krenborg

Firstly I don't buy into this Randy Lerner isn't a businessman bollocks. As others have stated he has a very good pedigree and knows far more about business than anyone posting on here I would suggest.

As far as Villa are concerned I think he has had some unbelievable bad luck. He arrives on the scene closely followed by the Arabs at City who completely change the footballing landscape that not only sees them propelled into the toip 4 but has forced Liverpool to sell up and spend over £100m on decent but hardly spectacular players and still have no sign of a new stadium. As well as forcing Abramovich to ditch his make Chelsea sustainable plan and spend over £80m on two players who can't get in the team. So Lerner is not on his own in having the best laid plans thrown out of the window.

As for his managment choices well he made a mistake in Houllier in as much as his illness was almost guaranteed to return and it cost Lerner a fortune because of it. As for MON he has admitted that he got over excited and let his love of Villa allow MON to spend out of control. He is now trying to put that right.

Onto McLeish. Now here is where I disagree with most people. I actually don't think McLeish is as bad as people make out he is. I think he has an incredibly strong character to have taken the job on and I think he is just the type we need to control the personalities we have and the youngsters coming through. I would go as far as saying that he is doing Lerner's dirty work very well. I sincerely hope he is here in 18 months time as I think he will have done what is needed financially, which is to ride out the storm of no investment whilst we await getting the wage bill back down to manageable levels, and then be given a reasonable budget to go and try and compete for the top 6.

I might be wrong but I think that in 18 months we will see a return to Lerner investing decent sums in the playing squad and I would not be surprised if McLesih wins us a trophy, given time.

Enjoyed that Fuse thanks, i agree with a lot of it.

I just hope we're not relegated first :?

They do it with every manager. You just notice it because it's MON.

Thanks LondonLax must just be that then

Ta.

Why do ITV just cut to shots of him standing there, or calling back a sub?

Its very strange to me.

Does anyone else agree?

Sadly I am not, the story is on Liverpools website

Liverpools media section, not direct from the club fortunately.

im assuming its come from the incident where suarez knocked a ball round hangeland that he was never getting to so he decided to put hangelands arm round himself and fall over instead?

not a pen in a million years should have booked him for diving

What did Hangeland do with his arms though?

Tight one that, could have gone either way.

If every time a player ran into someone in the box was a penalty then it would be ridiculous.

But when Hangeland clearly uses his arm to impede him as well, tricky.

Aston Villa must make better use of Darren Bent, says Alex McLeish

• England striker has fewest touches in Premier League

• Manager adamant he will not be forced out by fans

reddit this

Rob Bagchi and Ewan Murray

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 December 2011 00.00 GMT

Article history

Aston Villa's Darren Bent has touched the ball on average on the fewest occasions per game than any other outfield Premier League player. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Aston Villa's manager, Alex McLeish, has pinpointed the need to supply the England striker Darren Bent with better service if the club are to turn around their disappointing run this season.

Villa's 1-0 home defeat by Manchester United on Saturday has left the club with a record of P14 W3 D7 L4 this season –matching precisely that of Birmingham City last season, the team McLeish managed before switching to Villa after Blues were relegated.

McLeish said "I'm not a quitter" after Villa's latest setback when his side were booed off at Villa Park on Saturday and insisted he is focused on providing better service to Bent. The England forward has touched the ball on average only 24.6 times per game this season, a figure that makes him comfortably the Premier League player with the fewest touches this season.

Worryingly for McLeish, Bent's strike partner Gabriel Agbonlahor is also in the bottom 10 for fewest touches this season with an average of 39 per game but it is making more use of Bent that is at the forefront of the manager's plans.

"He does make great movement, it's just a pity that sometimes we don't have quite the quality to see the runs and his movement," said McLeish.

"It's not easy, I'm just juggling the balls and asking for players to give me outstanding performances to stay in this team. We're looking for horses for courses every week now rather than saying: ' I can't leave him out.'

"There's seven out of 10 but we're looking for nines, eights or nines, and any of the midfielders that are ready to do that will be in this team. We created 10 chances in the Norwich game and he [bent] got a couple of goals and could have had another couple so we are capable of doing it depending on our personnel.

"I've watched a couple of games from last season and Bent only had one chance in the Man City game, his debut, and scored so he was starved of service that night as well but the guy only needs one chance and he could have been rolled in by Emile [Heskey] and it may have been different.

"We've got to plug away. [Gabriel] Agbonlahor in the game last week had more efforts on goal than Bent but sometimes it will happen that way, we can't just rely on Bent to score us the goals. Gabby has been fantastic this season and we look for the kid to retain his consistency and to be an even bigger threat than he has been and obviously [Charles] N'Zogbia, guys like Mark Albrighton, who I thought did really well in the second half, to come to the fore also."

McLeish accepts Villa's form has not been good enough – the team were not only canned off at full-time on Saturday but left the field at half-time to a chorus of boos – but he is adamant that he will not be forced out by fan power.

"I'm not going to criticise the fans," he said. "You know how difficult it was for me coming here in the first place and I've just got to persevere. As I've told you guys, I'm not a quitter and I'll go as far as I can to get this club turned around. But you know where you have to improve the quality, we have to make sure we defend with concentration and we've got to be a threat in the last third."

Of the team's performance against the champions, he said: "We didn't pass it well, gave the ball away willy-nilly. I don't think we really believed in ourselves. Fans did not like it. I wasn't particularly keen on it either. I was in unison with the fans on that one and the second half was better and they went right to the very end which I would have demanded of every team I've coached or managed. We got that."

McLeish admitted he might need to ask the chairman, Randy Lerner, to make funds available to bolster his squad in January. "Yes, that will be a fact. But, as I said, we've still got to try and trade carefully. But if we need emergencies, we have to seriously consider that as a club."

McLeish has one prominent supporter in the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, who gave him some advice after Saturday's match. "He just said: 'You've got to keep going,'" said McLeish. "He said a few other things which will remain private but he said they were sweating a bit at the death after our second half."

Meanwhile, Aston Villa say Charles N'Zogbia is in contention to play against Bolton on Saturday, after the Frenchman was omitted from Alex McLeish's squad for the weekend defeat by Manchester United on disciplinary grounds.

N'Zogbia was punished – also reportedly by way of a fine – after failing to report for treatment on an injury last week. Villa confirmed that he returned to training on Monday, and may now feature at Bolton.

McLeish has now sought to draw a line under the affair. Villa's manager said: "Charles has to take it on the chin and show us the great player he can be. The players know we have got club rules and we will adhere to them.

"There are no grudges. I just want to see the boy go to another level. I think he can improve on what he has done before. We are looking to guys like Charles to come to the fore. Charles has got to be receptive and realise I want to help him and every single player at this club."

N'Zogbia has also shown remorse. He said: "My mind is focused on preparing for the game on Saturday at Bolton and I will train hard, as normal.

"I have spoken to the manager, he has dealt with it and we have no problem. We are in this together, so we just move on. I will work hard to get back in the team. I want to show the fans of Aston Villa what I can do for them and for the team and that will be my objective on Saturday."

N'Zogbia, who arrived in the Midlands from Wigan Athletic in the summer, was infamously branded "Charles Insomnia" by then-Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear during an earlier spell at St James's Park.

Guardian

Des this need Another thread?

It helps nothing.

We are Aston Villa. Still one of the top half dozen clubs in this country. Our past reputation alone should ensure we can attract a good manager. Therefore it is a **** up of monumental proportions that has landed us with McLeish.

Perhaps that's the problem markavfc, we're not as bigger club as us fans like to think.

Big clubs these days are the ones with big money sadly.

Players are bothered about money not history I'm afraid.

It's easy for us to say he should have done this or that, it's not us that has to deal with the constant costs of changing things and I don't just mean the money.

Nobody is perfect I would say, Lerner has made plenty of mistakes, ones a lot of us might make if thrust in to that position and easy to criticise in hindsight.

Tricky one, certainly not as simple as saying Lerner out, fans are naturally fickle, as it's easy to change our mind game by game, manager by manager, we don't have to deal with the other complex elements of football.

We just have to say get Hughes, Hughes comes in, doesn't get on with player x or y, we cannot afford to just replace the players willy nilly.

Not an easy position, fans are just passionate I suppose.

Sell up, sell up to who? What if we get someone worse than Lerner just shout sell up to them them too?

We should be booing - the performance is utter rubbish and not acceptable for Aston Villa football club.

Lerner out, Mcleish out.

Someone with an attacking, exciting and entertaining brand of football in.

We just come across a bit daft Brum, booing team at half time, only 1 down and to the champions.

What would happen if we were 5 down, boo then?

So no difference between 1 goal and 5?

Come on there is.

Let's try and think some positive thoughts, cliche but you never know.

Come on villa boys!

We shouldn't boo, only 1 down at half time to the champions.

I know it's not great but we shouldn't boo IMO.

Come on villa if we can get a goal, you never know!

Come on villa, you never know.

Fingers crossed guys!

I think Makoun will do well next year if we're in this league, got used to it a bit more etc.

Villa are looking at arranging high altitude training in France during July, so unless thats not Houllier's idea he is not going anywhere soon.

Hope we win today.

Worried about this