Aston Villa fans

comment by RB&W (U2335)
posted 2 hours, 6 minutes ago

A mainstay of the top division.
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not really ...if you know your history
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What are you talking about?

Unless I'm very much mistaken, only one club has spent more time in the top flight of English football.

Moyes and Pearson are the best bets for sorting it out, BUT they have to have effective control of recruitment. Moyes at Everton was fanatical about knowing every last detail of the players they recruited, and it paid off; Everton had the players they needed. I reckon Pearson is the same. Neither will come if the structure doesn't allow that.

That means that however sensible on paper the structure looks, it has to be flexible enough to accommodate them. The previous board wouldn't have had that. This one has to if it wants Villa to recover anytime soon. I think those two are streets ahead of anybody else, but the board has to bend to get them. I wonder if it will

I'd love Roy Keane to get it

comment by RB&W (U2335)
posted 13 hours, 9 minutes ago

A mainstay of the top division.
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not really ...if you know your history
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Only Everton have been in the top division longer.

Given what has happened to the club since it does seem ridiculous that O'Neill was given stick. However, he did buy a lot of dross and if Lerner had given him more money to spend I don't think he would have spent it wisely in my opinion.

Ashley Young, Milner, Carew, Friedel, Petrov, Downing - all decent players and definitely good signings for the fees. None of them top quality it must be said: at the same time we were competing pretty much on a level-playing field with Spurs and they were buying the likes of Bale, Modric and Van der Vaart - all in a different league to any of the players we bought. Having said that, Spurs also spent dubiously during this time buying the likes of Palacios, Pavlyuchenko and Gomes for big money, and not forgetting Darren Bent.

Then again, those players Spurs bought were not really regulars and were pretty much squad players once Harry Redknapp put his stamp on the team. O'Neill, however, made players like Dunne, Warnock, Luke Young, Collins, Heskey, Cuellar and Curtis Davies regulars. Players like Reo Coker and Sidwell also played a lot of games, and Agbonlahor was made a key player despite regularly going missing for large chunks of the season. The players that actually were squad players were so average that O'Neill didn't have any faith in them, yet he sanctioned their signings (e.g. Beye, Salifou, Shorey). What I've noticed here is that the majority of the poor signings came in defence. When O'Neill came he inherited a side that nearly went down but still contained very good defenders in Laursen, Mellberg and Bouma. He decided to replace players of that sort of calibre (Laursen and Mellberg could have played for CL clubs - in fact Mellberg did go on to play for Juve) with t*t for tat players such as Collins and Warnock. Not sure how a manager as highly regarded as O'Neill could make such a huge lack of judgement. It's not exactly as if such players were cheap replacements either - Warnock was £8 million, Dunne £5 million, Collins £6 million, Cuellar £8 million. All of them were in their late 20s so they weren't exactly blessed with any potential either.

To be honest though it's easy to point fingers. O'Neill did what he came to do and got us competing, even if we were a long ball team with a lot of players who wouldn't ordinarily get near a top six team. The real blame needs to be pointed at Lerner. Despite what Ellis said (and I respect Ellis because I know he loves the club), Lerner is a nasty man with no love for this club. If he had any ounce of respect for the club and any feeling towards it he would not let it get in this state where it is rotten to the core and with no future chances of success. He has acted like the opportunistic capitalist he is, stubbornly trying to sell at a high price whilst we're in the PL and not lowering his value when it is clear that the club currently with the players it has is worth nowhere near £150 million. He should have accepted a lower price and got out, he's been milking all his money back over the years anyway when he has failed to invest in any players.

I can see a mutiny starting and it is all because of him. Who cares what he did in the first two or three years, that all goes out of the window when he has presided over absolute chaos over the last five years and it has led to the club being in its worst state for over 100 years. He really is a despicable human being as far as I'm concerned and an atrocious businessman at that.

1987 - good post, I agree with everything about MON. Think you're being a bit harsh anout Lerner, in the sense that, in my view, he's not so much nasty but unbelievably incompetent. He inherited his wealth, he didn't make it, and I reckon he has very little grasp on how to run an organisation. He probably does have strong feelings for the club (hope so, we need his cash still), but that's nowhere near enough. What worries me is that come the summer he may yet withhold support at a critical moment, as he has done in the past.

@RB&W (U2335)

A mainstay of the top division.

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not really ...if you know your history

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As others have said, Villa have been in the top flight for more seasons than any other club except for Everton.

So, clearly, they are a mainstay of the top division.

You either need new history books or a new dictionary.

As others have said, Villa have been in the top flight for more seasons than any other club except for Everton.

..........

I always thought it was Arsenal who have been in the top flight the longest.

I have figured out where RB&W got his history bit wrong. And it is all to do with pedantry.

It is the difference between who has been in the top flight for the most amount of seasons and who has been in it the longest consecutively.

Villa are without doubt a mainstay of top flight football second only to Everton.

Arsenal have the record for the longest amount of consecutive seasons in top flight football.

PS.

I am bored. Thats why I looked it up.