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Negatives: McLeish McLeish McLeish McLeish McLeish Not only was it completely unintelligible from a purely football perspective, it was an enormous insult to the fans. After doing some good things for the fans in his first few years why destroy all of that goodwill with such a bizarre decision? I had quite a good opinion of Lerner before that, but that was pretty much unforgivable. It basically said 'this is my club and i'll do what I like with it', which was the exact opposite of his attitude when he first bought the club. Basically it showed terrible judgement and a contempt for the fans. His judgement has always been a bit suspect, but at least I thought he had our best interests at heart. Still can't believe it happened. Still makes me angry now.

Call me a traditionalist, but I expect midfielders to actually have some ability on the ball rather than without it. Otherwise we may as well sign Mo Farah, bet he could put in a cracking shift. tbh none of them are that bad individually, but they really do not complement each other at all.

How much they would command if they were sold. Would anyone pay any more than 5 mil for any of our players except Benteke, Guzan or Delph? Or if you were a manager, would you? To expand the point, how many of our players even have the potential to be worth more than that in the future? 1 or 2?

Could probably be a reasonable player if he had some better players around him. He isn't going to boss the midfield single handedly, but could do a job if we weren't one of the most static and unintelligent teams in the league in terms of movement in possession.

Still a team with only 3 players worth more than 5 mil. If people don't find that worrying, it shows how high our ambitions are.

We just have so many mediocre players. Fair enough they try hard so you can't fault them, but they just aren't that good. It's fair enough going for 'young hungry players', but we need to be signing 'young, hungry players' with the potential to grow into good premier league players. We sign players who, at best, will be decent squad players because we spend 2 mil a signing. Of course you can get bargains occasionally, but what percentage of signings at this price are anything other than decent squad players? If 1 in 5 turns out to be good you have done pretty well. The reason they cost so little is simply cos they aren't very highly rated and unless you believe in football alchemy there is usually a reason they aren't that highly rated. How many quality players cost less than 2 million in the whole league? (excluding Bosmans and kids) Plenty of decent players can be got for 4-5 mil though, but we don't even aim that high. How many of our players apart from Benteke, Guzan and possibly now Delph would fetch a fee of more than 5 million? To be honest, those 3 players are probably worth more than the rest of the squad combined. How many of Lambert's signings have significantly increased in value apart from the one we paid a significant fee for? We aren't discovering gems, we are signing below average players that remain below average players. Lambert hasn't done a bad job so far, but he's not exactly punching above his weight either. Our passing and movement is abysmal so we have <40% possession almost every week. West Ham managed by long ball Sam were like Barcelona compared to us today. I understand that we are currently paying for our woeful mismanagement over the past few years. But, assuming we stay up, if at the end of this season we don't move out of 'consolidation' mode and start showing some ambition in our signings, then we will have to assume that we are simply content to avoid relegation every year.

The easiest way to describe what we need is 3 players who can fulfil the roles Ashley Young, Gareth Barry and James Milner played. Those are the skill sets we are missing. We won't get 3 as good probably, but we need people who resemble them as players. Could have got Barry on loan too.

The reason we hit lots of long passes is that our movement off the ball is terrible. Look at how many players are in a position to receive a pass at any given time, usually it's not many. We are good on the counter attack when we hit balls into space for players to run on to, but when in posession in normal play, we have poor movement and we aren't that good at passing and don't have a great first touch either. Against teams that press us, we lose the ball frequently or end up having to pass back to a defender/keeper to hoof the ball up the park. We don't set out to play a long ball game, but are often reduced to it simply because we don't have options on the pitch. We don't move teams around much and struggle to get behind teams unless we are on the break. Wish we had loaned Barry, as he always gives an option to receive a pass. But, ultimately, it is a team wide problem rather than something that would be fixed by 1 player. Except Benteke, we don't have many players with particularly good football intelligence. So as a team, we lack certain qualities and I don't see this changing without 2/3 high quality additions to the midfield and wide players. Otherwise, we will be limited to scoring most of our goals on the break.

I loved this article. Made my day. It is great to know how bitter and unhappy the little weasel is. If we are going to have to pay most of his wages anyway, I would rather he was miserable and training on a farm somewhere rather than out on loan enjoying himself at our expense. He ruined enough of our weekends in his time, at least i get some minor sense of comfort knowing that he's as unhappy to be here as we are to have him.

Anyone want to take a shot at explaining that "overall philosophy"? So we don't only have 1 centre forward. So Benteke doesn't have to play every minute of every game to keep our shape. lambert clearly wants to play 3 solid CMs, and for 4 mil you don't get a creative CM who doesn't weaken us in terms of getting the ball and defensiveness. people complain about getting an expensive-ish reserve striker, despite the fact we need cover for Benteke. We also need a replacement next year so makes sense to get someone now to judge if they cut the mustard. Who is the genius creative midfielder we should have signed instead? Would they be any more than a squad player anyway? And if benteke gets injured, I'm well glad we have a replacement striker rather than another midfielder where we have cover.

probably won't be many more than 9 points between upper mid table and just clear of relegation scrap, and as many games are decided by 1 goal, good/bad luck will make a huge difference on final league placings for many teams. We should be in the mid-table group which means 7-15th depending on the breaks we get. So many teams are so close in quality tho that luck will be a big factor for all teams. A few serious injuries and we could be in trouble again. Too much unpredictability involved to make an accurate prediction. The role of chance in good/bad seasons is vastly underrated.

With a qualification of at least 10 games played, and not including players who were class players but were Barry White for us cos they were too old (Schmeichel would have made the team otherwise). Being poor value for money is not relevant either, just being a truly awful footballer for the Villa You couldn't get a team more hideous than this one though. They would be playing a strange 4-5-1 formation to fit in as many defensively minded players as possible which means that Mcleish would be the manager. Djemba-Djemba would be the captain as he is the 2 worst players I've ever seen for villa. Enckelman Shorey Knight Tiler Hutton Djemba2 (Capt.) Osbourne Gudjonssen Kinsella De La Cruz S. Moore Some of the 'worst' teams I've seen here would put 3 or 4 past this team.

why haven't we signed at least 2 central midfielders? Does anyone in the world think that we are good in CM? 2 signings and we would have a chance of staying up. Should have had them in 3 weeks ago. Bet we don't sign anyone. Bottom of the league is my prediction. We are so lightweight in CM. Can't defend and no creativity. The fact we haven't even tried to fix this is disgusting.

Oh yeah, we won, tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999!

It's the lack of signings that puts the final nail in the coffin. We should have had 3 players in by the 1st week of January. if he can't find anyone to improve this team, and doesn't see the need he is a clueless **** clearing in the woods. 2nd half just hoofed the ball upfield against a side in the bottom league. Soft, spineless, weak, can't pass, can't score, can't defend. Never mind relegation, I'd be amazed if we don't finish bottom of the league. The words I'd never thought I'd utter: 'worse than McLeish'. And I **** hate Mcleish. 8-0 defeat 3-0 at home to Wigan Outplayed over 2 legs by a bottom division team. Full credit to Bradford, they fully deserved it. And that's the worst thing. They outfought us and even out passed us. Such a terrible football team, how can we not have signed at least 2 central midfielders in the transfer window? Just spouts shite about 'believing in the lads'. Awful, clueless, incompetant.

He was rank at Kilmarnock. Wouldn't like to think he is the sort of player we would rely on to keep us up. 300k or not, if there is one thing we don't need it's a youngster who has the potential to be a mediocre premiership player.

He's either 6 ft 5" or 6 ft 3" Yeah, I've seen both figures for him so we don't know for sure, seemingly. Looking at that picture I would go for 6' 5" being closer to the mark, he looks very rangy. I'm going to go with 12ft 5" based on this accurate image. I heard that he is actually so huge that he has his own field of gravity. This means that no matter where on the pitch a pass is aimed, it will automatically end up at his feet. This will prove helpful when Richard Dunne returns to the side...

"Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish: "It was an absolutely shocking, woeful display. Maybe some of the boys were thinking about their holidays already. "That team needs a change and there will be change. That wasn't an Alex McLeish team today. We need to bring more quality into the squad. "I take (the fans' booing) on my shoulders for the sake of the players, I agree with the fans' frustration about our display. "I'm expecting the board to back me. I have no reason to think I won't be (Villa manager next season). We've got through a really tough season. I've won lots of trophies as a player and manager and I haven't turned into a bad manager overnight." 1. From the evidence of the last few seasons that was a trademark "Alex McLeish" team. From 14 players used today, there were 7 defenders and a keeper 2. You can't take the fans booing 'for the sake of the players', because they are booing you you clueless prick. The clue that abuse is aimed at you is that it contains your name after the word 'sack' 3. You haven't turned into a bad manager overnight as you have always been a bad manager, a rank awful disgrace of a terrible, clueless manager. If he doesn't get sacked, i swear to god....

Someone needs to inform him that just because there are thousands of people wearing Villa tops in the stadium, it doesn't mean that they are all on the field of play. Hopefully, he will also realise that standing on a solid spherical object invariably leads to a sub-optimal balance situation followed by an immediate juxtaposition of his arse on the grass.

sub-human filth. he is to football management what Kenny G is to death metal.

I agree, he is indeed not responsible for our superior record last season.

Lack of effort is a sign of poor management. Players never lack for effort in well managed clubs. Fact. Still the player still need to execute right we know they can do it, our passing success rate was less then 70% against United United lacked the effort needed at Wigan and the same with Arsenal today They didn't lack effort, they just had a 'poor day at the office'. That can happen to any team. The thing about well managed teams is that it rarely happens 2 time in a row. Most of our performances on the other hand have been shameful and can only be caused by poor management. Does anyone really think we are well managed? So what has changed at Wigan, the effort the players are putting in, mainly it is still the same manager in charge. If you watched Wigan today they showed heart, and more importantly they showed attacking movement and defensive unity/positioning. We have neither attacking movement nor defensive unity/positioning, that is the responsibility of the ginger wage thief (I refuse to call him a manager any longer).

Lack of effort is a sign of poor management. Players never lack for effort in well managed clubs. Fact. Still the player still need to execute right we know they can do it, our passing success rate was less then 70% against United United lacked the effort needed at Wigan and the same with Arsenal today They didn't lack effort, they just had a 'poor day at the office'. That can happen to any team. The thing about well managed teams is that it rarely happens 2 time in a row. Most of our performances on the other hand have been shameful and can only be caused by poor management. Does anyone really think we are well managed?

Lack of effort is a sign of poor management. Players never lack for effort in well managed clubs. Fact.

Another prime example of Mc*****'s man management 'skills' and his uncanny ability to coax every last drop of talent from all of the players at his disposal...