Dull - Dull - Dull | Vital Football

Dull - Dull - Dull

Now we all know how the Scots lads have been feeling since the beginning, with Rangers and Celtic taking it in turns to win nine on the trot, with once every twenty or thirty years a team like Aberdeen or Dundee Utd threatening to split the party, normally to only fade out of the picture on the run in.
 
Overstated. I want us to get there, period. If we lose I'm happier (all things are relative) losing to Man C than to Burton. If you have a good squad and a good manager you can be entertained, even if you face far stronger competition.

We moan, quite rightly, when we see an underperforming team of ours of questionable quality on the pitch. Being in the Championship where we're unlikely to be relegated may mean things aren't desperate but it's hugely frustrating. I'd rather have pain in the PL than pain in the Championship.

We had a good year last year in spite of falling at the last hurdle. But it's quickly gone. A good team promoted may be lucky to survive, but if it does and the club has the right manager and the resources to push on, then it'll all be worthwhile. It's a long, long time since we were above 6th in the PL; were all the intervening years bad? No, not by a long way.
 
The First Division/Premier League/whatever you want to call it has been like this during most of my lifetime, to be honest. And it's become progressively 'worse' since the Sky takeover in 1992.

The late 70s and 80s were dominated by Liverpool (give or take a few interlopers), the 90s and early 2000s were dominated by Man United (with the odd Arsenal title win) and now it seems to be the turn of Man City, with maybe Liverpool getting involved.

I find it very sad that the mentality of teams is just to get by and stay in the Premier League at the expense of everything else. It's all down to the money and the way the top European clubs have pulled up the drawbridge behind them.
 
Well written article which sums up where the beautiful game is now. I said at the end of last season that whatever the result against Fulham it was a poison chalice and certainly more so going back up, even though it's the holy grail, which I think is an illusion and meaningless.

It very much sums up life as it is now with chasing everything materially and for show. More wants more, wants more. It's an addiction to success at any cost fans and clubs alike.


Do I want us back in The PL. Ofcourse I do. Villa is in my DNA. if it wasn't I would have walked away from the beautiful game which like everything when it is touched by money gets spoiled.

Even wanting us back in The PL still fills me with a type of dread though. Maybe it's because of those previous years of struggle I don't know.

I have a small heath friend I have known since childhood. Great guy however we all have our ways! When small heath were relegated again some years ago he said ''in a strange way he felt like he had got his club back'' I get what he means now
 
The Premier league is a cartel of a few taking the spoils over the many. This is modern society capitalism.

But the quality is high and I think it is entertaining motd is a lot better than the championship highlights. If Villa were riding high in the top eloens of the Premier league we would be lapping it up. Leicester have shown the dream is possible and that should give others hope but an level playing field it is not (despite the villa Park slant being evened out in the summer).
 
I agree fully with the article. The game I fell in love with has disappeared into a raging inferno of hype.

Managers pay millions for a 27 year old Bulgarian centre half instead of playing local lad because if the lad makes a mistake or two, it could cost the manager his job. Managers can't take a chance or try anything new because 2 defeats in a row is a crisis

The whole financial crisis of last summer left me sick to my stomach. I'm definitely not a football fan anymore but I'm starting to question if I'm an Aston Villa fan any more.
 
Platt-itudes said:
Leicester have shown the dream is possible and that should give others hope but an level playing field it is not (despite the villa Park slant being evened out in the summer).
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It is funny that when it looked a more closed shop than ever, Leicester go and win it. I still can't believe that happened. But it did.

What I can't stand is people fawning over the likes of Man City as if they are achieving something special. They aren't.

It's like being in a car race, where one guy can afford a F1 car and the rest are driving Ford Fiestas. And he's supposed to get a big pat on the back for winning is he?
 
Stephen Jay Hawkings said:
It's like being in a car race, where one guy can afford a F1 car and the rest are driving Ford Fiestas. And he's supposed to get a big pat on the back for winning is he?
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Fully agree lad, no doubting Pep and the like being amazing coaches but it would be nice to see how he'd do with a smaller club who can only back him to a point. At Man City he has almost no limitations. At least him and Klopp can identify a younger player in their ranks and give them a few games. Look at Alexander Arnold now.

One thing I disagreed with Fear is the playing conditioning thing. Idon't players are solely rested for physical conditioning reasons its mental as well and perhaps more so at such a high level.
 
I'd love us to be like Man C. Outstanding football, good management. They've spent money but they've spent it sensibly. It's taken years to get to where they are now; when they started they were a club fearing relegation.
 
Gut Prat & Ugly said:
Agree totally with the article. Completely bored with the PL/Sky scenario. Would love the bubble to burst. Most PL matches are really glorified friendlies. Why thousands still flock to watch them and pay through the nose for the privilege is a bit of a mystery to me.
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We will be flocking in 5 years time when we win the league.

:utv::utv::utv::utv:
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
I'd love us to be like Man C. Outstanding football, good management. They've spent money but they've spent it sensibly. It's taken years to get to where they are now; when they started they were a club fearing relegation.
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The last I heard the Arabs have spent £2bn there. Think of all of the sanitation projects, schools, hospitals and public housing they could have built with that.
 
It's the money, the constant hyperbole of the marketing and the sycophantic media worship of the Sky six and footballers in general that really fuels my ambivalence towards the Premier League. The disconnect between most players and fans in the real world is one of the most saddening outcomes. That said, the irony is that we may have have a different view of some of these aspects were we to break into the closed shop.

Despite the dominance of Liverpool in the 70's and 80's, you never felt that money was the over riding factor in their success. They were beatable (as we proved) and in my time growing up as a teenager in the 70's, other less fashionable clubs like QPR, Derby, Forest, Ipswich, Leeds and even WBA and Wolves had decent teams that could mount a challenge for silverware (when the cups mattered to all) and beat the bin dippers on their day. Sadly that world and those days are long gone.

Money is indeed, for many, the new god of all things in the 24/7 world that has been created. Me, as I tell my daughters, I'm grateful for the things I believe in, my health and the time that I have earned to enjoy it in. Although no longer a season ticket holder,(my level of involvement in terms of matches attended has diminished over the years), the well being of Aston Villa will always be something that matters to me.
 
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BodyButter said:
The last I heard the Arabs have spent £2bn there. Think of all of the sanitation projects, schools, hospitals and public housing they could have built with that.
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Indeed. Think of all the money which has been poured into Villa over the last dozen years or so, which could likewise have been spent on worthy projects. Could even have raised Villa Park to the ground and used the space and surrounding area to build new housing, schools and hospitals. We could have survived by doing a ground share with Blues.

Nope, don't think think you can do sums like that. Money which goes into football clubs rarely makes a profit for the owners. It does get recycled in all sorts of ways into the community.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Indeed. Think of all the money which has been poured into Villa over the last dozen years or so, which could likewise have been spent on worthy projects. Could even have raised Villa Park to the ground and used the space and surrounding area to build new housing, schools and hospitals. We could have survived by doing a ground share with Blues.

Nope, don't think think you can do sums like that. Money which goes into football clubs rarely makes a profit for the owners. It does get recycled in all sorts of ways into the community.
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I was being a bit facetious. Man City's £2bn looks like fantastic value for money compared to the £400m Randy spunked on us.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Nope, don't think think you can do sums like that. Money which goes into football clubs rarely makes a profit for the owners. It does get recycled in all sorts of ways into the community.
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I don't think the statement is about owners making money McP. From my point of view, it's more about the salaries and commission paid to players and agents.

Using Villa as an example, I wonder what the agents commission on McCormack's £12 million transfer was and how the player's £35 000 + per week salary is recycled into the community? ( I know he bought some gates but they were faulty):grinning:. Suppose his local off license does ok though. An average person could fund a lifetime on his 3 year contract.

In terms of value for money, we would have been better off subsidising entry to matches for local school children or donating the money to Acorns.
 
northamptonvillan said:
I don't think the statement is about owners making money McP. From my point of view, it's more about the salaries and commission paid to players and agents.

Using Villa as an example, I wonder what the agents commission on McCormack's £12 million transfer was and how the player's £35 000 + per week salary is recycled into the community? ( I know he bought some gates but they were faulty):grinning:. Suppose his local off license does ok though. An average person could fund a lifetime on his 3 year contract.

In terms of value for money, we would have been better off subsidising entry to matches for local school children or donating the money to Acorns.
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McCormack's £35k pw? The Government takes about half of any professional player's salary through Income Tax and National Insurance. Football makes a massive contribution to the country's coffers.

One of the reasons we ran into trouble with HMRS is that for every player we only cough up about half of that player's salary to the player, the remainder we have to put aside for payment to HMRS, along with employer's contribution to National Insurance. Any club which doesn't have that money and/or doesn't put it aside is going to be in trouble.
 
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