It’s a clear out. An overhaul. All the Macron you can eat, with a side helping of redundancies. Watch out for the bones of a failed regime.
The Villa Village [Idiots] have had a spring clean. Long overdue.
Out with the old…Tony Parks, Jack Woodward & Eric Black (haven’t you gone yet?). Paddy Reilly? The latter are presumably pleading not to be sent to our new Harbin Villa franchise.
So welcome…
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Steve Clarke, Kevin Bond, Massimo Battara & Massimiliano Marchesi. MOMS has compiled a succinct overview of their roles and individual pedigree.
Whilst it would be easy for me to wax lyrical about appointments whom the average supporter, myself certainly included, can honestly know very little about, a little reading does allow for some encouragement.
These appointments are reputable, professionally robust and most importantly for Aston Villa, signal an intent to improve. There have, after-all, been countless years where either the same old faces (Kevin McDonald *sigh*) or unfathomable no-marks (Eric “One Draw” Black) have been granted the freedom of Villa Park.
For a change, we appear to have appointed sensibly and logically. Some may come to call it; ‘True Narrative’.
These past few seasons have seen innumerable men appointed, as nice as they may be personally, who were totally unfit for the task required of them. For too long there has been a tolerance, almost an acceptance that average Joes and nobodies slide into roles at B6.
Hopefully this is where the line is belatedly drawn.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my fill of Garde’s, N’Zogbia’s, Woodward’s, Fox’s & company.
Jack Woodward is the handy, if unfortunate, metaphor.* **
[* If truth be told I’ve tired of blaming Lescott or Lambert].
[** Don’t blame JW for Villa’s demise; just your bleeding ears]
Woodward bordered upon the personification of how Aston Villa had become accustomed to the substandard. Unerringly pleasant, likely a nice personable chap in the real world; but who honestly (Honestly now…) took the time out to endure his coverage of our football club? At best a minority within a minority of fans.
Let’s not kid ourselves that we are backing up AVFC Podcasts or hurriedly burning CD’s for posterity in our later years. It was what it was; diabolically rubbish.
It’s a consistent, if painful theme.
Take Remi Garde [** Wish we hadn’t]. Lovely smile, an array of delightful Jasper Conran sweaters received over consecutive
Noëls – but all this counts for diddly squat if you can’t win a game of football.
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And who wouldn’t enjoy a beer with Tim Sherwood? Anecdotes aplenty, “lad banter” and that disarming smile. Although, I’m not sure I’d even trust him to make a ploughman’s lunch to my liking, let alone revisit the experience of his attempts to manage our football club.
The point is that for too long Aston Villa has embraced the mediocre.
We have invited ineptitude, cultivated failure and my haven’t we reaped the rewards. We even carried Martin O’Neill through the gates of Villa Park in our hundreds for goodness sake.
Lesson learned.
For years, from top to bottom, Villa have gradually self destructed. It’s no secret.
Year on year of academy players who apparently promised so much yet delivered so little.
Consecutively dreadful sponsorship deals that diluted our brand at home and abroad.
Countless faces on and off the pitch who caused more harm than good to the prospects of Aston Villa. Reputation is one thing, but the actual manner of our relegation will linger longer in the memory for most.
So it’s for these reasons that it’s worth welcoming the newcomers. They have the experience, the pedigree and the skills to move Aston Villa forward massively. They have a truly great opportunity to reverse our fortunes.
Crucially, they’re very un-Aston Villa.
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They’ve also a massive task on their hands, a job bigger certainly than any one man, especially Di Matteo. The question is whether the club now understands this concept. Only time will tell & they will need time.
The newly convened coaching team have also got time against them with The Championship season quite literally a matter of weeks away. Hardly ideal given the squad they stand to inherit, but hopefully they have drawn conclusions already from afar. It could easily be a cull.
These are the early, hopefully promising signs of a new regime. It is against a backdrop of abject failure under Lerner, so the jury should remain out a little longer, but it does represent progress.
Progress, of course, being the absolute minimum we can afford.