But the current managerial situation and todays events at the club are threatening to make Villa fans and not Birmingham the punch line.
Reports of 500 strong protests and anti-Birmingham City chanting outside Villa Park are surfacing on Twitter as a section of the Aston Villa support succeed in demonstrating their complete lack of understanding of the game of football.
Protesting against the apparently imminent appointment of FORMER Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish as Villa manager, the fans are merely showing a complete misunderstanding of Villa’s status in English football and also shows medieval attitudes are still rife in football.
This protest is less about Alex McLeish ability as manager and is purely about the superiority complex that Aston Villa fans have over other clubs in the West Midlands and stems from pure disdain for Birmingham City. It also illustrates massive short sightedness on the part of the Villa Park faithful.
Fan reaction has already supposedly forced Randy Lerner’s hand in not interviewing
Steve McLaren, whose services Nottingham Forest are now lucky enough to have, and if Lerner crumbles to the fans again and doesn’t appoint McLeish they will have succeeded in depriving the club of another top quality young(ish) manager.
Lerner needs to remain strong and trust his instincts to take the opportunity to appoint the fiery Scot following his shock resignation from Birmingham City.
Yes, McLeish was manager of Birmingham City and yes, he got them twice. On paper, neither of those are typically glowing endorsements when Aston Villa are searching for a new manager and fan concern would be justified if this was all McLeish’s managerial career had amounted to so far.
But the Scot also took Birmingham to their highest ever league finish in 2009/10 before guiding them to Carling Cup final victory and their first trophy in nearly 50 years last season; unfortunately for him, a disastrous run of injuries and loss of form which saw his side relegated in the last moments of the final day of the season.
However, perspective needs to be bought here. McLeish took over a sinking ship mid-way through the season with at Birmingham and relegation was inevitable, but he was able to rebuild and bring them back to the Premiership at the first time of asking. There are many people to blame for their failures last season, McLeish included, but for Villa fans to kick up such a stink about his impending arrival at the club is ridiculous when it is purely based on him managing a club from three miles down the road.
McLeish’s name is not synonymous with Birmingham City. This is not like Manchester United pursuing Kenny Dalglish. This is not Sol Campbell signing for Arsenal. Villa fans need to get over themselves and not force a manager who could stabilise the clubs for years to come away from the club before he gets his foot in the door.
It is time for decisive leadership from Lerner. Appoint the man you want and McLeish is the best available candidate. He wants the job and Villa are clearly interested.
It is time for Randy to end the circus and get back to trying to make Aston Villa a force with McLeish at the helm.
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