thetrees

In fairness I think that only the most unreasonable would not see the Houllier tenure as a dose of bad luck. They went about things the right way and appointed a manager of immense pedigree. McLeish was downright foolish, but Houllier was unlucky.

At first I don't recognise you without your avatar! Where's Frank gone? Faulkner has schmoozed his way up to his role, and is much more accomplished than your average commercial director. He has done some good (getting rid of O'Neill, extracting ridiculous fees for Barry, Young and Downing), and he has done some bad (instrumental in the appointment of McLeish, signing Ireland after the manager who wanted him had departed), but his stock as a 'football' CEO has risen on the outside of VP, and I don't think that he would have too much of a problem getting a similar job in football, if he chose to stay in that field.

In all honesty, how much would either 'understand' the club or the football business in the present time? Moreover, would Paul Lambert want a buffer between him and the Chief Exec, with whom he seems to work okay? I doubt. There may well be plenty wrong with our club, but adding layers of management is no solution.

If she wants to you, she will ask you outright

Ah that mystical 'football man' that adorns boardrooms up and down the country. I understand that Joe Kinnear is available....

In all honesty, does a week at Anzi and three months at a Fulham define him as a crap manager? In that case I guess all managers could be crap. From what I have seen in the past week he has taken the bottom side to OT and battled a good point, and been unlucky to lose at home to Liverpool. A ridiculous decision of the Fulham owner to change things yet again.

When I saw the title I thought that 'The Randy Lerner thread' had been renamed and moved to OT.

The same could be said about half time last Saturday, although the talk had the opposite effect.

Ivo Stas

Given that Argentinian women are amongst the most stunning in the world, if not the most, I have always found Maxima somewhat below par.

unlike these new found friends of yours I knew that because I paid attention in another thread does that make me a better fan than them* ? (* OnTopic joke ) "Paid attention'? It's called 'grooming' Tony

You are box office here hun. Front page of every quality newspaper (best picture was the FT by the way) Take advantage, get some promotional work, make lots of money, and we'll see you on "I'm a Celebrity............." next autumn And yes, we are all very proud. You being Villa is just a bonus.

And tweedist to boot Never under estimate the power of the press to dig up stuff you'd rather not! Yep, there are some very hairy press people monitoring VT

After a Saturday afternoon like yesterday and the inevitable implosion on VT, it is an absolute pleasure to see that Britain has a new darling, and she is 'one of us' I will retire for the night chuckling at Tony's enquiry and Leemond's impending claims to his workmates VT always brings itself around to smiling again.

Whoever did it can't spell 'Goddess' Grammar policeman

I am sure that one of our stattos will provide the relevant information, but he can't be far off being worse than McLeish

Is that Paul Faulkner in the left foreground? Seriously though, well done Jenny-your nation is proud of you. Do you think that, had we signed Kiyotake, that miserable Japanese judge would have given you a better mark?

Mark, I see your point and would say that my post is in the context of the current ownership and the strategies being employed. Currently whether we the fans "keep our expectation high and never stop striving.." IMO it makes no difference at the moment - we are more marginalised and more apathetic than ever before. The protests under Ellis may not have had a significant impact on the ultimate outcome but at least they gave those involved a channel for their anger and passion. Now we point a finger at the over commercialisation of football, our inability to compete, wring our hands, accept our lot and thank whoever for small mercies! Now many view our current strategy as progress and believe that there is something at the "end of the rainbow" - 8-10th place is considered our new gold standard. The difference is that the protests under Ellis were because of starvation of funds. Randy Lerner has pushed hundreds of millions into the club in the last 8 years, and we find ourselves where we are now. No manager, including the present one, has been starved of funds. At the moment, the described 'gold standard' seems a million miles away, which it shouldn't be, considering the investment that was available. To go beyond that, however, we would need an investment of Mansour/Abramavich proportions, something that I don't see happening. So we are destined for years of further frustration and hand-wringing, with no practical solution to the problem. We can only pray that the frustration and hand-wringing don't turn into despair.

Ta Yes Paul, we know that Randy watches games.....via a live feed.

There are many I know, who are now questioning the merits of a season ticket. I don't want to see gates drop but I fear they will, that unfortunately is the only time action will be considered. I'm still not in favour of sacking him,( but this can't go on indefinately) but I am in favour of hearing some tangible reasons why our home form is so turgid. Right now, too many of us are unsure whether he is simply out of depth or has had a too big a task to deal with....in which case throw up slightly different likely outcomes. I often wonder about disillusioned ST holders, why they leaven and whether they ever come back. Two blokes next to us announced, after O'Neill's second season, that they wouldn't be back, because the football was so dire. I assume that those two guys don't even bother to watch us on TV now! I should imagine that a number deserted during the McLeish time, and a number deserted after last season. Just imagine if we had a combination of a decent manager and decent players and they all came back. Then you would need to expand the ground. But former season ticket holders rarely return..

So basically the only thing that we are missing at the moment is the mysterious interpreter?

I think that Lambert is the most well liked, crap manager since O'Neill. Once he is gone, if we have another manager with Glasgow connections in the next 100 years, it will be way too soon.

What about Bradford, Millwall, Sheffield United.. or Palace, Wigan, Southampton? "The bigger picture" remember. I guess that on that basis, the manager should be sacked. After all, people can dream this thread until it reaches 50000 pages, because the owner is not going anywhere unless someone comes up with £200m-£250m, and why would anyone want to do that? The manager, players and chief exec are all removable to varying degrees, but the owner isn't. That is not a 'defence', it's a cold, hard fact. Admit it, you have a "batman" type signal for when people post negative things about Lerner. I'm not suggesting the manager isn't to blame, it is all part of the destruction of our club over the past four years - one that will end in relegation. Lerner staying will see us relegated. I am pretty negative about the owner myself, I just look at all of the angles and see things from all sides. Besides that he has even received a 50% approval rating from his harshest critic in the 'obscurity' thread Fact is fact though. He isn't going anywhere, and there is nothing that anyone can do about it.

Tottenham and Everton will probably have their 'obscurity' moments in the not too distant future, opening the door for others to replace them. Alas, I don't think that it will be the Villa who are one of the others.

What about Bradford, Millwall, Sheffield United.. or Palace, Wigan, Southampton? "The bigger picture" remember. I guess that on that basis, the manager should be sacked. After all, people can dream this thread until it reaches 50000 pages, because the owner is not going anywhere unless someone comes up with £200m-£250m, and why would anyone want to do that? The manager, players and chief exec are all removable to varying degrees, but the owner isn't. That is not a 'defence', it's a cold, hard fact.