Church-itch

Like you say year on year progress is hard to define. It is not hard to define as such, but my idea of progress may not be the same as yours. I guess the point I am making is that if Gerard Houllier would have said that Villa will be challenging for the title this year, would this have been better for the doubters? It is unrealistic for a club of Villa's present stature. That is not to say that he is not going to give it his best shot though. Nothing will please certain supporters. We are not going to get Mourinho and give him 300 million to spend. The owners are trying to run our club on a sound financial footing.

In my opinion, it is one of many reasons why the MINORITY of supporters on here are negative about the appointment of Gerard Houllier because their opinion of Aston Villa's current status is inflated. I don't like commenting on what has allegedly been said in the press becuse it can be simply wrong or taken out of context. If, however, he did say that about our current situation then I don't think he is far wrong. He doesn't mention future ambitions. We are not currently a side that is challenging for the title and are not currently successfully managing to break in to the Champions League positions. We have to be realistic about our current ambitions and back our manager to drive us closer to our dreams.

It amazes me that we even have to debate whether our new manager will get 100% support to be honest. What would be the advantage to be gained by not supporting him?

I think that Gerard Houllier would be the best choice out of all the candidates out there who are obviously available. His record of winning trophies is good and he is obviously widely respected within the game. I think those who wish for David Moyes and Martin Jol make a good shout. The problem would appear to be that they clearly are not available. I would imagine the reason that this is taking such a long time to resolve is that the people running the club are exploring every opportunity available to them. I would ask anybody who is slating the pending appointment of Gerard Houllier to tell me who out there is

1) Available

2) Is interested in the job

We can not possibly answer these questions as we have not spoken to any of the candidates. If you can tell me then please do so and tell me if they have a better managerial record than Gerard Houllier.

Also, what is the point in criticising Houllier before he has been given a chance. Whoever the board choose we need to get behind the manager of the team and the players 100%. This is the best way to take the club forward in my opinion.