Vår man på Holte End
Vår man på Holte End, Michael Hurley, ger sin syn på vad som händer i dagens Villa.
Trots att Villa nu är ett av ligans sämsta lag resultatmässigt ger Michael inte en nattsvart bild av vad som pågår i Birmingham. Läs här hans senaste krönika om hans tankar.
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Did I say it was getting better?
What can I say after a run of ten games with only one (lucky) win? Well to start with, it really is not as bad as it looks, sure there have been some games when Villa have been crap (Blackburn) and other games when we have played pretty well, (Newcastle). Then there have been other games when we have played both crap and well in spells, (Leeds).
Whilst it would be easy to say that it is not working with GT in charge. We really do need to give him some time. He should not be judged until maybe 10 or 15 games into next season. He is getting rid of the ‘deadwood’, like Dublin, Stone and Wright and is keeping faith with the young players. The youngsters are doing ok, but of course, they need time to develop and get used to playing together. We all hoped that things would change quickly, so it is disappointing that it is not going well at the moment, we should decide next November or December.
On the positive side, Barry, Hitz, Jlloyd, Delaney and Crouch are playing well and as youngsters, they should improve. These are the players that can really come through next season, when they have had the opportunity to have a good run playing in the team on a regular basis. Crouch has done well since he joined Villa and Portsmouth fans were sorry to see him leave. I think that he will be a success at Villa. Added onto that list is Enckelman who deserves his chance as Villa’s number 1 keeper. Whenever he has played, he has done well. Others, that have been doing ok. are Olaf, Boateng and (just) Angel. Angel seems like he will go in the summer. He certainly does not seem happy since Gregory went, and though the Holte End love him, he has not really been playing particularly well.
Among the others who are having a dodgy time is Staunton, who is surely past it, Hendrie who is playing exactly like the bluenose that he is. Finally there is Vassell, who is great when he plays for England but has been rubbish lately for the Villa.
It now seems that we wont even get into the Intertoto, though it isn’t really clear now. Nobody really appears to know, but it is looking unlikely especially if we keep losing. Most Villa fans are not really bothered about the Intertoto, though I would like us to be in it as it is somewhere different to visit. Looking at it realistically, we are nowhere near good enough to have a good run in the UEFA, so maybe there is no real point to playing all summer in the Intertoto, then losing in the first round of the UEFA against some village team from Iceland or somewhere.
I should think that most of you would have been watching the Villa v Arsenal game, so presumably you saw the Norwegian flag in the Upper Holte End. I know that there was a good number of Villa that met up in Wirstroms in Stockholm, hopefully you all had a good time even though we lost the game. While Arsenal were obviously the better team, I do not think that we were too far behind them considering that they are probably the best team in England at the moment.
The only real excitement in the Midlands involves Wolves and West Brom fans, as they each try to get promoted. Villa used to have a big rivalry with Albion and fans from the two clubs don’t usually get on too well. Wolves and Villa have no bad history together, so I hope that Wolves go up. The main thing is that Birmingham do not get promoted as they a real wankers. Villa have played against Birmingham a couple of times in almost 20 years, each time the whole of the City Centre is like a war zone with pitched battles everywhere and mobs of those bluenose twats randomly attacking anybody not wearing blue.
Enjoy the season over there in Scandinavia and keep the faith
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