After my somewhat spontaneous “burst of pride” post last night, it seems at least Nick Hawkins agrees with me;
What makes a big club?
Is it the trophy list they have won, or the history given we were one of the founding members of the first football league, or is it based on global support?
Every fan says their club is big, but how do we measure that?
Let’s take Man Utd. In the 90s they were the dominant force; in the 80s it was Liverpool, however prior to United winning the league in 1992-93 their last league title was 1966-67. That’s a long gap.
Liverpool have never replicated the 80s in the league but had success in Europe, the magic night of coming back 3-0 down vs AC Milan, so where does villa measure in this?
We have won the European cup but look at us now, a relegation battle again for the 4th yr running.
How can we go from challenging the top 4 to this? That is another topic up for discussion which I will address in another article.
Personally, I think Villa should be playing European football. That’s how big I believe we are and I measure that on the traditions of the club, we are the main team in the 2nd biggest city in England, the fact that a club is built on its stadium, trophy list and fans.
We will never be a small club. We are Aston Villa FC
Similar story MATE.
I found myself very respective of football clubs although there is a few I detest. I still now look at the likes of Leeds, forest, both shefields, portsmouth, wolves and more as massive clubs. Clubs that have real history in football, large and loyal fan base, stadiums, the players they have had and so much more. Football clubs with stories to tell! It genuinely angers me when someone calls Aston villa a small club and belive me I hear it regularly. It tends to come from one person in particular who happens to be a Derby fan, I still show his team the respect and tell him his own club is huge just like mine. I guess the use “big club” is used in many ways. You speak to a man united fan who lives in some country town 400 miles from machester and he will say Aston villa is a piss pot club, with crap players and shit manager. On the other hand you speak to a Bournemouth fan who stayed with his local team, he will tell you the villa is huge with some decent players and a decent manager.
I cannot stand speaking to someone on Monday morning who watched Villa loose at the weekend and simply say we were shit! He cannot coment on why but because we don’t score or we loose we were simply shit! Some football fans just don’t feel the game like we do. As it’s been said there’s either glory hunters or true loyal fans. They just want to see big signings, 40yard gaols and trophies. How do you measure a football club is a good question. For me if you are a true fan of football you know deep down. The interesting question for me is how many of these “big clubs” like chelsea and man united have real loyal, true football loving supporters?
I could go on and on with my views on the state of football today and the lack of respect some fans show towards mine and other clubs. Banter is one thing and it’s part of the game but these idiots tell me as if it’s a fact how big mine and other clubs are.
Meh!
Tom, I like it mate that’s how I feel as a fan, in the days of Don Rev, we feared Leeds, they was the team of the year, Nottingham Forrest, even Burnley, all fell by the way, but Villa was always a club to fight back, we cannot say today that we can do just that, not with an owner or Manager we have, I dont want us to go the same way, we are a big club ,we should have big ideas, problem is we have been hijacked by a yank that don’t understand our ways.
Anyone see the article on the BBC website about footballers who have lost their fortunes? 3 out of the 4 are ex-Villa…! Lol!
What was the odds on that?