A Milestone

Or a couple, actually. Be forewarned, this is long and will involve football. Aston Villa to be specific. So how much background should I go into? Villa is a historic club; we were founded in 1874 and one of our directors had an idea to set up a football league, which came into being in 1888, which now comprises the Premiership, and all those below it. We've won loads of stuff, albeit mostly nearer the 19th century than the 21st, but things are changing.

Why is this club important to me? Well my grandad, born in 1911 I think, used to go watch Villa when he was a lad and when I was small he said to me, "So are going to support birmingham city or Aston Villa?" A question that can really have only one answer, "Er, Aston Villa Grandad?" Now that I no longer live in the city, I guess Villa is my last remaining connection, having no friends there any more. The reality is, for people like me, it's not about football, it's about where you're from, it's about roots and it's about identity.

So Villa of late, and I guess since we won the European Cup in 1982, have stagnated. Is that the best word to describe us? I guess in sport if you're not improving, you're going backwards, being overtaken by those who are. We had a chairman, Doug Ellis, who 'loved' Villa, but ran it like a 1970's corner shop crossed with a mediaeval fiefdom. For those of you who haven't worked in a place where every decision has to go through the man (it usually is a man) at the top, the key thing is that good ambitious people don't want to work there, as they have no authority to take any action without approval from the boss. Ellis was proud that he signed and approved every cheque personally, be it signing a player or buying staples. What happens in this kind of place over time is that innovation and ambition is squeezed out, as people either leave or give up, with only the yes men, the corrupt, the unambitious and the incompetent remaining. For any business this is crippling over time, but for a sports organisation, especially a Premiership football club, lack of ambition seeping onto the playing staff is catastrophic. The end result under the Ellis years was a team that regularly gained and lost managers, as each over time became unable to dam the tide of inertia (tide of inertia - I like that) creeping onto the pitch. Why give that extra mile when all those above you have no goal other than existence? We regularly drew matches we should have won, lost those we should have drawn, never beat the 'big' clubs, occasionally had a semi decent cup run and gradually fell behind in our ability to attract good players, for both financial and footballing reasons. After all, why would the best players in the world want to play for Villa, a club going nowhere, no plans to change and no fight to win anything other than season ticket receipts? The Groucho Marx Conundrum - I wouldn't want any player at my club who would want to be there.

Things were coming to a head at the end of the 05/06 season when we barely survived in the Premiership, and not only were the best players not willing to come to us, the good ones that we had inexplicably managed to hitherto keep happy for so long had had enough and wanted to leave. Mr Ellis decided that it was time to sell up, for he was, at 86, the oldest PLC chairman in the country, and the only one who was also CEO. The one thing, the one and only thing I will ever be grateful to him for is holding out and selling to a certain Mr Randy Lerner; apparently even taking less money than other people were offering, as Mr Ellis felt that our Randy had the best interests of the club at heart. And boy, does he. So I guess there is my first milestone. Someone who who has the best interests of the club at heart, the cash to back it up, about $1 billion or so, but most importantly, an understanding that he doesn't have all the answers and a desire to find the best people he possibly could to run the place. My favourite quote from him; "Own is not necessarily a verb. You can't go in and own all day. Hey, what time is it? I think I'll get down to Villa and own for an hour." We now have an excellent, intelligent, forward thinking manager who is constructing a hungry, young, talented English team, a chief exec Richard Fitzgerald who has the experience and drive to make strategic things happen and another by the name of General Charles C Krulak who talks and listens to the fans, shares what he has discussed with the board and communicates back to us. They understand that whilst Mr Lerner technically owns the club, the heartbeat is with the fans.

So, onto the most recent milestone. We beat one of the big clubs. Really, honest. Chelsea to be precise. They were league leaders, and we beat them 2-0. Both goals at the Holte End where the die hard fans have always stood or sat. And in a league where some teams at times have no English players on the pitch, we had a midfield comprised entirely of young, talented, athletic, hungry English lads. And who scored? Two who were not only English, but were from Aston and had been Villa fans all their lives. And one, Zat Knight, on his debut. Only a couple of days previously at the press conference announcing his signing, he was like a little boy saying how it had always been a dream of his to come to Villa, and he and his family were absolutely over the moon. You could tell how excited he was. And then he scored. On his debut. Against Chelsea. At the Holte End. I used to dream of that when I was a kid. That is something money just can't buy. I was in tears of joy for him, and I'm actually getting very emotional now, typing this almost a week later. So what does it mean to me and to the team that we beat one of the 'big four'? It's, well it's a milestone. We turned the corner off the pitch in the Summer of 2006. On Sunday the 2nd of September 2007 the off pitch changes of last season for me finally filtered through onto the pitch. And do you know what? We played well. Not just successfully, but it was a cracking game to watch. What football ought to be about. Running from end to end, last ditch defending, incredible skill and athleticism.

I'm so proud to be a Villa fan.