Super-Villan

a change of mind=Sky offered him a sackload more cash, probably.

I don't see how. As I've said, the club could release a holding statement saying they are in negotiations with Houllier and the FFF, more information to follow when available. That's not farcical, it's sensible, as it lets everyone know what's going on without getting any hopes up or announcing thing before they are properly in place.

don't know how long they need him for=more cash please

So much attention? Really? It's an issue of concern is all. I don't think anyone has said it's going to lead to the collapse of Aston Villa. (I've never known so many people willing to dismiss troubling signs out of blind loyalty to the club myself.)

I maintain that a holding statement would have been better, and would have given the board more time to finalise arrangements. I don't see why this would make the fans go more mental than announcing a new manager, then letting the fans find out that he hadn't actually signed yet, that he hadn't got his first, second or third choice as assistant, and that he probably wouldn't be in place as manager for at least another two weeks. The board made the fatal mistake of raising expectations and then having to backtrack. And for a big business that's amatuerish in the extreme. (I voted 'Oui' in this poll, by the way, so those who think I'm overreacting...well, they're overreacting, quite frankly.)

Yup. It's a lack of professionalism, really. Don't call a press conference until it's all ready. If you have to, release a statement saying there are still negotiations going on and you'll say more in due course. It would have been a pain to have to wait, but at least it wouldn't be this mess.

I don't really care if the press are making out he said the 7th-12th thing today. I know he didn't and I still think it's important. Some people don't think the assistant manager is an important position to get a good man in for? Well, I can't disagree strongly enough on that. Patrice Bergues was highly rated as a coach. Phil Thompson...not my cup of tea, but he did a good job at Pool, especially when in sole charge. Kmac...well, at least he knows the players. Who will the 4th choice be? How far down a list do we get before we have to worry? Staunton? And I will reiterate ONCE AGAIN that I still feel on the whole positive about Houllier taking over. There are plenty of plusses. But the way all this has been handled over the last few days has been far from ideal and has left me with a few doubts. And I don't think that's an unreasonable position at all.

Yes, I agree, but how good will they be at their job of being assistant manager of Aston Villa? They might be fine, but when your down to 4th choice it's probably time to stop getting excited and start asking questions.

If GH can't get his first, second and third choice assistants to come and work here...if...then I think that is a big issue, yes. So he gets his fourth choice pick? How confident will he be with the guy? How much worse is he than pick 1? That's nothing to do with being suckered in by the Mail (this is being widely reported, by the way) just looking at a situation as it is being reported and wondering what the consequences are for my football club.

I agree on the farce thing too. We get the announcement, finally, that Houllier is confirmed. Then he's only actually shaken on it and he's not going to start for another couple of weeks. The backroom team situation isn't nearly in place...it has been poorly managed, the whole thing. I don't remember another managerial appointment by a Prem club done in such a shoddy way, I really don't. I accept that the timing of MON's departure played some part in that, but it doesn't excuse a lot of what happened afterwards. Might it all work out anyway? Well, yeah, and I really, really hope it does, and Ged could end up being really really good for us...but I worry about some of the initial signs.

I never claimed that Liverpool weren't on a different level to us. When DOL was at Leeds they were a level above us too. It doesn't mean there's any point banging on about them. GH mentioned that one of his priorities was for us to get better results against Pool at home. Why? Because they're his old club? Feck that, I don't want to give them special attention in that way just because he used to manage them. I just said I hope he cuts down on the Pool talk and concentrates on the Villa. (And as I also said, I'm still generally pretty positive about his arrival. Some of his comments have given me reservations, that's all. I'm sorry if people think we should say nothing bad about him before he starts, but all I can do is comment on the situation as I see it.)

I disagree. It's not a question of how many places he shifted the goalposts by, it's that he felt the need to shift them at all. And that in the same interview he compared us unfavourably to Liverpool. It all adds up to a bad taste being left in the mouth, and unwanted memories of David O'Leary bigging up his time at Leeds and downplaying expectations too.

I can't pinpoint the exact time. If it wasn't after he'd formally accepted the managers job it was certainly while he was in negotiations for the job, so I'm not sure what difference you think it makes? He certainly wasn't impartial at the time, he was speaking as Villa-manager-to-be. If our average is 7th-8th, then...I would personally say that makes him wrong saying 7th to 12th. By a good distance. 6th to 10th he might have got away with.

I'm not sure any of that matters. He said it, and he said it after he had basically got the Villa job. If he thought because he was talking to the French media in French it wouldn't find its way to England then he's a little foolish. And it doesn't matter that he said it in the past tense. Firstly, it's still wrong. And secondly, saying it in the past tense is still planting the seed about the level he is going to elevate the club from.

I've been pretty positive on the whole GH appointment until today. That's a little unfair, actually, I still am positive overall, but a few dents have now been put into my mood. There was a bit too much referencing of Liverpool for my liking. And yes, it would be nice to beat them at VP, but that shouldn't be our overriding ambition. Hopefully he'll stop talking about them too much before it feels like a David O'Leary/Leeds thing. And another O'Leary echo is the trying to dampen expectations by mentioning the 7th-12th thing. It just wasn't necessary for him to say that and I think it was a mistake. If we finish 10th and GH thinks we've overachieved then I'm not going to be too happy. He's said some nice, positive stuff about the club too, I'm well aware of that. I just have some reservations to my optimism now, that's all.

I'm hoping he'll try and snatch Toulalan from his old club Lyon. (Funnily enough a player that MON was quite full of praise for a few years ago).

Well I'm glad you have a hotline to his brain. Personally, from my position as a mere mortal, I think Sven would tell us to get stuffed. If he was just interested in rebuilding a reputation he wouldn't have chosen the jobs he has done. The scenario you present would leave him well out of pocket if Villa didn't perform, and him out of a job. It would also make him look like someone who was desperate. I can't think of a case where something like this has happened with a top Prem club? A respected manager signing for a year with an extension if they're a good boy? No chance. Find an example of it and I might belive you're not living in cloud cuckoo land.

Nonsense. You have no way of knowing that regardless, but I disagree entirely anyway. I son't think there's anyway in the world he'd take that. I think you are letting your desire for Jol and dislike of Houllier cloud your judgement of how things actually are.

And as has been said, no decent manager is going to take the job on terms like that. Hire a manager. If he's been awful, sack him in the summer and see if Jol or Moyes is available. None of this sneaky masterplan bullshit which has absolutely no basis in how decent managers are actually treated.

I just don't think it works like that, it's far too simplistic. If you want a manager for a year to wait for another candidate then you leave Kmac as caretaker. You certainly don't get someone the quality of Houllier to come to you and tell him he can only have a year because you're not sure about him. He'd have quite rightly told us to go do one. If you appoint a permanent manager you have to show confidence in them. If you don't like him, that's up to you, but personally I'd be even more concerned if the club was appointing a manager in a half-hearted way, even if it was someone I really didn't like - Curbs or someone. It would show weak leadership and lead to uncertainty and quite likely land us deep in the doo doo.

In fairness we don't play in the same league as Celtic. I don't have a great impression of PT from TV, but if Houllier has worked with him before and thinks he can do a job for us then fair enough.

I think offering GH a contract until the end of May would be a bit of an insult, unless GH has specifically requested that himself so that he can make sure his health is up to it. If you're going to appoint someone, just have confidence and do it. If they're that bad, sack them. But no half hearted gestures, please.

About 10 minutes ago, the BBC Sport website's news ticker said something like 'BBC Sport understand Houllier to be names Villa Director of Football'. Now it has been changed to say 'Manager' instead though. Phew.

If Villa were interviewing Hughes it would be incredibly unlikely to happen at Bodymoor Heath, especially given the delicacy of the situation. Even if your friend is telling the truth, it's much much more likely that he just saw someone who looked like him.

I gave a thumbs down, though I see some of the positives he does bring to the team. Stats schmats on the passing thing though. It's not just the 'failed' passes he makes, it's the blind alleys he runs down, the passes he plays behind someone so a move loses momentum, and the number of situations he loses the ball in when he had plenty of simpler options on. If someone can persuade him that he's not a creative player and that he should keep it as simple as possible, I'd be happier for him to be in the team more often. Otherwise, as I've said elsewhere, he's good enough to be a starting midfielder in a club finishing around 9th-12th. And if we want to aim higher than that, he can be a squad player or sling his hook.