CannockVillan

This is all getting too ridiculous. Just because he managed SHA he's not good enough. He went down with SHA largely because after the cup win he lost a large number of first team players from his squad. I honestly think they would still be in this league had that not happened. Bear in mind that they finished 9th and last year we ended up 9th but were in a relegation battle until the penultimate game of the season when only secured our prem status by beating arsenal. 6 points in the last 2 games and we shot up to 9th!!!!!!!!!!!!! Paepring over the obvious cracks if you ask me. Thise cracks are still here and McLeis has to be given time to address these. We're not Man City who can leave a 35m striker out of the squad becuase they don't like him anymore. He hasn't had money to spend (he's replaced people not built his own swuad) and what he has spent has actually been good imho. As Rob182 said all of his signings were generally welcomed as good signings with maybe a question mark over hutton. Everyone on this sight works off hindsight. In hindsight Nzogbia hasn't performed as we would have liked, or expected, but has ashley young hit the heights at ManU? No one thought it was a bad signing and I still don't think it is. People say he's playing in the wrong position but has anyone thought thst perhaps this is because Mcleish feels he can't yet play him in his favoured position because he needs him elsewhere on the pitch becuase we have a small squad? Hutton has been poor but the guy hadn't played in god knows how longs never mind the move to a new club. Will he come good, i'm not convinced, but was it a bad signing? Who else was available for a right back position that we could have got? Given quite simply has been excellent. Plus he has to work with a squad that: 1. is not his squad (he's not even had one season in the position to stamp his mark on things) 2. in which there seems to be a few cliques and divisions. He's here to stay gents so get used to it. The club (no doubt under his guidance) has shifted out a number of high earners from the wage bill this year and a few more will go in the summer. Those on what I call MON contracts with a year or two left will be harder to shift but no doubt we will try if he feels any of them are being disruptive. Whether he can shift them is another matter (and not his fault if he can't). I truly feel we will buy this summer and McLeish will stamp his own mark on the team a bit more. How much - I don't know. I'll judge him more next season when it's less of an O'Neill team (which frankly it still is) and more of a McLeish one. If the football is poor at that time then he'll start to lose my support (as any manager would). in the mean time give the man a break and support your team through thick and thin. For me he's making all the right noises but perhaps is being hampered by one or two seniors who think they are indispensible. They seem to want to play their way instead of his way. Can he drop them? With our squad, probably not. A few players need shifting. Give him a chance to make it his team.

His hold up and link play isn't that bad to be fair. i think some people on here are making him out to be a clueless numpty. he has a brain and links up fine imho. He's not a Heskey (but who is) and i'd rather have Bent as my main striker (who is a worse link player than Heskey) than Heskey (who is simply not a goal scorer). People have short memories of the back end of last season where wihtout Bent it could have been a toitally different story (joint top goal scorer and onnly half a season played). It looks and fels as if he has been playing with this injury for the most part of this season and i susepct that is the reason he hasn't been on his usual goalscoring from. He's the best goals scorer we have had since Yorke. I'm glad he's here and i'd rather he score 20 goals this season than get 20 assists. He'll never do both. Gabby is on fire and if we can also get Bent firing then we'll win more than we lose.

At what point in time did we ever have those four playersw in the saem team? sorry if i've misinterpreted but the answer to my own question is never. We had three of them for one season together in 08-09 (Barry Milner and Young) and a different three (Downing, Young and Milner in 09-10. Never all four. We might even have had Barry Milner and Young playing duriung Milner's loan spell too. Also bear in mind that in the 09-10 season i think downing spent the best part of a third of the season out of action as he didn't actually start a game until November. You might say that having three is good and yes i would agree, but there was also upheaval during those times and its never been a consistent period where we have had all three. O'Neill had the team to reach the top four but his system and lack of rotation/failure to rest key individuals meant he blew it. I think his spending was at best 50% decent and and 50% dire. Add to that the value of some of these player's contracts then it slips more into the dire category (whoever was responsible for wages it was the manager who at the end of the day decided and advised in his opinion no doubt if a player was worth it).

Why should Gabby have passed. Bent was in no better a position. Gabby was clean through with a clear shot on goal from exactly the same position bent was in on the other side of the area. If anything he did the right thing by not risking another pass to a player who had the same shot. Another pass and the keeper could have had time to close down bent and make his shot difficult. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't. That's football. He might have passed and bent may have missed. They both had clear shots on goal but clear chances don't always go in. Ask torres. He score a great goal, end of.

i can answer that (even though its not my own view) 1) His reputation for being rubbish precedes him. 2) His football in every game since he came here has been awful. 3) we've won 1 league game in 6. 4) Villa fans are impatient and generally pessimistic. i think we need to give AMC till may before judging him, but even i can admit the signs so far aren't looking too good. I think you are right, and those points relate quite well to me at the moment. I was worried about his style of football at sha not where he came from, and whether we would end up playing the same sort of stale rubbish that sha played. However, I vowed to give him some time to prove me wrong. We had a reasonable set of opening fixtures, where to be honest I expected a little better in terms of footballing style. It is not so much the results but the lack of creativity and goal threat that has me worried. If we continue to play badly, then eventually draws will turn to defeats. AM has yet to show me he knows how to set up a team to score goals, and that is what worries me most. I will still give him time to prove me wrong, but I must admit it is getting harder to after each game, and I'm getting nervous about our chances this season of even mid table safety for this season. Some good points, particularly about the fact we have, on paper, had a relatively comfortable start and I would also have hoped for atleast 2 more points from those fixtures. It is still early but there are signs for concern. I don't understand how, after the shambolic performance of Tuesday night v Bolton, the players somehow then decide or manage to turn in the same performance a few days later in the 1st half v QPR. How the hell did it take 45 minutes to rectify it. Why are we not at least trying to retain the ball. Where on earth has our forward play gone.

I know I have not got many posts, but I don't think calling some fellow posters "muppets" after 21 posts is a good approach . And also please don't nick other people's names!!!! That said i only keep it cause i don't know if you can keep your user history but change your name. does anyone know?

Zog has a new team to come to and learn about. Little or no pre-season with players he is still learnign about and trying to know and understand. Give the guy a break. fact is we created enough chances at the weekend to have been out of sight and just didn't take them. Sometimes that happens and you have just got to get on with things. Newcastle got a well earned draw but our own proligacy in front of goakl helped them into the game. We should have been well in charge with atleast a two goal cushion. Scoring goals (or not in this case) changes games. It gives confidence to players or (if you're not taking your chances) makes you uneasy. We will play worse and win and no doubt better and lose.

Look at it this way. The bravery he has shown in jumping ship and jioning us - a club that no decent manager would touch with a bargepole, due to the restrictions in place - shows that he has a lot of confidence in his ability, and he wont run from a fight. I like that, and hopefully he will sooner or later, get the tools to do the job.

Can people stop spouting rubbish please!^^^^^^^ I have no doubts that we would like to shift a lot of players off the books in order to get some fresh faces in but guess what, someone has to want to buy them otherwise you have to pay off their contracts!!!!!!!! You call them crap! so that means they must really be in demand then! Easy to sell! Downing wanted to go - he went and it was inevitable. Rather now for £20m whist market is still high. Got CNZ in to replace (a v good buy) Ash was always going - Decent price for one year left. - (would like to have seen us use the funds from that one though to strengthen) NRC - wanted too much money, so he left. Yes it could have been handled better but our managers (more than one) obviously took the view that what he was offered was what he was worth. Can we please stop bringin up the same old rubbish, its getting tedious. if a player wants out then 9 times out of 10 he will go, especially if there's not much left on the term of his contract. Back on topic - Petrov is a v good midifelder imho. Solid and dependable, even if somewhat one paced and loses energy after 70 mins. Becasue fo that I think we will mix in some of the v promising youth we have (likes of Delph, Clark and Gardner) in with Makoun and Stan and in all honesty I am not overly worried. It's not world class but then we fall short of that as a club anyway.

Thanks POB. I don't disagree that out form has been quite reasonable, despite not winning too often. If GH stays, then I'd like wholesale changes to the squad so there are no excuses next season. I like the man, not neccesarily the Manager. A fresh start for all, if he stays, I back him, if he goes I'm not too fussed. Thing is we have said no excuses:- once all the players are back from injury once he has had a window once he has had pre season I can see come October:- his new players need time to settle because of illness he didn't have a pre season XXX injury is a real blow for us Personally my overriding feeling is that GH won't do great things at Aston Villa ....could be wrong but thats what I keep coming back to - it always seems to be....just wait until........ My only worry is his fitness to manage not his capability. it was clear that once the players decided, actually we're in better shape and trying to play better football, that we got some positive results. Enough to give us a top 6 finish if extrapolated across the whole season. Players have to take a lot of the blame for me and I would hope they now realise that actually from a coaching perspective we're a better team than we were (and fitter too). I do worry though that he won't be able to take the stresses the job puts on managers and we will be left in a difficult position next year. If he is fit and able, I'm happy he stays.

The ignorance of some on here amazes me. Great Britain consists of England Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Replublic of Ireland is neither part of Britain nor the UK The Channel Islands and the Isle of man are crown dependancies and not part of the UK.

p.s Can you imagine the whole of the Holte swaying left and then right as they sing it. Pure Class

What about the Barmy army song for Mitchell Johnson during the ashes series, just adapted a bit: He shootst to the left, He shoots to the righ igh ight Darren Bent makes Defenders look shite

We're in the wrong thread for this, and you're clearly very aggravated so won't take this on board, but I'll try anyway. Before MON resigned, (I'm told it was the day before the Valencia friendly but I can't confirm that) Lerner entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Man City for the sale of Milner in exchange for money and Stephen Ireland. It was a contract which, to all intents and purposes, bound us to selling Milner regardless of flood, pestilence and manager resignation. Backing out of that contract had a hefty penalty clause attached to it and would have cost millions. Gazton, Don't quite get that. A MOU is usually non binding and what'sthe point or value in signing a legally binding MOU. Why not just do the deal and agree to sell there and then subject to medicals andagreeing terms with players?

I'm sure MON thinks he timed it perfectly. Exactly - deliberately leaving when we had no other options to fall back on. In any other line of work if you leave without giving your notice period its a serious disciplinary issue. I hate it when that happens. A serious disciplinary offence eh! I know - SACK HIM - oh hang on a minute.

Yes I think it is! No one could imagine O'Neill was going to go 5 day before the new season. That is why they called it a massive surprise. RL never changed the goalposts for MON. If anything MON decided he couldn't work within that remit. Not the club or the board's fault imho. The chaos is being caused by fans, no one else. O'Neills timing was awful and showed how much he actually loved the club. We'll get a manager in within the next week or so and we will be fine.

Considered comment but in my opinon 50% absolute rubbish. Martin O'Neill was not the be all and end all of this club. The cog which kept the wheels turning. A good manager, yes definitely. Villa's position has changed in the last 18 months with the arrival of Mega rich Man City. if they wanted to they could buy anyone at this moment in time. No other club can. the goals posts have changed significanlty since RL took over and no one envisaged such a change. I'm was an O'Neill fan and I still am but christ he bought some stinkers and put them on good contracts. Barry and Milner have both gone to probably the only club that could afford them. Is that Aston Villa's failing. i don't think so. Both wanted to leave and both got their wish. You can't keep wantaway players, surely Ronaldo and Madrid provied that one. Look at Mascherano now. Unhappy where he is and as a result of that in the end he will move. Maybe not this window but its a dead cert for me. Uefa are telling us that we have to live within our means. Is that such a bad concept?

I'm not saying he's not a decent enough player but to say he's as good as or even better than Milner is ridiculous and IMO smacks of all that's wrong with this and most fans' forums....how many of you midway through last season would have said then that you thought Ireland was better than Milner? Only seems to surface when it looks as though they might be leaving, up until then they're the best things since sliced bread, sycophants!

I think its fair to say that Man City will be challenging this coming season. Last year they spent big and gelled fairly well (getting 5th and just missing out on Champs League) depsite many of the players still having to bed in and get used to their colleagues. New additions this year too but quality ones, and add to that the fact that the previous years signings will be going into their second campaign together. the big four (well three now Liverpool are shite) must be seriously looking at them as contenders for the top spot. if they do get into the champt league next season then they have to deal with the home grown player issue and therefore what would a player like milner be worht to them then (especfially if he renegotiates his contract here and has another excellent season). I suspect they will spend the money now rather than have to pay even more next summer when they might actually need him more althoug I can't remeber if the home grown player rule has also been introduced by the prem league for this coming season.