MR_Black_AVFC

Awful awful. Just heard his interview on the radio. He felt we deserved to win the game. Says it all. The man is totally deluded and an embarrassment to Villa.

I agree. The appointment was ludicrous in the first place. I cannot fathom the moment when Lerner/Faulkner decided that McLeish was the man they wanted. I can only conclude that they looked at the O'Neil/McLeish rivalry in Scotland and how McLeish one won trophy more than O'Neil whilst in charge of Rangers. O'Neil won trophies in Scotland, got Leicester promoted, won a league cup. McLeish won trophies in Scotland, got SHA promoted, won a league cup. The record, when you look at it like that, is not that dissimilar. But as we know, the reality is far different on a game-to-game basis. I won't hide the fact I am anti-McLeish. My feelings are well documented here. But is the above why Lerner employed him in the first place? I cannot think of any other reason.

...and once you see us play, you realise the facts do not tell the entire story. I do not know from his time in Scotland. All I can go on is from what I have read from Rangers fans. Most of them were glad to see the back of McLeish due to having to endure what we are now - boring, dull, defensive anti-football. It was only because his squad was marginally better that he managed to win so many trophies in Scotland. At SHA, he took them down playing boring antifootball. They got promoted playing the same way, not to mention, like Rangers, their squad was better than most of the Championship so promotion was expected. He took them to 9th, most of that largely dependant on Joe Hart and having a good central defence in Dann and Johnson throwing their bodies at everything. Then he was found out and look where they ended up - with his team that he had put together. He has come here and teams already know what to expect as they remember his time from SHA. That is why we are struggling. Its not rocket science.

I love that quote from Faulkner, gosh we're lucky to have such a visionary and hard working manager. I think it's an excellent idea, and I intend to follow a similar path, so next week I'm off to discuss running a successful bank with Fred Goodwin, and the week after that the art of relaxing in the bath with Whitney Houston. Is that quote from Faulkner for real?

I'd say Ellis, for the simple reason that he would have never employed a manager who had got his previous club relegated TWICE. On the whole, Ellis employed managers who were actually a success here. Taylor, Atkinson, Gregory, Little were all Ellis recruits and raised the profile of the club. Ellis also employed Martin O'Neil. Houllier and McLeish is all Lerner has to show. Neither of them wanted by the fans. It was unthinkable a few years ago that we would be scrapping around the lower echelons of the Prem and going into derby matches against the likes of West Brom and Wolves as anything other than favourites. We were all laughing last May at SHA when their pitiful excuse for a club were relegated again under that Scottish clown. Now we have ended up with him, paying a substantial amount for his services. You couldn't make it up.

Having been a season ticket holder for nine years and having watched teams under various managers, the appointment of Alex McLeish has to be the worst choice by a country mile. Doug Ellis, for all his faults, would have never hired McLeish. He understood the supporters, the rivalry between ourselves and SHA, and would have never rocked the boat in such a controversial fashion. This appointment has divided fans and seemingly the playing squad, if the rumours suggested are true. The way SHA capitulated last season was down to McLeish and Grant. When teams below them starting fighting for their lives, they dropped like a stone and in the end deserved to be relegated. He largely escaped blame for their relegation a few years previously, yet if you look at it, he still had a good six months in the job, plus a transfer window, to have put together a side capable of staying in the PL. Once again he failed. I heard him over the weekend on the radio state that his teams only play negative football is just a 'myth' and that he could show tapes and tapes of games where his teams have played attractive, attacking football. I'd like to see these tapes. If he is referring to his time in Scotland as manager of Rangers then you cannot really call it a competition. There is only a two-horse race, yet on one occasion McLeish managed to finish 3rd. The man is completely deluded. I only think he took the Villa job because he thought he could do a better job than O'Neil - continuing their rivalry from north of the border. Do I want him at Villa? No. Did I ever want him as manager? No. Why? Because I cannot see from his record what he brings to Aston Villa in terms of success. I am sick of people using his SHA connections as an excuse - it is not. I am writing this as a passionate fan of Aston Villa Football Club. Like most of you, I was willing to give McLeish time to prove the doubters wrong, myself included. Every game I go to I try to watch the game with an open mind. Then I find myself watching the same mistakes, tactics, pointless subsitutions, baffling team selections. The list goes on and on. On Sunday, it was more of the same. Struggling to create anything of note, let alone have a shot at goal. We have the likes of Heskey on the left wing, and our most attacking players of late N'Zogbia and Ireland dropped to the bench. We have Warnock and Hutton making mistakes in every game, whilst Cuellar sits on the bench. Collins is another one prone to errors. Dunne is the only one who seems to want to fight for the cause. It would be unfair to blame his solely. We do miss Friedel. As much as Given is a top goalkeeper, Friedel seemed to organise the lads in front of him and command authority. We have looked a lot more disorganised since he left, especially on set pieces. I don't know how much longer we can go on like this before Lerner/Faulkner finally wake up to the realisation that McLeish and Grant are draining the very lifeblood out of Aston Villa and killing the club. I don't think we will be relegated as there are worse teams and McLeish seems to pull a freak result out of the bag every now and then, to keep things ticking along. If this had been last season, it would have been different. I thought we had seen the back of the bad old days. It seems that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. Sorry for the long reply. I've been wanting to say this for months. VTID