JohnnyM

This is something I have feared for a long time. I also think it's a direct response to what's happened at Man City as the cartel fear losing their places to a rich investor, but that won't happen if they can apply financial restraints on their poorer cousins. This should be looked into by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, or whoever the European equivalent is.

I went 5th/6th with a trophy as the question said 'happy', but I'd also be content if we stayed top 6 and didn't win anything. If we do keep being top 6 then there will come a time when we will need to actually break the top 4 or what's the point? But that's a few seasons off yet!!

It's true that the game has moved on since those early days for Fergie's Old Trafford reign. Mainly, the advent of the Champions League has created an elite that, due to the money and 'glamour' involved, has become self-perpetuating and extemely difficult to break into. You need to match them to compete, but with the size and quality of their squads you need CL football to get a) genuine top quality players and keep a large squad happy. It's really a catch 22 situation for a club like Villa at the moment. However, that doesn't mean that MON isn't going about things in the right way and that, longterm and ignoring the present slide, it is the correct way to go about things. I think the issue really is that MON has a MUCH harder job on his hands now than Fergie did 15-20 years ago!!

I'd love to see him playing in the holding role for us as he does for England, but he's our best midfielder in terms of on the ball quality, so he's asked to play the more attacking role for us. But if him going is the catalyst for the rejuvination of our midfield then so be it!!

I voted no, but with the usual proviso of "aslong as he's replaced with quality" The midfield balance is wrong for us and him going may make it easier for Martin to address this. I'd also say that if he went last year it would have been a bad signal to send out, but him going this summer is just the usual 'get what you can as he will go for free in 12 months' sort of scenario most teams go through.

If it's best for the team and all that.. clearly you're happy with mediocrity, I'm not.. So you think MON should break the legs of players who aren't performing? I think there should be a sliding scale. A broken nose for anyone whose cross doesn't get past the first defender, a broken finger someone who gives away a penalty, a broken arm for someone who misses and open goal all the way through to a broken leg for someone out of form. Blimey - Jimmy Milner would end up looking like Spud 'ead of Wigan!

And if the season thus far had been more balanced with the present losing streak spread around so that we were consistently 5th and 8 points behind 4th would you still be concerned? Why can't people accept that we were over stretched and it came to soon for us as opposed to thinking ""Good signs here - another good transfer window this summer and we'll be in a great position"???

Yes, some of us do bite back at any criticism and maybe unfairly brand some as 'anti-MON'. But by the same token this doesn't mean that we're all 'happy clappers' and think the sun shines out of his nether region either! Maybe it's because that some people, despite their protestations otherwise, do SEEM to be anti-MON as they never post anything positive? Which, given the progress we've made thus far, is hardly a balanced view. Guess it's the old glass half full/glass half empty question!!

The reason we had a good run if lack of injuries and confidence built up. The slump comes as players lose form and get tired, they cannot be replaced because the manager has not signed enough in the first place. He signing up for the intertoto last season he had all summer knowing how long our season would be, he even knew in Jan that the signs were there of players getting alittle knackered more injuries creeping in yet chose not to do anything. Your right a season is judged at the end of the campaign, not at the start or the middle. But with our current inability to win still happening this might last till the end of the season? People seem to think it will just end, but why will it will the players suddenly not be knackered even after holidays and rest periods we still look half arsed! A run like we had is down to more than confidence and a fully fit squad (incidentally we were missing Carew, Laursen and Bouma during it) - it's also because of the ability of the players, most of which were MON signings. Yes, we are lacking strength in depth, but to me that's been highlighted more as we have probably hit heights nobody was expecting this season and didn't have the squad to cope with it. We weren't expecting/expected to be challenging the top 4 so it it any wonder we've been found wanting? And I don't think he 'chose' not to do anything! He spent heavily and brought in quite a few players in the summer - we just have a big re-building job on and he's only part way through it. And elts not forget he also has to balance quality with quantity. Just to show I'm not above being critical of him, I do take your point about fatigue and he should have freshened us up more in January. I also think he could have made more use to the likes of Shorey, Harewood, Sidwell etc. earlioer in the season to prevent this fatigue becoming an issue in the first place!!

Yes that's why we are going to get back to back finishes because the manager is very very average at signing players What you really mean is the manager is very very average at bringing in players you want. Because no one could really believe that a manager going from 16th to 5th in 3 seasons and achieving back to back top 6 finishes could really be very very average at signing players. So what is the reason behind not winning in the league since February? If the league had started on Feb 1st we would have been 2nd bottom now, is that the sign of a manger good at signing players or average? If its being tired how do you help tired players? As i said above if MON is not average at signing players, is he good at everything, what are his weakness? Do you think MON is excellent at signing players or average? What was the reason behind having that long unbeaten run before that? In truth we can take any isolated period of the season and make it fit an argument, but the best way to judge is wait until after 38 games and then make a case. For instance, in the admittedly very unlikely event we do now make 4th does that mean he's brilliant even though we had that slump? In answer to your question I think he's quite good at signing players. We don't sign them to collect like a sticker albumn, we do so in order to get results on the pitch, which over all have been quite good since he's been our manager - hence my 'quite good' verdict on his transfer dealings!

We say it's a mistake, but lets not forget that this was the situation before we hit our bad run aswell and it wasn't hurting us! He's built the squad that's got us where we are and I'll defend his right to then use that squad as he sees fit!! And when did we have NRC at centre back?

A lot of people have said something similar. I can only speak for myself but I don't worship the ground MON treads or feel there's any faith I have to keep. I think he has made the odd mistake (I went ballistic when I first heard he was sending a weakened squad to Moscow). I wasn't too happy about the lack of proper right backs. Do I want MON as manager? Yes. Do I want him to radically change the way he is or the way he does things? No. So what do i say? No? Undecided? It depends? I said yes. And I said yes because he's the best manager we've had in years and because there's no one else out there I'd rather have as manager. If some insist in seeing totally in black and white that's their prerogative. That's pretty much what I expected a lot of peoples opinion to be and that's why I expected a lot more ticks in the 'it depends' or 'undecided' column! It's a bit of a perspective thing, but those that do have a pop seem to think those that then defend MON do not think he does any worng, which isn't the case. And of course those that do speak out against him aren't 100% anti-MON either! I just guess some people seem to always post negatively or positively all the time, which isn't a fair reflection of their true balanced view!!

I'm actually surprised it's so overwhelmingly in his favour given some of the sniping we see on this board. I'm a strong 'yes' so I'm glad to see it, but still a little surprised!!

You raise some very interesting points, particularly the weakened teams in the last 2 UEFA group games and the league victories that followed. Surely this must have been at the back of Martin;s mind when he, quite reluctantly IMO, made the call for Moscow? Either way I don't think anyone really thought back in August that we were really ready to compete on numerous fronts and this has proved to be the case. I think the problem we had that started the slump was mental in so far as we lost the momentum we had built up and have never recovered it. Moscow twice, Everton away and Chelsea is a very tough run of games and was a season defining period for us. We then followed this with the Stoke game and that must also have been a huge mental blow in the dressing room and the rest is history. It should also be noted that the sequence of games we have played since then hasn't been as easy as some would suggest with Man City having an impressive home record, Spurs were starting to play a bit under 'arry and of course being away to Liverpool & Man Utd. But we could quite easily have picked up some points from these had we been if better form/frame of mind then the preceeding games had left us. We are always going to hit a patch of tough games one after the other in any season, so this shouldn't be used as an excuse. However, I do think our inability to get over this does show where the faults lie, which to me is a lack of mental toughness, a lack of strength in depth and maybe we're simply not quite as good as we looked up until February. Points one or two are linked by the fact that we were missing Laursen during this period and he would have lead by example in the meantal toughness side of things. Looking forward, I think that this could prove to be a key period for us in our longterm re-building plan as it's the first real set back, if you can call being 5th a set back! Lessons need to be learned by the players and our manager, who will also have learned a great deal about eachother over the last 6 weeks. I'm confident that this will be the case and we'll be better prepared next season, both in depth and that mental toughness that does seem to have cost us this term! Still haven't given up on 4th though

I went for a draw - can see it being 2-2! On face value that would suit us as we'd stay above them, but with our difficult games coming up I'd say we need the 5 point cushion a win would give us. Still, this is a 'must not lose' for me and wouldn't argue with a point.