Danwichmann

And Deschamps won the league and the Coup de Ligue the season before, after 17 trophiless seasons. He also won the Coup de Ligue this season, as well as over achieving with Monaco and doing ok with Juventus. He's also as respected as they come for his playing career and would have far bigger pull in the transfer market. Rudi Garcia is ok, but he's been well backed at Lille by the owners and only has one sucessful season behind him.

I think it's very likely that clubs have been at least in contact with Ancelotti's representatives, if not the man himself. That contact may have been as minimal as "he's not interested". Whether that includes Villa is anyones guess.

I would imagine so. I'm sure there are a lot of "feelers" going out to agents etc to see who may or may not be interested. Just because we haven't had contact with Ancelotti it doesn't mean there was not an off the record chat with his agent in which we were told he wasn't interested. Just because Deschamps has hardly been mentioned it doesn't mean we haven't tried to find out if he'd be interested. (Although, I think he hasn't been mentioned because he is unattainable for us and destined for a bigger when he's finished with OM).

Some confirmation of what we all now know

That reminds me of the days under Doug, where he'd put in a crap offer for a player knowing full well we wouldn't get him, then say "Oh well, at least we tried!" With this board, they will attempt to keep it quiet, so if we have / do try and fail there is every chance we won't hear anything, or nothing solid. I choose to believe they will try for ambitious candidates, even if we don't hear about it.

The same Guardian who didnt know Houllier retired. Houllier hasn't retired.

:shock: Must think this is a SHA forum.

What does Hughes wife look like?

is this the trophy laden benitez??? Found one!

According to who?

I assume so, as he hasn't been mentioned in any of the official statements. Makes sense to keep someone in charge of footballing thinks while we're in between managers and I guess his future will be assessed once a new manager is installed.

Post of the day!!

Hardly a great choice but it would have to be McClaren. I second the exact opinion as bickster. Is it actually confirmed anywhere that we have approached Ancelotti? I'm a bit confused as to how Carlo saying no would narrow it to just those two?

But when you are playing catch up, as Villa are, can you do that in a minibus? No! You need the sports car!

Lol, it's not even 24 hours yet! You may have a little longer to wait yet!

I agree with this, he's done well in these cases. I don't agree, I think what he's done with Fulham and Blackburn is pretty much as far as he'll be able to take us. A solid 6th or 7th, which is by no means bad and can be seen as an achievement, but he'll never take us to another level.

But what makes you think Hughes wouldn't go if a big club came calling? Or are you saying Hughes isn't good enough for a big club and we should appoint someone inferior so that we be confident they won't leave?

As much as I agree that Deschamps would be a fantastic appointment, the best we could make, I'm not sure he's ever done much to suggest he has a fantastic knowledge of up and coming players. The only gem he's unearthed at Marseille is Azpilicueta, all his other signings were well established players (I think we all knew about Remy and Gignac for example!). He has brought a couple of youngsters through (the Ayew's) which would undoubtedly be important here.

That's probably true of any manager to some extent though? Remember MON constantly being linked with Liverpool etc while he was doing well. But it would still be a concern because the one thing Deschamps hasn't done so far as a manager is hang around any one club for a long time.

I pretty much agree. I think O'Neill did well for us to consistently achieve 6th place. I think Hughes would do the same (the goalposts have moved slightly so 6th under MON may now be 6th~8th). That's by no means poor for us, if Hughes comes in and does that I think he'll be doing a good job. But a 'special' appointment, someone like Deschamps, could possibly just move us on beyond that level. He made the perennial losers Marseilles into Champions and took Monaco beyond their level, he's a coach than can move clubs on a level. O'Neill, Hughes, maybe Moyes as well, for me are coaches that will take Villa to a decent level, do a good job but will never be able to move us on that extra step.

I think a lot of our players would be off if they looked on here to often.

something like this

To be fair, I think he's more than proved his credentials to manage us. It's a question of whether we could attract a manager of that calibre. The bold line illustrates why he'd be 100% perfect for us :winkold:

Something about seeing Rafa going somewhere?? Isn't there tennis on at the moment, could be Rafa Nadel?

There's some pretty great signings on that list - and you can add Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry, and Joleon Lescott for good measure. The backbone of City's success last season. Kompany is the only one on that list I'd call a great signing. I think they paid a fortune for De Jong when he was available on a free IIRC otherwise he'd be there as well.