Daweii

If we employ him I will back him, I'm not going to give him a hard time but I don't feel for our future with him in charge.

44 wins, 43 draws, 63 losses as manager of Middlesbrough.. Surely we can do better than Southgate..

I'm going to hazard a guess at no, though not all too convinced by my answer to be honest.

That is an intriguing interview technique, instead of sitting them down in an office or a living room they just go shopping..

If he did, sign him up..

Put it this way AVB at his worst a 36% win ratio at Académica would have got us close to the Top 6 last season.. If Benitez came and equalled his worst win % of 40% which was at his first ever managerial job at Extremadura we'd possibly be pushing Top 4 given other teams stay about their current standard or drop off a bit.. If he came here and matched his best a 55% win ratio we could rival the top teams in the league.. Now that is all hypothetical, but given Benitez at his worst is better than most managers we should be going for him..

We just have to be patient.. I mean they could finalise the search and give us Martinez tomorrow, but we will rue the day if FSW, AVB, RDM all come out of the woodwork saying "we would have taken the job if we'd been offered it"..

I'm just gonna say, if Rafa does come and we only give him £20 million to rebuild the squad and he manages it and keeps us Top 10 the man is a genius.

Wages are down on last season in quite a big way and will only lower further and we gave McLeish £20 million, it's not far beyond the realms of possibility that in a rebuild year he's gonna get at least £30-£40 million if not more.

It was touted when we were in for OGS, that is no longer the case unless Poyet talks which are "apparently" today are really advanced talks and it'll be settled quickly.

I placed a bet on him at Sporting Bet. It was 7-1 but I just didn't want to mess around signing up to another site to place a bet, last time I did that I missed out on 12-1 for OGS.. For the best in hindsight, but if Poyet has more chance I didn't want to miss out this time..

Maybe they are now looking for out of work managers.. They tried OGS first as he has the most to give up and it didn't pan out. Now they are looking at the likes of Benitez, AVB etc..

If I was Lerner or Faulkner I would be in contact with Pep Guardiola.. The worst he can say is no though what if he said yes and was happy with the deal in front of him.. I mean he's the one manager where pretty much every job after Barcelona is a dramatic downgrade, he may be open to taking the leap with a club he may see as a none runner.. Fortunately I don't think Lerner or Faulkner have the gall to go after targets like that unfortunately.

I want Randy to interview AVB.. I don't care if AVB turns us down it is that kind of big club mentality we have been missing for seasons. You look at Liverpool and yes they have had more success in the last 10 years, but they are still about the same size club as us yet they get managers like Houllier and Benitez sure not so hot these days, but they got them when they were in their prime.. They now get linked with AVB and they would probably be linked with Mourinho if he hadn't signed a new deal. We can be like that and it only takes the signing of one big name manager and the profile of your club raises considerably.

**** hell Randy get this guy! He wants a job with longevity that is us, we like managers that want to stick around for 4 or 5 years at least. If he's up for that and doesn't mind taking a slight pay cut from what he got at Chelsea he's welcome here..

I think we are in for AVB.. Liverpool have been making too much noise surrounding him and that will have possibly brought him to the attention of Lerner and Faulkner. I am sure he may have been on their radar anyway, but if AVB really is interested in one more go in the Premier League then he may prefer us as he gets to impose his own stamp on the club.

32 Games.. 24 Wins.. 6 Draws.. 2 Losses.. Damn impressive.

What concerns me is that we waited until after the Champions League final to decide we didn't want OGS.. Maybe it's a coincidence but maybe the board were waiting to see what RDM could do at the highest level.. I just hope they realise he was shit at WBA.

No it isn't.. How do you know what Lerner is saying to potential candidates? He could very easily be outlining key criteria with another 5 year plan so to speak. It may actually impress him and many big names that a club that has finished poorly the last two seasons is doing all they can to turn things around, that shows ambition and the big managers want to see that.

I am thinking it is AVB.. If we haven't gone for Lambert or Martinez then we are running short of Premier League experienced vibrant managers. It's not McCarthy as he isn't vibrant, he's a minor step up from McLeish. AVB ticks all the boxes, he did the miraculous at Porto and while he lost the dressing room at Chelsea his age went against him with some of the talent in their squad, I don't think they respected him.. At Villa I think he would do well and it won't be the same as Chelsea, yes we have some big ego's at the club in the form of Dunne and Collins but AVB at Chelsea was forced to muddle through one season before rebuilding, the players knew this and made it very difficult for him to succeed. At Villa, he'll be tasked with rebuilding the second he gets here so it's a different scenario.

he must have the cushiest job in football... 3 years and his first press release :-) That's what has got me.. Why choose now to speak up. Maybe he finally decided to do his job, but it seems like these journalists just checked out our staff listing and found the name of the one guy that would represent us. The fact is for the last 5 or so years Faulkner has been doing his job for him.. Surely the word would come from him.

What was also confirmed is that you're a word removed that needs to **** off and go to bed.. If we want to continue to talk about this on a **** discussion board we will. Now will you kindly go away or contribute something worthwhile.

I won't truly believe it until I see cold hard quotes in writing that he's said this.. Everyone seems to have jumped on the back of what Kendrick wrote in the Birmingham Mail, which also lacked **** quotes. The only people that have quotes from OGS are journalists in Norway where he's said "I'll say more tomorrow" which is not a denial or an admission. To me it's more of a "I'm going home, my wife and I will talk it over and I'll see how I feel in the morning".. I think everyone in the media has jumped to conclusions based on him not leaving the meeting and shouting from the hills "I am Villa manager!!" and assuming the worst..

I don't blame any ITKs as they were spot on until the dying moments where they were foiled by something they could not predict which is the thoughts of OGS himself. They can track his movements, they can somehow get what was said in a meeting but they can't scoop out his thoughts and in the end his free will is what undid them, so the ITKs were brilliant as usual.

If this is true then the OGS chat with Rokke was merely to mend relations before going onto bigger things.