briny_ear

So this is now the John Gregory thread? :confused:

I think that is realistic and it means that all of QPR, Blackburn and Wolves would need 20 points from their remaining 13 games to get past us (or Bolton 21/Wigan 22).

Wow. Excellent post Joey. Not so sure it will get a great reception on VT but there is a great deal of truth and good sense in what you say. Tactical/personnel changes during a match always seem a bit of a gamble to me. Like any gamble, sometimes they come off and the manager is duly hailed as a tactical genius. But so much depends on the quality and attitude if the players. All the tactics in the world will come to nothing if the players aren't good enough.

As far as I know, Andreas Weimann is NOT going back to watford on loan, so why give me a heart attack by bouncing a thread about his loan spell there back to the top? (Now's the chance for someone to point out I've missed something important and he IS going back...)

Another thought. When Lerner sells up do you think he will have anything to do with Villa ever again? I've been impressed at how Dougie turns up to to so many games. Maybe he really does love the Villa after all. OK, maybe he believes he's still running the club and this is just deluded behaviour but it says something about him.

As did MON. Something must happen on the training ground where they both look better :? I though that was just because MON prefers to play a centre back in the RB position and Cuellar has more ability to play there than Collins ever would have.

Anyway, it's laughable rubbish. The back 4 haven't played in a disciplined straight-line formation like that all season

The main point about this season - as others have said - is that the clubs in the relegation zone are doing so much worse. This time last season we were only 5 points above the bottom club and it was all very tight, with all the relegation-threatened clubs doing much better. This season we are nine points clear of the bottom club and it would need all three of Wolves, QPR and Blackburn to gain 8 points on us for us to go down. We are more comfortable this season but mainly only because the teams below us are doing worse.

Do I really have to choose? By the end of his reign, Ellis nearly managed to destroy my love for Villa and now it seems Lerner is doing his best to repeat the trick.

Anyone wanting Gregory back should peruse his entry on Wikipedia - click here We'd really be living the dream under his stewardship.

Strictly speaking, wouldn't "worst case" be us gaining no more points at all this season and ending up with 28 points?

There is so much utter rubbish written about Stiliyan on this site. It really is beyond belief at times. (That was told me by a player, so believe it or not. Mind you, he does play for Pelsall Villa so maybe not a great expert.)

Agree fully with this. It was clear from the start of the summer that the relationship between MON and Lerner/Faulkner was breaking down and they should have handled it better, preferably by forcing the issue in May and if necessary bringing in a new manager at that stage who they could work with.

Whatever, I hope Warnock doesn't come back into the side. Lichaj/Baker/Stevens deserve a chance first.

The secret of winning against Wigan and Blackburn is just to attack them consistently. Both sides are capable of getting goals but their defenses are both disaster areas and as long as we get the forward play rolling throughout the matches we should win them. Can't say I'm confident that McLeish is capable of understanding or executing this.

He's played for us against Chelsea, Arsenal, and Newcastle so far this season, so it's not as if this was the first time he came up against good midfield players. I urge people to set higher standards and expectations for our younger players - at present they are our main hope and it does them no good to be defended to the hilt when their performances are disappointing. I'm sure everyone knows in their heart of hearts he should have done better against Man C and I expect he feels that the most keenly.

After much thought, I've actually voted "stay", much to my surprise. This is not because I think McLeish is a great or even good manager, nor because I think his comments about the tactics against Man C were at all acceptable, nor that he's any sort of long term prospect as a manager for us. Far from it. But I think to sack him now would make the club a laughing stock. McLeish has a tough job to do. He needs to manage out of the club all of the older players on wages that Lerner has decided he cannot afford any more. There will be no money to spend for a manager until this is done so we will not attract a decent replacement until this phase is over (at which stage, I hope Lerner will then sell the club to someone capable of sustaining a longer term run of the investment we need). McLeish will keep us in the premier league while he is purging the club of the Collins's, Warnocks, etc., and he should be sacked only once there is some decent money to spend and we can get in a proper manager to restore the damage done by the shambles we've had since MON left. So I would keep him for next season then sack him. Not sure McLeish would find much to comfort him in this support!

Isn't he supposed to be on too high a wage for us to afford him?

To be honest, I really don't think we are in the relegation mix so there is no need to panic. Obviously things could change. We could go on a disastrous run and one of Wolves, Blackburn or QPR could suddenly start beating the top ten clubs they largely have to face in the run in. If those things did happen, then would be the time to panic and start creating threads like this. There are no grounds for it now. We've had a poor run and have taken only 9 points from the last 10 games but even if we got no better we would still get 11 or 12 points from our remaining 13 games. That would give us 39/40 points, meaning one of QPR Blackburn or Wolves would need 19 or 20 from their remaining 13 games. The way things are now, that is not on the cards.

Yeah, but he's only really 60-70% black. He isn't proper "Salifou black" (the greatest of all the shades). Excellent.

Clicky click

so we cant blame him for leaving us with some average players? Interesting The rules of English grammar force me to point out you have misunderstood the statement. To make it easier: (a) Martin O'Neill bought some very good players and some not so good players (1) ( All the good ones he bought have been sold off (2) © so the impression might arise that he left us with only poor players - but that is only because all the good ones were sold off (d) You can't blame him for the fact that all the good players he bought were sold off. [(1) This makes him like virtually every other mnanager in the football league (2)And what happened to the money?] Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Both Suarez's and Dalglish's statements are too cursory and dismissive if you ask me but I guess it will now all be swept uinder the carpet and everyone will move on without the situation really being resolved. Nice to see them having to come off their high horses a little bit though.

I can see how that impression arises but it is of course relevant that we sold off all his very good signings (errr... and what happened to the money?). I'm not sure you can blame O'Neill for that (although the evidence of this thread suggests people will blame him for anything however ludicrous.)