Football. It’s a matter of life and death, or so said the late great Bill Shankly, one Scot that could actually successfully manage a football club. In the past couple of weeks, we have had to endure all kinds of different emotions in the pursuit of watching our favourite team – anger, distress, frustration to name but three – but whatever the emotion, you can be us Villans will probably have been there.
The $64,000 question is why and how did we get here supporting this beloved club of ours? After all, it is pastime that brings both grief and joy, sometimes in uneven measure.
We, at Aston Villa Life, both agree and disagree at times, and our opinions differ to varying degrees, but one thing we all have in common is that this is the club we love, the club we would eat our young for if it guaranteed three points. Well I would anyway.
How It All Began For Me
Given I’m asking the questions on how we all got to be Villans, I should really go first and explain how I came to have claret and blue blood coursing through my veins, and why I have spent tens of thousands of pounds following the Villa across England and Europe; from the Premier to the third division, from Arsenal to Hartlepool, from Chesterfield to Rotterdam.
I was born in 1957 in Balsall Heath, an area of Birmingham. The locals will know of its reputation, but for those that don’t, it’s a lovely place, well when you consider it was twinned with Helmand Province. I’ll let you research which you think is the more hospitable.
Given the year of my birth, that’s probably a sly clue regarding who I would support, but I moved to Bordesley Green aged about five to within a stones throw of St. Andrews. You should know him – he’s the patron saint of relegation after all. Anyway, I’ll do my best to wipe the memories of the stench from that old shed as I continue.
Trust me, I practised every night, me and my two brothers all decided to follow the Villa, and we have all been doing so with differing enthusiasms. My passion, as you have probably witnessed, is still as strong as when I went to my first game.
The Best I’ve Seen
I’ll list my favourite players in no particular order; Paul McGrath, Brian Little, Sid Cowans, Alex Cropley, and Martin Laursen to name but a few. Through the years, we would go home and away for seasons on end, never missing a game. For us, work was a means to get us to Saturday and pay to watch our idols above anything else. The term “fan” comes from fanatic, and you can guarantee we were nothing less than that.
If you want further effort, just ask Steamer – he’s known me for 40 years, and he’ll tell you I’ve sweat blood and tears to follow this club, and this is ultimately why I expect hard work and effort from the team. If I can do it to pay to watch the team, they damn well should do their best to earn the money I, and all of my fellow friends and family, have ploughed into that club for years on end.
Anyway, every week, we would travel with the same group of lads, and we still keep in touch whenever possible. After all, they were our extended family, and this is why being part of the Villa community is so important to us, and why we so passionately defend our pride when it’s threatened by weak efforts from the team.
This game, this club, and the supporting of the club can easily take over your life, and it did for me. Years ago it was easier to embrace your teams heroes because there was less money about – it wouldn’t be an alien concept to bump into a player and they would be happy to chat you to like you were an equal, even though we worshipped them.
Nowadays, it’s difficult for those of us who grew up back then to connect with the game as it is today, what with its players who are cossetted away and paid millions to do the same job that some of our heroes did for the same type of money as we earned in the factories and offices of England. Some might call it progress, but I think even the most fervent supporter of the modern era knows the world has gone mad when it comes to football.
Anyway, this is how I got to become a Villan, so now I’d like to hear your stories, and what made you come to worship at Villa Park. I would love to hear everyone’s stories, but I must say I am particularly interested in how some of our lads over the pond got involved when they could have been watching the Houston Howlers, as well as everyone else who didn’t grow up with the ground on their doorstep.
The Author
