Jareth

I hear he's a big name

Absolutely no point in going for Big Sam, the last thing we want is a manager who will attract ye olde criticism of delivering boring football. We need someone to get the fans excited. Give us decent football and this fanbase will accept a work in progress I am certain.

Tony did the right thing when he fired RDM - by doing that he took responsibility for his choice and it couldn't have been an easy decision for him as it admitted he'd got it wrong. He then by all accounts went with Round's and Wyness' choice in Steve Bruce, and with Bruce being on a one year contract I doubt there is much holding Tony back from pulling the trigger. Surely the only thing preventing Tony from acting (if indeed we fail in the next few games) is not having a clear pick to replace Bruce. Whoever it is, I can totally see him throwing some serious cash at the next target, Baker's fee would cover it no problem.

I'm just playing devil's advocate - but MON had a premier league squad.

Here's a stat - MON won 42%, drew 32%, lost 26% of all his games. Had Bruce just drawn two games more (rather than losing them) - his stats would be the same as MONs. Not that I see anything other than an embarrassing loss to Reading and a P45 edging closer...

Complete balls

Yes he is

Tony Xia player, manager, owner.

What about Prandelli - he loves the villa - isn't he at some daft club in Dubai? Easy to get... He could be our Ranieri...

I'd like to know if the player recruitment and departures has gone through Steve Round in order to maintain stability if and when managers leave. I hope so, because it's quite a good squad and there is now a chance for Round to appoint someone who can help implement the 'villa way' he has been talking about for the youth set-up and above.

It's a loser mentality because right now AVFC is a club of losers and has been for a while. Shall we keep doing the same thing over and over? Or try a different way?

You think you're negative? Going on what happened yesterday, the timing of it, the performance, the result - I'm contemplating the season being over already.

At this point, after what 6 manager changes in the last few years, I honestly cannot see us attempting to short cut our way to success as being a viable ploy anymore. Expectations have dropped after 2 games, there is still time for Bruce to pull this around, but if the Bruce route (4 promotions to his name) turns out to be the wrong one, then we'd better get used to life in this division and get us a first team that plays the football we all want. That football will take time to develop and the last thing the new man needs is the relentless pressure to make us great again overnight.

Yep - he gets no service, spent yesterday legging it around the pitch to collect a ball that's been punted about 10 metres away from him.

I hope that whoever comes in will not have their only remit being to get promotion instantly, but instead be given time and space to implement their style. This rush we have been in was to be expected, and fair play to Tony for investing but maybe now we need to take our time. We'll be dependent on the RHMs and O'Hares next season anyway given the drop of income.

As I'm coming to terms with yet another bloody manager change, I wish to be greedy and now join those demanding sexy football and an actual set of tactics which change dependent on the opposition and sometimes within games. I shall also join them in that they know not who that is or could be. SOS.

I wanted to sleep on it before having an opinion. I've been looking at it in terms of the players he now has and that he should have time to use HIS squad, and it is true that we have a very good squad (although now I'm beginning to hope this was a lot to do with Round). I still believe this, and I can't see why he shouldn't be given (up to) 10 games subject to just how badly it goes from now on. Totally agree that Tony is not going to rip up his plans on two results of the new season, and if Bruce achieves less than RDM in a similar time frame, then he will go. I was prepared for some old skool football, simple, unsexy but what was meant to get results - if the results are not forthcoming soon, then it's possibly a case of aiming for top 6 at the most with a new manager.

I was sat about 10 metres away directly in line looking straight at Hutton's face as what should have been a routine clearance in any direction he wanted, turned into a sublime through ball resulting in a goal. The look on his face was that of a confused labrador. I don't go to many games but I feel like I have been an eye witness to a crime.

I'd start him over Green today.

So if I was half Irish, but watched the game on a laptop purchased from Canada, would Alan Hutton actually pass the ball accurately?

Alan Hutton salutes you.

Failed to make this tie last year so looking forward to getting there today. Anything other than a win and we will have some serious rage on VT. so probably a 1-1.

We've been on his back for years.

Nope - but we can hardly pin our promotion hopes on him - he isn't proven here and if we can go pick up someone Bruce knows, and who scores a lot at this level (Hernandez) that's as safe a bet as you can have and gives us serious depth in that position which is what we need if we want promotion.

Reading's first offer of 1.5 mill came in before the first game of the season - we were just waiting for them to up it. In that time Bacuna gets a game - maybe he just fitted the system, was more fit than anyone else and got the nod. I doubt Bruce feels wounded by this departure.