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Beefy

Life President
Joined
Oct 27, 2003
Messages
19,122
Location
Old Leigh
A mate of mine is a Villa fan and he is always getting angry at other friends who support Spurs or Arsenal or other teams with fans who complain all the time about only being in Europe, challenging for the top four and making the business end of cup competitions.

Villa are a huge club with a European cup to their name but too long ago to be remembered by the bulk of their fans. Putting aside the current shocking run of form that they're on, having scored in one of the last six matches and having thrown away a lead to lose to Spurs this weekend, in general they have haven't won a trophy in 19 years, they sell their best players regularly, their ground has - in two decades - gone from hosting FA Cup Semi Finals and parts of Euro 96 to being a fairly outdated, mediocre ground with poor facilities.

They're rarely in serious danger of relegation yet they never seem to prioritise the cups. They've no hope of challenging towards the top of the table because of the constant flow of money towards the Champions League cartel of clubs and the couple of years where they did manage 6th place finishes under MON they were paying wages in excess of 100% of turnover and it could have bankrupted them.

Somehow they still averaged more than 36,000 fans in the league last season despite tickets not being cheap.

I hope this thread doesn't get moved though because this isn't a thread about Aston Villa. It is a thread about Southend United.

I was too young to be at Bury but I remember promotion at Swansea well and would have personally seen way more than half of the matches that Southend have ever played in the second tier. I can only imagine how it would feel to win promotion from that level to the Premier League and much as it gets maligned on here at times I'd love to see Southend play at that level as surely all of our fans must. But if we go up one day we'll likely come down and maybe that isn't the worst thing.

My friend the Villa fan is jealous of me the Southend fan. I've had three cup finals in ten seasons. Our season rarely finishes before May. His season usually finishes by the second international break with the exception of a couple of games in the FA Cup before a fourth round exit. We're disappointed with an eighth place finish. Finishing eighth would be an amazing achievement for them.

I've no real point I'm trying to make, it is just something I've thought about and remembered when I read the thread about Bournemouth in General Football. Sometimes it is tempting to feel hard-done by in supporting a lower league club. We like to think about ourselves as real fans who go through thick and usually thin. But maybe we're the lucky ones. I'd rather be a Shrimper than a Villain certainly.
 
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Ive never seen the fun in supporting a team who finishes in midtable every year.

Obviously if thats your local team then you are stuck with it but at least for us we have something to play for every year.
 
A mate of mine is a Villa fan and he is always getting angry at otherfriends who support Spurs or Arsenal or other teams with fans who complain all the time about only being in Europe, challenging for the top four and making the business end of cup competitions.

Villa are a huge club with a European cup to their name but too long ago to be remembered by the bulk of their fans. Putting aside the current shocking run of form that they're on, having scored in one of the last six matches and having thrown away a lead to lose to Spurs this weekend, in general they have haven't won a trophy in 19 years, they sell their best players regularly, their ground has - in two decades - gone from hosting FA Cup Semi Finals and parts of Euro 96 to being a fairly outdated, mediocre ground with poor facilities.

They're rarely in serious danger of relegation yet they never seem to prioritise the cups. They've no hope of challenging towards the top of the table because of the constant flow of money towards the Champions League cartel of clubs and the couple of years where they did manage 6th place finishes under MON they were paying wages in excess of 100% of turnover and it could have bankrupted them.

Somehow they still averaged more than 36,000 fans in the league last season despite tickets not being cheap.

I hope this thread doesn't get moved though because this isn't a thread about Aston Villa. It is a thread about Southend United.

I was too young to be at Bury but I remember promotion at Swansea well and would have personally seen way more than half of the matches that Southend have ever played in the second tier. I can only imagine how it would feel to win promotion from that level to the Premier League and much as it gets maligned on here at times I'd love to see Southend play at that level as surely all of our fans must. But if we go up one day we'll likely come down and maybe that isn't the worst thing.

My friend the Villa fan is jealous of me the Southend fan. I've had three cup finals in ten seasons. Our season rarely finishes before May. His season usually finishes by the second international break with the exception of a couple of games in the FA Cup before a fourth round exit. We're disappointed with an eighth place finish. Finishing eighth would be an amazing achievement for them.

I've no real point I'm trying to make, it is just something I've thought about and remembered when I read the thread about Bournemouth in General Football. Sometimes it is tempting to feel hard-done by in supporting a lower league club. We like to think about ourselves as real fans who go through thick and usually thin. But maybe we're the lucky ones. I'd rather be a Shrimper than a Villain certainly.
Wouldn't swap with them for the world , lower leagues is about not knowing what I am going to get , win loss or draw---- but the Hall on a Friday night is special, and I can say that I have been and seen my boys at Wembley, and stood tall whilst 33,000 of us sang my national anthem , doesn't get any better as far as I am concerned....Premiership, you can keep it
 
Always liked Villa. And I remember great nights of watching them on the telly play in Europe and tussling with cheating Italians (pulling shirts, diving - and one goal where the ball was out but the cross led to a goal that led to Villa's defeat). And Platt scoring that great goal against Belgium, wasn't it?

And then I have been to Villa a couple of times in the last 4 or 5 seasons. And the football was poor and the crowd was poor and lifeless - you know, very much like Roots Hall when things aren't going well.

But overall, the grass is always greener at some other football ground. I still think they have a lot going for them at the club - although it doesn't help that Birmingham, Coventry and Wolves are no longer in the top division.

Perhaps relegation might be the kick that the club needs to get things sorted out. Who knows?

People slate division 4 but we haven't managed to get out of it in the last few seasons - no club is in the "wrong division" as performances over 46 games show.

Would I swap with Villa? No - part of the joy of being in a higher division is the getting there. Would I like to be in a higher division - absolutely.
 
Once upon a time I dreamed of Southend being in the top division but not anymore! The league of shame has distanced itself from us with their greed over the TV money. Whose gates suffer whenever a poncy European fixture is on televised for free ? Not those shovelling millions of pounds down their fat gullets like there is no tomorrow, but instead teams like us lower down the standings. The amount of cheating and 'professionalism' that goes on in the league would shame Gomorrah. It just has no redeeming features and so, although I can sympathise to a degree with your Villain, there are other clubs in his region (Walsall or Coventry for example) that would value his support.
 
In recent history, since the top two Divisions got byes in Rounds 1 & 2 of the FA Cup, Villa have only been in the First round twice, knocked out on both occasions, Torquay 1970-71 and us in 71-72
 
But doesn't every lower league team ultimately hope to be in the Premiership?

If we were still in the Championship wouldn't our aim / dream be to get promoted to the top league?

Exactly, there is nothing wrong with the Premiership.

Thats the difference though, we have aims every year, to get promoted so that one day we may end up in the premiership. Whilst its unlikely to happen it is something to play for, something Villa seem to lack.

Where is the drama in just being midtable every year?

Even if we got there we would have something to play for, just to survive .
 
Villa do have things to play for though? Not so long ago they finished 4th?

Past couple of seasons been in a relegation battle....

Villa's seasons I'd say are more exciting than Stokes
 
As a first year undergraduate, back in the early 70's in Brum, I used to live in Witton Lane- directly opposite Villa's ground.

Only time in my life I've been able to see a game and get back in time to put the kettle on and catch the 5 o'clock results on the box.

Trouble is they were a third division outfit in those days and not really worth watching.:sad:

Birmingham City with Trevor Francis and Bob Latchford were a much better team back then.:cricko:
 
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Contrary to what the majority of plastic Premiershite fans think, Being a football fan is not about winning trophies. It's about magical moments...those fantastic moments of unbridled joy...They come along very infrequently but I firmly believe that the more bad moments you have, the better the good moments feel.
 
Older fans (like me) will remember our League cup game against them back in the 70's.Chico Hamilton- who we'd signed from Chelsea- was so good that Villa promptly signed him .

Those were the days - Dr Martens all shiny and clean, scarf around the wrist and SUFC spray painted on the back of the denim jacket.
 
Villa do have things to play for though? Not so long ago they finished 4th?

Past couple of seasons been in a relegation battle....

Villa's seasons I'd say are more exciting than Stokes

18 years ago!

Lowest they have finished is 16th, they have flirted with relegation last couple of years but even so thats hardly an advert for being a Villa fan, if that the only time they have something to play for is when they are terrible. Its different fighting relegation for a smaller club like Burnley when its what expected of you.
 
18 years ago!

Lowest they have finished is 16th, they have flirted with relegation last couple of years but even so thats hardly an advert for being a Villa fan, if that the only time they have something to play for is when they are terrible. Its different fighting relegation for a smaller club like Burnley when its what expected of you.

Right I've had one there they finished 6th 2 years on the trot but one of those seasons only 6 points off fourth....

In terms of a boring season though surely flirting with relegation gets blood pumping more than tenth beginning to end? I remember when Chelsea beat Villa 8 0 when everyone said they were going down before a late surge of form saved them comfortably, anyway I reckon the fans thoroughly enjoyed that run of form which saved them from relegation...

Anyway in answering the question would I swap watching my team in league 2 against constant s*** for watching them with 36 000 fans against the finest talent in the world week in week out? hahahah of course I would no need to think twice about that one.
 
Struggling a bit to understand why so many people wouldn't want us in the Premiership. It's the aim of all clubs in England surely? Imagine we get promoted to League 1 this season, then get promoted again to the Championship in the next. Do some fans really want us to lose in or miss out on the playoffs every year, sit mid-table, or get relegated and then yoyo between League 1 and the Championship? Surely we'd all be crossing our fingers to get in the Premiership and get to watch the likes of Diego Costa, Di Maria, Falcao, Rooney, Aguero etc?

My mate's a Palace fan and although they're never going to win the league or make the Champions League, he celebtrates survival like we would celebrate promotion, because it's another season as a top flight club watching the worlds best players in the worlds best league.

Swapping places with Villa probably isn't the best question to ask. Would you swap places with Swansea, who we were kicking about with in League 2 all those years ago? Of course you would, you'd be mad not to. That's the sort of heights we can reach if we get our new stadium, as they're a prime example of what can be achieved by a club who were pretty much the same as us not too long ago.
 
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