El-Reacho

Collymore on TS this afternoon seems to think RL/PF have four managers on the radar - 2 current PL managers and 2 currently out of work managers. If it's true it means they've changed their recruitment policy this time which is good to hear. He did say this before AMcL had actually been sacked though...

Unless DiMatteo were up for grabs in which case we'd hopefully be in pole position.

I reckon the decision was made on Wednesday before the statement was released. Randy has probably said to him just keep us up and I'll pay up your contract in full. If we get a point against Spurs he'll probably pack his bags.

I've never seen any of our defenders turn to Given and bollock him for hoofing it up to Heskey, nor have I ever seen any of our midfielders turn to Warnock or Collins and demand the ball and give out to them when they inevitably hoof it up the pitch again. That suggests to me that they're perfectly happy to do i. So either they've disobeyed McLeish for 36 matches so far or else it's what McLeish instructs them to do.

Describing the style of his play is completely subjective - it's the opinion of the vast majority of people that it is negative but it is McLeish's opinion that it is attacking. He's not lying he's giving his opinion.

Hopefully Abramovich will go and pay a fortune for some big European name like Hiddink or Pep in the summer, in which case we should be straight in for DiMatteo.

and; McLeish > Albion Yes! Get in there. Where he can complete a truly unique hat-trick.

Martinez's relationship with Whelan is rumoured to have deteriorated a fair bit in the last few weeks. One of 5Live's reporters seemed to think there had been a few subtle jibes toward Whelan in Roberto's interviews of late.

Me too. The worrying thing is if it says that to McLeish himself in which case we're pretty much relegated if we weren't already. Or else this afternoon RL and McLeish might have agreed to part company at the end of the season - this could motivate the players more than anything. Statement would make sense then.

None of those pundits have the balls to speak their mind. Collymore knows that if he says what he really thinks of McLeish he'll make an enemy of him and all of his buddies in the game - Ferguson and everyone else. Sky sports / Talksport / BBC is just a big love in between former players who won't say anything bad about their mates.

This. Anyone who thinks he'd join us is deluded. What about DiMatteo then? Probably still has his house here.... Seems to be able to motivate players.

Being interviewed on Today FM this morning - says he's back in training but not tackling anyone. Said he will be in full training on Friday and if fit will be ready for the weekend. Missed the start so didn't hear if he said much about last night - but it interview was mainly related to ROI and the Euros.

Maybe he got two yellows on purpose to show his support for Stan. Fairplay indeed.

I wonder if McLeish has seen that response? It suggested to me that he could be under serious pressure from Lerner at the end of the season, even if he keeps us up.

What an excellent point. Completely missed by the media and Sir Graham. It was 11th place, but still far better than we are going to achieve with this muppet in charge. Welcome to the board TLS, keep making sense like that and you'll soon be a Mod!! You mean keep making sense like that and he will be slaughtered! :winkold: To be fair, I was only thinking about tomorrow's MON return and the reception he will get. My Brother and I had a chat about it the other night and he said that we would give anything to have MON and the 6th place finishes back now. To which I replied that we are in such financial troubles because of him and the wated money on crap signings. We both concluded that it is Lerner who is to blame for that. Let's think about this for a minute. Does anyone actually know for 100% sure why MON left Villa 5 days before the start of a season? I don't recall it ever being officially announced why he did it so as far as I am concerned we should really wait for the facts to come to light before slagging the man off. How do we know he wasn't sacked by Lerner for something he said or did? In which case, who is the bad guy then? Pat Murphy said on 5Live a couple of months back that O'Neill wanted to buy Scott Parker with the Milner money and Randy refused. He didn't say how Stephen Ireland fitted into the scenario but according to him that is why O'Neill walked. Not sure how much Parker would have cost in August 2010 but I reckon it would have been £10m+ given West Ham were still in the PL he would've wanted big wages too I'd imagine.

Faulkner previously talked about Europe being a possibility this season, so hopefully they will appreciate how far short of this McLeish has actually achieved.

Fair enough, I don't know what's going on behind the scenes and you don't know what's going on behind the scenes but I'll withhold my views because you're right.

The point I was making is that that amount of spending on both fees and wages for that amount of time has minimal impact on Lerner's overall picture. To him it was a risk worth taking. He's even said he has no regrets over any of O'Neill's signings. Do you really think he's going to make such a high profile investment (regardless of value), and run it as haphazardly as everyone on here thinks he's doing? Do you think people are unwilling to do business with Lerner's other companies because of his supposed incompetency in the handling of Villa's finances or recruitment policy? Lerner and his pals have grown up in big business. He doesn't see the running of club the way the fans do, and as he's clearly demonstrated he doesn't care for the fans' opinions on how to run the club. He will do it like he does his other businesses (successful and unsuccessful). The appointment of managers is a slightly different issue, but needless to say he's making decisions based on the recommendations of a recruitment agency (certainly in Houllier's case, pretty sure in McLeish's). But again McLeish's stint will be negligible in the overall picture IMHO. It's probably why he'll be here for the next season at least. I'm sorry, but he has run the club exceedingly badly, and if you can show me a successful company that follows the Randy Lerner blueprint for Villa, I'll eat my own shoes. After 6 years, we've made huge losses, sold most of our better players and have a terrible manager who has alienated most of the customer base. If you want to dress it up in management speak, then in the BCG matrix, Aston Villa is a dog. Lerner does NOT know what he's doing, and trying to dress up the incompetent way he runs he club as part of some grand medium term plan is desperate in the extreme. There's about three clubs in world football that are possibly not dogs. After all the losses the club's made he'd easily break even if he wanted to sell up and that's after just six years. He knows that he can easily send us back up the table as he's already done it with O'Neill and he will do it again - I'm absolutely sure of it. This summer we'll be in pretty much an identical position to the club that he took over, so he knows that he can just start again. The original five year plan was drawn up because they spotted an opportunity to break into the top four and took a risk, which didn't pay off. Lerner and his team will be waiting for another opportunity to invest, when the risks aren't too high then he'll go again. IMHO he'll wait to see how the FFP rules pan out or if Arsenal and Spurs fall away significantly. He will also be trying to gauge if anyone like Liverpool/Everton/Sunderland will come in and do another Man City and scupper any chances. Just my take on what's going on.

Can't agree with that - Guzan's performances were easily as good as Given's IMHO. Injuries happen - it's tough luck but no player should have a guaranteed place in the side. I think that decision sent a pretty negative message to the rest of the squad too. I was delighted when we signed Given, and he's done well for us but he should have come back into the side only when(if) Guzan's performances warranted him being dropped, not because he's fit again.

If anything McLeish's past indicates that he gets results out of the squads he's inherited, and once he builds his own squad over a few seasons things tend to go pear-shaped.

Wonder what the political issues were? Guzan will be a great signing for someone, like Howard and Friedel have been before him. He was really shoddily treated by McLeish this season when Given went straight back into the team. For all McLeish's talk of dropping people who make errors he refused to do it with Given.

Is he gutted at the management of the team or the quality of the players? It would be a bit rich if he was gutted about the quality of the players given the squad we had when he sold up. This McLeish saga is something that would never have happened when he was here, but then so are most of the signings from the last six years.

Are you referring to Doug or Randy here? (No sarcasm intended.)

Whilst I'd have either Lambert or Rodgers here in a flash right now, arguably they are simply this season's Phil Brown, Steve Coppell, Aidy Boothroyd, Paul Jewell, etc. who have all been similarly flavour of the month for bringing teams up and having good first seasons, with big wins against top opposition. The trick is the second season, where only Tony Pulis, or perhaps Sam Allardyce seems to have come through and established a mid-table PL side.

The point I was making is that that amount of spending on both fees and wages for that amount of time has minimal impact on Lerner's overall picture. To him it was a risk worth taking. He's even said he has no regrets over any of O'Neill's signings. Do you really think he's going to make such a high profile investment (regardless of value), and run it as haphazardly as everyone on here thinks he's doing? Do you think people are unwilling to do business with Lerner's other companies because of his supposed incompetency in the handling of Villa's finances or recruitment policy? Lerner and his pals have grown up in big business. He doesn't see the running of club the way the fans do, and as he's clearly demonstrated he doesn't care for the fans' opinions on how to run the club. He will do it like he does his other businesses (successful and unsuccessful). The appointment of managers is a slightly different issue, but needless to say he's making decisions based on the recommendations of a recruitment agency (certainly in Houllier's case, pretty sure in McLeish's). But again McLeish's stint will be negligible in the overall picture IMHO. It's probably why he'll be here for the next season at least.