Can Turbulent Times at Aston Villa be a Smokescreen For a Good Season?
With the almighty fuss that has been happening with the midlands giants these past few months it would be easy to assume that ‘the Villa’ supporters are doomed to failure this season and their best years are behind them, although I don’t see Villa qualifying for Europe via their league position in the coming seasons I dismiss the wide consensus that the club will continue to struggle to adapt to the mass changes at the club and ‘poor decisions’ from their owners.
The setup of the club is fantastic, from the training ground, through to the stadium, youth setup and the owners. Yes owners! For all the criticism there are many clubs that would gladly accept Randy Lerner’s stewardship. For all the fan backlash he has received he has ignored them all and made decisions which would benefit the club.
Yes he probably made a poor decision in not keeping Martin O’Neill happy but we don’t really know the full story to just stand behind the fiery Irishman. I think the American knew if he stretched the clubs budget too much and had went along with the managers wishes the club might not recover in the long run.
Mr Lerner has done what all fans would want in reacting when times had gotten tough instead of using the Doug Ellis approach of watching the club fail he injected it with cash for Darren Bent smashing the clubs transfer record (among other recruits) and Villa soon turned their position around and recovered well with some top performances in the latter end of the season.
Appointing Gerard Houllier was not a mistake! Houllier is a proven manager at all levels with a great record at clubs ha has been at and just like the past when he has tried to throw players kicking and screaming into better behaviour and attitude they rebel and the experienced Frenchman gets the blame.
I also believe appointing Alex McLeish was a correct decision (hold throwing the rotten fruit in my direction!) as he has had solid finishes with neighbours Birmingham City and also won a trophy. He knows how to get the best out of players and will relish the better quality in personnel he has at his disposal.
Appointing McLeish proves my point in that if Randy sticks to his factual statistical approach in making decisions rather than just appeasing fans which is of course important the club will be just fine.
If all owners/managers listened to the fans all the time they would not have a plan to follow as fans change opinion on a weekly basis and then would blame owners/managers for not being worth their money and cannot be strong and make big decisions, oh the fickle world of football!
With the money they hold from the Stewart Downing and Ashley Young deals to Manchester United and Liverpool respectively I truly believe Aston Villa will have a good season and finish in the top eight in the premier league, especially if they add one or two more signings to the squad.
I always felt Aston Villa had to get into the champions league to keep hold of their two flying wingers and that it was inevitable they were going to leave at some point. Randy will spend the recouped money wisely and keep on making good decisions for the good of the long term future of Aston Villa Football Club.
