempting to gloss over his despicable behaviour. Anyway, no signs of it working judging by the blogs.

  232. steamer

    I see Petrovs spinning the lies about our pay structure under his pal Lamebert being the cause of his total failure, expect he’s hoping for a Lamebert/Petrov managerial combo at Parkhead, Rangers fans must be rubbing their hands with joy.

  233. Frem

    Happy birthday for yesterday Runtingz

    ST75- tell him the women are non-existent at the moment.
    How is he doing now?

    Anyone else hope we lose tomorrow if the senior players play again ? We are close to breaking a club record. These players don’t deserve to walk away from the season without being known as the worst Villa side ever. Only down side is I want us to at least draw to Newcastle and get them sent down. The wankers will party and get pay back if they do us

  234. Frem

    Can’t help but think the takeover is all one big blag from the club. people are living on what Little said. Thing is, he works for the club now, he will tell fans what the club want him to say. I don’t believe Hollis. Its easy for him to say we are talking to people with out proof. Its also easy for him to say the deal fell through once we’ve sold enough season tickets

    This club would scoop so low and lie to fans

    But, I hope we are sold soon because we will miss out on Moyes, and Pearson whos the second best. That shows how bad the choices are

  235. runtings

    pp , jen and frem thanks very much – had a awesome day and out for a couple of gigs tonite with my mate and john moreles in london and brighton

    can’t disagree with your last post frem as that is what the club did last year
    The only hope is that randy really wants to sell this time as the cash cow won’t be so good to hang onto in the championship

  237. Clive Evans

    Ditty from Elton
    “Goodbye Claret & Blue”
    When are you gonna come down
    Down to Vicarage Road
    You should have stayed on the farm
    You should have listened to my old man (said)

    You know you can’t stay up forever
    Messi didn’t sign up with you
    You’re in the present not in the past
    Not quite as bad as the Blues

    So goodbye Claret & Blue
    You’re the dogs of the Premiership now
    You can’t stay up in the penthouse
    You’ll have to try again now.

    Back to the second division
    Trying to build again
    Your immediate future lies
    Beyond the yellow brick road

    What do you think you’ll do then
    I bet that’ll cause you pain
    It’ll take you a couple of seasons
    To set you on your feet again

    Maybe you’ll get a new boss
    There’s plenty more to be found
    Moguls with plenty of money
    Sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground

    So goodbye Claret & Blue
    You’re the dogs of the Premiership now
    You can’t stay up in the penthouse
    You’ll have to try again now.

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