MYSTERYMAN

In the Hospitality Suites for the season around 20 percent up from last season what I heard last Wed night at the 82 opening night .

I’m sorry but Milner did not want to leave, this is my ITK.

As a coach who worked there for best part of 8 years I still have a few contacts.

Milner only left because City came in with a stupid amount of money at Randy, which he could hardly refuse, this is also why MON let has he wanted a big chunk of it but Randy said no, anyway that’s a different topic for another day.

The summer leading up to his leave he was in the process of building a £2 mil house in the Four Oaks area, when he was told City were in and we accepted he had to scrap the plans, big expense if he was thinking of going.

Also Milner has a little girl who went to a junior/childcare school in Four Oaks, his girlfriend befriended my mates Mrs as their younger daughter also went to the same school. They are still in contact today, whilst it was going on she was saying that his hand was being forced to move because City were offering so much money to Villa, he told Villa he didn’t want to go has he loved the club, MON (at the time) and the area. He expressed that if he went he would only get a few games here and there because of their wealth and buying so many players, so he didn’t want to go.

Anyway, take it as you will, but in the meantime, I would love to have him back, great engine in the middle, something we have missed last couple of years.

I'm sorry but that is bollocks.

I can tell you for a Fact that Milner went to see Rl/PF and said he wanted to leave to go to Man City . He was offered more money to stay but made it plain he wanted to go :!:

Because a club wants to sell, it doesn't mean you need to go. He had a contract with the club and it is the players choice. What do you think Messi would say if Barca said we've sold you to Stoke!

I loved the guy as a player, but the club agreed the fee as they thought it was good money, and Milner agreed a fat pay rise and the chance of winning trophies. Youre kidding yourself if you think he didn't want to go. He might have been sad to leave, but the player always has the choice.

I do think Milner will leave if he's benched all season again.

Sid now development coach, chief scout gone along with two other scouts, Glen Roeder and Artur Numan. :!:

Cannot fault his effort and alongside Tony McAndrew done a decent job but have thought for a number of seasons that he possibly hasn't had the same impact with players as he had a few years back .

Think when he had the chance to be the main man albeit caretaker and we got thumped at Newcastle he became in no mans land and it affected him . He didn't have any positive impact as a first team coach either under AM so it's thank you for your service but time to move on for both parties .

It wont take him long when he takes the first training session Wiz,any news on Hughton btw?

Still in talks Moorski, we're hearing here that'll he'll bring his own backroom team, plus one other from us....no idea who atm.

Wiz for what it's worth I really rate Hughton think he will be excellent for you ideal appointment and will steady the ship . Might surprise you even .

Press conference pretty boring and clichéd. Sorry I'm going to say this now, I'm not that excited about what essentially is MON lite. Houllier excited me. Lambert doesn't. Lambert's won nothing as a manager! Anyone not getting the misplaced hype?

In 1974 we appointed Ron Saunders when there was talk of Brian Clough etc he wasn't even close in the fans poll in the Mail . His press conference was less than rivetting and so was he even though in our third game we won 6 1 . He hadn't won anything of note prior to joining Villa actually lost 2 league cup finals though . The rest is history give the bloke a chance

Messed up on AM but definately played a blinder on Lambert . Used the smokescreen of OGS and got their man in the end .

Credit where credit is due

Not sure why, I'm not a fan of nursey.

He favours the Blues over us but then again ONeil gave him a hard time . ONeil by the way for what it's worth pleased he didn't try and put Lambert off in anyway

Is that for Holt MM or players in general? Would be happy with Holt for the right price.

No don't know about Holt know that some of the old guard are moving on and I know that deals are being worked on wich isn't really really earth shattering news . They have a few surprises up their sleeves and yes there is money to spend .

Its nothing that wasn't going to happen this summer anyway just that the targets have changed but they won't let the bad apples remain at the club . Might be difficult to get all of them out but 2 are going :!:

Yeah i'm sure the wheels are already in motion on signing players.

Easy one :!:

If we are to believe that RM representatives haven't been approched then its going to make very interesting who the people they have interviewed behind closed doors .

If it's not Lambert then I still think there is an outstanding candidate for me and its Glen Hoddle .

I know he wouldn't be universally popular and wasn't great at Wolves but Rogers wasn't great at Reading . Hoddle all day for me

A friend of mine worked at Wolves when Hoddle was there. He was aloof and very unpopular among the staff. He would be a disaster for Villa.

Now that BR and RM are out of the running it has got to be PL.

On the other hand they loved him at Swindon / Southampton and other than Eilleen Drury rubbish was decent for England .

I don't think he would be popular it's just my opinion he would be ideal for Villa.

PL isn't a bad shout but I just remember George Burley and Paul Jewell who had 1 decent season in the prem .

RDM v PL ? Maybe PL would be hungrier and yes everywhere he has been he has done well and was a top player so can see the merit in it .

He is not MON mark 2.

Such a lazy thing to say, all because he wears a tracksuit and glasses. His teams play nothing like MONs sides.

Personality wise and idiolises him will be a nightmare for the media to deal with if it's him .

Not against him just doesn't float my boat tbh but will get behind him

Would prefer Lambert MM

To be honest yes when we were at Norwich outside the boozer and everyone singing Lamberts name still said I would prefer Hoddle but accept it wouldn't be popular .

My biggest fear about PL is we get MON Mark 2 but if its him I will get right behind the appointment .

If we are to believe that RM representatives haven't been approched then its going to make very interesting who the people they have interviewed behind closed doors .

If it's not Lambert then I still think there is an outstanding candidate for me and its Glen Hoddle .

I know he wouldn't be universally popular and wasn't great at Wolves but Rogers wasn't great at Reading . Hoddle all day for me

I should add that, in my opinion, the problem lay with the manager of the time and also with either MacDonald or Cowans. There needs to be communication between Manager and Reserve/Youths managers. Keeping Cowans/MacDonald for purely sentimental reasons is the wrong decision. If the new manager wants to make a change in the Youth/Reserves setup, I'm all for it.

Good post something that was said to AM on his appointment was Sid his choice or Lerner's :?: .

It was obvious despite what he said that it was from Owner

What I know

Collins / Dunne Health Farm both fined

Collins fined Gatecrasher

Warnock dropped by GH comments made about club / fans / area after Blackburn away in fairness quiet since to my knowledge . Unforgiveable what he said though

Collins/ Dunne season before last end of season players award pissed refused to leave at the end of night notsure if it was Guiness or Bitter they weren't drinking lager

I know about Herd and Bannan almost prepared to say they are young and will learn the other 3 aren't should know better !

I agree easy to make random accusations so will leave out the rest I have heard and prefer to see if the club do anything about it in the summer . I think they will :!:

Interesting piece in Birmingham Mail by Kendrick this morning....

3 names on shortlist for Villa job including Martinez & Lambert

I wonder who the 3rd name is?

I have said before Kendrick is far more in the know than anyone these days and definately out of all the journalists gets more snippets than anyone from Villa . Interesting bit about behind the closed doors meeting with Martinez representatives . I think Lerner making sure that RM will take it ibefore we ask Wigan official permission to speak to him . Whelan though will no doubt still want his say to all and sundry

Tactically very good and plays football the right way . Wouldn't be as exciting for me as a Laudrop or OGS but maybe it's less of a risk .

I can understand that he couldn't move them because of wages but if he really thought Cuellar was the best CB (which I agree with) he should have played him over the other two.

As for wholesale changes in the summer the thought of that man carrying out those changes puts the fear of God into me. His signings here and when he had money to spend at Birmingham were simply terrible. I would be hard pushed to pick the biggest disappointment about his time here there are so many options and absolutely no positives in his favour, none.

As for those two signings for Birmingham I doubt they would have done so well for them had he remained in charge with his woeful football. The fact he signed a piece of scum like King is a black mark against his name as both a manager and a man as far as I'm concerned.

I aint defending him as a Manager because he was woeful but just pleased I got the chance to have that debate with him . Will finish off with Cuellar he was injured when he first came so gave chances to the 2 .

When Cuellar was fit preferred him .

Cuellar was the only one who attracted interest and re business reasons he would have sold him to make room for other key areas which was centre mid . I might not agree with him just saying what his thought process was .

Warnock, Collins and Dunne all out of contract next summer.

Anyone else?

Would be amazed if at least 2 of those are not binned they cannot go another season with players who have caused so much trouble and unrest in the club. Major reason why we have struggled for 2 seasons senior players not giving a flying **** about Villa and yes he did say that to me word for word .

If that is the case why did he buy a RB we didn't need rather than a LB that could have replaced Warnock? Why did he play both Collins and Dunne ahead of Cuellar?

If those players were such a problem and I don't doubt for one minute that they were why didn't he even try and do something about one of them? Instead he played them all.

Added to that why did he go and sign a RB with the track record off the pitch that Hutton had?

McLeish can blame the players all he wants, they certainly deserve some blame but he failed to do a thing about them.

Can't deny that one of the things I said to him Hutton was worse full back I have ever saw up there with Ivor Linton .

He basically said he had to work with what he had got couldn't move them on because of the wages they were on .

He had limited funds to work with and thought Hutton NZogbia were priorities ( Both awful to date ) and then no money to spend because getting wage bill down was the thing he had bought into .

Rated Cuellar above all of the centre backs but would have sold him at the time because of business reasons i.e salary .

Said there would have been wholesale changes in the summer as they were near their target of getting the wages down to the level that was manageable .

His two best signings this season were King and Burke at Blues both free transfers and one of the biggest disapppintments for me was he didn't work the market well enough at all for Villa .

Warnock, Collins and Dunne all out of contract next summer.

Anyone else?

Would be amazed if at least 2 of those are not binned they cannot go another season with players who have caused so much trouble and unrest in the club. Major reason why we have struggled for 2 seasons senior players not giving a flying **** about Villa and yes he did say that to me word for word .

Go on MM stick his moby number on here, I dare you!

666

I think it was more the last word of the bit Richard quoted more than the fact you texted him, MM...

**** lol sorry bad ITK again :winkold: slip of the keyboard was thinking about MON . Apologies

I am still in contact with him and actually text him the day he resigned

Really ?

Still got his number don't think he is bad bloke but was totally wrong for Villa and his football was killing the club. I had the chance to say it to his face and I admired his honesty and integrity.

I haven't text him for 2 weeks and dont see me going out for dinner with him but I think he handled himself well once he had been binned .

The compensation will help so it's not as if I feel sorry for him either .

He should never have been appointed and for that Paul and Randy are to blame as much as he was for his football .

In Feb this year after the Villa Fulham reserves game I met Alex McCleish at BH for the second time .

This was in response to a letter I had sent into him about the broken promises from the first meeting and generally telling him we all felt about the football and his signings .

I promised him I would not divulge everything that was said but was amazed at his honesty and have to say as a Man I like him but that did not change my opinion about his appointment and what we were watching .

I am still in contact with him and actually text him the day he resigned I still think he is a decent bloke but simply not for AVFC , he never was !

But what he was very vocal about was 2 things one being that RL would provide money for signings in the summer and if there was a need to pay a certain player 100k a week we would but the pot was the pot .

He said he was on the same page as RL about this that the wages were out of proportion to our turnover and we were over paying people and they were past their best.

I took from this if there were special players then they would go out and pay it Darren Bent is a prime example but they couldn't do it on 10 of them .

He said we would need 5 players because whoever was in charge would be faced with the same problem that the seniors are not good enough and don't care enough .