StewieGriffin

Blackpool giving us acres of space on the break

haha, this ref is such an utter clown - he shoulder charged him you nonce

Gabby time \o/

how on earth is that not a penalty. **** off ref

actually, that's an own goal

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONZ

er.. wtf was that ruled out for?

better start to this half

had to be Marlon.

Friedel could have done better there, and the centre backs certainly should have

we wont be fickle, we just wont like him

allez Aston Villa!

The 58-year-old O'Neill, who led Villa to their third successive sixth-placed finish in the Premier League last season, added: "I would like to pay tribute to the Villa players, my coaching staff and the Villa supporters for all the support and encouragement they have given both the club and me personally during my time as manager.

"I wish them all the best for the future. I will obviously be assisting the club in the immediate short-term with regard to the handover of my duties.".

surely that's why it's taken us so long?

Brad Friedel's old enough to appreciate that that kind of thing happens in football - it was a long time ago. Likewise Warnock - wasnt it Benitez that released him anyway? - I think they're both experienced and level-headed enough to get on with things.

Carew, however, may be a different argument. Wouldnt be surprised at all if this is his last few months with us

now there's a man who should be involved with the club in some way

**** it, lets get Dwight back whilst we're at it

Staunton? Christ

Is this whole Houllier/K-Mac thing actually true or just more media speculation?

latter

yeah, they had Pete Colley stood outside the ground - he reported Sven and Curbs were out of the running and Houllier had impressed Randy and Faulkner a lot and was due to work with KM

Joint managers. Power struggle which houllier won. Kmac doesnt want to be manager he wants to coach

if he didnt want to be manager then surely he wouldnt have applied to be the manager?

Houllier's contacts etc I think would make him a useful DOF/senior figure for us, but his abilities as a manager/coach coupled with his age and apparent health issues concern me with regards to being the manager

If we were bottom half, Curbs would be a good appointment because he would achieve exactly that - top 8. But we're not. We need someone who knows what it takes to finish in the top 4. Even if he doesn't end up achieving it, we will have at least tried to do so and we will have someone of that calibre at the helm and for me that's important. We need to be continuing our attempts to climb up the league otherwise what's the point?

Been thinking something fairly similar myself for a while now - we are a top 6 team, have been for the last 3 seasons. With respect to them, we are not Wigan, Fulham, Bolton etc - we are a top 6 team. Admittedly we've ballsed up europe in the last 2 attempts, but we are the 6th best team in England.

Why, therefore, are we looking at utter averageness like Curbishley? Those teams have all changed manager since he was last employed (Bolton have twice), and not one of them were even linked with him, so why should we? Im not suggesting people should be queuing around the block from all over the continent to manage us, but surely we could attract someone better than Curbishley, Sven, Houllier or our current reserve team manager? When Spurs changed their manager (which has happened a bit over the last few years), did they go for average? No, and look where they are now. It took them a couple of managers to get it right, but they didnt fart about with the reserve coach, two guys who've been out of work 2 years, or someone who's most probably lost his hunger for the game.

As I say, we are a top 6 team in the second best league in Europe with a fantastic history and some good young players mixed in with some good experienced ones. Time to act like like it.

how uninspiring.

edit; Having said that, he seems to just be today's name - we've already had Moyes, Curbishley and Sven this week. Wont be overly concerned unless this rumbles on another 24 hours

cant we just close this ffs - watching this topic get upped is like having some bird in a club giving you the eyelashes and the **** off with someone else

shan't be getting my hopes up

now there's a very decent shout

Why is everybody so against Bob Bradley?

The USA under him have done fairly well - qualified for the World Cup with ease (although their zone isnt too tough), did very well in the Confederations Cup (beat Spain and nearly beat Brazil in the final) and set up his defence to completely nulify Rooney at the World Cup, although they were disappointing against Ghana. Arguably you could suggest most managers would have done equally as well.

I dont think it'd be a bad appointment in terms of the stuff I posted above, but he has no experience of a proper transfer market (the MLS runs differently) and he hasnt managed any team outside of the US.