How the fans protests will only lead to disastrous consequences for Aston Villa.
One only has to look at the treatment of Steve Kean at Blackburn to realise that protests have no positive effect on a team. All it leads to is self-fulfilling prohecies of relegation. This weekend the Aston Villa fans have arranged for a
protest before the game against Alex McLeish. They believe that with him in
charge the team will be relegated like Birmingham were last season. Understandably
they are worried, however, is this kind of action going to galvanise a team
that is lacking in self-confidence and belief?
There is a common belief that in order to stay in the league
home form is vital. So when comparing results between home and away this
season, Villa have picked up more points away and rank as the 8th
best team. However their home form has resulted in 5 losses and they rank at 14th.
They have scored less at home than away and have not won in 6 games. Why are
Villa performing worse at home than away? As much as the manager and players can
be blamed, I believe that the fans play a major part in how this season will
turn out.
Is McLeish lacking the motivational skills necessary to
inspire a team clearly lacking a buzz or are the players to fault for their own
performances? It really comes down to both, yet the biggest factor at fault is
the fans. This constant negativity and lack of support, especially in home
games, is a remedy for disaster. Players feed off the atmosphere and all too
often this season Villa Park has resembled a morque more than a football
stadium. It is no surprise that Villa perform better away, away from the
negativity, receiving constant support and noise from a continued passionate
support. It is sad when a team is better away because they are away from the
criticism of their own “faithful”.
People will argue that success breeds a positive atmosphere,
however is it not more likely that success comes from the support of the fans. Under
O’Neill the atmosphere at Villa Park was electric and it clearly galvanised the
team. When comparing attendances from last season to this one the crowd has
gone down, the atmosphere is dropped. Since McLeish took over there has been a
belief from the off that he was not the right man for the job. And some fans
have refused to support the man at the helm. This attitude is not going to do
anything but lead the team to relegation, how ironic would it be that the fans
who believe we will be relegated will effectively create a self-fulfilling
prophecy through their lack of support for the manager and thus the team.
When the fans boo the team it becomes counter-productive,
during the summer the fans moaned about every manager Villa were linked to and
in their unrealistic expectations of who and where Villa are. Under Martin O’Neill
Villa’s best finish was 6th, yet this is completely unrealistic now
as Spurs and Man City are stronger than they were and Villa are weaker. In O’Neill’s
reign he was given high wages and transfer fees. It can be argued that it is
through these high wages and poor transfer decisions that the present problems
at Villa have been created. The fans should respect McLeish for taking a job that
he knew would require cutting the wage bill, selling players and buying only with
a small transfer budget, how can he try to emulate O’Neill?
It is important to note this is a difficult period for
Villa, they have invested a lot in the last few seasons and yet came up short, this
has resulted in losing good players and have possessing too many old and
overpaid ones. McLeish has been brought in to steady what was a volatile ship
and what the fans need to do is support the team, create a positive atmosphere.
The team that O’Neill had is nothing like what McLeish has at his disposal. Yet
the fans appear not to recognise this, they believe he should be performing to
O’Neill’s level, even though McLeish has almost no budget for players and has
been forced to reduce the wage bill. The current team need the fans on their
side.
Many fans will argue that his style of play is negative,
that it is too defensive. Yet so was O’Neill, he played counter attack football
every game, yet had the personnel to implement it effectively. McLeish has not
been given this luxury. McLeish inherited a team of ageing, overpaid players
and in fairness his own signings have not been good enough; N’Zogbia has not
performed as expected; as good as he is when on form, he suffers from a
terrible lack of consistency and if you watched Wigan play these past few years
you would realise that his signing was not going to replace both Young and
Downing. Alan Hutton has showed that he is a Championship player at best and Jenas
was unfortunate to get injured so early as he could have done a good job for
Villa. It is only Given who has shown his worth. His decision to continue play Warnock must be
questioned as he is proving to be liable to a mistake and goal in every goal at
this time.
A real positive for Villa
is that they do have an excellent youth system which contains real talent which
O’Neill chose to ignore. Barry Bannan’s comments were very interesting
regarding O’Neill. He has brought out more from Ireland and is playing
Cuellar at centre back which is better for the team and they possess a real gem in Gary Gardner. What the team needs to do is get through this season and build from there.
Do the fans really want Villa relegated? By their actions it
would appear so, perhaps if these the protesters want to see improved results they
should try supporting their side instead, McLeish is not going anywhere. I believe that those who protest don’t
actually support the team at all because real support goes through good and bad, if they want the players to give 100% then they should too. There are some
very poor teams in this league and Villa are much better than Birmingham were, with
total support of the fans relegation should not be an issue.
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