Super-Villan

This poll is like asking an ambidextrous man whether he'd prefer you to cut off his right hand or his left.

If its not knee jerk why no Can we afford to sack McLeish threads after Newcastle or Blackburn games? I didn't start this one either. But as the conversation has come around to it, I'll give my opinion. As I say, my opinion on him has remained exactly the same.

It's not a knee jerk reaction from me. I never wanted him as a manager and I still don't. I'm not screaming Mcleish Out because it's pointless, but I'd rather he wasn't our manager and that opinion has not changed. The players didn't seem to be fighting too hard for him last night, by the way.

Cut off the nose to spite the face ? Thing about that is you would then have Randy making a decision on another manager and the team would be weakened even more. I agree that would be a danger. That's why I qualified my post by saying: 'I would be prepared to sell Bent in order to get McLeish out and a decent manager in.' If we sold Bent and made another awful appointment that would of course just make things worse. For what it's worth, I think Bent is likely to leave in the summer anyway if we have a bad season so we might not have a choice in that part, it's more a question of when and how we use the money.

If it was a question of money (and it probably would be after what we spent on compo for Ged, MON and McLeish from Blues) I would be prepared to sell Bent in order to get McLeish out and a decent manager in. I like Bent a lot, and it wouldn't be the ideal scenario, but I don't see McLeish getting anywhere near the best out of Bent if he stayed, so I think it would be the preferable option. (Obviously I'd rather fund the compo by getting rid of Beye etc. but that's not quite as likely).

Here: http://vodpod.com/watch/14652220-charles-nzogbia-v-braga

I disagree. After a couple of matches the knives were out, and he never stood much of a chance, never got a chance for a good run of games in his best position to settle himself at the club. Even given that it's possible he might not have succeeded. But he wasn't given it. I also disagree about the jogging around thing. He has a languid kind of style, he's never going to track back and win a sliding tackle in his own box, and I'm pretty sure he didn't charge around like a lunatic when playing his best football for Man City. He's there to be creative. Ideally he'd be able to tackle like Bobby Moore too, but I'd rather concentrate on getting him doing things right in the last third for now.

Not really, no.

I can still remember agreeing a fee for Les Ferdinand and thinking it meant we'd signed him.

Not a single other player you'd be happy with on the left-wing? Messi? Haha, yes yes. I should perhaps have added the word 'realistic' in there somewhere.

I wouldn't blame him going to Sunderland. He's obviously lived in the north east before, he's got friends in Sunderland and Sunderland have been splashing money on players left right and centre. I still think we have the slightly better squad, but I'm not sure that means we'll finish above them next season. And one of us looks to be going forward while the other goes backwards. I really can't think of another player I'd be happy for us to sign for the left wing either.

I voted disaprove, but that doesn't mean I want him out, just that I'm not happy with the way the club have been handling things recently - the last two managerial appointments, lack of honesty of transfers/ambition, general PR and communication issues. I'm aware it could be a lot worse, that doesn't mean I have to aprove of it.

I know the Downing thing might cloud people's judgement on this, but what a transfer request usually says is 'I want to move to a another club and I'm prepared to sacrifice a chunk of money to do so'. That's why so few players do it, and why I have at least some respect for those who do. At least they are being honest. I'd rather Young had put one in personally.

I'd pay £20m for N'Zogbia if it meant we didn't end up with SWP or McGeady. I don't think it will go over £12m though, and he's worth that. Hopefully he'll put in a tranfer request to speed things up, but I doubt it.

No problem with Downing or his reasons for leaving, it just makes me a bit sad that's all. We need to do some incredible business for the rest of the window to make me go into next season with any positivity at all.

You're basically denying him the right to do his job. I forget the actual legal term. With a Warnock or Beye that would be trickier to prove, but with Downing I think the club would need to be careful. I can't remember whether the law has ever really been tested in football in this way. But then I can't think of a case of a club's player of the season being thrown in the reserves out of spite for a whole season, ruining their chance of representing their country at a major tournament.

He is quite within his rights not to sign a new contract, and chucking him in the reserves for that would be daft (not to mention giving him a pretty good case for breach of contract against us in law if he wanted to go down that route. Putting Warnock and Beye in the reserves is one thing, your player of the season is quite another.) If a player plays well for you that's great. If they attract the interest of bigger clubs because of that and have their heads turned...well that's just football. I'd be sad to see a good player leave, but as long as the club let him go for what they consider the right price then I really don't think anyone is to blame for any of it.

I'm sure they can pay a lot more than we can. A couple of examples - Jovanovic is on 120k a week, I think Joe Cole is on 90k a week. I suspect Downing would be on about 100k and can't see us offering that. Well they have players on higher wages, I'm sure, but neither of us really know what he could negotiate out of them. For the sake of argument, say they were prepared to pay him £10-£20k a week more than we were. That just makes it even more of a no brainer that he'd move. If any player turned down £10-£20k a week extra to move to a bigger club that was closer to their home town...well, I wouldn't want somebody that stupid playing for Aston Villa.

I'd sell him for £19m is he hands in a transfer request. I wouldn't have the the anmosity towards him that some here seem to though. He's done well for us, but he's seen Young leave and McLeish join and he's seen Liverpool spending big and finishing last season looking like a decent side again. Any player with ambition would be interested in switching given the chance. It's sad, but I don't blame him. I don't think it's about money either. I suspect we could and would match whatever Liverpool's offer is there.

I think people overstate how badly he played for us. He did OK, he just didn't really spark as he had at Man City. He hadn't played huge numbers of games though, and not always in the right position, so I wasn't hugely surprised at the time and was happy to give him a fair bit more time than he'd had.

Absolutely impossible question to answer either way right now.

I hear what you are saying and would feel let down by Downing as well if he goes but I would feel more let down and angry with the board who would have let this happen, the managerial fiasco would have made downing have serious doubts about Villa's future and the boards ambition. If they had got a manager in place faster and of better pedigree maybe he might have been more interested in staying. DB won't be here long the way this is going. He must be thinking what the f*** have I signed up for? Agreed. I think a decent manager and we had a good chance of persuading Downing to at least stay for one more season. Now I'm expecting him to go, and I don't blame him at all. I also feel sorry for Bent. I'm pretty sure he said that the thought of all that great delivery from Young and Downing played a big part in him coming to us in the first place. Now it might be Ethrington and Albrighton.

The biggest problem with Downing going is the message it sends out coming so soon after Young left and the underwhelming appointment of McLeish. If a player is ambitious they are going to think twice about joining us right now, and understandably so. I think that could really hinder us in the transfer market.

Downing had a great season. We've just sold Young and appointed McLeish manager. If a club spending as much as Liverpool, with the chances they'll have next season compared to us came in and he wasn't interested in moving I reckon he'd need his head examining.

I don't think Lerner will escape the flak at all if things go wrong this time.