leighavfc Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 For me it was the day we signed Heskey. This made me realise that MON had lost the plot with signings and if we had signed a different striker at the time we could have made the champions league. This was the turning point either way as we either pushed on at that point or flopped as we did and had in the 5 years or so of absolute garbage tbh. Of course when MON left thats when it went downhill. I wasnt a massive fan of him at the time but he did a good job and put us amongst the teams we should be competing with. Since then we have had relegation battle after relegation battle, with this year being in a far worse position than ever before. Until the whole place is stripped from top to bottom we are done for as far as im concerned. Before december i was opptomistic we would turn it around (why this thought came in to my head i do not know). Now we are in no mans land at the bottom with no fight or desire never mind quality of player. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post markavfc40 Posted January 10, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted January 10, 2016 (edited) It started to go wrong when those at the club stopped taking responsibility and chose to blame those who could no longer influence our future for our woes. It is interesting how O'Neill still gets blamed as one of the main people responsible for our current predicament. The guy left almost 6 years ago. There hasn't been a player at the club who was on a contract signed whilst he was manager for 4 years. I wouldn't argue that he made a number of poor signings. When he left the net spend under him was just over 75 mill and since then players he signed have been sold for approx 70 mill. I wouldn't argue that the contracts we gave to some players whilst he was manager were extortionate but as stated above the last of those contracts expired 4 years ago. The biggest issue this club has had since he left is that too many at the club above the manager have failed to take responsibility. Months after O'Neill had left we had Krulak intimating O'Neill left as he was unwilling to reign in spending then the club spent 20 mill+ on Bent and handed him an 80k a week contract quickly followed by a 60k five year deal for NZogbia and a 50k five year deal for Given. I said on this forum months after O'Neill had gone when the club and some fans were blaming him for our woes that it was a pointless and dangerous game to be blaming someone who could do f all about the current situation. We had to move forward and those at the club now had to take responsibility and not blame others. Well five years on nothing has changed it seems. Managers are continually made scapegoats. Sherwood was sacked 10 games into the season. Blamed for not getting the best out of a squad assembled by a committee he was part of. Eleven games later without a win and the mutterings from the club, and some fans it seems, is that he is still to blame. Again those at the club failing to take responsibility for the here and now and whilst that attitude remains we will never move forwards. The whole club from owner to CEO to manager to players lacks leaders and those willing to stick their chests out and say it is my job to do this, this and this and I will take responsibility instead we have too many happy to hide behind others or blame those no longer at the club. Leadership and taking responsibility comes from the top though and ultimately that is where the blame clearly lies for the dire mess we find ourselves in. Edited January 10, 2016 by markavfc40 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post a m ole Posted January 10, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted January 10, 2016 Paul Faulkner. Having a bank manager running the club at such a critical time when the landscape of football transformed. We were a bloated club sent into a such a fall when the money ran out that we haven't been able to arrest it. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krisagg75 Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 when pam walked into the bathroom and bobby was in the shower.it had just been a dream. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 The moment nemanja vidic wasn't sent off. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 A lot of people have mentioned the day we signed Heskey and for me that is it as well. I obviously don't blame Heskey at all but that was our chance to sign a real top-quality player and get into the CL. We wasted the chance and ultimately that is what led to us not quite making it and then spiralling back downwards to where we are now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 36 minutes ago, markavfc40 said: It started to go wrong when those at the club stopped taking responsibility and chose to blame those who could no longer influence our future for our woes. It is interesting how O'Neill still gets blamed as one of the main people responsible for our current predicament. The guy left almost 6 years ago. There hasn't been a player at the club who was on a contract signed whilst he was manager for 4 years. I wouldn't argue that he made a number of poor signings. When he left the net spend under him was just over 75 mill and since then players he signed have been sold for approx 70 mill. I wouldn't argue that the contracts we gave to some players whilst he was manager were extortionate but as stated above the last of those contracts expired 4 years ago. The biggest issue this club has had since he left is that too many at the club above the manager have failed to take responsibility. Months after O'Neill had left we had Krulak intimating O'Neill left as he was unwilling to reign in spending then the club spent 20 mill+ on Bent and handed him an 80k a week contract quickly followed by a 60k five year deal for NZogbia and a 50k five year deal for Given. I said on this forum months after O'Neill had gone when the club and some fans were blaming him for our woes that it was a pointless and dangerous game to be blaming someone who could do f all about the current situation. We had to move forward and those at the club now had to take responsibility and not blame others. Well five years on nothing has changed it seems. Managers are continually made scapegoats. Sherwood was sacked 10 games into the season. Blamed for not getting the best out of a squad assembled by a committee he was part of. Eleven games later without a win and the mutterings from the club, and some fans it seems, is that he is still to blame. Again those at the club failing to take responsibility for the here and now and whilst that attitude remains we will never move forwards. The whole club from owner to CEO to manager to players lacks leaders and those willing to stick their chests out and say it is my job to do this, this and this and I will take responsibility instead we have too many happy to hide behind others or blame those no longer at the club. Leadership and taking responsibility comes from the top though and ultimately that is where the blame clearly lies for the dire mess we find ourselves in. Great post. I do think MON can be blamed for not making the most of our one opportunity to make the CL but, as you say, that has little to do with out current predicament as it shouldn't have just been "one shot" at it. If the owners cared about the club they'd invest and build the club until we are there. Ultimately they are not willing to and so we are in a position that matches the level of investment put in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 It all went wrong when we stopped spending the money required to compete. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 5 hours ago, rodders0223 said: The day Randy bought the club. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda..we were ultimately doomed the day this moron walked into the boardroom. No amount of what ifs will convince me he would ever have built anything sustainable. Pretty much this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 32 minutes ago, Spoony said: A lot of people have mentioned the day we signed Heskey and for me that is it as well. I obviously don't blame Heskey at all but that was our chance to sign a real top-quality player and get into the CL. We wasted the chance and ultimately that is what led to us not quite making it and then spiralling back downwards to where we are now. worst part was he scored on his debut and I thought he could be an inspired signing. I was way off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted January 10, 2016 Moderator Share Posted January 10, 2016 When ten millions pounds stopped being a lot of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 10, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted January 10, 2016 20 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: When ten millions pounds stopped being a lot of money. It bloody is to our owner!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butterfingers Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 52 minutes ago, useless said: It all went wrong when we stopped spending the money required to compete. Yes-And for the reason for this was the Man City takeover. The penny dropped for Lerner that he was out of his league and his mindset changed instantly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Five years ago next week we signed Bent. I was buzzing that night we signed him, big signings can do that sometimes as much as a crucial win as I was the same when we signed Young and Carew on the same day. One of the last times we acted like a big club in this league aswell in that at the time we went to a club who were higher than us in the league, paid what they asked and got their star man. It made me naively believe that even though we were having a tough season Lerner hadn't given up and would give the top 4 another go, I was swiftly withdrawing that opinion 6 months later. The Bent signing is a big what if. Surely you sign that type of player as a missing link to fire you into the top 4, not just keep you up. I'm not saying he would've done that but he'd have been more useful to achieve that than Heskey was. And of course we signed him at the time when Downing and especially Young's times at the club were drawing to a close. That was the start of our abysmal recruitment really, thinking Albrighton and CNZ would be enough to replace those two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One For The Road Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Glen Whelan's equaliser for Stoke in injury time. We were 2-0 up at one point and would have gone 8 points clear of Arsenal in 4th. The draw put us 6 clear but Arsenal, no doubt buoyed by our slip up, won their game in hand to close it to 3 points. From that moment, the Champions League dream was over. We never recovered and it's been down hill ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 10 minutes ago, One For The Road said: Glen Whelan's equaliser for Stoke in injury time. We were 2-0 up at one point and would have gone 8 points clear of Arsenal in 4th. The draw put us 6 clear but Arsenal, no doubt buoyed by our slip up, won their game in hand to close it to 3 points. From that moment, the Champions League dream was over. We never recovered and it's been down hill ever since. We still had a pretty good chance the next season though plus great runs in the cups. When you look back it could've been one of our greatest ever seasons. We win the Carling cup if Vidic gets sent off IMO, if we'd beaten Chelsea in the semis we would've faced a relegated Pompey in the final (although we could've messed that up given Chelsea only beat them 1-0 in the final) and we weren't far off at all in getting 4th, were level with Spurs after beating SHA on April 25th. At that point there were only two games left but then losing 3-1 at City was a symbolic defeat as you knew then it would be a long time before we finish above Man. City in the league again and so it's proving. So we could've achieved all that under Randy Lerner. But we didn't and here we bleeding well are. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dounavilla Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 When Doug Ellis shook Randy Lerner hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 for me the day mcleish was appointed, a massive two fingers up to the fans and showed that we had no ambition beyond staying in the league. It made people like me, who had been a ST holder for years question why, since that season I've been to villa park 4 times, the last of which was the 3-1 win over hull nearly 2 years ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 The day Mcleish was appointed was the day the apathy took over IMO, not sure exactly how many but I think a fair few ST holders walked away (I had the year after him off) and those that stayed learned that booing and protesting and everything else does nothing because no one is listening I think a huge part of the fans passion died that day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Our transfer policy has been a shambles under Lerner. We bought overrated players at an inflated peak value with zero resale value. We then went the complete other way and tried to moneyball it with players nobody had heard of for 2 mil from league 1. We then tried the same thing with French players, but not even getting it right with good lower league players going to other clubs and the French league ones like Mahrez going elsewhere too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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