Aston Villa News 24/7I’m getting a little irked with a lot of the reporting around Villa in recent times. Let me be clear; I couldn’t be happier that Nigel Reo-Coker is going to be wearing the armband and will also be negotiating a new contract at the club, regular readers will know I’m a fan. However, you’d think from the way it’s being portrayed that NRC had been exiled to Siberia and was literally coming in from the cold.
Obviously Reo-Coker isn’t top of Martin O’Neill’s Christmas card list, and we know the way things were going it looked very much like he’d be seeing out his contract and would be off next summer, but to paint the man who remained the club’s vice-captain as entirely persona non grata is certainly pushing the boundaries of accuracy.
That alone wouldn’t be too bothersome, I can understand the need for journalists and bloggers to pad their work with an interesting narrative, but it’s part of a general theme I’ve spotted where situations at Villa have been credited as change-under-a-new-regime when they’re nothing of the kind.
Here are a few examples of developments that became patterns during pre-season, but weren’t even brand new during the summer:-
- Ashley Young played behind the main striker, or “in the hole” as it’s frequently described.
- Aston Villa played variants of 4-5-1, even the 4-2-3-1 I love so much.
- Marc Albrighton played. A lot.
- Villa played some nice, possession based, passing football.
- Nigel Reo-Coker played.
- Nigel Reo-Coker captained the side at least once (Walsall) and took over the armband at other times.
[All the blog posts from pre-season are archived here]
I’ve absolutely no desire or need to detract from anything that Kevin MacDonald or Gérard Houllier brought to the first team, or, indeed, to paint O’Neill in a better light than he deserves, but it’s just a case of credit where it’s due.
It may have only been pre-season, but everything in the list above happened and was wisely continued into the season proper, despite MON spitting his dummy just five days before it kicked off, but somehow has been cited as evidence of the changes both KMac and GH were able to install in just a matter of days at the helm.
No. Sorry if you weren’t paying attention during the summer, or over the last couple of seasons either for that matter, but much of the good work on the pitch lately, heralded as something never before seen at Aston Villa is nothing of the sort.
I’ve even seen credit for Monday’s open training day being assigned to Gérard Houllier. Even if the club had never done it before, would it be the manager or the marketing department who would most want to let the public and cameras get a look at the team “training”?
On the other side of the coin, to explain our poor position in the league, I’ve seen the blame pointed squarely at the decidedly “average squad” that MON assembled and GH inherited. The same squad that are largely responsible for finishing in the top six of the top flight three seasons in a row for the first time since 1933. A top flight that’s more difficult to crack into than in any time in history. Yup, that’s a crap team alright, how could we expect them to be anywhere other than mid-table?
So I don’t know whether a lot of what I’ve read lately is just an attempt to create compelling copy, a real attempt at revisionism or just borne out of pure ignorance, but it certainly doesn’t have much grounding in reality very often.
Of course, there are clear changes and improvements at Villa Park which are extremely welcome and Martin O’Neill certainly had his faults, but to read some opinions floating around you’d think all MON’s side did was hoof it to the big man and all Houllier’s side does is pass it around like a Brummy Barcelona.
As ever, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle, but the loudest voices are always at the extremes.
Rant over, thanks for indulging me.
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10 Comments to “Revisionism or ignorance? Time for a minor rant”
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could not agree more Dan. Things were not perfect after last season but they were far from bad and GH and KM seem to have had more injuries that the 4 years under MON. However we are still more than capable of top 8 and no amount of spin should distract from that.
From GH’s words he has been downplaying things a lot maybe that is because there is little money left and look at the acceptance of many that Ash to be sold is OK ?
Do they really think when wages have to be cut we can get better from France ?
“The same squad that are largely responsible for finishing in the top six of the top flight for the first time since 1933″
I’m guessing you meant 1993 there?
my bad, i missed out “three seasons in a row”.
we haven’t had three top six finishes in the top flight back to back since 1933.
thanks, fixed it now.
…and even then that’s wrong.
You know I’m fully behind you on this one Dan. Just the tone of many articles I’ve been reading on some sites drives me mental. It’s all a bit ‘Stepford Wives’. People who moaned about cup runs and finishing near the top of the league are now content with the odd decent pass and a mid-table finish. Coker is the embodiment of this nonsense. If I recall he was seen as typical MON – runs around, works hard, but lacks quality. Because MON left him out, suddenly he became priceless.
yes, exactly.
short memories or just hypocrites? i don’t know.
Good rant Dan – you’re right, you haven’t gone over the top in response, and you’ve retained & encouraged perspective. If print media is in trouble, it’s in large part because better writing, opinions, and analysis is available online – not simply because it’s free. However, there’s also a lot of awful writing out there online too.
I suppose all those with incorrect / ill-informed / over-the-top views & opinions must all be silenced (whether online or in the real world), then our society will be a better place.
haha, well people are free to say and write whatever they like and others are equally free to read and believe whatever they like, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be called out.
nothing wrong with “keeping ‘em honest”
I think he meant top 6 three years running
not happened in my lifetime, BL ad JG got the closest I think
prime example of what i’m talking about in stuart james’ match report from the burnley game in the guardian.
mentioning reo-coker’s miss, he continues:-
“In fairness to Reo-Coker, who was wearing the captain’s armband only a couple of months after being told to find another club and a little more than a year after his training ground bust-up with Martin O’Neill, there was much to admire about his part in the build-up.”
not untrue, although i’m not sure he was told to find a new club so much as told he could if he wanted. questionable relevance aside though, it’s also true that NRC wore the armband in walsall when MON was still the boss.
does james not know this or is he ignoring it because it doesn’t suit his narrative?