Direktrapport från Villa Park
Läs en lång och innehållsrik artikel från Michael Hurley om den senaste tidens händelser på Villa Park. Michael andas lite optimist "-Generally there is some hope for optimism".
Six games into the season and plenty has been happening down at Villa Park, some good, some bad and some absolutely bloody awful. There is a general feeling that we will finish mid table at the end of the season so I suppose that what has happened so far should not come as any surprise.
O'Learys arrival has been welcomed by most, although not everybody is convinced that he will be the one to turn the team round. It was no surprise that Taylor went and out of the people that were available, then O'Leary was probably the best. He produced good results at Leeds, who have gone from bad to worse since he was sacked from there. The one reservation is that he spent a great deal of money at Leeds, who are now almost bankrupt. Time will tell if he can produce the results at Villa as there is no chance of Deadly coughing up much money
There have been constant rumours (some coming from the club itself) about a take over by some South American businessmen. Some of the newspapers were convinced it was going to happen last week, but in truth, nobody really knows what is going to happen. Ellis was given a particularly rough ride during the shareholders meeting and continues to be very unpopular with a large section of the crowd.
Away from home Villa have continued with their shocking form, played 3 lost 3, a reasonable performance against Arsenal and two embarrassments at Portsmouth and Man City. Its hard to explain why Villa have such a poor record away from home, but this has gone on for two or three seasons. We have had the occasional draw against teams like Man Utd, Newcastle and Liverpool, but we usually give three easy points to the home team. Until we manage to change the away form, then we will never be more than a mid table club at best.
At home, things are much better. Although the performances are not totally convincing, they've been good enough to beat a crap Leicester, an average Charlton and get a draw with a pretty good Liverpool. We still have the unfortunate ability to get 43,000 one week and the 32,000 the next, there are not many clubs who have such wildly varying attendances. Villa Park with 12,000 empty seats doesn't look too clever.
Generally there is some hope for optimism. The main plus point is Angel who is beginning to show his full ability, he has been absolute quality so far (well, at home anyway). Hendrie seems to have put the incident at Walsall behind him, he apologised to the fans and has been producing very good performances which have got the crowd behind him again. Mellberg has been tremendous as usual and O'Leary got a lot of stick for dropping him at Portsmouth. Whittingham has been a revelation and has proved to be very effective down the left side and as an 18 year old, looks to be an excellent prospect for the future
It is early days for the two new signings, Sorenson and McCann. McCann has done pretty well and looks to be a useful addition to our midfield. Sorenson has done ok, but has looked a bit dodgy with crosses, dropping a few and being involved in a couple of unfortunate defensive mix ups. Enks has almost disappeared without trace, he does not even get onto the subs bench and must surely be on his way out. O'Leary, who judged him on the two Small Heath matches last year, has not given him a chance and I think he has been treated badly. It was clear from the moment the manager came, that we would get a new keeper. There was never any intention to play Enks, who, overall has done ok for the Villa.
Injuries to Mellberg, Johnsen, Allback and Vassell, together with Barry's suspension have hit us hard and have showed that we do not have a particularly strong squad. Hitz has had the opportunity to claim a regular place in midfield but has put in some poor performances and seems to have gone backwards in the last 12 months. Alpays inclusion has totally split the fans with strong opinions on both sides. I should think that you have seen his reaction when he scored against Charlton. Alpay gets a lot of stick and my own view is that he deserves everything he gets. However there are a lot of fans who still support and cheer him. His 'shut up' gesture towards the Holte and his pushing away of Allback after he scored caused a lot of booing and it turned more fans against him. It also caused a few rows in the Holte as there were fans who didn't like the booing of Alpay
There have been a few articles doing the rounds about getting tickets for away games. Briefly, the club have not been taking their full entitlement of tickets for away games, which has meant that it is quite difficult to get tickets. The reason, as ever, is money. If Villa take the full amount off the home team then fail to sell them all, then they lose money. So what they do is take 1,500 which quickly sell out, meaning that another 1,500 fans cant get a ticket. The club has various different schemes for buying away tickets but what it effectively means is that as a season ticket holder who wants to go to half the away games, most of the time, you cannot get a ticket. Luckily, I managed to get a ticket for Chelsea but couldn't get one for Man City (but bearing in mind the score, maybe it was better to stay at home anyway)
Away from B6 then its good to see Ian Taylor scoring a few goals at Derby and Crouch doing the same on loan at Norwich. Pity that Wolves are attempting to set a record for getting the all time fewest points and conceding as many goals as they can in the process. Worst thing (even worse than Alpay) is Small Heath who are getting some good results - bastards
The indications are that its likely to be an average season. While we are miles behind the top 4 or 5 teams, there are signs that there is a definite improvement on last season and things surely wont be that bad this year. There is still a long long way to go, the away form really needs sorting out and it may be next season before O'Leary can really be judged properly. At least there will be no danger of us going down it has already been arranged for Wolves and Leicester, joined by either Fulham or Leeds.
