Meanwhile one of Villa's 'celebrity' fans (politician) appears to have disowned them.
The one that's spent the last three years hiding in a shed and can't remember at any given time which team that plays in claret and blue he supports? I think they're better off without him.
It's completely, 100% unfair but I do think a lot of the negative perception of Birmingham comes from the accent. People with a heavy Birmingham (or more realistically, black country) accent do, to the rest of us, sound a bit stupid. I'm no expert on regional French accents, but apparently the Marseilles accent has the same effect on people from other areas of France.
And I'll empahasise that I certainly don't judge the city as a whole on that - I've only made brief visits (and not for about 10 years probably other than changing trains there) but it has some fantastic architecture (St Phillips cathedral and most of the surrounding buildings are lovely) and generally strikes me as a very livable place.