Villaboy69

In fairness unless you have experienced it its pretty hard to express how it is.

From experience it hurts like hell but come the season you'll realise it aint that different just the qualities are a little lower.

You may even find that u enjoy it and some of the experiences it has to offer. i know i did. and no i dont want it to happen

There is no way I want to see my beloved club relegated - no way whatsoever.

But I have been saying for weeks that since the injuries came along we would do well to survive. With the results, performances, and players available as they are I think it is inevitable now that we will go down and I pretty much resigned to it. I will be elated if we survive now.

How anyone can claim to be enjoying this is beyond me. In fact it really tells you how far this club has fallen.

However whilst I believe it will be a disater for the club from a personal point of view it will have no effect on me other than being miserable for a few week.

I will still travel away and will look forward to going to places I've never been to and I'll still have a really great time with the lads I go with.

All I really want is for the return to the Villa Park experience being a happy one. This season has without doubt been the worst in my experience and I include the last time we were relegated.

Several years ago I always said I would watch and support villa whatever league or tough situation we were in. Its always been my belief that support is needed more in bad times anyway.

Nothing has changed. I'll be there tonight, as always. Villa through the good and the bad.

WHEN we're successful again, I want to stand there and look people in the eye and say I was there through Graham Taylor Mk 2, through O'Leary, through McLeish.

I would honestly go and watch villa even if we were in the Blue Square Conference.

Respect to those that don't want to go. But you and I clearly have very different relationships with the villa.

This is what supporting your team is about.

Hats off and full respect.

If you are able to watch tonights game live in any shape or form but choose to watch any other game how on earth can you claim to support AVFC surely you would just be a football lover of no persuasion

Just for any of you Chelsea lovers

http://www.chelseafc.com/page/FansForum

To those of you who choose to stay away tonight and watch Chelsea instead I respect your right to choose how you spend your time and hard earned but please do me, the other fans attending tonight and the club a favour........don't come back!! We don't need fans like you.

Personally i dont think you or anyone else on this board for that matter, have the right to judge others on what and how they spend their free time.

I don't think there is any judgement made in Smudge's statement merely a request that if people would rather watch chelsea or Barcalona then maybe their free time would be better spent on other forums rather than wasting their time posting on a subject they they clearly have very little interest in

So 24hours before one of the biggest games this club has faced in a very long while we have people discussing whether or not they would prefer to watch another team rather than support the club they proclaim to love.

Shame on you

I voted yes - purely because despite the crap that is being dished up on the pitch I still enjoy being with the people I go down with. So that'll will be me, my son, my dad and my mate and his son (5 renewals). But I know of at least 8 who have said that they wont be renewing because of the dire football we are witnessing

I also want to guarentee tickets for away games although I'm sure that this is likely to get easier as more and more decided to do other things.

But most of all I also want to guarntee my ticket for next seasons FA Cup final

Must admit I'm in the camp that we will be relegated.

With the injuries we have at the moment those players that made the side up on Saturday are going to feature in the next few matches. With all the will in the world that side simply lacks the experience and quality to win matches. I can't see where the next win will come. There maybe a few draws along the way but I don't see that as being good enough to stay up especially given the fighting spirit shown by QPR, Blackburn and Bolton of late

Has to be the double signing of Nigel Callaghan and Ian Ormandroyd

Team selection is going to be really tricky for this one. I'd like to see us try to give the team a bit more balance. With CNZ being out again the left hand side is a really problem. I'm pretty sure AM will waste our most 'potent' player in Gabby by stcking him out wide and playing Weimann up top on his own.

If Clark is fit I'd give consideration to playing him at left back and pushing Warnock forward. We know Warnock has had his problems but they have been mainly defensive issues. Going forward he's usually not too bad. At the end of the day he can't be any less effective than Gabby has been and it would give us alot better balance and enable us to shove Gabby forward and give Weimann support.

----------------------Given-----------------------

Lichaj----------Cuellar------Collins-------Clark

------Albrighton-------Petrov--------Warnock

--------------------Ireland----------------------

---------Weimann----------Agbonlahor-------

He's that good is he - Thats why we had to battle shed loads of other teams for his signature.

But Ireland is only 'standing out' because of how shit AM has got us playing. As I said he would get nowhere near our side of a couple of years ago and the reason he is only linked with the MSL is because he ain't good enough and there will be no suitors for his signature from anyone in the premiership

Sorry Guys but I'm can't quite understand this sudden Stephen Ireland 'love fest'. Yes he's an OK player who has good technical ability and can produce the odd good pass but he certainly isn't a player that takes the game by the scruff of the neck and changes it.

For me he is a luxury player where you have to be able to build your style of play around him and I don't see him as being that good that we would want to do that and we certainly aren't in a position to do it. Given his fagile personality and temperament I would certainly consider selling and freeing up his high salary.

Lets face it we are only lauding Stephen Ireland because of the inept crap that we are serving up by the rest of the squad at the moment. Stephen Ireland wouldn't have got anywhere near our side of a few years ago

Technically gifted but whose influence on matches is minimal. Even during his better periods of his villa career he is too often on the periphery. A luxury player we can ill afford. I'd sell without hesitation

Man its gonna be pretty tight in K1

He's shitter than yours

He's shitter than yours

Our scottish manager is shitter than yours

I'm fairly certain that Robbie Keane doesn't have a history of taking mind altering substances. I can therefore only deduce that he is laying his marker down for another money making transfer and a return to us. There have been rumours that he hasn't settled in US so he was probably just buttering AM up to give himself at least one option should he decide to quit America

Another away day. its the only thing good about villa at the moment

I'm quite looking forward to going to a few grounds that I've not been to before

I thought replacing Dunne with a defender in stoppage time was a tremendous piece of attacking management

Our squad of players should not be in the bottom half of the League. Full stop. They are because we have a manager who is negative and clueless.

"Three years of excuses and it's still crap...ta-ra Fergie." was displayed at Old Trafford, and many journalists and supporters called for Ferguson to be sacked.[45][46] Ferguson later described December 1989 as "the darkest period [he had] ever suffered in the game", as United ended the decade just outside the relegation zone

It even took arguably the greatest manager the ever 4 years before he won his first trophy and it was 3 years before the rumblings of discontent was heard at Old Trafford.

We are looking to do it after just 5 months.

Very Impressive

A bit OTT drama queen. Fergie, at least came with a decent reputation, and to a club with the capability t obuild.

we now have a manager with proven record of relegation on top of manging to get Rangers 3rd in the SPL. 3rd In a 2 horse race, is impressive i suppose. And our club appears have stopped investing in the playing side.

You can see why some fans feel it is a recipe for disaster.

He also comes with a record of winning trophies in Scotland as well as achieving the impossible down the road. Whilst I accept that is relegation record is terrible it seems to me that everybody conveniently dismisses his 'achievements'

We can all see that our club 'appears to have stopped investing in the playing side' so this gives him little choice but to work with what he has for the time being.

My comparison with Fergie may be a little dramatic but it was merely used to demonstrate that even he, coming with his record and to a club with the 'capability to build' coudn't turn things around over night and to protest against a manager who is 5 months into his tenure is totally ridiculous.

"Three years of excuses and it's still crap...ta-ra Fergie." was displayed at Old Trafford, and many journalists and supporters called for Ferguson to be sacked.[45][46] Ferguson later described December 1989 as "the darkest period [he had] ever suffered in the game", as United ended the decade just outside the relegation zone

It even took arguably the greatest manager the ever 4 years before he won his first trophy and it was 3 years before the rumblings of discontent was heard at Old Trafford.

We are looking to do it after just 5 months.

Very Impressive

I'm not really sure what the protest is focussing on to be honest.

If it's league position... well 13th isn't great but it's certainly not that bad that we need to protest. Sure if Utd were 13th at this point there'd be a case to answer but when have we ever been able to demand a top 6 finish? Protest against McLeish?

If it's finances.... We're not (as far as I can tell) about to go bankrupt, all cost saving measures are being implemented internally to our own timelines, therefore any protest againt the Board is likely to fall on death ears. Protest against Lerner?

If it's anti-football (whatever that may be)... IMO there's been a real improvement since the Spurs farce, we're still a bit on the negative side with a lot of passes going backward but at least we seem to be trying to keep possession more. Seems odd to protest about something that appears to be improving. Protest against McLeish?

If it's about a lack of direction or as the Vital Villa quote states against McLeish's ability to take us forward... Well forward to where is the first question. Back to top 6? It's not unachieveable under AMc provided he's got the transfer fees and the wage budget required to build a suitable squad. But is this a protest about the manager or the leadership of the man who appointed the manager? Portest against McLeish and/or Lerner.

Seems to me that the fan base is not really united on a particular theme for any protest, other than generally being disatisified with their lot as Villa fans. The main reason for this is probably none of the areas mentioned have got that bad that the fans wil unite in a single voice to protest.

Any protest that happens at this stage will therefore most probably be half hearted and meaningless, and has the potential to do more harm to the club than good.

Oh no wait...... McLeish out Grrrrrrrrr!

I pretty much agree with this - None of the above is that bad that it merits a protest.If I had to choose something to protest against it would have to be RL and his inability to put the necessary personel in place to control MON' reckless spending that got us in this mess.

I never wanted AM and I have to say that the football pre Christmas was some of the most depressing I have ever witnessed at VP. However I also recognise that the squad isn't that great and AM should at least be given the time to change things his way before the witch hunt start

Can we turn up to protest about the protest.

Civil War its the way forward