Recircle

Dbl. post. Ignore.

See, to me that's slow. I reckon most Premier League defenders would be able to land a clout like that straight off the bat, hands-free; they wouldn't first have to take ahold of their own neck, in order to guide their head towards the intended target. Seconds count!

Only 36 games to go. Now watch Villa just throw it all away...

Yeah, but wiwcutlbofp?

You can't sniff at his credentials. On that basis alone, he deserved a meeting. At the end of the day it's a job interview, and with his CV McLeish would have every right to feel aggrieved if Villa hadn't called him to have talks (just as Steve McLaren has every right to feel aggrieved). What credentials? Oh sorry I forgot, 2 relegations and a shit brand of football! I'm not saying he deserves to be given the job based on his credentials, but did deserve an interview! Winner of the SPL and Scottish Cup with Rangers, manager of the Scotland team that beat France in a Euro 2008 qualifier in Paris, etc.

You can't sniff at his credentials. On that basis alone, he deserved a meeting. At the end of the day it's a job interview, and with his CV McLeish would have every right to feel aggrieved if Villa hadn't called him to have talks (just as Steve McLaren has every right to feel aggrieved).

Same. But who wants either when you can get Mark Hughes! Are Hughes's managerial credentials better than Mclaren's or McLeish's? I think Hughes appeals more because he was a better/more successful/more glamorous player than the other two. It's the 'cool dude' factor.

Obviously a far cooler dude than McLeish for those for whom these things matter, but a better manager?

O'Neill is/was a decent, solid manager (with a great record/rep from his days in the two-horse SPL) but with an old-fashioned and inflexible approach to management. Every season with him Villa would get out of the blocks well, and then, due to shallow squad depth/O'Neill's 70s/80s stylee preference for using the same core players week-in-week-out, would run out of steam from about February onwards. He's now a free-agent, but Fulham, West Ham and his old club Notts Forest have all passed over him to appoint other managers. His stock maybe isn't what it was.

Surely he could be reasoned with. He's been out of the game for a while, and a manager's stock can drop quickly. He needs to get back into football.

Gianluca Vialli spotted walking down the street in a manner which suggests he's about to leave for a meeting in Birmingham... ...okay, maybe not.

Has Benitez more or less been ruled out then? (I've been out; I'm trying to get up to speed!).

...Although we WILL reject one who receives a large enough thumbs-down from the fans.

Journos spraying muscle-bound hyperbole around like "turmoil" and "farce" and "catastrophic failure" just because Villa haven't rushed to appoint any old geezer just a matter of days after Gerard Houllier stepped down beggars belief. Why can't they at least report with calmness and some sense of perspective? An earthquake that precipitates a meltdown alert at a nuclear power plant is a catastrophe; Roberto Martinez turning down the Aston Villa manager's job isn't.

Chelsea coincidentally sacking their manager at the same time that GH had to step down because of health issues has made quite a few people unduly critical of the sort of candidates you were only ever realistically going to attract regardless of Ancelotti being a free agent.

i have unfortunately, we should have been all over him like flies round shit when GH had his health problems and ancelotti was sacked. [...] moyes in my view would be the worst i would be happy with.So in essence, Moyes is the sort of shit that you could see yourself flying around, albeit without much enthusiasm?

Being able to easily adopt different and contrary positions and playing devil's advocate is part-and-parcel of being a sports journo, though. They're not investing personal emotions in what they're doing; they're just doing a job.

Double post.

Quotes?? Did he insist on that? Did he even need to? Is it for certain that such a clause was there in the first place? (If there was one, you'd think it would just bar him from going to one of Chelsea's 'top four' rivals, not the likes of Villa, Everton, Fulham etc.).

He has, hasn't he? In some Italian interview. He said he would take several months off from football, and that he could be quoted on that. That's not a specifically worded rejection aimed at Villa, but it's pretty unequivocal about making a decision to put football on hold to go and enjoy family/private life for a while.

Good stuff! Boil it down though, and this still looks like sublimated Ancelotti love to me! Ancelotti isn't going to be Villa manager. As he's said, he wants a rest from football for a while. Probably only Sir Hair Dryer doing a Houllier in the next few months and leaving Man Utd suddenly for health reasons could turn Ancelotti's head.

Isn't Klinsmann busy enjoying a cushy businessman's life with his wife/family in America? I think it would be worth considering a German for the job, though. Has there ever been a German manager in the Prem? (Gross is Swiss). The Germans always do things resolutely by the book and you can bet any candidate will have a thorough grounding in management skills. Maybe it's because I'm a casual rather than fanatical follower of Villa, but I'm quite taken with the idea of considering taking a punt on a young(ish) German manager; a guy with no Prem experience but someone who was a winner as a player and who has managed at a decent level. Someone who's still a bit rawly ambitious and would likely have a progressive vision: Matthias Sammer (Euro '96 winner, Champions League winner), Pierre Littbarski (World Cup winner, two time World Cup runner-up - albeit as a bench-warmer for the '86 WC Final, I think)

Or Owen Wilson.

No one's basically any the wiser. All we know for sure is that it won't be Martinez or Ancelotti.

Moyes might just be tempted. He's been at Everton a long time, and it's not like he's doing a Sir Awex - leading the pack, reaching finals, raking in the trophies season after season at the one club. Villa would represent a less brassic version of Everton, and there wouldn't be much upheaval involved in moving from the North West to the Midlands.