I saw a response to Damian’s post by CSM asking why people expect more and that we should sit back and enjoy the ride.
This got me thinking and I think the reason we expect more is because you don’t go from beating teams like Chelsea and Man Utd in one half of the season to losing to Chelsea 7-1 and drawing with Wolves and Sunderland in the next. It doesn’t make sense.
There has to be a reason and we all think we can see it. And we are frustrated the management can’t see it or aren’t willing to rectify it and not for the first time.
The reason we expect more is because we can see the potential to be doing better in the second half of the season. We can see mistakes our manager is making that he can’t – or just won’t accept. We can see that players need resting. Heck, even opposition players can see it. But our manager either can’t or doesn’t want to. The fact is, we just don’t know what MON sees, knows or why he does what he does.
Maybe it’s just that MON still doesn’t trust any other players and is biding his time until the summer when he can buy another Milner, another Petrov or another Gabby. Maybe he is working his way from the back to the front. Maybe he doesn’t want to come out to the media and say Villa aren’t good enough.
I think if MON came out to the press and told the fans why he won’t rotate players and why he is willing to play tired and/or injured players then we would be more willing to accept that we are going to capitulate in the second half of the season for a few seasons. The problem is is that we can see problems and we don’t see any action being taken. We don’t have any communication from the club to tell us that they may be aware of this.
Most people want to give MON another season and I think one more isn’t going to hurt. We are throwing away great opportunities to break into the top four, but maybe next season things will be the same. That last two seasons have shown that only Manchester United and Chelsea can be consistent year on year and even they have looked vulnerable.
The difference between those two and the rest is that they have the funds and pulling power to rectify these issues. The rest just don’t have it. We are in danger of running out of funds to strengthen the team and players are going to soon begin to think that MON isn’t the messiah everyone thinks he is – and that for me will impact our pulling power.
On the upside, players who sign know there is a good chance that if they get in the team they’ll stay in the team.
So, maybe time to give MON another fourteen months to see what he can do. If he buys four quality midfield/attacking players in the summer wouldn’t you fancy a bit more squad rotation? Wouldn’t you fancy that Heskey wouldn’t get a sniff?
I think time will tell but we’re still in our five year journey and maybe MON really does know what he is doing.