briny_ear

If getting a club that had been going nowhere with a deeply mediocre squad to 6th for 3 seasons running plus a Wembley final is making a "Complete arse" of things I'd love to know how you'd describe the performance of managers who have regularly achieved much less over the period.

And it's always the same people gratuitously having a pop at him. What's your point?

You say that as if it's a criticism but it's actually quite a marketable skill! Almost all premier league chairmen and fans would kill to get such a manager and I guess we would as well just at this moment. I don't understand why so many posters on this site work so hard to denigrate the only decent manager we've had for 10 years.

To be brutally honest, I can't see anything wrong with what Lawro has written there.

And failing dismally. (Probably worth mentioniing thatlast bit.)

I watched the Sunderland/Norwich game and suddenly they look anything but painfully average. Whew! Can we have some of that at Villa Park please?

two sides to every story! He turned out to be a poor signing but he came with what looked like a decent pedigree. That sort of thing does happen in the real world, so it's probably worth just getting over it. I have never heard any real explanation of how it all went wrong.

We've had this stuff over and over again. I know the spin the board has put out about MON off by heart so I don't need to hear it again. I'm just saying, look at what he has done for Sunderland in nine matches. BTW, you need to look upwards to see this because they are now well above us in the table.

It's clear enough that Warnock's confidence is shot through and booing him is a pretty dumb way of reacting to that. As soon as we have a fit/competent replacement he needs to be dropped and given some time to rebuild his game (in my view, preferably at another club). McLeish did try to replace him with Clark in the Wolves game but he turned out to be even worse. We just don't have anyone at the moment who can do the job. We have to hope Lichaj or Stevens can get up to speed pretty soon. Until then, Warnock is actually playing on our team, however badly and booing him is pretty crazy.

Everything that needs to be said about MON can probably be gleaned by perusing Sunderland's record since 11 December 2010. Played 9 league games, won 6, drawn 1, lost 2. .Prior to that their record was played 14, won 2, drawn 5, lost 7 How badly we are missing that sort of magic at Villa right now!

The ghost of MON needs exercising I think it will take another 24 months Oh I don't know, he's not that out of shape is he? Well people do mention quite frequently that he never took training sessions while he was at Villa, so it's quite possible... :winkold:

Yes, I guess we all know that really. :|

Yes, I guess we all know that really. :|

For Villa to be relegated this season, SEVEN out of the following nine clubs would need to overtake us in the 16 games remaining: Fulham, Swansea, Everton, Baggies, QPR, Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves, Wigan. For Blackburn or Wolves to overhaul us they would need to make up a nine point deficit in those 16 games. It's obviously not impossible but there is very little in our present situation that should lead anyone to say it is likely or could "easily" happen. This thread is ludicrous. As I've already said once, it's not like last season where we really were teetering on the brink of relegation, even as late as the end of March.

Good point, but I remember Houllier saying something similar last season. Somebody's got to bite the bullet at some point. On the other hand, maybe McLeish is waiting to see if Stevens/Lichaj/Baker can be introduced in an orderly fashion to tackle the main problem of full backs.

You don't mean Collins, do you - maybe Cowans? He didn't have a row with Collins, Collins is his little pal and I sometimes suspect the only reason he gets in the team is because Dunne asks especially if they can play together.

I think it's far less likely to happen this season than it was last. Houllier had us down in 17th place in the first week of January and only one point off the relegation zone at the end of march. We may have a dramatic collapse that will plunge us into trouble (McLeish is an old hand at those) but, as things stand, we are not flirting with relegation like last season and there is no justification for this thread.

EDIT: Sorry - just seen that Trent posted exactly the same thing a bit earlier.

I think you might want to have another look at this!! Thankfully Graham Turner only got one, very brief go. Graham T*$£~@# on the other hand...don't get me started!!

I've always rather liked him as a bloke. Have become less and less impressed with him as manager of my club. :|

To be fair to McLeish, he had a big injury crisis after the January window had closed and there was nothing to do to rectify it. Unlike our last season's manager who was lucky enough to be given £18m rising to £24m to buy a forward to save us from relegation.

Benítez was a loan signing costing around £800k. So that brings the total down to just over £24m, no?

I was certainly impressed at how he went for the ball leading up to the penalty incident - not really very Bent-like at all! I wonder if having Robbie Keane in the squad may have perked Bent up a bit. A bit of competition and a new companion who knows where the goal is and lives to score. Let's hope it gets better still, because Bent has been a bit useless so far in many games this season.

It's hard to compare but I would say he has more fluid movement and better instinctive positioning than his big brother. Craig was - and remains - a grafter who impresses through his hard work and flashes of brilliance. Gary just looks a more naturally gifted footballer. Sorry if this counts as "gushing". Obviously, it can all go pear shaped for him, as it does for so many promising youngsters but he looks the part at just now.

When you put in the full run of seasons, it's hard to describe this as "progress", although I recognise your intent was satirical.