Harry

Agreed, he's been pretty OK this season. For me he is gradually building his confidence back. As for Stevens I hope he comes good but lets not kid ourselves he has punt written all over him albeit at minimum cost.

yakubu is an excellent premier league striker who i would've welcomed here before we got bent Maybe but we have Bent and not Yakubu who I recall has in the past a poor injury record. The trouble with far too many Villa fans is the best player is the one we should have signed rather than the one we did. I still remember the howls of anguish when we 'spunked away' nearly £10m on that unknown Ashley Young.

Oh and the problem is McLeish not Bent.

Absolutely spot on. To be honest the last few pages of this thread have been total bollox. A total and utter tool like James Nursey spouts rubbish in the Mirror. Add in a dash of 'terrace talk' and ITK on other teams' forums and lo and behold we have facts. Bent is going nowhere for so many reasons. We need his goals, no one will pay us enough money and Lerner knows the consequences of selling with the fans. And the notion that we would be better off without him is laughable. Far better to spend money on giving Bent the right service if that is what is needed.

Just don't know with the Fonz. To me he always seems to be Gabby Lite. He has had loads of chances, particularly under MON, and never quite proved himself. As soon as Bent is back, and for the record I don't believe the conspiracy theories some of the more 'agitated' posters are getting excited about, I would put him out on loan for the remainder of the season on a non return basis. He either proves himself or we cash in in the summer. For me Weimann is a better prospect and he can be our cover for the second half of the season.

And your evidence is what precisely?

I'm no professor of English but where in AMc's words does he 'admit he could sell Darren Bent' - as the headline states???? More horse-shit from The Mirror and their chief retard. More rubbish from that total and utter rocket polisher Nursey. He is so anti Villa its just untrue. Mind you he is being run a close second by some of the comments on here by fans about Bent leaving.

Quite funny really. Given our recent history a point at the Britannia is bloody good result which had it been achieved under any other manager would have been lauded on this thread. But as its McLeish the thread is being turned into another let's have a go at McLeish thread. Don't get me wrong I think he is a piss poor manager who should be replaced at the first sensible opportunity but lets try and have a little perspective.

Nearly did not go tonight but decided at the last minute that I might as well as otherwise it was a waste of the ST. The simple truth was Villa played really well tonight and based on possession and chances should have won the game. I was utterly different to Sunday. Cuellar looked very comfortable at the back with Dunne and for should start over Collins. For me Clark's natural role is as a DM and he looked very assured. N'Zogbia had his best game in a Villa shirt and he and Albrighton tormented their full backs all night. Ireland looked very good too until he went off but Bannan played equally well. Personally I don't get the criticism of Gabby as I thought he worked very hard all game and created space for the other attacking players.

Personally I think if we sold Bent in January, which I think for the record is very very unlikely, the backlash from fans would be massive. There are lots of season ticket holders who are in two minds about renewing and its clear our ticket sales for any game are weaker than last year. Selling Bent would mean that the gates could fall more and season ticket holders would not renew. The solution is to buy players to give the right service to Bent, not sell one of the most prolific strikers in the Premiership.

Started by a 12 year old over on VitalVilla so 100% gospel Wrong again, as it wasn't actually started over on VitalVilla. When will you ever get your supposedly factual posts correct for once? Explain therefore why after years of not giving a shit about the other 4% equity, Lerner is sending letters out stating he will be purchasing the last 4%, which it will not alter his ownership of the club whatsoever? I thought Lerner was looking after the costs, and suddenly he's paying for an extra 4% that doesn't give him anymore power or control than when he owned 96%. The logical conclusion is: A) He has done so as he intends to sell quietly, or cover legitimate interest up, as he'd be legally obliged to share such information with any other shareholder/s. He's going to put his debt into the club and sell it off, mentioned by Pete, I believe? Your point A is a possible explanation. Point B does not matter. If the club owes the money to Lerner controlled companies / trusts its already on Villa's balance sheet so its in the club. Were Lerner to sell he would be looking to get back his original purchase of the clubs shares plus all the money he has put in plus I would guess some more on top!

I'll reserve judgement as its on a piss poor forum but interesting if true and for me at least not all surprising.

I would not want Big Sam as our manager long term but he would do a far superior job to McLeish at the moment. The key phrase you used was "He would make us hard to beat" At the moment we are the softest of softest touches to beat as a distinctly average Liverpool side proved yesterday. The more I see of McLeish as our manager, and was one who was prepared to give him a chance, the more I realise what a truly disastrous appointment he has turned out to be.

Maybe so but IMO the General was a clown from day one on this forum so it was poor judgement on both their parts to create that situation. I actually don't think Houllier was a bad call as a manager ignoring the obvious PR gaffes and I can understand the logic of that appointment. I can't believe he was hurt by the fans subsequent reaction as he must have balls of steel given the stick he gets over the Cleveland Browns. What I would say though is all the anti Houllier from sections of the fans, which was way over the top in many instances, has probably hardened his position over McLeish to a point where he will disregard the consensus view entirely. Almost certainly the club will look at the bigger picture and at the moment its probably OK in their eyes. Gates are down but a lot of that is the economy and football attendances generally outside the big clubs are down I think. The wage bill is falling and McLeish can keep us in the PL albeit at a lower level (I'm not convinced about the last point personally but this is the clubs view). The elephant in the room which the club are studiously ignoring is season ticket renewals for next season. I can just see an almighty backlash coming from the paying fans if we have to put up with another season of appallingly bad football served up by a manager who has conclusively proved to me, at least, that he does not have the skill set to manage a premiership club effectively. I can see fans saying they will pick and choose games which means they will go to far fewer and wait for offers. On that subject what is really starting to piss me off is I renewed my two season tickets at full price and I would bet I could see the games more cheaply had I taken advantage of the many offers. Bit of a kick in the teeth for loyal supporters I think.

One terrible decision, to give MON shit loads of money in the transfer market and allow him to negotiate player contracts. Everything that has followed is a consequence of that. And that is Mr Lerner's fault alone. Absolutely agree on that point as everything else stems from that flawed decision. I would love to know what rules MON is operating on at Sunderland. If they have any sense at all they will have had a close look at what happened at Villa. But then again....

I just hope someone from the club is reading this thread. I was at the game and everyone around me started by tearing their hair out but by the second half it was just resigned acceptance of the total and utter crap we were watching.

Its funny how he has morphed from being the model of foreign ownership in the Premier League to being a disinterested absentee landlord.

Today was 90 minutes of complete tripe. How Liverpool did not win 5 or 6 nil is down to the ineptitude of their finishing. We nominally had 8 'shots' on target according to the BBC stats which I struggle to believe but of course a firm 'pass' to Reina by our strikers counts as a shot on target. The simple fact was we never looked like scoring. Yet again our defending was comical and we conceded two very soft set piece goals (again). Dunne was trying to the work of about three players as he had to cover for the Chuckle Brothers that are Collins and Hutton. I'm convinced for most of the second half Liverpool just sat back and let us try to break them down knowing full well we could not I disagree with many on here in that I don't think we have a bad squad of players although today we had some key players missing. The problem for me is they look both demotivated, disinterested and disorganised and that's down to the manager. We are a soft touch to play these days and I doubt Liverpool will get an easier three points this season. The vast majority of fans have no confidence or faith in McLeish and based on today's performance neither do the players. The manager and players should hang their heads in shame for what they served up today for us fans who sat freezing our balls off watching complete crap. There is only one way attendances are going and that is down. I've got a season ticket as has my son and I go with a mate and his son who also have season tickets. We pretty much agreed we would not bother with the Arsenal game on Wednesday as despite having paid I'm not sure I can stomach more of the dross we watched today as particularly with a quality finisher like RVP we will be put to the sword. McLeish simply has to go and as soon as possible before its too late. As for renewing my season tickets next season, not a chance under the current manager. Quite frankly I've got better thing to do with my life that be tormented at Villa Park every fortnight.

Agreed. Can never understand why he gets such shit sometimes. Been a good player for us and a good representative of the club. That's the boo boys for you. Loyal servant, never complained and always gives his best. Can't ask for much else really. Thoroughly enjoyed that montage, brought back some great memories.

Always been a decent player who was treated like shit by Houllier and McAllister. Glad to see he is going OK for us (well more than OK actually)

Still a no from me despite our win yesterday. We need a better manager......period.

I cannot understand why any fan would want their team to lose, yes people can moan and boo, but wanting them to lose is something I cannot fathom That's just how sad some of our 'supporters' have become.

He's still shite and should go.

As for the game a much needed three points but lets not get ahead of ourselves. Bolton are shite and will probably go down. Just a couple of thoughts: 1) This is the side NRC went to when allegedly Champions league sides were in for him. Did he get more money? Like **** he did. Should have accepted what Villa offered him. 2) Owen Coyle, the choice as manager of quite a few Villa fans. Hmmmm....

Agreed on that regarding Bent. Perhaps all these doom mongers would like to enlighten us as to where he is going