scottie_villa

Well its pretty normal being a Villa fan seeing us lose to Liverpool and Arsenal. I'll agree today in particular was very poor. But it is strange that we seem to be doing better away from home and i just wonder is the negativity around the ground a factor. Also, I too am disappointed with where we are but if we want McLeish out, who can we get that is any better? For two summers we've tried to recruit managers but nobody wants to come to Villa, even Roberto Mancini turned us down for Wigan! Because we don't have the funds to compete with the top 6 we are a midtable club that can realistically hope to finish at best 7th and good managers just don't want to come!

It's funny that we seem to be doing better away from home than at Villa Park.... Could it be because away from VP the majority of fans aren't getting on McLeish's back and just looking to criticise him and the team at every opportunity??? Whether the criticism is granted or not shouldn't we have to give the guy a chance? 23 points in the first 19 games is not relegation form, it isn't great but I can't really understand the amount of negativity and calls for the manager to go when we aren't in any danger really. I've said before O'Neill came 11th in his first season, we're 12th now, not great but when the manager hasn't been able to buy his team and is coming into side that just lost their 3 best players (Young, Downing and Friedel) I'm not sure anyone else would be doing much better.

I remember in M'ON's first season we had a dreadful run at one stage, think it was 12 games without a win and we finished 11th in the end, granted we could see brighter times ahead due to a new millionaire owner but if McLeish has a run like that the pressure on him to go would be immense! We have to sit tight for this first season and see do we show signs of going in the right direction, like we did with O'Neill, it's only fair!

Going back to Cork, they may have somehow come up with the money to pay the revenue, based on what they expect to make from the Celtic game, but they still owe so much.. First of all wages, Joe Gamble has today said that he only got 20% of a months wages to pay for the last six weeks. They still owe Alan Mathews for sacking him and they also still owe Gareth Farrelly some from his court case... I really cant see where they are going to come up with the money.. Its also not fair on the likes of UCD who were relegated last season when they kept their house in order but Cork stay up despite living way neyopnd their means! Also pity we didnt get St Pats in he Europa, we were just one draw away! A mate of mine said he'd disown me if I supported Villa for the game in Inchicore.

Pity. Big Pity... How many football fans from Cork spend lots of money travelling to England to support Liverpool and Man Utd but don't support their own local team? They probably won't batter and eyelid too. I know Roy Keane was a big draw for the people of Cork to support Man Utd but here lies the problems. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Villa fan and travel over to gamesd but I also support my local side Bohs, I am afterall Irish as are they. There are plenty of football fans in Cork, no way should Cork City be winding up but there you are!

Sadly it looks as though the League of Ireland is going to have to go back before it goes forward.. Bohs members are meeting later this month to probably vote in a motion for the side to go part-time... And with clubs like Drogheda and Cork fighting for their survival with players going unpaid it doesn't look good! Eircom dropped all their association with the League and I hear RTE offered to pay the FAI so they could drop their highlights show MNS but Delaney refused. But as a football fan i definitely dont want to see the whole thing wound up... It needs to be there as either a stepping stone to bigger leagues across the pond or giving talented irish footballers a little bit of exposure they deserve. The FAI has imposed a rule whereby no more than 60% of a clubs income can be spent of wages so that should stop clubs going crazy like Shels and Cork did in their pursuit for glory. A problem is that a few clubs went wallop in the boom, so some will undoubtedly go in the recession. There are two many League of Ireland clubs... 22 in two leagues isn't sustainable.. If u think of Rugby there are only four teams (Provinces). There needs to be a reduction there, possibly down to 16 or 18 over the two leagues. They also need to be involved in the community more, invovled with schools or local projects. Everyone in Dundalk should be aware of their local side, same with Waterford or Bray, but nobody in these communities care. These are the only way u can get crowds in. Oh and we also need to forget about Europe completely.. Concentrate on survival and slowly rebuild Irish football from its roots. Eventually we'll get back to competing in 2nd and 3rd qualifying rounds for the europa league.. The glory days!

BOF you've way too much time on ur hands...I'll give u a 6 out of 10 for effort but I don't think its funny enough to go down as an april fool's classic... Like I would love it if Alan Shearer turned around and said, "actually I'm not taking the Newcastle job, had you all fooled there." That would be brilliant!