Folski

Hopefully if we do get Martinez he can bring some of the scouts that were responsible for the likes of Palacious & Rodallega.

Martinez so far has got 36, 42 & 43 points in his 3 years at Wigan. Im not so sure about him compared to Lambert win League One, finish 2nd in the Championship & 12th amasing 47 points level with 10th place WBA. I dont think anyone could argue Norwich have a better squad than Wigan?

They should have got McLeish to wear it as he walked out the door would have been the best launch possible.

Collymore on TS this afternoon seems to think RL/PF have four managers on the radar - 2 current PL managers and 2 currently out of work managers.

If it's true it means they've changed their recruitment policy this time which is good to hear.

He did say this before AMcL had actually been sacked though...

Could easily be Lambert & Martinez, possibly Rodgers. But the two out of work could be anything from AVB & Rafa to Curbs & Bruce.

Is AVB unrealistic? He'd be perfect. May want to prove him self after how Chelsea went and theres no better place to do it.

Ive a different theory, I think was Lambert to stay his players would all stay if anyone wanted them, he gave them the chance to shine and the owe him, a lot of them came from the lower leagues and therefore I think PL would show them the same loyalty but hey what do I know?

Loyalty? What loyalty exists in modern day football?

There's bits and pieces still around you'd be surprised its not completely extinct.

Ive a different theory, I think was Lambert to stay his players would all stay if anyone wanted them, he gave them the chance to shine and the owe him, a lot of them came from the lower leagues and therefore I think PL would show them the same loyalty but hey what do I know?

Steve Clarke anyone?

Not sure, strikes me as a good nr 2

I think Id prefer him to a lot of number ones to be honest. Seems a very good number 2. Surely we would appeal to him, only worry would be its a big jump stepping out from behind someones shadow.

Steve Clarke anyone?

Arsenal - Wenger. Speaks for itself really.

Us - Houiller. Wasnt doing a great job before he was let go over health concerns.

Chelsea

- Gullit. Won FA Cup and was sacked with Chelsea 2nd in the league.

- Vialli. League Cup, Cup Winners Cup, Euro Supercup & Charity Shield, eventually sacked after 5 games and falling out with loads of players.

- Rainieri. 2nd in Prem after blowing £120mil. But did get Champions League in a season where his only puchase was De Lucas on a free. Bought a lot of players for the Mourinho era as well.

Jose -

Scolari - World Cup winner who after a great start had a disastrous run which saw him sacked.

Hiddink - FA Cup.

Ancellotti - Premiership & FA Cup win. 2nd next season and sacked.

AVB -

Fulham

Tigana - took them to the premiership and even Uefa via Intertoto but overpaid for a lot of players and was eventually taken to court by club. Not looked on fondly by Fulham fans.

Jol - Lead them to a top ten finish in first season.

Liverpool

Houiller - UEFA FA & League Cups.

Rafa - Champions League & FA cup.

City

Sven - Citys highest points finish in 55 years & had a great start before fading fast, spent loads too.

Mancini - FA Cup and could soon add a preimership winners medal to that.

Toon

Gullit - FA Cup final, fell out with Shearer and was only going to be one winner.

Pompey

Zajec - DoF fell out with Harry and took managers job, poor.

Perrin - Kept them in PL but sacked after 4 wins from 20 games in the next season.

Spurs

Ardiles - Bought Klinsmann was poor.

Gross - never got it going and sacked 3 games into his second season.

Santini - left after 13 games citing personal problems won 5 drew 4 lost 4.

Jol - Came ever so close to the promised land of champions league.

Ramos - won league cup and beat arsenal 5-1. But overall couldnt repeat his succes with Sevilla.

WBA

Di Matteo - good start but poor run of form after christmas saw him sacked, WBA finished 11th that year.

WHU

Zola - finished 17th with west ham despite entire squad being put up for sale by gold & sullivan.

Wigan

Martinez - Kept Wigan in the top flight.

The thing with premier league experience is youre either at a club such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham etc and are therefore out of our reach, or you are unemployed. The latter, is usually for a very good reason, see Megson, Bruce etc, or in a very rare case like Martin o'Neill was out of the game for a while. Out of the current 19 other premier league clubs, how many mangers are getable? Out of the top ten assuming Chelsea & WBA are managerless, I would say 0. Out of the next 5 teams, 3 on paper would be realistic targets, Lambert, Martinez & Rodgers. Out of the bottom 4, Hughes, Coyle, Keane, would all be realistic assuming Wolves are managerless. When looking at it like that do people not think that we'd be better off looking abroad? Dont get me wrong Im a big fan of Lambert, Rodgers & the positivity of Martinez and even to a degree Hughes but I dont think any of the men can get us back knocking on the door of the Europa League not to mind Champions League.

Really think Randy needs to put his money where his mouth is with this one, it was a terrible decision by him to appoint McLeish & therefore he must bare the cost of not only paying him off but also paying compensation for what could be the biggest managerial appointment in some time.

I would love Bilic

I can imagine him raiding the eastern european market for quality youngsters and strong defensive players for next to nothing Croatia played nice football under him as well

Although its been reported that Benfica have offered him a 3 year deal at 10.5 million just paper talk but thats way out of price range

Imagine an Ivanovic or Vidic type signing for under 10mil. Would be amazing stuff. Hopefully he can spot the next Luka Modric as well if he was to come on board.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1067003/hubbard:-alex-mcleish-sets-standard-of-mediocrity-at-aston-villa?cc=5739

not sure if been posted and not exactly the mainstream media but still, reason for hope if that is getting written...

Great little write up.

I'd like Martinez, Billic, Poyet.

Fresh from the ever reliable source of information that is Twitter:

Dean Jones ‏ @DJones_People

Slaven Bilic to leave Croatia job = He's on his way to the Prem

If true, you'd have to think it's to West Brom right? But I guess you never know in football...

Read yesterday that Billic is only on 200k PER YEAR as Croatia boss and two clubs in Russia were looking at him.

Is Moyes a completely unrealistic target? Promise him bags of money say £30mil and I think we'd atleast get his attention. He has that kind of loyalty from BK now that Walter Smith had before him so I think he'd be tough to pry away. I really think we missed the boat with him last year, sadly hiring the wrong ginger scotsman.

This is like that movie Inception, it's a nightmare within a nightmare.

Where the f**k is my totem!?

At least Heskeys leaving.

Dayglo is a bit much IMO, shopped one and a home too..

Id by both of those money permitting.

I really fear for the Villa at the moment. Its been months since Ive been able to stick m head into this side of the forum but after last Sunday hope is on the horizon once more. The reasons I am fearful are mainly, is there a distinct possibility that Alex McLeish could stay, I would think so. We have yet to see Lerner sack a manager, so why do we think that this one should be any different. He could easily point to how much he has taken off the wage bill and how injuries to key players played a part in our poor season and how he should be given another crack at the whip. Secondly, as great as it was for a while I believe Villa's relationship with Randy Lerner may have been eternally soured, I cant see him providing the finance to take us where we need to be. What we need is another Arsene Wenger a man who can come in and reshape the club from top to bottom without spending a fortune or an owner with a somewhat bottomless pocket. Another thing that terrifies me is the squad & the players we are targetting, it wasnt so long ago that we were getting the likes of Milner from Newcastle & Bent from Sunderland. Now we seem to be picking up what ever scraps we can and add them to what ever the academy can produce. They say its darkest before the dawn but I fear it could get a whole lot darker yet.

Well ya but when you compare the fact that Lambert had won 5 of his 32 games with Livingston, it probably makes Pre-Bolton Coyle all the more impressive. Also, AVB & Chelsea I think is a very hard one to draw comparisons with, it was just mad in general.

At this point in time you could say that Lambert has had a relatively similar career to a pre-Bolton Owen Coyle couldn't you?

Perhaps Coyle is a cautionary tale?

No I believe that lambert is more tactically astute that Coyle... I mean look at norwich against Arsenal 3-3 at the emirates, while Bolton got turned over 1-4 by spurs at home...Lambert is a Superior coach... Come back to me when Coyle takes a team that is struggling in League 1, gets them promoted to the championship, which is a very hard league to get out of, and gets them promoted 2 seasons running.. And then finishes mid table in his first season in the PL..He has something special. Norwich plays some nice attacking football, Bolton under coyle are a scrappy long ball, that don't know how to pass, yes the same as Villa, which is why we need Lambert/Martinez/rodgers.. somebody who knows how to play attacking football. I just think that Lambert has much more tactical nouse.

Infairness to him its not a completely ridiculous statement, Coyle had a 63% win percentage at Falkirk, 51% at St Johnstone, & had taken Burnley to the premiership. I do agree with the fact Lambert is a better manager back to back promotions with a Norwich side who fear no one proves that. I do hope we can get him, but did someone say Randy & Delia have a close working relationship & that he might not want to strain it?

Trailer is absolutely sick. Looks so good, cant believe its only 11 weeks away. In my head I think its not possible for it to top TDK but just believe that it will.

it's your basic Adidas Tiro 11 i think

but i've not seen it in red and blue , only in red and black

Same as Tony and I cant find them anywhere else online at all very frustrating!

Did you try ringing the number on the website? Also, I'd say if your order is big enough, they might try and accommodate you just to get the business in.

Tried BOF I was getting 22 and they still said no plus they didnt think they'd have that many in stock.

Hey Vters, basically the sunday league team im in have been trying to get gear for ages our jerseys are adidas and colours are red and navy so we thought we hit the jackpot when we found these this morning

gear

But basically they havent enough and dont ship to ireland just wondering does anyone know what type name code etc they are as I cant find them anywhere else on the interweb. I'd be eternally grateful if anyone knew anything thanks