MON has left the building

I used to support The Villa. Here in NZ you can sometimes tell when someone started following football from the English club they support. Take for example all those Leeds supporters who appeared when Leeds were doing well in the early 1990s and all those Blackburn supporters of the mid 1990s when that club was in the ascendency etc etc.

Villa were pretty big around the time I was born. League Cup victories in 1975 and 1977, First Division Champions in 1980-81 ...and of course 1982. The greatest footballing year of my life (until a bunch of shop assistants, truck drivers, interior decorators, school teachers, window cleaners etc took to the field at the Club World Cup in 2009). In 1982 the All Whites marched on to Spain and Villa lifted the European Cup in Rotterdam. I don’t really support Villa anymore. Reading this blog you may be forgiven for thinking that I don’t support the Premier League. I don’t. Sure I keep a watch out for The Admiral’s performances and I do follow the relegation battles come the end of the season but I don’t follow the other end of the table. Why bother when only 4 (and a half) teams are ever going to win the Premiership – the half is reserved for Spurs and Citeh.

Anyway, there’s been much discussion about why MON left. Some say he was sick and tired of trying to build a competitive side with Randy selling (or looking to sell) his best players at the end of each season – Barry, Milner, Young etc etc. Some are sad to see him go. Others argue MON had more money at his disposal than any Villa manager in recent history and still couldn’t do any better than 6^th place. Arguments which take from the past to explain the present/future are troublesome. Time goes forward not backwards. What was a considerable sum to spend on players back in 2005 ain’t so in 2010.

There was one reader’s comment on the Guardian website which reckoned Villa without MON was headed straight for the Championship. One can only hope. If that happened I might consider supporting them again.