VillaAlex

Allardyce hasn't ever managed a top club as his style is so limited ffs.

The one club that comes even remotely close to being big (Newcastle) he barely lasted a few months and they hated him.

What manager across Europe uses his style to get major success? Don't say Mourinho as there is a massive difference.

They sacked him when he was 11th - they went on to get relegated

Btw, the fact that Newcastle sacked him when they where 11th shows how kind and generous we have been to Houllier and that he needs to leave our club this summer.

That doesn't mean he was doing a good job... It just meant more disruption.

Kind and generous? It was sensible by Randy, changing a manager with 10 or so games left would have been idiotic and because we hadn't we're comfortably safe. Now we have the summer to probably get a new manager seen as its unlikely that Gerard will return.

I'll tell you something if Big Sam comes in players like Downing and Young will be off and you wouldn't see the best if Bent having the ball hoofed to him every time we go forward.

Big Sam is a good manager for a mid-table team where he maybe win the odd trophy with negative tactics. We're better then that, we need a manager who will build a foundation that can to better then just winning a League Cup.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13208629.stm

That is how to treat players properly Houllier.

You praise them when their confidence is low, and you look to give them a chance to show their worth.

You don't openly criticize them in the press, make them train with the reserves/kiddies and tell them not to bother turning up on matchdays.

Houllier - learn from Pardew.

Glad to see a manager who actually knows how to treat players fairly and kindly.

What does this have to do with Houllier. What a pointless comment...

Allardyce hasn't ever managed a top club as his style is so limited ffs.

The one club that comes even remotely close to being big (Newcastle) he barely lasted a few months and they hated him.

What manager across Europe uses his style to get major success? Don't say Mourinho as there is a massive difference.

If Gerard was to leave a good foreign shout would be the Atletico manager Quique Flores. The Revista La Liga guys said we'd have a good chance of getting him.

Skysports.com understands Barnsley are poised to seal a summer swoop for Aston Villa youngster Harry Forrester.

The young forward looks set to leave Villa Park in the summer and the Tykes have moved quickly to secure his services.

Forrester has impressed during his time with the Midlands outfit's academy and reserve sides and is now poised to be given the opportunity to continue his career with the Championship side.

Oakwell boss Mark Robins has invited the talented and versatile attacker to join the South Yorkshire side for training ahead of his expected switch at the end of the season.

Forrester has been capped at youth level for England and has featured alongside the likes of Nathan Delfouneso for Villa's second string.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11677_6899349,00.html

Thought he was brilliant v Liverpool, probably best for his career though?

Taye Taiwo, you know... the player who we thought we could maybe sign

Well he's joining AC Milan apparently, rather then Benfica.

Bonobo- All In Forms

You can't put Knight in there!

He's a Villa lad!

Not some pretend one like Gardner. Well apparently so...

Matt Phillips is an impact player and nothing more, most of his appearances have been off the bench for a reason. The likes of Ormerod start ahead of him.

he has been on the bench because he is still acclimatising to the prem, he is young and will improve, he's superb

Exactly, but when people say we should look at him or that he's quality already I disagree. He's purely potential, and you also have to remember that it's hard to judge players in Blackpools attacking style. Even GTF has looked a good Premiership player in parts as they're so expansive.

Matt Phillips is an impact player and nothing more, most of his appearances have been off the bench for a reason. The likes of Ormerod start ahead of him.

Ormerod has only started one more game than him to be fair.

Hence why I said players like =p Whether it's Ormerod, GTF, Harewood, Grandin, Varney etc... Phillips has barely started a game. Overall he's started 5 games out of 33 I think it is now.

Matt Phillips is an impact player and nothing more, most of his appearances have been off the bench for a reason. The likes of Ormerod start ahead of him.

I'm concerned with Ancelotti's ability to bring through young players, I know at Milan he relied a lot on prolonging the older players careers with the Milan lab and at Chelsea a lot of fans aren't happy at the lack of chances the likes of Kakuta, McEachren and Bruma have had.

It's gonna be hard for Moyes if he loses Rodwell, he'd get a good fee but he'd have to use that to replace the likes of Cahill, Arteta and Saha who are getting older, with the latter two having injury problems.

Van Gaal

If the jokers in the dressing room didn't like Houlliers regime, then they'd be in for a shock. Van Gaal is on a totally different level.

It's a thing I don't understand with our team, we never shoot from outside of the box, haven't for years, we always try to walk it in :bonk:

I can't fault the effort today, we just didn't have the quality to unlock them. Stoke got the point they wanted.

Time wasting must have got up to about 10 minutes, every throw in and set piece took about 30 seconds or more. The goal kicks were the worst, absolute joke that the referee took so long to book one of their players for time wasting.

We were quite strong at the back as a whole, I was worried about Jones, but we lost him twice, and the one time he scored unfortunately. I was pleased to see the centre backs come out of defence as it was needed.

There was a lot of people moaning about the direct approach, and for a while it wasn't working, but the problem was that when we played it on the ground our players ended up having three or so Stoke players pressing them. You could see in the second half how tired Stoke were. In the second half we lacked that creative spark as usual and relied to much on Young in particular to whip a ball in, but him and Downing were getting double marked. We just needed more drive in the middle, our defence seemed more capable then our midfield of getting through their back four.

The pleasing this was the players looked motivated in the second half, and on another day I could have seen us scoring. Stoke in the end defended well and deserved their point albeit with poor sportsmanship, but at times it's something we should be doing to slow down games.

Downing looked pissed off when he came off, which is pleasing as you want that in a player but it got to the stage where you thought it really got to him. I'm his biggest fan, but today he was isolated and it was the perfect time for Marc to come on.

I predicted a draw before the game, and we got it. I feel we would have lost this game a few months ago so it's progress but little progress. Hopefully we can sort this team out in the summer and get things back to normal next season

Ahhh at least we can see how great this prodigy is now.

Although I'm sure if he doesn't deliver it will be his manager or his teammates fault

Gianni Bruno

Quality player, had him in a game I just stopped playing. Albeit for Hellas Verona where he destroyed Serie C1/A, then he went to Huddersfield on loan and destroyed the champ and then I took over Ipswich and signed him for them. Didn't quite perform in the Premiership though.

Electric pace he has, just find his finishing a bit erratic.

I agree with you there Woodytom, O'Driscoll is an excellent manager. As is Lambert who I would probably prefer out of the two. However would they be worth the risk, I'm not so sure. We can't fall too far behind the likes of Man City and Tottenham.

Also you mention the likes of Holloway, but it is a lot easier to stay get a team promoted into the Premier League and keep them in it, then winning more then one trophy or breaking the top four imo.

well thats specualtion. On which id have to disagree.

I look at it like this:

At the start of Moyes tenure - What did Everton fans expect of Everton over 9 years. I would say probably a little less than theyve got

Now ask the same question about Blackpool and Doncaster and Norwich!!

I guess it depends on the expectations. To me Everton have ambitions which are tougher to achieve them Blackpool.

A lot of managers have got teams into the Premier League in a similar way to Holloway. Iain Dowie and Phil Brown for example, they had slightly better resources though.

The problem is you can't compare managers to Moyes as he is one of the longest serving managers, and no-one has been in a job long enough to do similar. O'Neill was slightly comparable, but he had a lot more to work with albeit in a shorter amount of time.

Also you mention the likes of Holloway, but it is a lot easier to stay get a team promoted into the Premier League and keep them in it, then winning more then one trophy or breaking the top four imo.

World Class Manager, no-one is saying Moyes is that.

The media say hes top notch every week in some form - and youve just said you agree with them.

There really are plenty of other managers working a lot more miracles than David Moyes

In your opinion you think they say he's 'world class' in some form. I disagree, he is made out to be a very good manager who has done an excellent job at Everton, and as usual expectations get higher and sometimes they can't be met when teams around you spend between £30-£200m to finish higher then you. I don't think any Everton fan can say he's not doing a very good job, I just think they feel it's gone a bit stale and they want a change as the have a similar season every year with them starting poorly and finishing strongly.

EDIT: Your recent post, both us and Everton are 'big' clubs but we are clubs who don't have the resources to compete with the Sky 4 and Man City so I don't see why we can have any greater expectations then first of all getting into the top four, or winning a trophy. If they are not achievable then finishing the top 6 would be seen as a good season.

Tottenham, Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal all have better squads then Everton. All seven of them are above them in the table. I'd therefore suggest that Moyes is doing the best with what is available to him.

I'd say yes.

What managers have won trophies with teams outside the top four in the past ten years? Not many, and some teams were very fortunate or had spent a lot of money such as Portsmouth.

I'd say getting Everton consistent top 7 finishes, a place in the Champions League and a FA Cup final which they were unfortunate in is quite good for a club like Everton.

a club like Everton???

9 times league champions

5 FA Cups

It doesn't matter what they have achieved in the past, when they don't have the resources to compete at the top. They have the resources for a mid-table side and Moyes is doing an excellent job getting them to compete with sides such as Liverpool, Man City, Tottenham and even Us in recent years, teams who have spent almost twice as much or more then the budget he's been given.

They last won a trophy in 1995, and there is a reason for that, football has changed and it is a lot harder to win things when you aren't one of the big four sides.

You use Wenger as an example for spending less, but yes of course he is a World Class Manager, no-one is saying Moyes is that. Moyes is a very good manager and is probably the ideal candidate for us if Houllier was to leave.

I'd say yes.

What managers have won trophies with teams outside the top four in the past ten years? Not many, and some teams were very fortunate or had spent a lot of money such as Portsmouth.

I'd say getting Everton consistent top 7 finishes, a place in the Champions League and a FA Cup final which they were unfortunate in is quite good for a club like Everton.

Yet on the other hand...

Distin £5.5m

Pienaar £2.5m

Coleman 60k

Saha Free Transfer

Baines £6.5m

Jagielka £5m

Lescott £6m

Howard £3.5m

Neville £4.5m

Arteta £2.5m

Cahill £2m

Yobo £4m

All of which have paid their transfer fees imo and most are now worth more then the fee paid for them. How many Villa players can you apply to that?

Sold Lescott for £24m.

Sold Johnson for £12m

Sold Beattie for £5m

As you can see he spent a lot on Johnson and Beattie but recouped a lot of it back, as they weren't bad players at the time. He also did brilliantly to get £24m off City for Lescott.

Also Fellaini is being linked with big money moves to the likes of Real, it probably won't happen but he is highly rated and I think they can get more then what they paid for him one day.

Not to mention the amount of injury problems Everton get each year.

I think Moyes would be ideal, plus he's the perfect manager to bring through the youngsters like he is doing at Everton.