Super-Villan

Liverpool want Martinez because they see the massive potential in a young manager who has got a very cheap squad playing great football and staying in the league at the same time. Obviously with a squad like that not every result is going to be great, and sometimes you'll take a thumping. I think people inside football can see that Martinez has the skills to do a much better job at a much bigger club.

Remember Aurelio was let go from Liverpool by Benitez, then re-signed not long afterwards when Hodgson took charge. So being let go doesn't always mean being let go.

Hoddle is 54. He's older than McLeish. No. Just no. He's been out of management for a long time. Many vacancies have come and gone at various levels and he's got none of them. There are reasons for that. what sort of reasons, S-V? Living in Oz, we are sometimes not as clued up with news as we would like to be.... I can't claim to be entirely clued up, sorry. I mean more that if someone has been passed over for so many jobs then you have to put a question mark over their ability to suddenly be a good manager again.

Hoddle is 54. He's older than McLeish. No. Just no. He's been out of management for a long time. Many vacancies have come and gone at various levels and he's got none of them. There are reasons for that.

I think he'll do well at Liverpool, for the same reasons I'd have liked him at Villa. They underachieved hugely last year, and I think with a half decent manager you'll see the best of some of their players next year.

I agree that RDM played more positively in some games than given credit for. But when he came up against what he saw as superior or similarly able sides, he shut up shop rather than go for it. With Villa that would be a whole lot more often than with Chelsea.

It's more than he hasn't really proven anything at Chelsea that would make people think he'd be a success at Villa. He took a side that AVB failed to change around and restored the old guard and played some very defensive football in order to get a few very good results. If what Villa need is some kind of top to bottom revolution then all RDM has shown so far is that he can do the opposite. At his other management job at WBA he didn't do all that well either.

I'm still hoping for Martinez. I think he'd be foolish to wait at Wigan another season, because even though I rate him there's still a very good chance they'll go down next year, with a few good players bound to be moving again. And if he goes down he'll not have as good an offer as us again. I would expect him to choose Liverpool over us, but I'm not sure they'll take a risk on him.

I hear what you are saying about beating Barcelona but did you see the tactics he used to do that? It was like a scene from Custers last stand. 10 men in the box. After McNegative last year we need something more exciting to bring fans back. I want to see us go out and attack the 'elite' teams like the 2-2 against Man Utd under Houllier and I worry that DiMatteo would be tempted to employ negative tactics instead. What a ridiculous argument, HELLO! HE BEAT BARCELONA! WITH 10 MEN! It baffles me it really does, a guy who has just won the european cup gets less support than a guy with one season in norway. He was successful because he had a short term goal there, to abandon any idea of moving the club forward before the end of the season, reintegrate the old guard and win some matches. He did this by playing a horrible brand of football that I would hope never to see at Villa Park again. And it's not even as if results for Villa would be guranteed playing that way. Doing it with a very expensive Chelsea side is incredibly different to doing it with the current Villa side.

AVB won't come. I'm not convinced he's right for the club either, but I'd take him over Di Matteo, Southgate, Grayson, Holloway, McCarthy etc. etc.

I don't know about Moyes. He's clearly a very decent manager, but there's not a whole lot about that appointment I'd be excited by or describe as vibrant.

My order of preference: Martinez Rodgers Lambert ... About a million other people ... Kmac Di Matteo McLeish

I would prefer Ole had the staff he wanted working with him rather than having a Villa legend foisted on him. We don't know how good a coach Laursen is yet. If he turned out to have some talent for it, I would of course love him back at the club.

Not wanting someone just because they turned you down a year ago would be a bit of a childish reaction for a football club. No point cutting off your nose to spite your face. Plus it shows his loyalty. He'd agreed with Whelan he'd stay another year, and so he did.

Martinez would be my second choice after Ole. It's probably a bit unfair that I'd be less excited about him now than I would have been a week ago, but that's the way it goes I guess. Ole has the new boy sheen to him still, and isn't tainted by relgation battles like Martinez is. Oh, and I will come out with the excuse that he's had no funds, and less than Bruce had by a good distance, because...it's true. Why do you think Liverpool are interviewing him?

This is my worry too. That despite all this he might still favour Lambert or something. I'm a bit of a worrier though, to be fair. I think Ole must have had some encouragement to be as bold as he has been with these latest comments.

The BBC story saying he won't be manager just has quotes from the press conference. I reckon they've jumped the gun big time here.

It doesn't seem to be off at all, it just seems to be a lot less clear cut than many of us thought.

Di Matteo doesn't excite me at all. Not convinced he'd do anything with us. Lambert would be OK. Solid but not mind-blowing. I've really got it into my head we'll have someone who plays really decent football now. I'd still take Martinez, no problem. Rodgers isn't going to be in the frame if we're interviewing after his reaction to Pool. So I'm left pining for Ole still. Be gutted if it didn't work out. I'm also hoping his position will be made untenable (and that MM has been sent here to muddy the waters a bit until the situation is sorted).

Where did the rumour of a press conference tomorrow morning come from? Or was that just speculation and overexcitement?

This has nothing to do with it being norwegian independence day today then? I'm also suddenly nervous this won't be true now (after not being that fussed about him a couple of hours ago).

I read the initial OGS speculation and just laughed. But the more I read about the man, the more excited I get about the idea. Let's do it.

I think after the season we've had it's going to be tough for us to see which players truly aren't up to it and which ones just had awful seasons because of the manager. I have suspicions the right manager could get more out of Bannan, Albrighton, Delph, Clark, Makoun...I wouldn't write off N'Zogbia or Dunne either, though you'd want to have a look at the effect they had on morale too. Would like to move on Collins and Hutton, maybe even Warnock, but it seems like a lot to replace. I think I'd set Delfouneso free as well, and Gabby if the right offer came in.

The amount going in is neither here nor there when talking about how Martinez has done. Look instead at how much he has had to spend on players recently. It isn't much at all.

My feeling on this is that he had lost the dressing room and even if he'd brought on Messi and Ronaldo we still wouldn't have scored. The players knew what they were doing. But this doesn't explain why he didn't bring on attacking players. Unless you're saying he saw the players couldn't give a shit so just sat back and gave up trying to earn himself a huge amount more money? I'm unconvinced. I think fans are just happier believing we paid him off on the cheap because they don't like him. (I don't like him either, but as for money I think he deserves whatever was in his contract, it would be the club's fault for agreeing to it while knowing the consequences.)