Well said blandy and peterms... v good posts
When the barrage of abuse and criticism came cascading down, I was embarrassed! Embarrassed to be a Villa fan and embarrassed for the General et al.
... but I think some fans just needed to vent... and if there's any good that's come out of the activities of the last week, it's that the unrealistically high expectations have been dampened.
At the start of last season, we went a few games unbeaten, and expectations all of a sudden started to go haywire: "We'll be in Europe by the end of the year!", some people said... Disappointment and anger are the corollary of unrealistically high expectations.
And, at the end of this season, some fans expected some superstar signings to be coming in thick and fast.
There will be the inevitable retorts: "... but FitzGerald said we should expect top class signings!! That's why we expected better!"... Yet those same people conveniently forget to factor a number of quotes from *the manager* (!!!) into their expectations about taking time, bringing on the kids, etc
On a slightly different note: It's not clear to me that bringing in a fans'-eye "top class signing" will improve our situation. Signings that satisfy the fans aren't necessarily what Aston Villa needs...
Look at what happened when West Ham bought in Tevez and Mascharano last year. They joined a squad which the previous year had finished seventh... I remember reading quotes from West Ham messageboards saying things like: "This is perhaps the greatest team the Premiership has ever seen!"...
The fans were initially sated by the signings... but what happened? The signings served to unsettle the dressing room and the team nearly got relegated!
Evidence suggests that wage inequality within a team has a negative effect on performance (a disruptive dressing room being one such cause). I sincerely doubt that MON wants a highly inequitable wage schedule at the Villa.
Will the 5 year plan be successful? I don't know... I'm not Mystic Meg or Russell Grant (thank God). What I do know is that we should not be rushing to sign players that merely whet the fans' appetites and do not fit into the manager's plans...
... and we won't! So, we shouldn't expect it!