Villa Fan Says Our Fate Is Sealed…

Have any other Villa fans as old as me noticed the eerie similarity between the last few years and the 1960s?

Three good seasons when we all thought Villa were on their way to the top; a sudden decline; three miserable years flirting with relegation; and then the eventual, inevitable drop.

And here’s another thing. In the season we went down, we looked safe with nine games to go. Then we lost seven of the last nine and drew the other two.

So I say to Villa fans: don’t worry. If you’re looking at the fixture list wondering where those last few points are coming from, if you’re anxiously totting up how many points our rivals are likely to get, don’t bother. I’ve seen the story before and I know how it ends. Even if we don’t go down this season, we’ll go down next year or the one after.

Frankly, we might as well get it over with.

Once we’re down, how will we get back up?

There are three options: total fluke, an inspirational manager or a new owner. The first isn’t impossible – Palace did it last year – but clubs that fluke their way up are almost always down again within a couple of years. The second option isn’t as attractive as it sounds because even if we can find a brilliant manager, he won’t stay. The days when a genius like Clough could take a team without much money from the second tier to European glory are over. Some rich club will poach him. So it has to be the new owner, just as it was in the 60s.

Lerner has decided not to spend what it takes to keep Villa in the Premier League, and who am I to criticise? If I had a few billion, I’m damned if I’d spend it paying obscene wages to the shallow, self-indulgent poseurs we call Premier League footballers. But until he goes, we’re stuffed, whoever the manager is.

In the 1960s, attendances had to drop to 12,000 before the old board admitted defeat and allowed new blood into the boardroom.

So my message to Randy Lerner is this. Thanks for trying. You seem like a really nice guy and you gave it a go. But there’s only misery ahead if you remain at the Villa, for you and for us. Cut your losses and sell. Always assuming there’s someone who wants to buy .

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