Risso

What exactly is very tough about: Wigan (H) Liverpool (A) Fulham (H) Birmingham (A) Portsmouth (H) I don't expect much from Liverpool away, but you'd be looking at 9 points from the remaining games.

Good going Scotland. The sooner England goes it alone the better.

And he's free. Outrageous.

When the bad run comes to an end, I promise to stop going on about it. I just don't see it ending any time soon with THAT defence.

Sorry about that. The argument still stands though if we could only draw at home then how would we have won away? The argument doesn't stand at all, football doesn't work like that does it? We'd have won away by scoring more goals against them. Just to totally stamp on the corpse of your argument: Arsenal home - drew. Arsenal away - win

Just one problem with that argument, we actually drew the home leg.

I'm just glad Milner's here. As Dundeevilla says, if we're going to criticise him for the bad buys, you have to say well done for the good ones as well. I think Milner will turn out to be more use to us long term than Ashley Young tbh.

Name me a single other Villa manager who has been forced out by the fans - it just doesn't happen. When we've changed managers in the past, when has it lead to all our best players following them?

I suggest you read the new site guidelines, and then ask yourself if your post adheres to them. I think O'Neill should go. Is there anything you'd like to call me?

Jon, no offence but, you don't half procrastinate when it comes to criticising O'Neill! (The following aren't actual quotes but a general flavour....) Last season it was "If the players don't perform better from having fewer games, then it will be time to ask questions!" (Cue no improvement whatsoever) Then "If O'Neill doesn't sort the squad this summer, I'll be mildly annoyed." (Cue no replacements for Laursen or Barry) Now he's got 3-4 months! Coming next, Jon states "If O'Neill doesn't get us promoted, I'll give him a piece of my mind!"

As I pointed out on another thread, Randy Lerner put another huge injection of cash into the club in October last year, and massively increased the authorised share capital as well, presumably with the intention of doing so again in the future. I believe that Randy, within reason, is fully prepared to make the decisions necessary to ensure the success of the club. I don't think we're struggling to bring the necessary players in due to lack of funds, I think the responsibilty for that rests solely on the shoulders of the manager. We soent nearly £50m on players last season, so "less" than that would still give us plenty of scope to bring some decent defenders to the club. Randy has backed O'Neill's judgement with cold, hard cash, it's not his fault O'Neill wasted it on turkeys like Davies, Cuellar and Shorey.

And....what? He turned out to be crap. It's not our fault, we don't get paid £3m a year to buy the players.

It shows that people love the Villa and want the best for it. Wanting one underperforming clun employee sacked isn't being fickle. Going off to support another team would be fickle.

Did I say Martinez is better? Did I, did I, huh HUH?! People have said he COULD do better, not WILL. Let's be realistic. O'Neill isn't going to go so soon into the new season, but it's 3 wins in nearly 20 games now, and we're averaging nearly two goals a game conceded over that period. It really can't go on like that. He either sorts out the mess he's made of the defence and turns things round, or he has to go. Simple as that really.

Then why haven't they done better than us yet? Oh well let's see: Hodgson - manages perennial relegation strugglers FULHAM, finished one place behind us despite not spending anywhere near as much. Has also qualified for major tournaments with Switzerland, and has managed one of the world's greats in Inter Milan. Martinez - one game into his Premier League career. Already has his team playing better football than we've managed in a long time.

Oh dear. Pompey's problems stem from the fact that they're massively in debt, and are in limbo while the takeover hangs in the balance. When managers left in the past, we always managed to replace them under Ellis, without the club collapsing. It's a funny point of view that says a brilliant businessman like Lerner wouldn't be able to replace him. Our problems stem from the fact that in three seasons, O'Neill has been unable to put together an even halfway decent defence. If he did leave, he'd be welcome to take Cuellar, Shorey, Davies, NRC, Harewood and Heskey with him.

For the umpteenth time, it's not just about one game.

What Everton fans do or don't think is of very little interest to me. I dare say I'll find out in the office tomorrow, as I work with a million of the buggers, but we have enough problems of our own without worrying about them. Another team playing badly and getting stuffed is of little comfort to be honest.

Another scenario might be that we get a decent manager in who ships out all of O'Neill's dross, eg Cuellar, Davies, Shorey, NRC, Heskey etc, and brings some decent talent in to complement the existing good players like Young and Milner. At the very least, we'd have a chance of having somebody organise the defence properly.

It's all very well saying "fresh season, fresh start", but when the same old problems are there that wrecked our season last time out, it's hard not to think that the manager has lost the plot. Our defence was abysmal last year. Yet O'Neill not only fails to bring in anybody in time for kick off, he also sells the one defender who was marginally better than the other two.

What foundation? The defence is far worse than the day O'Neill arrived. There's hard work to be done because O'Neill has made such an arse of it. He inherited Delaney, Mellberg, Laursen, Ridgewell, Cahill, Samuel and Bouma. Today we had Beye, Cuellar, Davies and Shorey. Delaney > Beye Mellberg > Cuellar Laursen > Davies Samuel > Shorey Cahill > Davies even Ridgewell > Davies The only defender that O'Neill has bought that has given any value is Luke Young.

No, I wasn't actually suggesting Martinez, just pointing out that O'Neill isn't the be-all and end-all of football managers. John Gregory did as well at Villa as O'Neill has to date, and he came from the 3rd division. Look at Hodgson, I imagine most Fulham fans weren't bowled over when he was appointed, but he's done really well for them since he arrived. But just to avoid confusion, I'm not suggesting either Hodgson or Gregory for the job either. At the moment, I'd maybe suggest somebody like Bilic, but I'd imagine if the job ever does become available, there will be no shortage of candidates.

I really respect the amont of posts that you have, but I still think that this post is way out. How so? Would you imagine that NRC is happy at the moment? And Luke Young did say he wasn't best pleased to be playing left back last season, so that's indisputable as well.

1. No 2. Are you telling me that there isn't a manager out there who couldn't put a better defence together than Cuellar, Davies and Shorey? Look at Martinez today. First proper day as a Premier League manager, in charge of a shit club like Wigan, who have lost Palacios, Valencia, Heskey, Cattermole and Zaki in recent months, and yet still got his team playing neat, organised football. You might rate him as one of the best 3 managers in England, and you'd be wrong. Oh so very wrong.

I think there are serious signs that the cracks are beginning to show, going back as you say, to Moscow. Firstly, NRC must be absolutely livid that he absolutely cannot buy a game, and a 19 year old untried kid starts in the middle. Then Luke Young was unhappy last year at being played out of position for so long. Shorey spat his dummy, and I don't think Carew and O'Neill see eye to eye anyway. All of these things cn be swept under the carpet when results are going well, but when the poor form continues, I think the resentment starts to bubble over.