By Jordanderve

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The internet is a wonderful thing. However, I am slowly getting tired of the platform it gives some people to express extreme views, irrationally, without thought.We are now firmly in the era of the digital age. An era where people have been arrested for threatening to blow up airports simply because of poor customer service, riots have been organised purely as a result of boredom from a broken society and people like Joey Barton and Rio Ferdinand can air opinions on anything and everything where they have followers in the hundred of thousands.

I have been a Villa fan all of my life. I love the freedom that the digital era has provided to society and the convenience of such gadgets. However, I admit the one gripe I have with the digital age is the opportunity it gives some people to sensationalise absolutely everything. I enjoy reading the various message boards as much as everybody else. It is the reason why I am here. However, I admit that I rarely contribute to such sites as a result of the shear amount of irrational abuse certain opinions can generate. Football, like everything, is a matter of opinion. If people did not have differing opinions, we would not have learnt how to fly or be able to make a phone call. Opinions though, should be respected.

I, for one, love being a Villa fan. It is what I do. For me and I presume the majority of Villa fans, last year was a dark, dark year. The football was just so bad that it sucked every ounce of optimism out of me. I am a ‘glass half full’ type of person but it was depressing watching Villa play last year.

The reality we now face is that we have not got a strong squad. Regardless though, I am fully behind Lerner. The club that we all love has to be run like a business. Lerner is a wealthy man but he does not have enough money to do a City or a Chelsea. I am not sure if I would want that though, would you? Lerner gave the top 4 a shot. O'Neill blew it. That was our chance.

Regardless of the defeat against West Ham over the weekend, I am heartened by what Lambert has said recently about playing football the right way and the stats have shown that that is what he will try to do.

In my mind, hoof football might be enough to keep us up this season, but it does not get you any further than mid-table at best. O'Neill's counter attacking football was exciting, but again it is limited on how far you can go with that approach i.e. breaking teams down when they sit back against you. Given the limited resources we have, the only chance we have of actually doing anything in the future is by changing the culture of the football club and keeping hold of the ball. It is a must. If we can start doing that and if we can actually change the football culture of our club, we will have a chance to progress and I, for one, will be happy.

On the flipside, if we go down trying to do the right thing, so be it. I am a Villa fan and always will be. I just want to have some pride in the way that we play. Would people prefer to have Allardyce as manager and stay up or have Lambert as manager, attempting to play football but us going down? I, personally, would prefer to go down.

I am excited about our new era.

We had a false dawn under Houllier but he was always a short term appointment. In my opinion though, he was on the right track. I genuinely believe McLeish was appointed to be a scapegoat in a year where we had to sell everybody. The board just didn't realise how bad he would be!

Please, lets stop the "we are the worst team ever" after one result against a team who play with the ball in the air and likewise lets stop the sensationalised "we are the greatest team ever" if we play really well and win handsomely.

Negative opinions expressed on message boards infect a fan base who read them.

Lets support our club and enjoy the ride.

It is what we do.

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Source: I'm a Villa fan, it's what I do