momo

You are wrong. We need Juve to win to close the gap to 2 points. They just did. So wohooo! Exciting times ahead!

What do you mean? He will fit right in: police-racism-black-man-abuse

I am so sad to hear the news on Petrov today. He is the player I respect most at Villa. Honest, hard working, and a great personality. Hope you get well soon Stiliyan.

Injuries in the late 90's ruined his speed. He was never the same player, but had to adapt to a new way to play. He has managed it well in my opinion.

The last hero!

Sorry, but I have to correct the name. It is Solbakken. He is actually a great coach. I wish Villa took a chance on him, instead of the "premiership experince" they were looking for. But I am not complaining about our current manager. Sorry for the OT. Pray for Muamba!

Forza JUVE!

AVB AVB AVB AVB AVB

I know. Keep faith in McLeish.

Seeing how Capello quit with ease over FA meddling with his team, it is easy to see that maybe it was some small petite sort of meddling from Lerner that made O'Neill quit Villa. Quite frankly, a manager should have the final call on who he plays, who he brings in, and who he decides is the captain. If the FA doesn't agree, they should have fired Capello, like Lerner should have fired O'Neill. In both cases you get that both managers "technically did not break a contract". So it might not be O'Neills fault that he quit. But we don't know enough to conclude.

Well, the difference between Reknapp and McLeish, is that McLeish got his team straight up after the relegation, while Redknapp did not.

Gareth, youbeat me to it!

I think Harry Redknapp was manager when Bournemouth and Southampton were relegated.

I enjoyed the game yesterday. Yeah, we lost but the players really gave their all. I can't complain about effort. Yeah, there were a few mistakes at the back that led to the goals. I do not blame Hutton for the second goal. Watching it again, there was an Arsenal player to his right coming in...so yeah..with his left foot.....c'mon...it was a fluke Arsenal goal. The penalties were error in judgment from both Dunne and Bent. Not McLeish. Stop blaming McLeish for everything. I read this board after the game, not during it. What a load of rubbish some of you post. Yeah, it is in the 'heat of the game'. Shit happens. Villa play good, the lose. Next time, Villa play bad and win. This is football. We do not have Messi, Ronaldo, Pique in our team We are what we are, inferior technically to Arsenal. The players gave their all, applaud it. Stop moaning.

What is your problem??? Instead of calling the manager by his name, you call him GC?? Grow up! Secondly, I am lost to why you argue about players at disposal. There is under no uncertainty clear that the team inherited by GH was much better then the team inherited by McLeish. Using injuries as an excuse for shit results is nothing but an excuse. Houllier had a better squad at disposal. Being old and grumpy is not a trait I like, especially when you see the consequences of alienating so many players in the squad. I am surprised you didn't pick up the bad mood in the dressing room, the unrest, the unhappy players. Where are they now??? It seems good to be a Villa player now. I prefer it this way. Fine, Bent cost 18 million + add ons up to 24 million. Whatever. Makoun cost 6.2 million. There you have the 24 million deficit McLeish startet with. Happy with my mathematics now? Oh, lets not forget the sensationally good Pires if we are going to bring up players on loan. I can't see Houllier's record of buying players any better then McLeish. And Nzogbia was about 9.5 million, not 12 (my bad). McLeish had bought 4 players (5 if you count a rejuvenated Ireland. 6 if you count a rejuvenated Warnock. 7 if you count rejuvenated Dunne. 8 if you count a rejuvenated Collins. A pattern perhps??). Of these the Given is good. Nzogbia is still adjusting or something. Stevens has just come in, so no judgment can be made, while Hutton could do better. Lets not exaggerate just yet. In the meantime you can chew on the list of players McLeish lost in the summer due to the troubles last year. Remember most of these stated that circumstances last season dictated their wish to leave Villa (Gabby said the same thing, but still stayed): Out: Brad Friedel Free Ashley Young £17,000,000 Stewart Downing £20,000,000 Nigel Reo-Coker Free Jonathan Hogg £500,000 Luke Young £250,000 Elliot Parish Undisclosed John Carew Free Total: 37,750,000 In: Shay Given £3,500,000 Charles N'Zogbia £9,500,000 Alan Hutton £4,000,000 Enda Stevens £250,000 Total: £17,250,000

IMO relegation zone and relegation places are too different things. Relegation zone is when you are in danger of getting relegated. But whatever, you know what I mean. 14th place is down there. With regards to injuries, GH still had Ireland to use, as well as Carew, Warnock and Gabby etc. These players he did not utilize. That is the managers fault. Just because he doesn't like a player's personality does not mean he should throw them out of the team. It is bad management and left Villa short of players. And most importantly Downing, Young were basically ever present. With two players of that caliber and a main core of class players, you can afford to use Herd, Bannan or Hogg for a few games. I've stated pros and cons for both managers before. GH had 24 million to use on Bent, 5 million on Macoun. etc... McLeish had probably minus 24 million to start with, Villa got approx 36 million for our wings, so that left McLeish with a budget of 12 million. That gave you Nzogbia. What do you want me to change my mind of? We were in a worse position last year. I have stated that several times. You are of a different opinion. I couldn't care less. I care even less about our style of football. It is about winning. Changing styles in the middle of the season, like Houllier did, was plain stupid. I am glad he didn't get a pre-season. To me he showed his lack of managerial talent by trying to change the teams style so drastically in the middle of the season.

Hi again. Currently Villa are positioned at 11th place. How is 14th place before the last to games last season better than that? And 14th was relegations zone with 2 games to go. Two losses and Villa would have ended up at 42 points, 3 more than Birmingham who went down. Villa were probably safe before the two games, so it didn't matter anyway. My point is, that there is not so much difference in table positions between the two managers. Houllier didn't get the pre-season, McLeish inherited a team with less quality and experience. McLeish gets the nod for me because he has not utilized the squad much better then Houllier. He has not publicly hanged out players. In both cases there were/are too much happening outside the managers control, so it is only marginally differences between them. I was really anti-Mcleish, but the football is not so much different then MONs, or Houlliers. Tactically MON was annoying, Houlliers was annoying and McLeish is annoying. That is why I am less anti-McLeish. I don't see the difference between the managers as clearly as people want it to be.

? well you couldnt have been watching the villa from the sounds of your recollection after we signed darren bent? lets try the 1st game? villa 1 man city 0 or maybe the 6 other wins in the league out of the last 16 games? or the goals? 24 in 16 games or the 26 points in those 16 games the football was on the floor controlled and attacking and we were still playing with players who had insulted gordon cowans and other villa backroom staff, players who were causing disruption as they didnt like the training methods and also no doubt through GH lack of tact when comunicating with the players. the style of play was there for all to see, a game of keeping the ball, pressing the other side and trying to keep the pace at our level. it didnt work all the time but the method was used all the time becuase it is something GH believed in. while different to MON's more counter attacking more direct play it split peoples opinions, it was something we hadnt seen really since big ron. but despite people not agreeing that it was the best way of playing, at least i would have though most would have agreed there looked to actually be a certain style of play, tactics and direction? i also dont understand defending GC saying he needs to be judged on his time at our club and it is unfare to judge on his past? well people got their preconceieved ideas of his style of play due to seeing how poor his sides were set up at other clubs, saw his greatest achievment at rangers as getting to the last 16 in champions league despite only winning 2 games? or the league cup which i have already posted who they had to play in each round. i can also bet that once he did come here, most people would have actually maybe not got 100% behind him but certainly be far less vocal against him if he played any kind of decent football, or even got decent results. he has done nothing to disprove that he is hit and miss, mid table at best and only if he spents shit loads of money ( £33 million plus at scum for the 9th place). THAT is why alot of people are still against him some didnt like MON much but because he got decent results people were not anywhere near as vocal or in the numbers as is the case now. peoples opinions will only change when his anti football changes and results change from 6 wins in 22 to something which would actually resemble something half decent. so that tells you how i presume people who dont want him as managers views would change, please, tell me how a supporter of his would change their view of him? what would it take? relegation? Villa were in the relegation zone until the last two games. Coincidence and perfect results for the teams around Villa, saw Villa take a lucky 9th place. Probably the players pulled through when GH was sick to get the results against arsenal and Liverpool. Winning against Manchester City is nice. Before that, they lost 4-1 to Manchester City in the league with Houllier. Giving up against Manchester City with the mentality 'we will lose anyway' is not nice. Do you remember GH putting out a shit team against Manchester City in the FA cup to save players for the next game? Villa lost 3-0, and lost the next two games with the better players back in the team. 2 Mar, 19:45 Manchester City 3 - 0 Aston Villa FA Cup 5 Mar, 15:00 Bolton Wanderers 3 - 2 Aston Villa Premier League 19 Mar, 15:00 Aston Villa 0 - 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers Premier League I believe it is not different from McLeish. One good game, one bad game. Some games were nice under Houllier, others not so nice. He was lucky because he could buy Bent, and had Bent's suppliers under his wing (Young, Downing). McLeish has a worse team to his disposal. Bent's suppliers are Albrighton, Nzogbia. Not so bad, but still a way to go. So Mcleish all the way over Houllier.

You really think he would have been sacked at most other clubs. I don't see it apart from maybe the top 6 or 7 clubs. We finished 9th last season with a far superior squad, we are currently 11th. With haven't been in the relegation zone all season, we haven't gone through a string of half a dozen or so defeats on the trot. He has been here for 22 league games. Last season a manager with a far worse record after 22 games in charge ( 5 less points, 10 more goals conceded, 2 less goals scored ) kept his job so at the very least you'd expect that one with a better record and far less resources both in terms of personnel and transfer funds would also keep his. I'm no fan of McLeish by the way but I'd struggle to think of any club outside the top 6 or 7 who would have sacked him 22 league games after appointing him. not quite true though is it? we had no one in midfield for around 8 games unless you think playing hogg/ herd /clark as the midfield in their first season breaking into the 1st team and that was only through huge injury lists was fine? and only heskey to play upfront, and no preseason, and none of your own signings until 20th january or what ever it was? so if you actually included circumstances for the true picture, it is far clearer at how bad a job GC has done. and MON, the squad he inherited finished 9th? no they didnt, so MON had a far tougher job to do, did he have a pre season? nope, ah.... so actually even though it may show GC has got 6 wins ( woooopeeee) in 22 games which is faster than the other 2 , he has had it far far easier, add into that he also had quite possibly the easiest start to a season i can ever remember. i doubt people would be too bothered if the brand of football had some sort of structure rather than hit it as high in the air, close your eyes and then all the team charge towards the ball. if you play decent football the results normally follow, especially when you have the quality of players we have at our disposal if you play long aimless balls, have no actual footballing philosophy, are tactically inept and are relying each week on lady luck showing up in a villa kit then the results wont come, it will be hit and miss, stop start, no momentum and no chance of building the team up. GH while a publicity nightmare and also a stuborn old fool, has forgotten more about footballing tactics than GC has ever learned. MON while looking out for the players and deliberately trying to get them as much money as he could ( im sure he has publicly stated it some time ago), even to the detriment of a club, and not seemingly having much of a plan 'b , was still a great man manager who got shit players to believe they were better than they were and got them to out perform week in week out, or at least more often than not. what has GC got to bring to the table, seriously? his defence was 1 goal better than our shower of shit from last season, so defence is not his strong point, he got the scum relegated 2 times from the premier league, which should earn him a special place in our hearts, he won the league cup in a run as lucky as you can get really when they were drawn against rochdale mk dons brentford villa ( in the middle of our injury crisis) west ham and in the final, against one of the worst arsenal performances i have seen in a rather long time. but he won the cup as he can only beat the teams which are infront of him , no matter how shit they are ( although they didnt beat brentford in normal or extra time they won on pens) oh, they also lost the 1st leg of the semi finals 2-1 to west ham but what did he leave behind? a relegated clb who won the league cup. he simply has no system, no big idea, no philosophy, no prefered structured tactics, nothing. i was pissed off loads of times with GH, really by january i had enough, he then was able to get the players he wanted in the transfer window, others stopped their childish sulking and others had returned from injury. all of a sudden the passing was working, we were cutting teams up , the ball was mainly on the floor, and there was some exciting football being played, and when i say exciting i dont mean having to scrap it out against 10 men wolves who had won 2 in 18 games, i mean exciting as in attacking adventurous football where for the first time in a long time, we kept possesion of the ball and we were the ones controlling the tempo of games. his plan which he was trying to impliment was now working, he didnt have the right minded players at the start but he kept with his structure and footballing philosophy. well GC has got us playing how he wants, im seeing nothing but at best 50 / 50 fights for the ball most of the time, 5 or 10 minutes where the team seem to forget what they were told to do and they go back to playing like the end of last year, but then a team talk will come and it will have been drained out of them. we will win a few, draw several and lose more than we win, and that is because of all i have said above. im not happy to have that sort of thing for our club, i guess some people dont mind it? What team were you watching? We were totally shit except for the last two games. And who is GC??

Good one. I guess the team Alex inherited is on par with the one MON inherited. So all in all, an average start.

So Roy got badly treated at Liverpool? Hmmmm....Alex gets shit treatment by the fans of Villa. Even tho he has a worse team and more points than last seasons managers at this time last year. KEANE!!!

It is the opposite, actually. Nobody forgets a mistake. That is annoying, and that is what can make footballers lose confidence.

The negativity of some. Go get a life.

F*** you McLeish haters! Robbie KEANE!!

Our long distance goalscoring king! Check out the video! http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2546436,00.html