Aston Villa News 24/7I suppose this might seem like odd timing, but I was planning on compiling and publishing this right before the West Ham game and then Martin O’Neill went and put the kybosh on things. I thought I’d leave the survey open for a little while longer to see whether any of the data trickling in after MON’s departure would take any kind of dip, but I really didn’t see that.
That’s a good thing since I was looking for expectations, not predictions. I wanted to know the sort of progress in each competition it would take to leave you with a satisfied feeling in 10 months time and though I labelled it “MON’s 5th season”, it will still be season 5 of the rebuilding following Randy Lerner buying the club.
After dithering for a while, I decided to pull this together once we had successfully qualified for the Europa League since I had a good idea that was high on fans’ priorities. After Thursday’s terrible result, I once again considered not publishing this for fear of it appearing motivated through sour grapes. That can’t be helped though, the longer I leave it, the less relevant it becomes.
So, I asked you to tell me the priorities you held each of the four competitions we are playing in and the minimum progression you expect. Here are the results…
Premier League
Of course, the league is the number one priority for the overwhelming majority, but I was surprised that only 77% rated it as such. I may not have worded the question as well as I could.
Speaking of wording, I wanted to try to get a feel for how important European qualification is without specifically asking, so I implied it based on league finish, indicating that a top 7 finish also meant a Europa League place at least. 81% of you felt Villa should finish 7th or better, with 11% of you expecting a top 4 finish and Champions League qualification.
Europa League
52% of you, like myself, felt that the Europa League should be priority number two this season.
Of the 93% of you who expressed any interest in how far Villa should progress in Europe, all but 3% expected the group stage to be successfully negotiated and the knockout phases reached. 37% thought that Villa should at least make the quarter-finals.
There are an awful lot of disappointed Villa fans right now. Unacceptable, Stan? Yes, yes it is.
FA Cup
44% thought the FA Cup should be the third priority, while 36% thought it should be second priority. I suppose they’re all in the second priority camp now.
I don’t know whether the lack of European distractions mean that fans will expect more from the FA Cup, but 48% expect a quarter-final appearance and 23% said they want another semi-final trip to Wembley. 9% said they expect Villa to make the final and were split evenly about whether that was enough, or they wanted to see the trophy with claret and blue ribbons tied around the handles.
League Cup
Did this competition just get a whole lot more important to Villa fans? Maybe, but 58% said this should be 4th on the list of priorities.
20% said they didn’t care what Villa did in the League Cup, while 17% felt we should go one better than last season. Most respondents, 28%, felt that the quarter-finals would be just fine, although they might now expect a little more.
My Expectations
Outside of the constraints of a survey, I can be a little more expansive. We’ve had four seasons of improved league performances and I expect that to continue. If we could turn a couple of draws into wins and a couple of loses into draws, that’s an extra six points and, depending who those points are taken from, that will almost certainly lead to an improved position.
Probably not quite Champions League, I can see at least four teams practically guaranteed to finish above us, but maybe 5th. The important thing for me was a 4th straight season of qualifying for Europe, so I suppose I would have to be happy with a top 7 finish, especially at the moment.
My European aspirations have clearly already been smashed to pieces, but I was really optimistic about getting out of the group stage and then perhaps going at least one stage further than Moscow a couple of years ago.
Do I now transfer that expectation to the domestic cups? Right now, given the state of flux, I don’t. As far as the League Cup goes, as great as it was making it to the first cup final in a decade last season, I’m with the 20% of you that don’t care. I really don’t, play the reserves for all I care.
It’s hard to feel the same about the FA Cup though. Although it’s one of the most recognised and watched domestic cup competitions in the world, if progress were to come at the cost of a single point in the league, it’s not worth it in my opinion. Not at the moment, but my view may change once we appoint a manager and the transfer window closes.
So I suppose the biggest question is whether fans are now lowering the bar of their own expectations because we’re currently managerless. If we end up 8th place in May with a couple of early exists from the two cups, will it be shrugged off because MON abandoned ship so late? Will that even be regarded as an achievement under the circumstances?
Or, as I’m leaning toward, do we not have every right to expect the team that did so well last year to do at least as well this year regardless of who is in charge?
I’m sure we’ll all change our views as the season progresses and that was really the point of this exercise. My feeling in the last couple of years is that we’ve got close to the top four during the season, but fallen back to a final position most fans would have been delighted with if offered it before a ball have been kicked.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey, it’s been extremely interesting to learn the general aspirations. I very much hope to be able to link back to this post at the end of the season and remind you all that we did better that most fans hoped.
Apart from Europe. Obviously.
You might also like...
5 Comments to “Your Season Expectations – Survey Results”
Leave a Reply
It’s interesting that you actually expect our league progress to continue.
Are you sure you aren’t confusing expectation with hope?
My expectations for this season have plummeted and the only thing I expect at the moment is to survive relegation, as there are bound to be 3 teams worse than us.
That may seem harsh and probably fickle, but unless Lerner pulls off a major coup, we’ll be doing nothing of note this season imo.
All my assumptions were based on MON improving the squad and it’s all gone out the window now
Looking at the calibre of available managers, it’s quite scary, but I think Lerner may have to appoint one of them just to try and steady the ship, let alone improve us, hopefully with a top manager coming in next year.
Doom and gloom in the Badger household at the moment I’m afraid.
That said, I’m quite looking forward to us eventually getting a top manager, so we can move on and try something different to the MON approach.
well that’s probably the key question now, badger. are you willing to drop your expectations for aston villa football club in 2010/11 because of the manager situation?
apparently you have and will presumably be satisfied with less. i’m just not there yet. not yet, but at depends on the depths we plumb in the coming months.
that’s not to say i don’t understand that we’re far more likely to do worse than better and that i’ll be incapable of rationalising that fact in 10 months time.
but to be bloody minded, my aspirations lie with aston villa football club in what is the fifth year of this regeneration project and right now i haven’t lowered my own personal bar of what the club should achieve this season.
my position is that having bought into the slow and steady approach we’ve adopted, i don’t believe we can shrug our shoulders and readjust our targets every time something doesn’t go our way.
we’ll never reach our goals that way.
i also don’t subscribe to this notion that we have to pump 10′s of millions into the transfer market every summer to keep pace. we’ve got a good side that ran very close for a long time last season, but arguably ran out of steam while perfectly decent squad players watched from the bench.
i still say on the pitch we’re just one or two players short and those players may turn out to be albrighton and delfouneso for all we know. (assuming ireland fills milner’s boots)
if randy finds the right manager and he hits the ground running, picking up where MON left off – a big task i know – there’s no reason why this season can’t be salvaged.
i’m not writing it off yet, but i’m not naive about the mess we’re in right now.
“are you willing to drop your expectations for aston villa football club in 2010/11 because of the manager situation?”
It’s not a question of me wanting too Dan, I don’t see we have a choice in the matter.
I liked MON and whereas I understand some didn’t, I think it’s safe to say he could make that team play to the best of their ability most of the time.
A new manager, whoever he is, will be very different and that means a clear-out I would imagine. I don’t see this happening in this window, so that’s half of the season written off straightaway imo.
There’s never much room for manouvere in the winter window, so that’s the season gone, again imo.
I won’t be satisfied with less, but accept it’s just part of the game.
This year will be a regressive one and yes, I accept that.
Perhaps I’ve lowered my expectations so I’m not disappointed too much, I don’t know, but I expect major disappointment awaits you.
Of course, it all depends who we get as manager.
“i also don’t subscribe to this notion that we have to pump 10’s of millions into the transfer market every summer to keep pace.”
Unfortunately, I do.
You can’t expect young kids coming through (no matter how good they are) to equal proven class players that cost loads of money.
It’s just not possible.
As for our squad players, I’m minded to think that most of the usual suspects just aren’t good enough.
Some have cost loads of money, I know and would do a very decent job at lower/mid table teams, but you need more at the highest level.
This costs money, simple.
Agreed, we’re not that far short of being a very good side, but this depends on the manager again. Expecting any new manager to be able to motivate the players in the same way as MON is a very big ask. KM doesn’t seem to be able to do it and I don’t expect anyone else too either.
Which takes me back to my first point.
Hopefully, I’m wrong and talking out of my proverbial
my thing is that when MON came in, a clear out was required. the club was in a mess from top to bottom, the team was largely very poor.
the hard work’s been done over the last four years and i’m really hoping for a continuation in a way we’re very much not used to.
sure, there will need to be changes, but i fear anything more than a few tweaks will be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater and that will take us back to a cycle of bouncing around the league, changing players and managers every 2 or 3 seasons, and getting nowhere fast.
but that’s down to randy to manage and that’s where my expectations lie.
“the hard work’s been done over the last four years and i’m really hoping for a continuation in a way we’re very much not used to.”
Nope, there will be big style changes.
MON had his own way of working that won’t suit most other managers, imo.
Players out?
Most of the side, I suspect, the faves apart.