danceoftheshamen

I reckon Randy should keep everybody guessing.. call a press conference to be shown live on Sky or something & then simply say.... "Ladies & Gentlemen.... I would like to introduce the new Aston Villa manager....... then drum roll

.lights flashing.

Strobe on

out walks

........................................ .> CARLO ANCELOTTI

Who announces the new manager is Steve Mclaren

John Terry would 'welcome' Hughes as Chelsea Manager......

Yeah just saw that too on SSN.. Interview with JT & he said Hughes would be extremely welcome with the squad

Vamos Rafa = Let's go Rafa

Do you know what i actually think Ancelotti might actually enjoy a challenge such as the one he would face here..At least he would if he is half the man i think he is

Guys guys I just Mourinho outside VP on a hovercraft.

:shock: You s****ing me!....... Really?......

I could've sworn hovercrafts had gone out of service?

I think i need to give this thread a rest for a bit.. i dozed off & just woke up having dreamt of that mountain which has got all the american presidents faces on it..you know the one... well it had Houllier, Ancelotti & McClarens faces on it .. Then i woke up & i can't get the image out of my head now.. Really annoying

Just found this regarding Hughes:

Link:http://tinyurl.com/5utpbax

Hughes on verge of Fulham exit with Villa lying in waitMark Hughes is reportedly preparing to quit Fulham this morning to take the Aston Villa job

According to reports in the Daily Mirror this morning, Mark Hughes will quit Fulham this morning to take charge of Aston Villa.

It’s a breaking exclusive from the Mirror but the betting is yet to be suspended on Ladbrokes with Hughes still available at 10/11 to take over from Gerard Houllier.

Houllier’s departure was confirmed last night and Mark Hughes was immediately installed as the solid favourite to replace the Frenchman at Villa Park, and remains the hot favourite in the betting to bet the next Aston Villa manager.

Fulham snapped up Hughes on a two-year contract last summer but it is understood the former Wales and Manchester City manager has a 12-month release clause in his contract that allows him to leave for minimal compensation.

Fulham were expecting to sit down with Hughes over the coming weeks to secure his long term future at the club, but it seems the Fulham board may be rueing a missed opportunity with the strong interest from Aston Villa.

Steve McClaren is the 3/1 second favourite to land the Villa job with David Moyes available at 5/1 and Gary McAllister, Roberto Martinez and Carlo Ancelotti all 8/1 chances.

Fulham are refusing to comment on whether Hughes is still their manager suggesting there is plenty of contact between them and Aston Villa, and the Villans could have tied up a deal for their new manager by lunchtime.

This thread is banana's .. I feel like a chicken who has had it's head chopped off running about all over the place & can't see whats coming next!

I'm with you then now Steaknchips!

Hooray for Deschamps! :nod:

Sky saying Mark Hughes a massive odds on favourite with the bookies also in the frame are ......................Martinez.. Thats all. Says if Hughes goes to us Martinez could go to Fulham

Sky sport gonna do a "latest news" thingy on who is in the frame to replace GH after the ad break.. They showed a pic of Mark Hughes & said he is still favourite.

There are a few whispers appearing now seemingly pointing to Hughes staying put & it appears Moyes is happy to stagnate at Everton "again" yet there seems to be more focus on Benitez, Mclaren at the mo.. On ITV news they just mentioned Mark Hughes, Benitez & McLaren as the favourites too..

I didnt see that on the news?

Yeah it was on very briefly.. At least i think it was ITV? Could've been BBC i guess as i wasn't paying any attention until i heard them mention GH

There are a few whispers appearing now seemingly pointing to Hughes staying put & it appears Moyes is happy to stagnate at Everton "again" yet there seems to be more focus on Benitez, Mclaren at the mo.. On ITV news they just mentioned Mark Hughes, Benitez & McLaren as the favourites too..

Well it is certainly a much better pot of avaliable managers than we had in the summer thats for sure!

Ancellotti,

Van Gaal,

Martinez,

Hughes,

Moyes,

Benitez,

McClaren,

Pretty much in that order though not a lot between the 3rd to 6th so one of the 1st 2 ideally but any of the next 4 otherwise & OK if we have no other options for the last 2!

Just thought this was quite interesting.. A view on a possible Hughes interest from a Fulham point of view... Apparantly we are a club which is collapsing & they are now our equals! Oh & our owners are worse than theirs too!

Why Hughes is better off at the Cottage

by Kristian Balkin on Jun 1, 2011 4:28 PM BST

It was only a matter of weeks into his new Craven Cottage reign before other clubs began to court Mark Hughes; notably Aston Villa. It epitomises the state of today's game that a team can consider it reasonable to set their sites on a manager so fresh into his job that he would struggle to name the secretary whom he would greet on a daily basis.

It didn't stop Randy Lerner and his henchmen at the time though, and only 11 or so months on, it won't stop them again. It's become quite clear that Aston Villa would like Mark Hughes to replace outgoing manager Gerard Houllier and executives at the Midlands club have hardly made an attempt to quash such rumours. So, one must assume there is a solid foundation in the paper talk. After all, no new contract has been agreed and in the days of FIFA corruption, £50 million signings and fines for praising officials, 1 year seems a long time to hold down a managerial post.

Hughes would be sensible to hold out a little longer than that, though.

Aston Villa, despite their indubitably decent credentials over previous years, cannot, with genuine authenticity, be considered a club on the up. At one time, it must be said, they were. Under O'Neill's tutorship they almost became the untouchables of non-top-four football. While they didn't play with the fine, flowing football of the best of them, they fought season-upon season and Villa became, before long, widely renowned as one of the best challengers to the top four's stronghold that the Premier League could boast.

Even before O'Neill's tumultuous stint came to an abrupt end, however, their prosperity began to dwindle. Tottenham Hotspur, under the guidance of Harry Redknapp, showed that it wasn't all that difficult to attain Champions League football after all, and it became clear that, regardless of abundant consistency, Aston Villa were missing something to make them a truly enriching club of modern times.

Things took an even greater turn for the worse when Martin O'Neill left, though, and the bitterness of his departure underlined certain rumblings that were prevalent at the club. Couple that with a moderate opening season for Gerard Houllier and you have yourself a team in the midst of a great demise. Ninth place might look okay on a CV but it didn't tell the whole story.

And, with Houllier supposedly on the way out, it would make room for a third manager in only a year; hardly the sign of a stable club, even if none of the aforementioned departures were sackings. Yet Houllier, seemingly, isn't the only one to be quitting the Midlands following a lackluster campaign. England internationals Ashley Young and Stewart Downing have made it quite palpable that they'd prefer to ply their trade in European competition rather than taking a stab at the odd Carling Cup run alongside a tedious Premier League season next year.

It's all falling apart for Aston Villa then, and yet Hughes is seemingly up for the job?

It's perhaps plausible to understand some sort of brain process which would lead to Aston Villa having more potential than his current Fulham side. They have the recent pedigree and they have the financial backing; but don't Fulham have all of that too?

We are, almost begrudgingly by default as it goes, back into European competition. Back home, almost, given our mighty run in the 2009/10 season which saw us pipped in the final minute against a clearly fledging Ateltico Madrid side. Having the extra cup to compete in, an extra dimension to our dynamics, is invaluable to a club our size and it's something Villa can't offer. Of course, our exploits could be short lived, but if you go by recent evidence then, clearly, we have it in us to take great strides against Europe's elite.

Mohammed Al Fayed is hardly short of money, either. That his fortune is considered less than that of Randy Lerner is almost irrelevant, given his fanatical devotion to the club he has always loved. While sides around us are being bought for business reasons solely, we continue to be funded by someone who always has, and always will, have the best interests of Fulham FC at heart. He's extravagant and sometimes nonchalant, but he's one of the best chairman we could have ever asked for. Aston Villa's equivalent doesn't quite live up to those standards; look at where O'Neill is now.

And, with Fulham, you get a sense that the fans aren't constantly on your back. We want success and we want to move forward but we're aware of our limits and we know where to draw the line. In contrast, the fans of the Midlands side may be prone to the odd nag and he'll find far more pressure on his shoulders than he ever will do by the banks of the Thames.

That makes for far more room for success in London than in Birmingham. Fulham are, finally, a team that can attract the lucrative players, play the most entertaining of football and appease the most humble of fans. So, before Hughes sets himself up on a road of one year stints at average sides, perhaps he should settle for his mantra of old and slog it out while he's still successful. After all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

LINK: http://tinyurl.com/3m63q3f

I couldn't be bothered to trawl through all the recent pages of this thread so please forgive me if someone as already mentioned this.

As anyone yet mentioned the fact that Hughes is supposed to have some kind of release clause in his contract this month only and that Villa might be looking at the cheaper option? This isn't my opinion btw but I am sure there are a few pessimist's on here that would argue that case!

I don't know if Hughes would have been my choice tbh. I don't think he has set the world alight but let's face it, he hasn't failed as he? He did a relatively good job at Blackburn with very little resources and a squad that was nowhere near as good as the one he would take over at Villa. He made a decent signing or two as well, especially the Santa Cruz deal.

Hughes seemed to be doing ok at Man City too and was only sacked after losing only two games that season, although they had only won something like two of their last eleven games before they sacked him.

He has done quite well at Fulham as well without having too much money to spend so maybe Villa is the perfect club for him? Not too big (Man City based on their vast amount of money and Arab owners) and not too small, based on the fact that Blackburn and Fulham both have different agendas/resources to that of the Villa.

I certainly wouldn't have said his name ahead of some others but if Villa did choose Hughes I would certainly give him and his staff my fullest backing. He has vast experience with being a player at Chelsea and Man Utd and therefore knows what makes the big clubs tick. Hopefully we would be the right size club to get the best out of him.

Good post for me which i agree with ^^

A pretty well connected manc friend of mine has said Downing is on his way there, i said the rumours all pointed at Ash but he just seemed to think there was something in the Downing thing? :?

Absolutely. Why do so many people not get this?

because they dont apply common sense and logic to anything football related

its a case of "hes been a successful manager so he'd be a successful manager here", despite the fact that he's been a successful manager a clubs with far more resources and draw than villa

Actually it's because he worked his way up successfully & has achieved many trophies both in Italy & in Europe so he therefore knows what it takes to win.. & also has proven that he can manage big name players very well too which means he is possibly more likely to keep hold of our wantaway stars... He may well not do of course because as you correctly state there is always a risk factor with any new manager..... Including Moyes.. I would argue that there is a bit less to worry about with an Ancellotti than there is with a Moyes .. purely as he has a more proven track record. He has proven he can reach those heights & has the trophies to back that up. For me there are less risks involved with a guy who "may struggle to manage on a smaller budget" (even though he has already done so some time ago), than there are with a guy who has never won anything at all & has never had to handle the budget that he would get here either which is also a risk.

Having said that i would be happy with Moyes for sure & would think he should be a good appointment ... Just think it's like the "Pool player/snooker player" argument.. With Moyes being the pool player & Ancelotti the Snooker player.. It is much easier for the snooker player to step down & play pool than it is for the pool player to step up & play snooker.

That to me is common sense!

Why did he sign?

I don't get it.. I mean he comes running here, injured, after playing a major part in relegating Boro.. Then after finally completing his 1st full season & using us to recuperate, on big wages, he drops this on the club at a time which blatantly shows he has absolutely zero interest in AVFC or it's fans.

This is everything that is wrong with the game & the agent involved needs shaming too as he is one of the short sighted greedy idiots who are ruining the game & who will eventually kill it..

Are these people paid by the top 4 clubs to create all this ridiculousness as an assurance that they stay as the top 4? I mean it's hardly in most of the players interests really is it as they get one or 2 years sat on a bench & then they seldom regain their previous level & end up falling away to mediocrity... Still i guess at least they may have a fat bank account & an FA cup winners medal (which they didn't actually play in of course)... DOH!

Bizarre.. very bizarre.

Kendrik says Ancellotti under consideration

LINK: http://tinyurl.com/3th3shd

Interesting

My no.1 choice would have to be Carlo Ancelotti.

He is a class bloke (even Fergie rates him highly) has a fantastic record at some big clubs, including Chelsea who i cannot believe sacked him, & would have very good pull in the transfer market which we badly need to compensate for lack of trophies & the lack of appeal regarding our location (purely as it seems to bother a lot of players).

Also his English is now much improved too which can only be beneficial & he would surely have a point to prove to Abramovich!

Second choice would be any from Moyes, Hughes.

Third would be Benitez, Lambert, GH continuing, Jol or Mclaren.. All could just do something but have risk too.

If management had any wits about them they would put in across some proposals.

First thing I would say is "I respectfully accept your decision not to commit to the villa, however I expect you to professionally honour your contract for the next 2 years...during which we have no intention to accept any other offers from any football clubs and you may if you wish seek alternative employment at the end of the 2 years.".

I would then put the proposition that he accept this and stay on his current wages or we offer an increased 4 year deal with some kind of 2 year clause that we have to accept offers if we dont meet certain targets. This would give us 2 years service + a good payout if he still wants to move after 2 years with the offer of an increased salary, that way it puts us in teh same situation now but safe guarding some money for him at the end of 2 years.

His agent should be reminded that he stands to get squat if we make him see out his 2 year contract but could be in for some sexy time if he gets a cut on an improved current deal.

How would people see that? I dont really like the idea of performance based clauses but it at least gives us what we have now (a player on a 2 year contract) and safe guards some money for the future.

I think this is exactly the sort of thing we need to do! Either that or instead of going for the usual 4 year deal which lets face it it primarily in the best interests of the player in most cases, why not go for a 4year deal but add on the extra 2 year bit as an option right at the start.. So a 4 year with a 2 year extension in the clubs favour/discretion or if the player is not happy at that point we still activate the 2 year extension but he has the right to leave if the right bid comes in?

Something has to break as it is now happening every single season & it is the primary reason we havn't acheived top 4 in my opinion..

This is all getting embarrassingly predictable now... It's as clear as clear could be that all the agents & players are basically "playing" this & other football clubs as nothing more than a shop window for the top 4 which by it's own nature means we will severely struggle to acheive anything as everytime we get close all of our best players spout this old story about "wanting champions League footy" & the "i'm at a major crossroads" b*****ks. Fact is if just for once a couple of them stayed & allowed the club to build on the foundations it has gone to vast time & expense to build then they could very possibly acheive it here anyway! In fact it is exactly this sort of behaviour which is the main reason Villa have consistently failed to reach those heights in recent years..

I'm sorry but something needs to be done about it as why on earth should Aston Villa invest millions into these players with the obvious & clear aim of acheiving top 4 etc only to effectively be royally shafted by them just at the crucial moment? It shows a complete & utter lack of respect for this football club & it's fans. These players know damn well what RL is trying to acheive here when they sign & i find it disgraceful that they are in effect sticking 2 fingers up at him & us fans in such a careless couldn't give a t**s manner too.

They clearly could not care less how they were helped by Aston Villa FC such as being injured for 5 months when 1st signed, being given the platform to get into/regain an England place or the completely unappreciated thing about receiving passionate & dedicated support from us fans.

This is the main reason it has become harder to win things in the modern Premier League. Not down to just Money/wages/size of club or the rest of the normal perceived reasons but this ridiculous "Now i'm entering my best years as a player i'm off as it's a major career crossroads & i want Champs league b*****s!

These agents have got it down to a fine art.... in the same vein as the "Oh i didn't see it" comment spouted by managers when tackled about a dodgy decision we now have the "i'm at a crossroads & i want Champs League footy in my career" standard statement as soon as there is a whiff of interest from the "top 4". Do they not get it that this is the main reason the "top 4" remain the "top 4" year in year out? Because of nomads like them who don't give a monkeys about anything apart from cash & plastic trophies which actually represent a big fat 0. Do you honestly as a fan look at Man City's FA cup win & think... Wow.. What a team they are they worked so hard for that i now have the utmost respect for those players & that club they deserved that?!

It's quite frankly a joke & practically makes the whole football thing pointless for me as do i really want to spend my hard earned cash & valuable time supporting a charade where it's impossible to win as everytime you get a winning hand your best cards jump out of your hand & leap into the other players hand instead? All because he is the player who usually wins?

It is not enough to support a football club through just habit & memories as at some point those memories will be too distant to matter any more.. Stewart Downing & all the rest of the robots who spout the same old tripe should realise that at some point, if it's constantly the same 4 or 5 teams that are the only ones capable of winning things that the rest will simply lose interest & the game will suffer as less interest = less coverage by Sky etc = less money = demise

It's all over SSN now.. They're reading it out in detail & stating how "interesting" his comments are in the wake of big interest from Arsenal.

Yeah i guess your right folks it is a poor source... Ahh well had me thinking happy thoughts for 10 minutes