Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, Coventry City, Bradford City, Barnsley, Sheffield United, Charlton Athletic, Middlesbrough, Derby County, Leicester City, Portsmouth, Watford, Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town etc etc...
Just read those team names that you have listed. They are not nor ever have been in the same bracket as Aston Villa. They are nothing teams and have been for a long time. Why don't you go the whole hog and mention Accrington Stanley?
Are you joking??
Some of them - you're totally right to make that claim over - but for teams like Wednesday, Leeds, Forest even Pompy, Middlesbrough and Coventry at the actual time of them being relegated from the top division, they had a stature, team and fan base just like we do now!! They were all the 'big club that got relegated' in their particular seasons.......just like Newcastle.
Leeds' story is remarkebly like ours! Went for broke, missed out on champions league, had to sell all their 'best players', had a tactically inept manager and eventually went down.
Now we've not gone down just yet (and I hope to hell that we don't) but to think that we're a much better club now than some of those listed were when they went down is madness!! (and you're not the only one to of made that point!) You can't possibly make that comment based upon the stature of those clubs now - you need to look at where those clubs were when they got relegated - that was the point of listing them in the first place! (and I'd just like to add Southampton to that list to)
In my head, AVFC are as big as Manchester United - because I'm a fan and love my club - but the reality of it is that theres not much difference between AVFC now and Coventry when they went down (should I remind you that they'd been in the top flight for 34 years by the time they went down?)
Infact, our season stats now aren't that far off what Coventrys were at the end of the season they went down - so we're totally in the same bracket as some of those teams!