Foxy1 Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 My dad was a huge fan and grew up down the road from VP. My mom's family are from Solihull and also follow the Villa ....so its very much in the blood. The thought of supporting anyone else is preposterous. Dad took me to my first game in 1983. We got battered 6-2 by the Gooners, I knew then it would not be an easy road! Sadly my dad passed away when I was still young, I recently researched our family history and found that my ancestors lived right in the centre of Brum from the mid 19th Century. I like to think some of them will have been going to VP from the very beginning and during our glory years at the turn of the century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjenkins Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I was about 8/9 when I decided to support Villa. Where I grew up in Wales I was pretty much an equal distance from Cardiff, Newport and Merthyr and only an hour away from Swansea, so coupled with my family generally not being huge football fans, none of my 'local' teams felt more local than any other, and I didn't just want to support a side because they happened to be winning at the time. Anyway, I was watching Aston Villa vs. Liverpool with my Dad on TV when he told me about when he was living and working through the week in Birmingham and home for the weekends when my parents got married and he would watch Villa if they played midweek and he wasn't working too late for something to do. My mother didn't want to uproot from the Valleys to Brum so my father moved jobs and remained in Wales. After hearing that, I felt a link with Villa. (It may also have helped that we beat them 2-1. I think Collymore scored for us? Would have been 1998 or 1999 ish?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milfner Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 My Dad. He wouldn't have had it any other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skruff Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Trying out Championship Manager. Chose Aston Villa. Due to the name and colors. Played Aston Villa every year when I got the new version. Started watching some matches, reading up on the club and it's history, pretty soon I was watching every match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harris21 Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Great-Grandad was a fan, Grandad was a ST holder, Dad was a ST holder and born & raised in Aston, then we have my older brothers & sisters all Villa fans... Finally me, the youngest. Simple decision really, but my dad did say to me when I was young and started going to games, that I didn't have to support Villa and that I could pick a different team as long as (he made this very clear) it wasen't SHA. Total no brainer, it's in my blood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Wanted to get back to watching football and looked at a few local teams season tickets and one second division teams was close to the price of a villa season ticket, so thats where it started. A financial decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villacrossthemersey Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Its in the blood - handed down through the generations - My grandfather (Alum Rock) - my father (Weoley Castle) - Me (Hall Green, Worcester, Weoley Castle, Bournville, Edgbaston, Rubery, Formby !!!!) - my son and daughter Formby, Merseyside Villa and proud - my lad wore the kit this week for trials for a new club - he was picked up and the Liverpool/Everton fans all thought it was a boss kit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Villa has run through the family... Grandad used to watch them (lived in Newtown and Kingstanding and worked for Bowmans in Aston). My Father had a trial for them in the 60's (alongside Willie Anderson who was the only one to make it at Villa from the trialists) and naturally supported them and its been passed on to me. I'd never consider supporting anyone else and If I do have children then they better support Villa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeHavilland Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Born May 5th 1957 in Bevington Road, never was a youngster more destined to become a Villan, but FFS, they could at least win the FA Cup again ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I suppose I'm the same as most American Villans. Been a Browns fan for 40 years...didn't know anything about 'soccer' as a kid...nobody played it when I was a boy. Growing up in Ohio, it was football (US style) or nothing. When my daughter began playing football (not US style) 12 years ago, I wanted to be involved so I learned about the game, got involved with some coaching programs and fell in love the sport. Now I needed a team, but didn't want to 'bandwagon' the big teams like every other American seems to...for me I really need an emotional connection with a team, like with the Browns. I guess this was all about the time Lerner bought Villa, so it all fell into place that they became my team. I love that the Browns and Villa are similar in many ways...proud history, passionate fanbase, maybe a bit long-suffering (probably moreso on our end), and hopeful of an imminent upswing. I like Randy Lerner, but understand that he needs to start having some success (on both sides of the ocean). He's had some tough luck with the Browns, but I think made a good call hiring in a team president to take care of team decisions. I'm also very excited about the Lambert hiring for Villa, so I'm optimistic about the future for both of my clubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderholt Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 I've just come back from travelling throughout the States & of the American Villa fans i've met the most commonest things that were the reasons for becoming Villans are... 1) Randy Learner/the Browns (obvious American connection) 2) The name of the club 3) The team colours (there's just someting about that claret & blue) But whatever their reasons for joining our club, welcome our American friends, you've joined a fantastic club with a great fan base & a long, established history. Talking of following Villa because of the name. There's a guy that works for my employers down in south London, born & bred cockney.. he's a Villa fan supported tham all his life. No connection with Brum, he just liked the name as a kid & followed them ever since. Though family & friends have tried to "turn" him to the big London clubs, he's remained a Villan. Fair play to him. I love ringing him up to chat about the Villa in his "Souff Landan" accent. As for me born & bred in south-east Birmingham, Dad & older brother were fans so just followed them, so glad i did i love this club... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderholt Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 Was given the name Aston as soon as i was born ,pretty much straight forward from then on. bet you drive an Aston Martin too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troon_villan Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 And lives in a Villa with Ian Taylor......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justified Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I was born and lived in Manchester until I was 10yrs old. My old man is a Manchester City fan and took me to all the home games (Kippax St Stand) from 6yrs to 10yrs old when we moved. We moved to near Dewsbury in Yorkshire where I went along with the lad next door to all the Leeds Utd home games. We moved again when I was 12yrs old to the midlands. When I arrived in the midlands I went along with school friends to see Albion, Wolves, Blues, Walsall, Coventry and Villa. I preferred Villa and bought one of the little round pin badges (all the rage in the early 80's). I finally came out to my old man a year or so later. So Villa was my choice as a teen rather than being brainwashed by peers/parents/siblings. It made sense to me to support a club I could go watch every week, no way could I get to see Man City more than a couple times a year at that age with no transport. Have to say my old man was fine about it. He spends a lot of time involved with non league football (commercial director at a local club) so we get to spend a lot of time together as my eldest lad plays for his first team. Youngest has just moved into the B'ham floodlit league this year but is nominally playing under the same club (it's complicated). I took my experience and changed it up with my lads. Support Villa or GTFO! Luckily all three support the mighty Villa. I guess I'm also lucky in that I have no bluenoses in the family. Half of my family are Man City and the other half Man Utd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponky Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I was nominally a Liverpool supporter as a kid in the small Victorian city of Mildura because one of my mates from school had a last name of Dalglish and reckoned Kenny was his dad's cousin or some such, and after that because Craig Johnston was pretty much the only Aussie playing over there for a long time. I didn't really watch English football much, although I loved watching our national team play, because despite the above I didn't really give a crap about Liverpool. After the 06 World Cup in Germany I decided I was going to take an active interest in the premier league but didn't really know who to support. I was taking a bit of an interest in my family history at the time and decided to take a genealogical approach to who I would support - I decided to take the location of my oldest family connection in England and support the Premier League club that was geographically closest to that location - very luckily for me the Scum were in the Championship that year! And this was 2 weeks before Doug sold the club to Randy and MON was hired! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumbob Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I was 5 maybe 6, not really knowing what football was, living on the outskirts of Liverpool in a house where my brother and my father were Everton season ticket holders, they always wanted me to follow them. Me and my brother were bought a pack of panini stickers, he was buzzing cos he got an Everton shiny, and tried to make me jealous, I said I dont care cos i've got Dalian Atkinson and Dean Saunders, and convinced the rest of my family that I supported the Villa, not knowing at that time who they were or were they were based! My dad has always said that he was going to buy me an everton season ticket for the upcoming season that was starting 3 weeks later, that never happened all because of the stickers I was given that day. Since that day i've been a villa fan, through bad times and the good, villa through and through! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarVillan Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I've lived in Texas my entire life and here football (American) has always been king. I grew up playing American football, baseball and basketball... but not so much soccer (I hate referring to the game as soccer by the way, but this post would be damned confusing otherwise). I did play some as a young kid, but as my friends stopped playing to focus on other sports, I did the same. A few years ago, I decided to follow the sport to bridge the gap between the NFL and NBA seasons as my baseball team (Astros) was slowly circling the shitter. More and more Premier League contests were available on TV so I started planning my Saturdays and Sundays around the games that were on. I soon realized that if I was going to truly educate myself not only on the sport but on the culture of the fans then I needed to select a team and throw myself into it fully. I'd just read a fantastic book called 'Bloody Confused' that touched on this so I set about choosing a squad. My wife is British and half of her family follows Chelsea and the other half are bluenose. While they do not support the same side they do have one thing in common... they are all shitbags. Immediately those two were out. I also wasn't going to be a frontrunner so that made me cross a few more off the list. Finally, I discovered a buddy at work was a Villa fan so I had someone to actually discuss the club with so after a long search I had found my football home. I will actually be breaking away from the wife and her family on our next trip to London to take my little boy up to Villa Park. Even if we can't get in or see a match I want him to see the park that we watch on TV every weekend. My son and I have fallen in love with sport... we are new Villans, but we are proud Villans! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodigan Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 was never a choice really.... great grandad was apparently on the villa books, although whether or not that is family folklore has never been determined... now take great joy in taking my son through my carefully saved (and complete) panini 81, 82 and 83 albums, and showing him what the last truly great team looked like... its a real shame that the only people he recognises in the whole album are those that are now managers, and sid, of course... at 10, he's always been villa through and through, despite having been born in hk and only having been to villa park twice... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieZ Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I followed the Premier League as a neutral for quite some time, flirted with Fulham and Everton for a bit, but ultimately, Villa just stuck while the others didn't. The O'Neill era was just getting underway and there was some optimism in the air, and I was a big fan of both Olof Mellberg and Martin Laursen. I can't say it was a conscious decision, though. Ultimately, I found myself checking in on Villa results more than other teams, and going out of my way to watch matches. I bought a Villa shirt (and a bunch of cheap shorts on eBay) and haven't looked back, despite the fact we've been absolute garbage the past couple seasons. I've never really supported a team that has ever had a chance of winning anything (Aston Villa, St. Pauli, USA, Portland Timbers...I suppose Die Nationalmannschaft are the lone exception, but I can only support them at the Euros without a conflict of interest), so I tend to take it in stride. It would be nice to see some brighter days ahead, though. Up the Villa and all that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderholt Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 There's a guy i've got to know through playing Call of Duty with over the Internet. He's Scottish, lived in Scotland all his life & is a Villa fan. i asked him to tell me the story of how he became a fan as he has no connection with Bham or family connection down here. He said, as a wee boy his dad had a mate who was a bluenose who had moved from Bham to Scotland for work. His dad used to wind up the bluenose by telling him his son (my call of duty mate) was a Villa fan. It stuck & my mate grew up a Villa fan in a sea of Scottish clubs. So the moral of the story is... Good things come out of winding up Bluenoses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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