Re: Manchester United V Aston Villa: Saturday 16th April 3PM

by **villabromsgrove** Sat Apr 16, 2016 4:43 pm

Sandie wrote:Might Richardson be our worst ever player?

He might be close. Now that he's been taken off we've nearly scored with Gestede. Black is an absolute Looney when it comes to management!

by **Sandie** Sat Apr 16, 2016 4:53 pm

He is. I really can't make any sense of what he's trying to do.

Anyway, the final whistle has gone and we are now officially relegated. Anyone feeling any different? No? Me neither.

by **villabromsgrove** Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:03 pm

I can honestly say that it's a real relief. No more conjecture, it's official. Aston Villa have removed themselves from the Premier League. Other teams didn't do this to us, we did it to ourselves.

I'm not sad, I'm not mad, those emotions were dealt with a long time ago. Hopefully this will signal the end of clueless idiots masquerading as managers and coaches at Villa Park and BMH.

Villa have a lot of hard work to do before a large number of fans will step back onside. Hopefully Bernstein and his board will have fully realised by now that proper money must be spent to attract a proper management team.

by **Sandie** Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:20 pm

You've summed up my feelings too. I just hope that with it confirmed things will start moving faster.

by **villabromsgrove** Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:47 pm

It's a shame that we've got four more games to play. Ideally it should end now. One thing's for certain, Black needs a bomb under his arse (metaphorically) and he has to stop playing the "usual suspects". This season finished today for all useful purposes, so the next four matches have to be treated as pre season matches.

by **Sandie** Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:58 pm

Yes.

Someone somewhere has to realise that persisting with some of our players is only damaging the relationship between fans and the club. Black clearly doesn't. I'd love to see us bring a new manager in now that we've got relegation out of the way then let him prepare for next season in the last four. That's probably not going to happen.

by **Sandie** Mon Apr 18, 2016 12:06 am

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/17/manchester-united-aston-villa-eric-black-premier-league

The first thing Lerner should do is reverse a culture of excuses. After this defeat to Manchester United confirmed Villa’s drop into the Championship, Eric Black was twice offered the chance to describe their campaign as a shambles yet the caretaker-manager hid behind platitudes.

He was speaking as Joleon Lescott claimed that going down was a “weight off” the team’s shoulders; the latest disconnect between club and fans in a season studded with miserable displays and unprofessional conduct.

Villa have been bottom of the table since 25 October after 10 games, when they had four points, two fewer than Newcastle United and Sunderland. In the 24 games since, the 1982 European Cup winners have taken a barely credible 12 points.

Yet when asked if shambolic was a fair description of this, Black refused to send a message to the Villa players and, just as importantly, their fans, which is simply not good enough.

“Everyone has their own adjectives they like to use,” said the Scot. “It has been a difficult season for everybody involved with Aston Villa. Having spoken to a lot of people at Villa the only thing that is in their mind is taking this big club back and, hopefully, the supporters will get a feeling for that.

“There is no point standing here and criticising. That’s done, it’s over; we should be looking to rebuild and if that can start on Monday morning then great, because this is a fantastic football club. There is nobody who would deny that.”

Perhaps Black could explain to travelling Villa fans why there is no point criticising. Especially after witnessing Marcus Rashford’s seventh goal for United consign Villa to a 24th league defeat. Or after he appeared hard-pressed to convince all of his players to applaud their loyal support, who had lent Old Trafford the sort of atmosphere one might expect from the home fans.

Admittedly Black has only been in charge since 31 March, but given he is not responsible for the shambles, there was more freedom for him to speak clearly.

This is spot on. Black has elsewhere spoke again about repairing the disconnect between club and fans but still seems to have no idea what to do about it. I think people would have a lot more respect for him and possibly even the club if he took a hard line. If he was more critical, dropped many of the worst performers and was open with us. There are young players, there are exciting players and there are different players who I think our fans could support feel more of a connection with that he could pick. Our current starters are not winners. In fact they are abysmal failures who have eked out a career that is either dining out on past glories or built upon the effort and talent of others. At this point, we can't get double relegated so what's Black scared of?

I think he would find it would go some way towards starting the repairing of the damage the failures have done this season. Even in the existing toxic atmosphere our fans have supported the players who give 100%. Play a few more of that kind of character and ignore the weasel words of failures like Lescott and the fans will back it. What is appealing about not doing that? These players have shown over the past eight months that they don't have it in them to perform. Frankly, the only way the fans will be able to extract any enjoyment of these players taking to the Villa Park pitch is if we abandon the game of football, put Lescott and Bacuna in some stocks and the club leave some complimentary rotten fruit for throwing at them by each seat. It helps nobody.

by **villabromsgrove** Mon Apr 18, 2016 12:58 pm

Black proved in one sentence in his post match interview that he doesn't understand Villa or Villa fans. He said after we'd been relegated by an awful Man U team performance that he thought "the players were outstanding today". That was the last bit of mind numbing garbage that we needed to hear at that moment.

by **Sandie** Mon Apr 18, 2016 3:40 pm

Aye, coming out with that kind of thing says a lot more. He is scared of upsetting the players. But kowtowing to the players hasn't exactly got us results.

by **villabromsgrove** Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:46 pm

Matches don't have any significance anymore. It doesn't matter what Black and his bunch of anarchic layabouts do or don't do, while the owner is throttling the life out of Villa with both hands!

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