Jamie Carragher on Villa fans’ dilemma
Aston Villa have the potential to re-establish themselves among the Premier League elite, so it is baffling to hear that fans would sacrifice survival for Wembley glory
If Aston Villa beat Manchester City to lift the Carabao Cup tomorrow, it will put a smile on their fans’ faces for months. If they are relegated at the end of the season, it will set the club back years. Fortunately for Dean Smith, there is no reason for it to be a straight choice between silverware and survival. He can exceed expectations by winning a trophy and keeping Villa up.
Regardless of how perilous a league position is, no Wembley final should be considered a distraction. It is a wonderful opportunity for Villa to end a 24-year wait for a trophy, which I am sure the players and fans will cherish.
That does not mean it is the season’s main priority. Relegation will be catastrophic to the club’s short-term and long-term aims.
Villa spent £127million on 12 new players following their promotion, in contrast to Norwich who budgeted for the possibility of finishing in the bottom three. Villa’s investment is unsustainable in the Championship, given financial fair play limitations.
We have seen how long it has taken for Villa to pick themselves up since they went down in 2016. They are still recovering. Finishing fourth from bottom helps that process more than winning the League Cup.
That is why I was shocked to see a Villa website this week pose the question about the merits of beating City against staying in the Premier League. The split in opinion was even more surprising.
Telegraph football reporter Matt Law – a Villa fan who knows the club and supporters far better than me – indicated he would take victory over City and relegation above a Wembley defeat and staying in the Premier League.
It reflected the views of many who follow the club. You have to respect such a large body of opinion. The fans experiencing so many lows and craving a taste of glory are more qualified than neutral pundits to represent the view of those who go to Villa Park every game.
What I can argue is that this is not the mindset of Aston Villa I knew growing up. Villa are not a club who should savour a rare moment in the Wembley sun, as if they are plucky underdogs with a once-in-a-lifetime shot at glory.
Beating City will be a glorious chapter in their recent history, but far from their greatest moment and certainly not an occasion they can never hope to replicate. Whenever a side fighting near the bottom of the Premier League reach a major final, their fans are always asked if it means more to win a trophy or stay up.
It is a debate I understood when Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic won the FA Cup, and when Hull City reached the final in 2014.
For clubs with a prolonged history in the lower leagues – knowing their time in the Premier League might be short-lived – the chance to win silverware overrides everything. This is especially true in situations where supporters have waited a generation, or never seen their club win major honours. The glory of a final victory should, and does, matter more than the financial benefit of avoiding relegation.
You want to seize the day, rather than worry about the next 12 months and beyond. You can talk all you like about a cup win being the platform for further success, or attracting better players into a club, but deep down the Wigan and Hull fans know that is as good as it gets.
Wigan’s Cup success in 2013 is the ultimate example. Beating Manchester City was the pinnacle of their history, even though it was immediately followed by a return to the Championship. Only their club’s accountants would rewind the clock and sacrifice that honour for another year of Premier League football.
The higher up the league you go, the more priorities shift and the less inclined supporters are to compromise their Premier League status in order to win a trophy. By the time you reach mid-table, it is not an issue.
There is no way Everton, for example, would be happy winning their first trophy since 1995 if it meant they went down. To even invite the conversation is ridiculous.
Until this week I thought Aston Villa fans felt exactly like Evertonians, given their similarities – giants of the English game who you always believe can be a force again with the right investment and leadership.
Presumably, having experienced the trauma of three years outside the Premier League – and come to terms with the gulf in wealth between Villa and those they once challenged and beat to league titles – a sense of resignation has set in that those days will not return to Birmingham any time soon.
Villa fans are not alone in the Premier League, as you can hear similar views from supporters of West Ham United and Newcastle United. The difference there is that they have had to wait longer for a trophy in east London and Tyneside – West Ham in 1980 and Newcastle in 1955 – and they have become more accustomed to returning swiftly to the Premier League having suffered relegation. The owners of those clubs have made it known that no matter how much their fans crave a trophy, safety is what matters.
Weakened teams in the cup competitions have underlined that, much to supporters’ despair. But, for better or worse, the financial rewards mean the Premier League has to be the priority for aspirational clubs. I simply cannot get my head around the idea of Villa fans sounding like those of Wigan going up against City. They need to take a deep breath and realise what is at stake.
Villa are among a cluster of clubs who can and should aim to be permanently in the top half of the Premier League. That is their natural place, regardless of the rough times they have endured in recent seasons.
Those Villa fans torn between cup success and survival should ask themselves this: “What is more likely to keep Jack Grealish at Villa Park?”
Grealish has shown his Premier League class this year and there is no way he will waste another season at a lower level, no matter how much he craves a League Cup winners’ medal and loves his boyhood club. Villa must work out how they can build around him, satisfying his ambitions as much as their own. They cannot do that if they go down.
I was debating the greatest teams in English football history with Gary Neville on this week’s Monday Night Football, and the Villa side who won the title and European Cup in 1981 and 1982 respectively ranked 10th. They are by far the biggest club in the Midlands and their stadium is one of my favourites.
I am desperate for Villa to stay up because, to me, they symbolise football tradition in this country and the Premier League is better for having them back.
This may be dismissed as history by some, but history matters – especially with a fan base as broad and loyal as Villa’s.
So, while I appreciate Villa fans too young to remember the European Cup team – or even the side who won the League Cup twice in three years between 1994-96 – are desperate for success, suggesting Premier League survival is a worthwhile price to pay for it is too defeatist.
The potential to re-establish Villa as part of English football’s elite is immense. Premier League survival is fundamental to realising it, not a League Cup win to add to the five they already have.
I cannot get my head around the idea of Villa fans sounding like those of Wigan facing City