redrum

given is half the goalie he was 5 years ago. i've watched him with ireland all his career and he has been borderline world class almost all of his career. but with villa last season you could see he dropped a notch although he still was pretty good, but not at his best). obviously man city saw this also when they let him go. at the euros he had the worst time of his career and looked quite slow off the mark. I think the beginning of next season is crucial for him, a few great saves early season, and it could boost his confidence and he will bounce back, a few mistakes and it could be curtains.

not a fan of guzan at all.

hopefully he is being though of as number 2 at best.

granted, he saved some penos, but a lot of that is luck, he seems to have no command at all under a high ball or in the box in general.

Why on earth would anybody want martinez i dont know.

the season before he joined wigan they came 9th. steve bruce had a 34% win rate with wigan.

martinez flirted with relegation every year, and had a 26% win rate.

it's bananas the hype over him.

no matter what the circumstances, bottom half of the table for Aston Villa should be labelled as a failure.

i still think we should be aiming for 8th as a club minimum.

If Everton can do it with zero money, we should be able to this with some money.

My number 1 choice is always Benitez. I think he has achieved more than expected at all his clubs bar Inter. And even there he didnt do too bad.

I like the sound of OSG also. Could be an inspired choice.

Not too gone on the idea of lambert to be honest. He's done well with Norwich, but his managerial record at other clubs is not too exciting bar a lucky Carling cup run. Wouldnt be over excited by Martinez either, but would give either of them a fair chance.

I'd Schmeichel , Neville ,Cole , Ronaldo , Scholes , Giggs , Henry & Shearer.

Had Vidic & Stam & fabregas also.

I can understand Adams & Keane but No idea how Ferdinand made it. I'd also have Terry & McGrath and many more before him.

Have you lot heard the bollocks on sky sports?

Martin O'Neill being a smug little clearing in the woods.

That Shaun Custitisisis the studdering moron trying to say that it was the fans fault for not getting behind a 'good manager'.

And so far I'd say unless it's Lambert with $30m to spend on a new squad, we need someone else.

What did MON say?

I told you so

Mick McCarthy'd get in the likes of Stephen Hunt, Kevin Doyle, Steven Ward for a few million. Add to that a bid for Robbie Keane and Damo Duff.

With Shay Given and Richard Dunne we'd have Ireland's 2002 World Cup team, only ten years older.

They are money men. they don't care what the fans want.

It's quite simple , they lost money in the recession and Lerner starting tightening the purses here and most likely in all his businesses.

Their 'settling for mediocrity plan' almost backfired though, when we almost got relegated which would have lost a fortune.

Some time soon, somebody new will buy this club, when Lerner can make his investment back.

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but AVB has a big point to prove in England!

and his point is not to get a crap villa side up to 10th

best manager available would be benitez in my opinion(but i think he would not come to us due to Lerner's lack of investment clause).

he has always overachieved with underdogs.

got a couple of small spanish clubs promoted, won CL with a n average liverpool side, won uefa cup and 2 spanish leagues with valencia.

he is exactly what we need.

more likely we'll get someone like Chris Hughton or Mick McCarthy. wouldnt mind Hughton, although i could see many villa fans going mental over another brum manager

why is everyone mentioning Rafa and Martinez? Didnt they turn us down already last year, when the club was in a better state?

Rafa legged it when he heard what Lerner had to say to him about the future.

why would they change their mind now?

i'm actually quite shocked. i was sure that he'd be here till next season.

Now it's up to Lerner to get it right at the 3rd attempt.

Not only that, but he needs to seriously back the new manager with funds , which i am doubtful of

O'Neill wasn't sacked.

He should have been

Yeah, great team, fighting for 4th for 3 season. Terrible.

For all the good stuff he did he had an unsustainable transfer policy, poor end of season form and a lack of plan 'B'.

mostly true i guess, but at least there was good stuff

Absolute nonsense. I said it at the time that prick set us back 5 years. he ruined the club

you've got to remove the whole birmingham hatrid spectacles , we were set back 5 years long before McLeish joined. It's great to vent your anger out on one man, but McLeish simply compounded an already huge problem that was created over the past few years by many men.

Apologies if it wasn't clear I'm reffering to MON - it was him that set us back 5 years - though now I'm more inclined to think 10 years.

I despise him more than anyone else associated with Villa moreso even than mcleish. MON is a disgarce and any Villa fan that defends him needs to take a look at themselves.

we'll see i guess whenever his reason for leaving/being pushed out eventually come out. if he left because Randy changed his 5 year plan for success, to be a sell all, stay afloat until I get most of my money back plan, then I completely defend martin O'Neill.

Anyways, this thread is called the Alex McLeish thread not O'Neill, which is why I presumed you were speaking about McLeish.

Absolute nonsense. I said it at the time that prick set us back 5 years. he ruined the club

you've got to remove the whole birmingham hatrid spectacles , we were set back 5 years long before McLeish joined. It's great to vent your anger out on one man, but McLeish simply compounded an already huge problem that was created over the past few years by many men.

To anyone who thinks McLeish is definitely going after the Norwich game (and I really hope you are right) I would remind you of comments made by Doug Ellis in the aftermath of the Bolton defeat.

I 100% do not believe that McLeish will be sacked.

My theory since O'Neill was sacked has been that Lerner is looking to sell this club, and make back as much of his investment as is possible...ie-> waiting for the right moment when he can get the best price he can for the club.

The last thing Lerner wants to do is sack McLeish and have to pay him a few million. He believe(d/s) McLeish can keep the the club afloat until a bidder comes in who will soften Lerner's losses. Lerner at this point does not give a crap about the club's ambitions and hasn't since he realised he could not get CL football, without investing more millions, when he had lost so much money in the recession already.

just read this, im sure it's been posted already

http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/sport/mcleish-i-wont-shield-players-3102024.html

....what a wa**er, it's not my fault, it's the players, basically. first time i've ever heard a manager say that.

i dont blame mcleish for our team being so crap, but some of the blame certainly is with him...

imo 50% lerner, 15% Houllier, 15% McLeish, 15% players, 5% O'Neill

i doubt lambert will work for us, especially if he speaks to martin o'neill about lerner and the club.

he's got a good thing going with Norwich

this time, i expect lerner to go with another cheap option as manager, wont look outside birmingham again -how about giving a player manager role to Stephen Ireland, effectively halving his wages.

7 wins out of 37 games. pathetic.

only once in the history of the Premiership has a team stayed up having 7 wins or less.

that was west brom in 2004/2005 , and they got relegated the next year.

Since I started supporting villa in 1989 , we have never been this useless.

We are all glad this season is over, because if it was to run for another few games, we would certainly go down.

and its quite obvious that if there are not major changes in the coming months, we will go down next year(and deservedly so), like west Brom in 05/06.

If a club shows ambition like ours has over the past few years by selling all and settling for mediocrity, and makes gigantic mistakes like we have, we have no place in the Premiership.

It's an interesting debate, however something to throw into the equation...

Since the start of the Prem

Something tells me it's only a matter of games before we drop a place in that league.

We are about 5 years behind Spurs now.

And that's 5 years that includes a lot good luck ... ie-> a new chairman and a decent manager.

looks like we may be saved, only because we will run out of games...if there were a few more games in the season to come we'd be ****.

if spurs beat blackburn we should be ok, unless qpr get a result away to man city

now please Randy, sell the club to somebody who cares and cut your losses. if you and mcleish are here this time next year, we will not avoid the drop and you will lose millions by owning a championship team.

When asked about the fans' reaction, O'Neill said: "I think it's a very natural reaction considering I've been gone two years and they've never known my reasons for leaving. It is very natural, I was expecting it and I got it."

I read into that recent interview by O'Neill :

Randy nobody knows my reasons for leaving, if they did the fans would crucify you. Especially now.

The timing of that quote was priceless from o'neill, first time he's ever mentioned it to the press and it was at Villa park when Villa are on the brink of relegation. I'd say he was smirking inside while stating that, a big told you so...see how much money you lose now when you get relegated!

Of the whole saga, I read(and have always believed this)

O'Neill saw what coming based on randy's plans for the coming years. I would not be surprised if O'Neill said to lerner, if we sell Milner, Young , Downing over the coming years etc....and do not reinvest we will be close to relegation in a couple of years.

O'Neill said I will not work under those circumstances, it goes against our 5 year plan, and what we have been working for.

Lerner, says fine, then dont work under those circumstances. We'll get some desperate old fool to take over who will work under those circumstances. We wont even need to reimburse his club. He'll keep the club up for a year or two, and I'll sell up and try and make my money back. This goddamn recession and round ball game has left me with half my riches.

My opinion is that Lerner and O'Neill started out with the same 5 year plan. They had the same ambitions for success. Success for O'Neill would be on the pith, success for Lerner would be in the pocket(a by-product of success on the pitch, CL football). With1 year left(maybe even b4), Lerner decided he had enough, and would not make profit from this investment and would try and cut his losses whenever the chance arises. He clearly did not dream of Villa becoming big anymore, and O'Neill obviously would not work under that ownership & ambition, after all the effort they had put in for 4 years.

Lerner is business man, and makes his his decisions based on money. O'Neill is a football man, and is motivated by football, results, silverware.

I can understand both of them . I just don't like Lerner's decisions obviously as a Villa fan.

i completely lost respect in Randy at the time of the O'Neill saga. it was obviously not a business decision to sack him, personnel matters were brought into it.

what really sickened me on this site, which is why I stopped posting here, was how many villa fans at that time turned on O'Neill, slamming his tansfers, and the football he got us playing.

they stood stupidly behing Lerner, and kept faith in the Houllier regime for so long, out of blind faith to Villa, not realising what was going to come of all this.

the fact that so many fans did not realise what we were achieving finishing 6th three seasons in a row.

then to top it off he signed old Houllier as a replacement, followed up by McLeish(a slight improvement).

Shortly after that point lerner lost interest and knew he would not make money here, and was waiting for the right time to sell(and still is)

If we stay up, this club will be sold soon. That is the best Villa fans can hope for now.