thejoker

Yeah I've got a bet on us to be relegated. Expecting the odds to shorten up a fair bit and then I'll be able to lay it for a guaranteed profit. We won't be relegated!! Blues (with a much inferior squad) were unlucky to go down imo. If Dann hadn't got injured, they would have finished comfortably mid table. Stop being so pessimistic!

It's been emotional guys....but after several months, 800 pages in this thread alone (plus 2 other threads!)....the new manager is almost here. I bet not many people thought it was gonna be McLeish back on page 1 of thread 1! *waves goodbye*

So ridiculous if true. Would be inkeeping with the stupidness of it all tho Why is it ridiculous? We need stability now, not chopping and changing in 12 months time again. McLeish is obviously the man that Randy wants, so he should get full backing with his contract.

Welcome Mcleish! Time to get behind him and the lads! UTV

These protests are nothing to do with his ability, that is total bs. It's all to do with Birmingham, which I can't really understand...we're linked with Ben Foster and no one says anything negative...if McClaren was appointed, would there be protests? No! If McLeish was coming from Sunderland, would there be protests? No Just forget about Birmingham and concentrate on Villa!

At last some sense!! Support the club ffs, our fans piss me off sometimes...we're supposed to be going for Ben Foster, but no one is bothered about that...despite the relegations, he is a good manager, give him a chance!

To be honest I think McLeish was the target when MON left too, but obviously timing wasnt right back then. I remember one journalist tweeting something on the lines of "If avfc get No1 target, it will be VERY controversial" back in August last year. Looking at McLeish "the manager"....his teams are horrible to play against, and thats what we need again. We were too much of a soft touch last season, throwing away leads and giving silly goals away....I certainly think McLeish would sort the defence out. Birmingham didn't score many goals last season which would obviously be a concern....but then again, we weren't scoring many either until we got Darren Bent. I also think (on the whole) he's got a good eye for a bargain in the transfer market...Dann, Johnson, Gardner for example...and most of his "flop" signings were loans anyway. So if he comes, I'm willing to give him a chance...I hope you all do too! We dont need a split camp again at the start of next season.

Banners at VP...it's all getting a bit pathetic now. I think Villa need to say something ASAP to calm this situation down a bit.

I wasn't aware Randy wasn't on the plane...it's probably just Sky trying to get everyone to lay money on McLeish through Sky bet

So SSN say McLeish is on holiday in Corsica...just remind me, where did Randy's plane go last week..?? Hmm...

2 x 16th place finishes with the smallest club in the league....doesn't sound too bad to me!

I'd quite like Coyle. A top top manager in the making...I'd quite like to get him before Spurs (or similar size club)

Same source as what...?

I doubt he'd just pop over to see his mate when we're in the middle of a very important manager search...

Wow, this stalking is seriously getting out of hand now!!

So if Martinez is ruled out....who's next to be linked....Coyle maybe?

We don't know that Martinez has been offered the job!! If he's decided to stay at Wigan, doesn't mean he rejected us, he might be 1 of 4/5 people we are speaking to!

We don't/never have attracted top players though...the best way forward for us is to find the top players when they are young and develop them ourselves.

Do you think Mourinho or Alex Ferguson could have done any better at Wigan?? He's had virtually no money to spend and lost some key players....Wigan are probably a League 1 club (size wise), yet he has kept them up TWICE against the odds.

To be fair to Martinez, Wigan did spend a fair bit before he arrived (Rodallega, N'Zogbia...), and he's hardly had a pot to piss in...he's signed 2/3 players from small SPL teams, sold some of their better players and kept Wigan up for 2 years...decent achievement IMO. This is Wigan remember...the smallest club in the Premier League...not Arsenal!!

I'm undecided on Martinez...he'll either prove to be a stroke of genius or a complete flop. I'm willing to give him a chance though...can he do it at a big club?? (Think he only played in lower leagues as a player too, not that it means much)

I was chatting to a Sun reporter earlier and I asked him who the new manager would be...and he just said buy tomorrow's Sun...so I think there's some news shortly!

Heroes and Villans

I really can't think of anyone on a 'meltdown' scale who hasn't (seemingly) been ruled out. Ancelotti is obviously the one - were his comments last week just another scokescreen? Moyes/Benitez - would they be meltdown? Villa-Boas - almost impossible to get him from Porto

If thats the height of our ambition then we are shagged I think he'd be a good long-term appointment...like when Everton got Moyes (only difference is Owen Coyle got a small northern team promoted to the Prem and Moyes didn't!!)