Aston Villa and their ‘f*** you’ to fans relegates Man Utd arguments

Editor F365
Aston Villa fans
Aston Villa fans

Aston Villa’s Champions League prices should put all the Man Utd squabbling into some perspective…for one afternoon at least.

Send your views on all subjects to theeditor@football365.com

 

Villa have issued a massive ‘f*** you’ to their fans
It was all set up so perfectly.

Aston Villa got into the top tier of European competition, the Champions League, for the first time in 41 years. The club is celebrating its 150th anniversary. The team are on the up, the fanbase is the most excited it has been in a long, long time and everything was looking good.

Until yesterday afternoon, when Villa posted the ticket prices for the CL matches.

When clubs such as Liverpool sell tickets between the price range of £30-£61 and Man City sell theirs between £37.50-£62.50, Villa decide to say a massive “f*** you” to fans that have followed them down to the Championship and back by announcing prices between £85-£97. Suddenly, fans excitement turns to anger at what is a blatant attempt at being fleeced. And all of this falls in the lap of one man who is making bad decision after bad decision after bad decision.

Chris Heck.

The man is damaging the club repeatedly. He has replaced the fan-chosen badge from last season to one he himself decided was better. He has introduced more hospitality whilst season ticket holders of decades have had their seats removed to make way. He even had the arrogance to announce the kit launch on his own socials BEFORE the club had done so. We all knew that the CL tickets were going to be pricey but I don’t think any of us were expecting to be bent over THIS badly. To put this into perspective, UEFA have capped all away tickets for the CL at £50 so it would be cheaper to sit with the visiting fans than with our own. Absolutely ludicrous.

I say with complete humility that I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford to go to the games, but do I really want to on general principle? What I do know is that for all the good that Nassef and Wes have done for our club, the worst thing they’ve done is appoint Heck.
Jeff Gowen, West Brom Villan

READ: Aston Villa ticket hike is deplorable, inexcusable and there’s only one winner

 

Arsenal fans addicted to copium
#WengerOut because *checks notes* only finishes top 4 and doesn’t challenge for the league, wins just a cup or two, only plays good football.

Fast forward 10 years & we love Arteta because *Check notes* he gets top 4 and plays good football & won 1 FA Cup in 4 years.

Arsenal fans are unmatched. Good to see all three mails on what I said filled with a great amount of copium of not winning the league in 20. I at least can admit that if United aim to win the league & don’t, they are failing. But Arsenal fans will do mental gymnastics for a manager who does EXACTLY what Wenger did and they hounded him out for.

Weak ass mentality. United may not win the league for 30 years maybe like Liverpool, who knows, but no matter what glorious football we play, if we don’t win the league for 30 years, it’s 30 years of failure in the league. We (and I include Arsenal + all club fans in this) made fun of Liverpool for that, would be mighty hypocritical of me to change my tune when it comes to my club.

And stop bitching about “progress”. The only progress Arsenal have had is winning the FA Cup in year 1 to not winning jacksh*t for 3 years. Liverpool also were “progressing” for 30 years till they actually won the league. City progressed from an FA Cup win to a league title under Mancini, that’s actual progress. Chelsea did the same under Mourinho, Liverpool under Klopp. Success means actual real tangible success like winning. Not made-up nonsense about always being oh so close.

Ole got 2nd, Brendan got 2nd, Wenger after 2005 got second, no one literally cares. Not your own fans mate, you hounded the man out.

Klopp goes down as a legend cause he WON. I’ve no problems saying that in spite of hating every second of it. No one would care if Salah scored 30 and Liv didn’t win shit. Ask Suarez & Brendan & Stevie G. If Klopp failed to win the league or UCL etc, he would be counted as a failure for Liverpool as a club. Try telling Madrid or Barca or Bayern Munich that 2nd or below isn’t failure. I hope that makes things clear.

I support Ten Hag the same way I supported Ole & Mourinho till the end, as they represent the United badge. But in the end, I don’t care who the manager is, till it’s a manager who wins us the league. I love all our players, but till they don’t win the league, they aren’t good enough.

I have spent a good 11 years watching crap at 3am on working days every week when playing in Europe at all levels, and happy to watch them do it for the rest of my life, but doesn’t mean I’ll accept that failure is good mate. Have some standards for f***’s sake. I would rather see Arsenal win than City take 5 in a row, but you gutless lot ain’t winning sh*t. Just keep “progressing” with nothing to show for it and dance come end of the season with your “progress” trophy while the real clubs go out and win an actual trophy. Don’t turn into Tottenham FFS.
Aman

MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 Man Utd: Keane claims position change can fix Ten Hag mistake after ‘unbelievably poor’ performance
👉 Man Utd: Romano reveals two reasons why late transfer didn’t happen; PL ‘too intense’ for Red Devil
👉 Man Utd ‘offered’ free agent as Ten Hag ‘orders’ transfer after ‘becoming obsessed’

 

Actually, Arsenal are an example to follow
I think Dion, Arsenal got it spot on. As a Utd fan it is quite depressing watching us play most weekends. I am very grateful however for our cup wins as the only silver linings we’ve had for a long time. I admire what Arsenal and Arteta have done over the years and that is a blueprint utd should follow.

If you remember back to early Arteta, there was a while where the debate was about who was doing the better job out of Arteta, Lampard and Solskjaer. Lampard left that conversation pretty quick while Ole seemed to be doing the better job for a while (and maybe he was given the other chaos around him).

However, I’d like to focus on how Arsenal fans have come to this happy place. Arteta did not come in and demand a squad overhaul. He didn’t even demand superstar signings. He largely worked with what he had with a few astute signings. He has been building steadily and is reaping the benefit of a long term plan.

Arteta’s league position has gone 8, 8, 5, 2, 2 and this season they’ll likely be 2nd again (if I’m wrong I’ll only be out by 1 either way). Some Arsenal fans were calling for his head during his second season. No, not just Stewie.

Man Utd have the resources and then sone to follow suit, they just haven’t had the patience to build properly. The constant pursuit for instant success is our biggest Achilles heel and has resulted in huge wasted expenditure for an unrealised hope of short term gain.

As a Utd fan, I’m clutching at those cup wins as a sign we’re still relevant. But my pain at each league loss or piss-poor performance is not so much down to the match itself but more to do with long standing issues that don’t get addressed.

We still have hope. Hope that the new football project is actually going to be a long term project rather than this repeat cycle. Off the pitch signs are promising. On the pitch there have been some small positives but there needs to be more for E10H to stay in his job.
Jon, Cape Town (quietly cheering the Gunners to overhaul the cheaters from top spot)

 

Man Utd in name only
Message for Rami, Sean and the like: you need to start channelling your inner Calvino.

Or read up on some English football history. There’s really quite a lot of it you know? It’s 135 years since the league started and Utd have been the most be-silvered team for a grand total of about 6 of them. Villa held that honour for more than 80yrs and you don’t hear them tearing apart the players and manager every time they lose.

The rot had begun setting in before Fergie the GOAT# departed and it’s only got worse. Out of date club structure and facilities, churning through managers and quick fix, big rep, big cost, post prime players.

Of course, you should have bought Allison, R Dias, Saliba, Rodri, Odegaard, Salah and Haaland managed by Pep *and* Ancelotti except none of them would have gone anywhere near you!

Imagine the conversation,

“Hi Vinicius. How’s senior? We’ve got a great offer to put your way.”

“What’s that mate, I can hardly hear you.”

“Oh, no worries, that’s just the rain pouring through the roof…. hello? ”

Tbh, I thought the writing was on the wall when you couldn’t hang onto early prime Ronaldo.

Consider this – the Fergie years might have been the anomaly and this SJR experiment might not work because of course, ‘this is Manchester United we’re talking about’ and they’re frankly impossible to manage. The slightest rick and half the country goes into meltdown. Guys, insert some control rods or something.

On a related note, I find comparisons with other clubs erroneous because there is no team like Utd – less a football club, more a national obsession. Like would I feel so free to write in like this about anyone else?

The state of the squad and institutions when ETH took over was abysmal and has barely improved. It’s like trying to fill a plant pot by throwing hands full of water at it. Players were falling out of the bottom faster that you can get them in the top; good players turning crap or going into early retirement (while still getting paid).

Crazy thought – maybe constant savage criticism doesn’t lead to optimum performance? Maybe give them a chance to get a settled first team together and things should improve?

Your new way is just getting started and for now you’re a decent team with a decent manager (who at the very least hasn’t lost his mind due to the pressure) and you should give them time (I’ve just started laughing writing this) and (ha ha) patience.

What am I saying? Sack the manager, get a load of new players in.

Regarding the game, Liverpool look scary good. My tip for the title now.

# Won’t be long before one of Pep or Ancelotti knock him off his f*cking perch eh?

Big love.
Hartley MCFC Somerset (I think this might be a really fun season)

 

And here’s Calvino
Oh I see Sean. Running away, eh? You red b**tard! Come back here and take what’s coming to you! I’ll bite your legs off! (*Monty Pythons- don’t call the police)

Mark, after a four day birthday bender, the FA Cup win and the seasons sad start, you may be right. Between United and the good times, it brings a rainbow of emotions. Sort of how I assume Liverpool & Arsenal fans feel most years. Gladly I’m not 13 and have experienced what the consistent good times were. *Sorry 20 year old Gunners & 30 year old Reds.

That said Sam, speaking of new manager bounce, Ten Hag actually lost his first two games in charge(1-2 Brighton & 4-0 Brentford- his boggy teams). This, before going on to beat Arsenal and LFC in his next four straight wins. Ten Hag isn’t conventional, and I think we align on that.

People forget how good his first season was, and how bad the season was before he arrived, or the fact we hadn’t won a trophy in five seasons prior to his arrival. Sure, he could have finished 8th with an FA cup win & came 8th with no trophy the next year, or 8th and two lost finals his first year, followed by no trophies and fourth his second, but he’s doing alright all things considered. Progress is different for us all, and it’s not always linear- a step back or delay allows us to pivot and grow. We’re exactly where we should to be.

Erik brings a lot of Idgaf, and I like it. His FA Cup “I’ll go and win trophies – it’s what I do” line will live in infamy, as will the final result and quarter final victory over Liverpool.

I’m not sure what gak is, but Gary on gak seems like a compliment as Gary writes very well. But please – with respect – don’t call me a Tory. While I am verbose, I do not bring the ship down in a spiral of suspicious self-serving lies.

I did notice during the last few mails how many have strong opinions about other teams they don’t necessarily follow or even like, which sprouted the question: Who are people’s most observed team outside the team they follow? (Not necessarily your second favorite team, but the team which garners most of your attention). Mine is Liverpool, and I feel like a Tory saying Russia in admitting that. Now I need a shower, one with Uisce beatha.

Thanks for the birthday wishes & long may Erik reign mo chairde👌
Calvino (The Black Knight, The Loud Minority, The Decoy, The Fox, The IDGAF)

MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 Man Utd: Keane claims position change can fix Ten Hag mistake after ‘unbelievably poor’ performance
👉 Man Utd: Romano reveals two reasons why late transfer didn’t happen; PL ‘too intense’ for Red Devil
👉 Man Utd ‘offered’ free agent as Ten Hag ‘orders’ transfer after ‘becoming obsessed’

 

Is Casemiro or Ten Hag the issue? It’s a long one…
Before thoughts quickly (perhaps thankfully) turn to Nations League stuff, may I express how amazed I was by the wild spectrum of cascading takes on Liverpool’s recent visit to Manchester?

The range of opinions was stunning, and as subtext to the football I actually rather enjoyed thinking about the many different personalities and dispositions seemingly on display, the logical or illogical reasoning abilities alike, which I believe so reflective of the many writing in. And this got me to thinking.

If one happens to be parent to an overweight, lazy teen who was once a star pupil and promising athlete, might he or she have a soft spot and be subconsciously (or even consciously) partial to justifying Casemiro’s display on Sunday? Or say you’ve divested good chunks of time and heart into a romance where the gut continually tells you something is off and red flags abound, but maybe you’re terrified getting back on dating apps or doing dodgy rounds at your local again… does this manifest somehow in dogged defense of Ten Hag and a wistfulness over all them lukewarm memories? Lukewarm is still warm ish, right ? Ah, asking the deep, deep questions. Genius correlations there.

Listen, honestly there are some truly observant, insightful, eloquent and/or persuasive people that make up this mailbox. I’m often at pause with certain viewpoints that articulate what perhaps I vaguely felt but did not yet fathom, or countered by other arguments that sway me because I’ve been made to come round to them, even those I loathe to accept.

But beneath so much good there is also some god-awful tripe lurking in this mailbox, like some whom decidedly troll and add very little nutrition, and others innocently misguided but managing to condescend all the same. Then still, there are those who seem overly and/or consistently emotional, deluded, unhinged even (…won’t name names).

So in between those who chimed in with bizarre or senseless knee-jerk rants, and others who undertook what they believed to be forensic analysis after no doubt replaying Sunday’s key passages like Zapruder footage, I’d like to simply say it isn’t inconceivable that diametrically opposing viewpoints can coexist and in fact all be “correct” (or more accurately, the opposing viewpoints cannot be reasonably disproven to thereby prove the other).

This has been a dead horse for several days now, but is Casemiro a scapegoat of wholesale systemic failure or a well-faded (albeit very decorated) athlete now unfit for purpose ? Did he let his team and manager down with catastrophic play, or did his manager trot out abysmal tactics ingrained after seasons of abysmal training routines on top of an abysmal dressing room ethos and abysmal club culture many years into decay? Make up your minds… but also, why can’t it be a bit of both, a bit of everything?

Ten Hag has continually and inexplicably done so very little to create churn, pattern and protection in the middle of the park, which goes some distance as to why the donut analogy exists and fits so compellingly for that rotten midfield. One could go higher up the chain to ask what ownership was thinking to have approved outlay for a player anyone could foresee was already passing precipice of decline when moving to Manchester.

Yet the same ownership had priors with Schweinsteigers of the world (or bought poorly with Freds, etc), yet also recently shipped McTominay out under pretense of supposed PSR constraints. And now some PSG cast-off is meant to play savior and perform a Harry Potter, as one would say. It’s incredibly shoddy all round, but I love that people write in arguing one sole rationale or the other, as if zero sum opinions are the height of insightful analysis.
Eric, Los Angeles CA (I’ll often undo a decent morning of cardio when having two or more desserts at lunch.)

 

Supporting your local team doesn’t always work
While I agree with the geeza who wrote in saying he loves to get down the pub and slosh around with some local mates before watching his local team play is a good thing if you’re into it. I disagree with the notion everyone should do it.

I don’t drink anymore, and after working in pubs throughout my youth find them horrendous places filled with obnoxious drunks. To be clear all drunk people are obnoxious including myself. Though that’s not why I stopped I just don’t enjoy how it makes me end up thinking about my dead son so I wisely decided to stop drinking.

I also was raised in Accrington so that would be my ‘local’ team. But I really don’t enjoy watching crap football and I imagine if alcohol was illegal you wouldn’t either. Apologies to any crown ground fans … I just don’t enjoy it and I think that should be equally as acceptable as enjoying going.

It’s also quite a strange viewpoint. As if the thing everyone enjoys about football is just that a match is played and not who is playing and how they’re playing. I know they’re poor and struggling for money but I so are homeless people yet I rarely see people sitting down for a chat with them and helping them out. Buskers (I’m guessing) have no money but if the Oasis gig gets cancelled you wouldn’t be advising people to get down to the local shopping centre to have a listen to purple haired Millie’s rendition of whatever pop song was hot that month.

Am I being hyperbolas (?spelling even my phone doesn’t know to spell it) a little but the point is the same. Watching United, City, Liverpool Brighton or literally any Premier League team is not the same as watching Stanley or other local teams. Some enjoy it and I’m happy for you, no sarcasm. But some other people really don’t enjoy it and that should be equally fine.

I imagine you’d get a bit mad if a Liverpool fan when we were going broke started asking people who weren’t fans and didn’t care to buy some club merch to save the club because ‘the club needed it’

Sorry for the slightly argumentative tone daily nightmares do tend to wreck your sleep.
Lee

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