Fallen Angel

Doesn’t matter where you look today, the same headlines grab your attention:

‘Angel Frustrated at Villa Failure’
‘Angel Frustrated at Euro Failure’

Blah blah blah….

But like most media reports about our club thesedays, some of these quotes look surprisingly similar to Angel’s comments in the last few years.

‘When you play in Europe you compete against the best and you get the chance to prove yourself to the rest of Europe and the world. But we haven´t done that which is frustrating for the whole team I think.’

Is pretty similar to his and many teammates comments after last years Euro failure.

So can we put this down to the media’s manipulation of the facts again; we all know a lazy journo will rehash quotes, invent them even, especially when it means you throw a new light or a story making slant on a recent comment.

You can even imagine with claret and blue tinted specs that: ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen. I will answer questions about my future in 12 months time, though. Let’s just see what happens,’ is a rehash of something Angel uttered before signing his spanking new 4 year contract.

As a fan what you can’t explain away is the lack of loyalty displayed by many players in todays game. They are on that pitch to represent you; they wear your shirt; they play for your club and in return they receive more than a handsome wage.

‘Would I like to move on? Well I have three years left of my contract and I would love to have the chance to play in Europe. I’m a footballer and you never know.’

Are the words uttered from a player who has only had one decent season since signing for us. All the articles explain that he is happy at the Villa, and he has ‘insisted’ he is happy, but having only just signed a FOUR year contract on grossly inflated wages it sounds a little rich doesn’t it.

Does it matter if the ‘I will answer….in 12 months time….let’s see what happens,’ was a media rehash. Was there any need for Angel who is contracted to us to speak in that vain.

I think not.

If he seriously wants to play in Europe, and I’m sure he does – what player thesedays doesn’t want to play at the top and be in with a chance of winning the top honours – shouldn’t he be determined to honour his contract, get Villa into Europe and instead of trotting out the usual PR crap or intimating that he is open to a move, openly admit he played like a muppet last season, he didn’t earn his wages as a striker and take some blame for why we failed. It’s fine and dandy being frustrated at the lack of success our club had last season – frustration, anger, disappointment are the feelings for the fans – Angel is in a position to change it. Since he signed for us, he’s only earn’t his wages in a season once. He’s only done his job once. Maybe he should be frustrated about his own performances and remember that although football is a team game, individuals let that team down.

He wasn’t alone last season in that respect, but at least some of the others haven’t been dumb enough to get quoted. If Angel can’t commit to earning his money and getting us into Europe for the next 3 years, then like any player who feels that way – you go to DOL and request a transfer. If they can’t be single minded to represent our club then we replace them with somebody that will. Talent aside our club is bigger than any one player (or Chairman) and if anyone wants out bye bye.