Please note this article is not a moan at our club, anyone involved in running it, or the ambition to get back up to the promised land. Just a comment on the state of modern football.
The changing face of modern football! I love Aston Villa. I always will. Be I can`t say I love the modern game. I might even break into ‘jumpers for goalposts mode`.
Or as Stan Collymore said recently:
Walk ups, terracing, standing in your regular spot with your pals, starting in one place and ending up 20 yards away after a goal went in, deafening, intimidating noise, floodlights visible from a mile away.
If you were there, you’ll know.
Stan Collymore (@StanCollymore) January 26, 2018
Errr… I think I`ve digressed slightly!
Vital Villa Opinion. The Scourge Of Modern Football?
I must admit, in many ways, I`ve not missed the Premiership the last two years, I quite like the Championship, it reminds me of the old Division One where anything was possible and at least ten teams could win the league (and probably a few outsiders also had a chance).
But I realise, a club our size have to get back to the land of milk and honey, the darling Sky Premiership.
However, when we get there. What then?
Keith has already said the plan is to first get up, then build a team to consolidate and then get a team worthy of pushing on. But, well. The pushing on. That`s the problem isn`t it? Randy Lerner is much maligned for the way his reign ended, but we do forget (easy to forget because it did turn out so badly at the end) that he spent a fortune at the start, from a very low base at the end of the Doug Ellis reign (no money left, plans for a redevelopment of Bodymoor shelved, overdrafts being withdrawn, the likes of O`Leary calling us sugarbags) and the second year under Randy we were the biggest spenders in Europe. We still couldn`t break the glass ceiling though and ended up 6, 6 and indeed 6! Partly the manager that, but that`s a different discussion. I still have the ‘what if` about all that!
So, we go up. We then hope that our owner truly is a billionaire AND wants to spend an extraordinary amount on Aston Villa. Because folks, that is the only way we have a cat in hell`s chance (why are cats in hell by the way? Strange saying that!) of breaking into the new money bags elite. Hey, if we did that, Sky might even talk about us as we should be talked about, a big club, a great fanbase, founders of the league… I could go on.
Keith Wyness, CEO of our fantastic club, told Radio WM recently that they do have plans in place for promotion and for the less than savoury thought of staying in the Championship.
“We`ve already done some squad planning on both sides – promotion and staying in the Championship. We`re already deep into squad planning for those areas.”
But the main point of the article is centred on what Keith, rightly, says next: “People talk about promotion like it`s this great gift where you receive £120m – that`s not even one Coutinho. You see left-backs go for £50m. We recognise that we need a number of players to strengthen the squad in the Premiership. How you do that with £120m is another separate challenge. The reality is we`re going to have to exist and stay in the Premiership for three years, build the squad over a three year period and then really start to challenge after that.”
So there you have it, the rules and modern football have pushed Aston Villa and other clubs like it, (even Arsenal are struggling to keep up), to have to plan (this isn`t a criticism of our board or their plans) to hold on for dear life once back to the land of milk and … what was it again? Oh yes, honey. Then hope to push on. When a club like Manchester City, who were also rans for oh so many years, now have full-backs worth more than three times what our entire club would cost to buy, you know that football is a busted flush.
My hope, and it might sound nasty, is that one of the big clubs go bust. THEN maybe people in football will sit up and take notice. Either that or the top few sod orf to a European super league. Then we might get our game back!
On a lighter note… err… Nope, I don`t think I can add anything positive to lift this depressing article. Sorry!
Other articles:
Trying to see how I can use a pun here! Wonder if he has to take some Miami (ad)Vice from Becks? I apologise..! https://t.co/n1YRYrD1jT
Vital Villa (@VitalVilla) January 31, 2018
Whoop and other such things! 3 lessons? And praise for the oppo manager. What did you learn and do you agree with my three points?!https://t.co/rfpiCkxjwM
Vital Villa (@VitalVilla) January 31, 2018
our CEO slates the fair play rules, I concur… Thoughts!?https://t.co/KJq1oqWfso
Vital Villa (@VitalVilla) January 30, 2018
