sellyoakvilla

If GH does go - and I think it's probably 90% sure he has (it seems to have gone very quiet, but I may just be closing my ears to it) - the new manager won't come in and get rid of all the players that have been rubbish this year like GH might.

Could there be advantages of GH staying?

For instance - Warnock might get back in the squad, etc.

I highly doubt that considering Warnock hates the club, the fans and Birmingham - he wants out more than anyone at the club.

Houllier's on £2.5m here which is considered excessive, there is no way we would pay over 10m for a managers salary

I'd take FSW, dont understand all the animosity towards him at the moment.

We're not going to get another Oneill for a decade or so, so I think people are going to have to find a way to welcome the likes of Hughes, FSW or (at a push) Moyes.

Bloody hell he's not a messiah, he's a man who did well with us understandably but he's no Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho

Guillem Balague

I have been told Aston Villa has got both Spaniards, Rafa Benítez and Quique Sánchez Flores in their shortlist

Rafa Benítez has been offered West Brom, two national sides and a Italian club (not Inter though! ;-) ... Still waiting

Quique and Rafa in Aston Villa's shortlist pending what happens with Houllier of course

I honestly can't believe fat sam is in the title of this thread

Would Abcelloti be a good choice for us though?

No but Ancelotti might

Houllier I've got no problem with it's just McAllister - he is shite and all the players hate him.

No problem with Houllier?!

I tried to remain patient with him for a long time but I'm afraid he has passed the point of no return now. Sack him after the Liverpool match.

Not literally no problem, I just meant it's McAllister I don't like

Houllier I've got no problem with it's just McAllister - he is shite and all the players hate him.

Forgot to mention this yesterday - please turn off the bells before the game. It sounds like a funeral march, it's depressing and definitely doesn't lift any spirits before the game. Escape by Craig Armstrong was better and more intimidating for the opposition. Sort it out please and bring that back.

Lerner is definitely to blame for it aswell, you shouldn't do that kind of thing when a football club's future is involved. He's also to blame for hiring Houllier when we could have been a bit more ruthless and gone for someone better with a hunger to win something like Moyes. Lerner's problem is he's too nice... hence why Houllier stayed in the job

Everything looks pretty on paper doesn't it but of course you of all people would think that, how about you have a think about what was going on off the pitch before you make such a ridiculous response. Face it ffs this season was always going to happen and anyone who doesn't think so is still in love with MON or seriously hates Houllier.

You can come up with all the rumours or inside gossip you like, its an absolute joke to describe us as a sinking ship after our best season in years.

I never said last season was a sinking ship I said he was leaving a sinking ship and guess what we've sunk.

I'm no fan of O'Neill, but if he was allowed t invest in the team last summer I'm pretty sure we'd be in the top 6 this season. Yes he fecked us over with his antics, but the proof is in the pudding - 3 consecutive top 6 finishes. I really don't think we'd be struggling this term if he was in charge. You'd have to be seriously deluded to think otherwise.

He was offered funds but was told any new player wages would be from the sales of Sidwell, Carew et al - which he didn't like, so he walked. It's not all his fault anyway but for his managerial career he probably did the right thing at the time

Everything looks pretty on paper doesn't it but of course you of all people would think that, how about you have a think about what was going on off the pitch before you make such a ridiculous response. Face it ffs this season was always going to happen and anyone who doesn't think so is still in love with MON or seriously hates Houllier.

You can come up with all the rumours or inside gossip you like, its an absolute joke to describe us as a sinking ship after our best season in years.

I never said last season was a sinking ship I said he was leaving a sinking ship and guess what we've sunk.

left an evident sinking ship to save his CV.

Cup final, cup semi final, challenge for 4th till the 37th game of the season, highest points total in a 38 game premiership season.

That's a sinking ship?

My god, one of the most ridiculous things I've read on here.

Everything looks pretty on paper doesn't it but of course you of all people would think that, how about you have a think about what was going on off the pitch before you make such a ridiculous response. Face it ffs this season was always going to happen and anyone who doesn't think so is still in love with MON or seriously hates Houllier.

Dont care what was happening off the pitch or how much the players supposingly hated MON, the fact was that on the pitch we were doing the business, and now we are far from it. I think is safe to say his year under MON ould have seen us gone backwards, but not as far as being in the bottom 10

I seriously doubt he would have kept us in the top ten this year. Maybe not as worse but we were always going to have a poor season by our standards. He would rather have left when he took us to 6th instead of leaving when he lead us to 12th. Oh and remember under MON we wouldn't have signed Bent so we may have been considerably worse off.

left an evident sinking ship to save his CV.

Cup final, cup semi final, challenge for 4th till the 37th game of the season, highest points total in a 38 game premiership season.

That's a sinking ship?

My god, one of the most ridiculous things I've read on here.

Everything looks pretty on paper doesn't it but of course you of all people would think that, how about you have a think about what was going on off the pitch before you make such a ridiculous response. Face it ffs this season was always going to happen and anyone who doesn't think so is still in love with MON or seriously hates Houllier.

In my opinion I think we would have had a poor season like this even with MON in charge. There's a reason he walked and this season was it. He got out at the right time to save his CV.

No **** way would we have been flirting with relegation if MON has stayed. Not a chance. He may have left in part to save his CV, but whilst we may have gone backwards, I very much doubt we'd have even dropped out of the top half.

This. We are now on 42 points which would equal our worst points total in a 38 game Prem season with Arsenal and Liverpool to play. Last season we achieved our best ever points total in a 38 game Prem season. We lost Milner, gained Ireland, Bent and Makoun. No way should the drop be so drastic.

We will never know but you cannot guarantee we would not be flirting with relegation under a manager who left an evident sinking ship to save his CV.

The majority of the trouble behind the scenes that has gone on this season was happening in pre-season and even towards the end of last season so some of the hate towards Houllier is a little unnecessary as I think some of you will find it was your favourite manager ever MON who caused quite a bit of it. Players hated him. Staff hated him. He was very much a short term manager who was never going to last longer than five years at the club - he would purchase players who were the wrong side of 30, or approaching 30, and barely plan for the future. And now look what we've been left with - just to name a few a 40 year old goalkeeper, a clueless CB who is more interested in pies and pints and a bunch of over paid average players on 40k+ a week resulting in 80% of our turnover going out on wages.

At least some of the troublemakers are out of the club now.

I'm not one of the Houllier haters but it just seems that you are determined to defend him in anyway possible and to blame this mess on MON is absurd.

MON left us at a bad time but we have to accept that the appointment of Houllier was a mistake.

I'm honestly not defending Houllier at all, we've had a terrible season - one of my worst following the club and I've had a season ticket since 1997. Houllier was probably the wrong appointment to make given the circumstances, he would have been better if there were no problems going on behind the scenes. I'm simply saying no matter who the manager was I believe this season would have been the same as the majority of players were on a backlash as it is. They knew MON would leave but none of them expected it to happen so abruptly when it did.

In my opinion I think we would have had a poor season like this even with MON in charge. There's a reason he walked and this season was it. He got out at the right time to save his CV.

No **** way would we have been flirting with relegation if MON has stayed. Not a chance. He may have left in part to save his CV, but whilst we may have gone backwards, I very much doubt we'd have even dropped out of the top half.

This. We are now on 42 points which would equal our worst points total in a 38 game Prem season with Arsenal and Liverpool to play. Last season we achieved our best ever points total in a 38 game Prem season. We lost Milner, gained Ireland, Bent and Makoun. No way should the drop be so drastic.

We will never know but you cannot guarantee we would not be flirting with relegation under a manager who left an evident sinking ship to save his CV.

The majority of the trouble behind the scenes that has gone on this season was happening in pre-season and even towards the end of last season so some of the hate towards Houllier is a little unnecessary as I think some of you will find it was your favourite manager ever MON who caused quite a bit of it. Players hated him. Staff hated him. He was very much a short term manager who was never going to last longer than five years at the club - he would purchase players who were the wrong side of 30, or approaching 30, and barely plan for the future. And now look what we've been left with - just to name a few a 40 year old goalkeeper, a clueless CB who is more interested in pies and pints and a bunch of over paid average players on 40k+ a week resulting in 80% of our turnover going out on wages.

At least some of the troublemakers are out of the club now.

In my opinion I think we would have had a poor season like this even with MON in charge. There's a reason he walked and this season was it. He got out at the right time to save his CV.

Best available at the time of enquiry, if there will be one - I don't mean at the minute.

Lerner will probably go for the best available candidate that has the most achievements.

Yes they do because the empty seats are often filled with a lot of drunk daytrippers who only turn up for the big games/when we are doing well, I always remember the 5-1 when pretty much every stand in the ground was standing up singing at one point, ridiculously loud.

Doesn't help that it took until the 80th minute to get a rendition of a song going around the ground

Hello General,

Not going to have a moan about today because it's been discussed to death. I've got a suggestion for season tickets - I know the info has been released already but maybe one for next year - how about a long term season ticket?

For example Newcastle do a ten-year season ticket on a price freeze and my mate pays around £40 a month for 10 years. This is something I would definitely be up for doing and I know a few other people who would aswell. Perhaps it's something the club could look into as we have long term fans who would like to commit their future to supporting the club.

Thanks

General,

Please take a look at the Manchester City Facebook page. They've got a landing page (if you've not pressed 'like') where you can suggest the page to your Facebook friends. It would be beneficial for the Villa official page to have one of those set up on ours... they have 587,000 fans and we have 170,000.

Thanks

Alcohol.

After serving rude customers over £4,000 worth of the stuff last night I never want to see any ever again.

Black History Month - Death From Above 1979

Going to see DFA1979 in London on Thursday, can't remember the last time I've been this excited about a gig... can't wait