flashingqwerty

Hi General, I appreciate your input and your pride and the responses of other fans - and i respect your opinion of course. BUT, its all just words and means very little in the real world to be brutally honest with you. Since Martin O'Neill first took over three years ago, every time we have had a bad result, or played poorly, he has reverted to excuses about how small the squad is and how tired the players are and how we need more quality in and how he will add x,y,z if and when he can. For 1 year, even 2 years i can appreciate it takes time to build a team. BUT 3 years is ample time to have addressed the squad size and to have brought in enough quality to the squad that we are not left in a situation where we are having at the moment. There is NO EXCUSE for only having 1 fit CB in the squad when we have known since January that Laursen needed to be replaced and Davies was having to play through injury - on top of that we SOLD our ONLY other backup in this position. I am sorry if this seems disrespectful but this is the equivalent of sending a bunch of 15 year olds into afganistan with a few ballons on the end of sticks and expecting them to defeat the taliban - its NEVER going o work! Enough of the excuses and asking for faith as Martin O'Neill has had AMPLE time with which to address the SEVERE shortage of numbers and quality within this squad. Yes we have made progress but at what cost? Do you throw away the chance to win a trophy on the off chance you MIGHT get 4th in he league? i think not - especially when you are already faced with a depleted and exhausted squad - it was always on the cards (clearly apparently even in december) that we were unable to last the full season without additions in january and we did NOTHING. To confound this we lost our best two players and started selling off the squad without bringing in anyone to replace them. We currently have fewer players of siginificantly less quality than what we had 12 months ago despite the efforts of Martin as hs team - this cries out to me that they are incapable of taking the team further. In order for us to have a team even equal to the one from 12 months ago we'd need to sign 3/4 top quality players, and i just cant see where they are going to come from. I am completely disheartened and diappointmented in the lack of ambition and progress shown by the management team - should we go into the season without SEVERAL additions i fully expect a relegation battle this term. I hope i am proven wrng but i cant see things being any differnt than they are right now under Martin O'Neill and fully expect him to be sacked by January - I am an IT manager and if i left my company without enough computers to operate efficently or to achieve my targets then i would fully expect to lose my job and in a much smaller time frame than Martin has had. Something NEEDS to change for Aston Villa to continue to progress and Martin O'Neill id not the person to invoke such changes as 3 years of excuses highlight as does the fact that our current league form of 2 wins in 19 games - this type of form is one of the worst in the clubs history and is the making of a relegation candidate. I'm not panicking over the first 2 games of the season - i'm panicking over nearly 9 months of completely inadequate and inept management of the team which leaves us as the worst team on form in the prem since january.

Hi General, i would ask two favours of you if i may? 1) please pass on the enourmous disappointment and frustration that villa fans are experiencin with his performance as manager at this time. 2) please pass on to Randyour frustration and dissappointment in the performance of our manager and his handling of the team, tactics and transfers over the past 3 years. Just so that you are aware this isnt just a reaction to todays result - today was the latest in a long long long line of not simply substandard, but quite frankly embarrassing performaces by Martin O'Neills side. Over the last three years Martin has been attempting to mould his own team with his own players - and i think we can all agree that the current team and squad is of his making. The biggest flaw in this is that whenever something goes wrong Martin makes excuses like "oh the players havent had a full pre-season","the squad is tired because it too small" and "the squad is small and lacks depth...". I honestly feel that after 3 years Martin has had more than ample time to prepare a squad that is not wafer thin and is not of a quality capable of lasting a full seasnon - he's had enough time for the above to not be acceptable excuses but he persists in making them. Each of these things are his responisbility and fully within the remit of his job description. I know the transfer window isnt closed yet but the deep seated issues within the squad have been there for several tranbsfer windows and have not been addressed. The end of season position was acceptable but the result does not always justify the means, especially in football - i personally would raher we finished 16th but were playing great fottball rather than play like amateurs and finish 6th. If my job performance was in line with Martins, and i was continually making excuses for failure in the manner that he does - reasons that are completely within his power to correct - then i would fully expect to be sacked. I trust that the powers at Aston Villa will bear all aspects of Martin's job performance in mind this season and not just the position in the table when considering his position at the club as i believe his position should be very insecure at this time. Many Thanks Flash:

i think our rivals have strengthened a lot more than we have so far - of cource this could change before 31st but as of now we have slipped behind 1 or 2 in terms of quality and depth so i think 8-10th this season

superbly well put general - its nice to see that your illness has not dulledyour mind. Thanks for the reassuring words!

Hi General, Great to have you back and hope all is going well. I'd like to get your thoughts as a fan (not as part of the villa staff) on seeing 2 of our best players leave and another sold without anyone coming in when we already had a paperthin squad? Does it give you the jitters the same way it does the rest of us? UTV!!!

no i dont think i would be he's a decent player but he doesnt fit into the way we play our football - he needs to play in a midfield 3 with 1 defensive and one attacking player i think we could easily sell him for 15-20 million and replace him with a better foreign player for half that

depends... due to our farsicle exit from the Uefa and both domestic cups losing a huge lead over arsenal and a very strong 4th position finish both of the above down to MON's actute tactical shortcomings and huge ego/pride if we now lose out on 5th to Everton he shouldnt just walk he should be forcibly removed. dont get me wrong he's done great so far but i cant help but feel like he's plateau'd i dont think he has the ability tactically, or the astuteness in the transfer market, to take us beyond where we are. its up to him to prove me wrong

remember what happened last time we played them as they had just changed manager? we mashed them up!!!! still think we might struggle though 1-1

thanks for this general - extremely well put and really makes me feel better about the whole think - star man!!

Hi General, i appreciate what you say about sky rearranging the interview, but MON has been quoted as saying that we couldnt compete in the transfer market - not that we wouldn't - but that we couldn't. Knowing MON as we do then we know this isnt an irresponsible mistake but a well thought out comment so that leads me to believe he's telling the truth. it doesnt bother me as we are still al ong way off competeing with a great many top clubs, but it does disturb me a little that on one hand we have yourself and the club saying that the money is there and MON has full backing etc and on the other MON quoted as saying that we couldnt compete to sign players due to high prices - the two things dont match up. but hey signings or none we're in a great position and long may it continue!!

HERO!!! was a shining light in what was in my opinion the worst squad we've had in my lifetime (born 1980) for the quality of the players we had he scored alot of goals and provided alot too were it not for the way he had been treated by the club when he first arrived, the misfortunes he had, and then the serious knee injury he could easily have been a superstar put him into the villa team now as he was at his prime and he'd easily score 20 a season

surprised no votes for bouma as util his injury i thought he was having a great year no surprises that its between ash and laursen tho just of note BOF was meant to put petrov into the poll not quite sure why he left him out

Now that we have completed 2008 matches i thought it would be nice to see who you all think was out 'stand out' player of the year.

heskey owen and nzogbia in harewood and routledge out

Hi General, Just wondering if you can shed any light on what exactly Mr. Cunnah did whilst at the club and for what reason he has left? Or was it simply that he had fulfilled his job requirement? Thanks Scott

throwing in my 2 cents worth... i'm not saying i am ITK i'm not saying that this is concrete or even slightly true but the source is Jermaine Penant so make up your own mind (yes i am aware he played for the scum) apparently if the barry deal goes through it'll be a part exchange for BOTH Crouch and Pennant apparently benitez has discussed this with both players and they have agreed to leave should villa accept but as above it could be a former blooser just talking shit

after the comments he made in the press about not wanting to leave cos he can win things here to then be banded around the papers with liverpool cos he thinks he's gonna win more there is a kick in te teeth for villa and i dont want people with those loose morals at this club - deserves to be booed if the stories about him leving are true

yes - provided that he can sign some squad players and some first teamers if he cannot bring in at least 5 players in the summer then i'll have to change to no

the problem isnt randy fronting the money i'm not sure MON has the balls to spend it

Hi General, Just wondering if you can confirm when: 1) new sponsor will be announced? 2) new kit will be unveiled? 3) next seasons season ticket prices will be released? Thanks

oops i was looking at the academy not the reserves :oops:

we beat fulham 1-0 to regain the top spot now 4 points ahead of reading and 1 ahead of spammers with a game in hand looking good

things are definately on the down turn a few players need to be rested and we are approaching suspensions for no fewer than 6 players in the starting 11 a bad game and we could loose them all for an important match and add a few injuries to that and we'll be playing our 17yr old reserves in the prem

just 1 for me and it will be laursen personally i'd take signing laursen over 3 other singings an no laursen

i think number 1 is the most tradiitonal and suits our proud history bright future theology much better number 2 just makes me think of the czech republic number 3 will get very dated very fast IMO number 4 - not able to post what i think on here without getting a red card