Harry

No chance he will go at all IMO. He is stubborn and not a quitter and he has Randy Lerners support so being sacked in unlikely. Despite all the previous roles and the hype around them this is his first big and challenging job. He has to prove himself here before moving on should be want to. Whether the fans want him to stay or whether its right for the club is a different question. As for me I voted that he will definitely stay because I think that's the most likely scenario. I'm a supporter of MON but I have to say I'm starting to wonder. My concerns really lie around tactics and selection policy. If we can pull the league form round and end up in say 6th with a cup final and semi final I think that counts as a successful season. What we do over the summer and next season counts for much more and after five years in charge I think its right and proper to review whether MON is still the right man to take us forward.

Can't get excited about a semi final at Wembley. If we lose which is likely you have all the hassle and you did not even get to the final. The stadium is fine but everything about the area and infrastructure is crap. We build a world class stadium in the middle of an inaccessible slum, marvellous. I'm not going partly because of the above but I'm also away on holiday and to be honest after the CC Final I don't want the hassle of a Wembley trip to see a semi final plus obviously the rip off cost of everything. I'm a season ticket holder and have barely missed a home game for the record.

I very much admire your upbeat assessment but we lost 7-1 and were outclassed and out thought. Its our worst defeat in a generation or more so I find it very difficult to take anything positive from the game. I have not watched the highlights on either Football First or MotD and worse still I had to endure my wife (an avid Chelsea fan) watching Football First in the other room purring at Chelsea's performance whilst I poured my angst into posts on VT! Her assessment was that Villa did not play badly, they were simply outclassed - cold comfort indeed. What yesterday cruelly exposed were our one dimensional tactics, our lack of stamina (perhaps the most worrying) and the absence of any players on the bench who could come on and change the game. The latter point is partly a function of having signed too many 'stocking filler' players (BTW I love that expression, sadly not original from me) and not giving our better players, developed or bought in, any game time. The key for me is how we go forward from this and it has to be three points at Bolton. I'm a MON supporter but he has lost a lot of credibility with me in the last few games.

The trouble with Martin Jol is that he always sounds to me like he should be directing porn movies. Maybe he does and manages football clubs as well. Just a thought.

Are these serious options or suggestions after a few pints of industrial strength scrumpy? If you want a serious response none of the above.

It was a very poor decision and I would agree with the sentiment that had it been the other way round our player would have probably been sent off. But I think on the day, much as it grieves me to say it. I think Man U were the better side. Yes we would have had a much better chance against 10 men but we did not capitalise at VP. Dowd was shite and a referee favoured Man U, so what's new! My overall sense was that Villa looked overawed by the whole occasion.

There is, when all said and done, only one James Milner

James Milner is Randy Lerner's favourite player and that is actually a true statement!

Good shout TRO and I know exactly what you mean regarding Shorey. BTW another poster I see who has given up on the Mail's comedy forum! Harry, i got fed up of having difficulty trying to log in with out success i just gave up. I enjoy your posts and i have to say spookily agree with nearly everything Rickmeister posts....I have to read them twice to see if its mine, although he is a better writer than me. VT is very good, but the essence is the variety its the spice of life..... its good that we don't all agree, so you can learn from the views of other folk. Ps Voice of reason ought to come on and give us a blast..... don't necessarily agree with everything he say's..... but a good read. Absolutely right TRO on all counts, there is a little more balance over here. Over there the lunatics seemingly have full control of the asylum but I would really like to see them chance their arm on this forum.

Good shout TRO and I know exactly what you mean regarding Shorey. BTW another poster I see who has given up on the Mail's comedy forum!

Milner by virtue of his superb work ethic. And he is apparently RL's favorite player, according to a Villa employee I met recently.

Glad to see you back General. I appreciate you cannot be specific about transfers but I would note that this time of year is extremely frustrating for the fans of Aston Villa. Its clear to everyone where the gaps are in our squad and the impression in the media is that MON is doing nothing or very little, something the club does little to dispel I do take comfort from your comments and am more than happy to trust the club to make the right calls and I am sure that we will be up there competing next season but you can probably appreciate mine and many fans frustration.

A good acquisition in my opinion for £7-8m. He has not suddenly become a bad player. Mind you Dirty Harry is flying a kite of he thinks he will get Ashley Young.

Quite a big chunk, maybe even the majority, of his caps for Sweden were earned as right back.At least one World Cup finals as a right back and I think one or two Euros too he only moved to the centre of the Swedish national defence towards the end (about the time he moved to right back for us ironically) Maybe so but can you honestly say he did a good job for us? To me he looked like a centre back playing RB, that is great in defence but one dimensional going forward. To be fair I did not know where he played for Sweden but he certainly was not bought and played as a RB by Villa. Added to that he has just left Juve as he has been pushed down the pecking order of centre backs.

Quite a big chunk, maybe even the majority, of his caps for Sweden were earned as right back.At least one World Cup finals as a right back and I think one or two Euros too he only moved to the centre of the Swedish national defence towards the end (about the time he moved to right back for us ironically) Maybe so but can you honestly say he did a good job for us? To me he looked like a centre back playing RB, that is great in defence but one dimensional going forward. To be fair I did not know where he played for Sweden but he certainly was not bought and played as a RB by Villa. Added to that he has just left Juve as he has been pushed down the pecking order of centre backs.

Heystally! I almost expected to hear the strains of Land of Hope and Glory as I read your eulogy to MON. Joking aside though I agree with most of what you say. Many fans seem to have underestimated the task facing MON when he took over from DOL. I think he has definitely raised the quality of the squad and lets not forget players are unpredictable, emotional and often irrational human beings which adds to the difficulties. Yes we have made some poor signings but so have the much lauded managers of the 'big four' Its also hard to keep players who either want to go (Barry) or want 'guaranteed first team football' (Cahill and Davis). The team now play for each other and operate as a unit something sadly lacking in the DOL era. Overall he has done a very good job. You don't get to top six two years running on luck alone. On the negative side he has been too cautious in the transfer market. His 'few pennies more' comment of a couple of years ago still worries me in that it suggests he has a top price for player and won't go over its. How many players we have missed through that policy will never be known. The other negative factor is substitutions. A bench should have real options on it that can come on and be capable of changing a game. We have some but not enough options on the bench but his tactics appear to swing from do nothing to wildly optimistic changes that result in any number of players playing out of position. Overall I still think he is the man for the job and I struggle to see a credible and more importantly gettable alternative. Having said that this window is so so crucial and will define the MON era, good or bad, at VP.

I think Trent has given a good end of term report on the defence. The problems started and finished with injuries to key players. As for Shorey I was very disappointed with the way he was very publicly dropped after a couple of poor games and then the fans roundly slagged him off on the various forums. Meanwhile Gabby was given a hat full of games to prove how out of form he was. Shorey is not as good defensively as Bouma but he is outstanding going forward and is one of the best passers in the side. I felt he came good at the end of the season. I disagree with doj1968 on Cuellar. He came to a new club and was played out of position and struggled. I think he will come good, not as a replacement for Laursen but a valuable member of the squad as an either / or with Davies and a new centre back. As for the full back situation, we simply cannot carry on with the mix and match. We did it with Mellberg two seasons ago and however good a player we all thing he is a full back he was not.

Hi General, Hopefully a pretty straightforward question. There has been a lot of talk in the media over this weekend about Villa cutting the wage bill and not spending on players this summer. Whilst I appreciate the hack nature of many journalists in that they will simply make up a story what is the official club position? My personal view is that at one extreme you can be like Manchester City and lose touch with reality and at the other extreme you hope it will be OK if you spend nothing but I see Villa in the middle in that we have and will have a good squad made up of both home grown talent and quality signings but the money is there if needed to sign that special player or players. Thoughts please!

General, I think in the never ending debate about the abilities of MON on this and many other forums we tend to forget the contribution of Randy Lerner. He has created the framework that MON can operate within and I think its an insult to him for posters to vilify MON because by extension they are criticising him. Mr Lerner is a successful and astute business man who I have no doubt would take whatever corrective action at the club if that proved necessary. Personally I think MON has made some mistakes, certainly tactically in games and from my perspective in the transfer market too. I'd like to ask for you thoughts at this point but I think thats probably not a fair question! Overall I think MON has done an excellent job and is the right manager for the club and I just hope he ignores the rantings of the anti-MON brigade but at the same time perhaps dwells on some of the more constructive comments made by fans.

I wasn't there of course, but has anyone considered that maybe they were chanting "Careeeeeew" in appreciation of Big John? Seems a pretty common thing for fans to do for players with an "ooooo" sound to their name. It wasn't that mate, it really wasn't. i'm with you, in general, about the booing thing though. booing and cheering are just different sides of the same coin, for me, and you can't really expect one without the other, especially when results take a downturn Very true and booing is not new news at Villa Park. In the last season DOL was manager I am struggling to recall a game where the side were NOT booed off. My most abiding memory was the 3-2 loss to Middlesborough when Steve Davis got one back in injury time. My son who was 9 at the time turned to me and said 'Villa are cr*p are'nt they Dad?' There was only one answer to that in those days!

Good report, to my probable shame I have never watched the Reserves. We have had plenty of talent there and I would like to see some of the kids filtered into the first team squad. They are young, hungry and talented so give them a go like Everton have with a couple of their youngsters. The way we have acquitted ourselves in the last few games they could hardly do any worse. As for Shorey I say play him if Bouma is not fit. As one poster noted we would then have the now unusual luxury of playing a back four in their correct positions. As far as I can recall he had one perhaps two poor games but beyond that has looked very solid. One thing he certainly can do is pick a pass, better than quite a few more respected Villa players. Clearly he has upset MON big time, the rumour I heard was that he had fallen out with MON (too outspoken maybe?) but surely for the good of the team neither should be bearing grudges. I suspect he will be off in the summer but lets use him whilst he remains with us.

And that is precisely the point. Strikers are on the pitch to score goals and lets face we could still be playing now and neither Gabby nor Heskey would have scored. We had bags of possession and I would even say Barry and Petrov dominated midfield and yet we created very few chances again and even fewer goals. If we aspire to play CL football we have to have a Plan B backed up by quality players. Over to you MON.

First post on here as an exile from the Mail Forum which has become a personal slanging match between posters. A big thanks to Chris for precisely confirming what I thought about the 'booing' (aka ironic cheers). Gabby has been very poor for game after game recently and yet it took 80 minutes for him to be saved further embarrassment by MON. It was obvious that Gabby was not going to score. My count was one shot directly at the keeper in the full 80 minutes. Big John should have been on at half time with the Fonz giving them a full half to get something back. As for the Knight substitution I am still scratching my head on how we ended up playing three of the back four out of position. Still let just move on.....