El-Reacho

Yeah Tim Abraham said this morning he was off to play cricket this afternoon. Would make you think they've been told to put the feet up until Monday morning as those guys wouldn't risk missing a story as big as this by playing cricket. Either everything's done and dusted, Randy's got his man and there will be a press briefing on Monday morning, or else they've just put the search on hold for a few days which would be bizarre. I reckon it's either Hughes or Moyes and it's all done and dusted. They're planning a time to announce for some reason.

I've heard it mentioned regularly enough for both clubs and international posts too. Apparently Kenny Dalglish attended an interview for the Republic of Ireland job and when he went into the room where the panel was they asked for a copy of his CV - so he just walked out. It seems odd that people like that have to do an interview because their strengths and weaknesses are pretty apparent when you get to Premier League level.

Bernd Schuster Otto Rehhagel Christoph Daum Diego Maradona Dunga Marcello Lippi Luigi Delneri Paulo Sérgio Köbi Kuhn Christian Gross Luis Aragonés Claude Puel Zdenek Zemen Fatih Terim Paul LeGuen Slavin Bilic Quique Sanchez Flores Marco Van Bastem

I think top managers have something coaches do not. An allureness about them. I've a book on how business can learn from football and top sports when dealing with management and they talk of Fergie quite alot and say that he never gets too close to the players, and has the aura of a father figure that they love but fear at the same time. McClown's problem is he has always been far too matey with players, so they automatically see him as no threat, that they can do what they want without fear of his wrath so to speak. Top managers have a stern coldness underneath their exterior. Fergie, Clough, Mourinho, Hiddink, even Dither. You just wouldn't **** them about really. The first thing Capello did when he took over from McLaren was teach the England bunch manners - he cut out all the nicknames and made the players address him as Mr Capello. He also made them turn up for dinner on time and stay until everyone was finished. They're tiny things but just show the players who's boss. He also kind of suggested the players basically ran the England show under McLaren's management.

If Talksport are right Mustapha Salifou just booked his flight back to Birmingham.....

Agree with every word - good post. 2 theories 1.We are waiting for Hughes 2.We aren't good at manager hunting. I know I'm being totally hypothetical here given today's news - but what if Randy had done a behind the scenes deal with Hughes in May because he knew Houllier was gonna have to leave. Then Ancelotti gets sacked from Chelsea a week later and takes the Fulham job? And we missed on him because we'd done our appointment weeks before. Lerner and Faulkner will have been scoping managers out from the start of the year I reckon - way before Houllier even got sick, in case they would have to make an appointment. They'll have known Ancelotti was probably going to be sacked like most of the media did. They'll also know the current status of most of the top managers in Europe both in a job and out of it through a huge number of contacts. They will have people with their ear to the ground chasing agents all around Europe. We'll be waiting for a very good reason. It's probably going to be like trying to sign a player - it will be once Hiddink makes up his mind or it might be some post in France or Germany and once that happens the knock on effect will make things happen I'm sure. If it was going to be McLaren why wasn't it done last week? Likewise Rafa etc. As long as we're not waiting until July no news is good news a s far as I'm concerned. It's not like we're missing out on any transfer coups at the moment is it?

Interesting that Hughes is now all set for Chelsea if John Terry has his way. If that's the case Hiddink could be an interesting candidate for the Villa job? If we've approached Carlo why wouldn't we approach Gus too? Thoughts?

It does a little more than say he is favourite, Don. If rumours are correct (and they may not be) then he is willing if we can convince him of our own ambitions. If there is a rumour that Ancelotti has been approached by Spurs then Redknapp might be one of Chelsea's candidates (or he might be the next England manager). In this case Ancelotti would probably be Spurs' nr1 target, and Ancelotti would no doubt choose London. It would be wise to let Chelsea (and Spurs) make their move first. Think we could end up waiting until Turkey's qualifier this weekend. If Turkey win Hiddinck will stay put - Roman will turn to Redknapp and Carlo will head to Spurs. If Turkey lose Hiddinck will jump ship, Redknapp will stay put and Carlo and Ray will sign up with us. Anyone know who Turkey are even playing?

Although based on what Ancelotti did for pirlo's game Stephen ireland could be our new holding midfielder. ;-)

Pirlo's off to Juventus by all accounts - Gattuso seems to be on his way from Milan though with nowhere in particular lined up. Chickens - eggs - count etc....

That's someone ITK about most footballing matters. Balague said Villa and Liverpool had agreed a fee for Barry a few summers ago about two months before the transfer window opened, which turned out to be bollocks. He's annoying because he states these things as fact when he only hears the same rumours everyone else does. Same as his mate Marcotti. He also by all accounts seems to hate Gerard Houllier.

Phillip Auclair was on the Guardian's Podcast yesterday and james Richardson asked him specifically about Houllier and whether he was likely to continue next season. Auclair seems to be as close to Houllier as anyone. He said he has spoken to Houllier twice on the phone since his health scare and whilst Houllier has said he wants to come back, Auclair doesn't think he'll be able to. He also said Benitez was likely to be in the running as a replacement as his kids were settled in England and he's currently touting himself for the best PL job he can get. He commented that Villa will be a big attraction for managers at the moment given the quality of the squad etc, and Randy's supposed willingness to spend.

Journalists were tweeting that Villa's fans where chanting GH's name tonight. If true that's some turn around - with just two signings and two wins... On a side note - Villa's fans were getting rave reviews for their performance tonight on the twittosphere.

Yep - Would love it if Stephen Ireland got his act together and created a partnership with Bent like he had with Robinho a few seasons back.

R5LX Commentators: "Relegation not even an issue - far too much class" Good reports about Makoun - will be good when he gets up to full fitness.

Didn't see the game - followed it on twitter though. Henry Winter was very impressed with Downing: "What a game Downing's had...passing, tackling, blocking, outstanding. #avfc 1 #mcfc 0... De jong shot deflected off Clark onto post...6 left"

Was a nice tweet by one of the Guardian journalists today along the lines of - I wonder how Martin O'Neill feels seeing RL give Houllier £24m to spend on a new striker while he's negotiating with a pair of porn mongers to try and keep West Ham up. I may have used some artistic license here but that was the general sentiment. Fair enough I know we're not out of the shit either by a long run....

Like it.

Agreed with this. When Avram Grant took over at Chelsea the players had zero respect for him. If rumours are to be believed they ignored his tactics and told him what team to select. He fell out with half the team - yet the players still managed to get themselves to the Champions League final. Our players are pathetic. To go from three sixth places etc to languishing in 18th place and some of the worst Villa performances in modern day history shows they have no respect for this club, and no respect for themselves as players and professionals. If Houllier's tactics are really that bad, his set piece organisation so awful etc why can the players not just take matters into their own hands. Why can Dunne Collins etc not just say it worked like this last year so we're going to keep doing like this. They know how to play successful football and win games so why can't they sit down together and say bollocks to Houllier we'll do it like this. They're a bunch of lemmings that are walking of a cliff with no spine to say hang on I'm going to take control here. They're every bit if not more the culprits here, than Houllier is.

Not the forum for it Fran, but I'd say Trapattoni will be delighted with that today. Solves a problem or two.

I wonder if the squad have had the 'now we have a manager' moment in the last few days a la Paul Ince in Houllier's first few months at Liverpool. Certainly a big difference.

If Delph's just been dropped so much for Houllier's 'like a new signing' comments before the Spurs game.

Albrighton should make a very good impact sub.

Three at the back has died out since teams have started playing one up front and two attackers in support. Reckon it will be Clark at left back as he's the most comfortable moving with the ball of those four IMHO.

Any word on the bench yet? Will be interesting to see if Ireland gets back in.