Well done to the Birmingham Mail for another piece of awesome journalism, the Pulitzer is surely just a matter of time. They’ve taken the following quote from Martin O’Neill:-

Expectation levels I expect to go up because it is Aston Villa, then you are hoping you can make something happen for the supporters. However, like everybody else, you have to earn this and it is not a case of just because a club has been successful in the past and won the European Cup, that things should come automatically and people expect this.

Some people just feel this expectation should be matched automatically because of the club. It doesn’t happen. These players have put heart and soul into these games, together with the fans, who have spent hard-earned money supporting the side a lot. I think those players and those fans deserve that, not someone who has just come along in the last four or five months for the ride but would be the first one to complain if things are not going so well.

I am not so sure that is the sort of fan that any club, never mind ourselves, would be wanting to be hanging about the place – and we do get a few of them as momentum builds.

And placed it under the headline of “Aston Villa: Fair weather fans not welcome says Martin O’Neill“.

[EDIT: The headline has now been changed to read “Aston Villa: Martin O’Neill determined to reward loyal fans“]

*clap* *clap* *clap* Brilliant.

I read this last night and had a good idea of the response from certain quarters and I wasn’t disappointed. I didn’t intend addressing it as it’s another non-story that fans can leap on in an attempt to cannibalize ourselves during the run-in. Instead of doing everything possible to get behind the team, we’re going to turn on each other. Excellent, that’s a great idea.

However, I did just want to point out one thing. Online polls are about as unscientific as it gets, so I’m reluctant to even make this point, but it didn’t escape my attention that the Brum Mail have also asked the question on the page “Is Martin O’Neill right to say fair weather fans aren’t welcome at Villa Park?”. I know, brilliant again, is MON right to say something that he didn’t actually say? Good one.

Despite loading the question in this way, more than two thirds currently agree he was right. Again, I place no real importance on this, it’s easy to manipulate these sorts of polls, but I’m going to assume that no one is really that interested in this one and there’s only a few hundred votes in the system right now anyway. How representative those sorts of numbers are of the 10’s of thousands who attend Villa Park I leave up to you to determine. More important polls than this have certainly been conducted with smaller samples.

Nevertheless, if the poll wasn’t there and you just read the rants in the comment section below the article, you’d get a very different feel for the consensus among the fans. What a great platform to vent some steam, eh?

The purpose of illustrating this disparity between the numbers who are apparently content and how vocal the unhappy minority are is that it’s so entirely typical. The content of those rants is also typical. The ratio between the number of page views, the number who vote and the number who comment will also be entirely typical.

It’s also sadly inevitable that such minority views will be seized upon and sensationalized. Thankfully, I think the overwhelming majority of Villa fans will treat this kind of nonsense with the disdain it deserves and may even be further galvanized to get behind the boys for the final 4 home games of the season. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, by getting behind the team it could make the point or two difference at the end of the season.

I don’t see how the reverse can possibly be true. I can’t see a single point added by booing. Not one.

That’s all I really want to say on this. Obviously I hold a pretty dim view of the fans who boo their own side. Yes, I can understand frustration, I don’t pretend to always understand the decisions Martin O’Neill makes, but the fact remains that this is one of the best seasons we’ve had for many years and there’s people booing.