d'Villa

If you'd have asked me a few weeks ago about Aston Villa I'd have been full of praise for them. I could see a lot of parallels with the blues. Fine old club with a great pedigree & tradition. Good committed fans who don't shout from the rooftops bigging themselves up. Just get on with the business of supporting their club.

Seems a bit poor the way the surrendered on the UEFA Cup last night playing a reserve team in the away leg when the tie was very much in the balance. Essentially they are declaring their cup innings this season in order to try and finish 4th in the league. Is that what modern footy has come to?

Spurs I can understand, they have a cup final at the weekend and the relegation scrap is still tapping them on the shoulder. Villa had a shot at glory there and they are letting it go for a potential champions league payday next season.

The Villa fans need to have a think what they want as well. 300 in Moscow, sending a third of their FA Cup tickets back for the game at Goodison the other week. No point dreaming of greater things to come when there's potentially great times happening now.

I really like Villa, just a bit disappointed in how they've embraced their new found success. Perhaps this is a symptom of the attitude fans get when they know they've got a sugar daddy aiming for the heights. Look at City, they've been in the doldrums for years, they finally get into Europe (albeit by the pitiful route of the UEFA Fair Play table) and hardly anyone turns up at Eastlands.

Evertonians painted Kharkiv blue, the beer soaked fun and games at places like Brann, Alkmar and most notably Nuremburg are legends already. The nights at Goodison were brilliant. We'd been waiting years for the European party so when it finally arrived why on earth would we get snooty about it and wait for better things to come.