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scottie_villa

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Everything posted by scottie_villa

  1. I take your point about the style of play, but I can't really see us getting anywhere near top 6 no matter who the manager is. We are nowhere near Man City /United, Chelsea, Newcastle, Arsenal, Spurs, Pool, Everton. Sunderland are spending the cash too, so I think the highest we can hope for at all is 10th, in that midtable rut against the likes of Fulham, Stoke. All that positivity pre-season about Lambert rejuvinating the club was mainly marketing to get us poor fans to buy season tickets. Can Lambert really turn our fortunes about and get us into Europe?
  2. Just reacting to the posts about how Lambert is only getting to see the players competitively now and blaming defeats on our poor squad / lack of spending, we are being way way more tolerant of Paul Lambert than we were of Alex McLeish. Judging on the lack of any coherent tactics or definite squad selection in the first couple of games I'm wondering were we correct in getting rid of McLeish? How long do we give Lambert to sort it out? I can't see us getting anything out of Newcastle and Swansea are in much better form than us so things could look very bad for us quite soon.
  3. The problem with business ppl is they quite often look as business models when making appointments rather than genuine cop... John Delaney appointing Stan s Ireland manager was a classic example, even the appointment of Roy Hodgson had an element of that, they took the 'academic' approach where they looked at C.V.'s rather going for the blindingly obvious choice of Harry Redknapp. So Houllier's and McLeish's appointment was prob based on this 'academic' approach. Hopefully lessons will be learned and this will be a good appointment. If not then I can really see patience running out with Faulkner.
  4. Didn't realise that, yep Tomme Dunne is Richard's cousin. Was Doolin's assistant and is doing grand, their first season up. Bohs are the Villa of Ireland... Once big, lost all their good players, now struggling at the wrong end of the league!
  5. BOF your last article expressed the frustration that Villa fans have at the mo... But it also perfectly captured the kind of ridiculous hysteria and pessimism that has surrounded Villa this year. I'm not ciriticising, I think it was a very good representation of the feeling among supporters. While that game was particularly disappointing, the two points we've got since has seen us safe, and it still may be that one would have ultimatley been enough. Should we have all been giving the club a break as we were still slowly putting away points despite a chronic amount of injurues?
  6. Diego Maradona... I'd love to see him there even just to teach Lerner and Faulkner a lesson.. Seriously though we have be realistic, no Benetiz or Bilic is gona come to Villa... Alan Curbishley prob the bext we can hope for.
  7. For all the doom and gloom when we lost to Bolton, looks as though yesterdays point has seen us safe (Thank you Shay Given). I refuse to believe for a moment that blackburn will win their last 3 games, i think thats reasonalbe. We all need to shout for Man City on Mon so they can bring the season to the last day, so they have something to play for and send QPR down...
  8. So Brendan Rogers is the answer??? An interesting stat is his record at Reading... The side had recently been relegated the previous year and were expected to challenge for promotion again. Brendan Rodgers took over from Steve Coppell in 2009 and after winning only 6 of 23 games (including one against Burton Albion in the League Cup) he left the club... I'm not saying he's a bad manager, as he's done a very good job with Swansea, but management is strange, it seems that when the 'glove fits' a manager, the team does well.... Like dare I suggest a certain Martin O'Neill does the best with average players getting the most out of them but would be unsuited to Man City type side. Rodgers could come to Villa and do another Reading, I'd be anxious to see if Swansea suffer from '2nd season syndrome' next year.
  9. I have a a question, and i hope this isn't going too off topic, but how long will this thread keep going?? What happens is Villa go out, draw usually, or lose, people post McLeish Out. If we win (the odd time) people say he should still go... This will go on and on until we get to the summer.. when we start speculating about who could replace him, only to find out he's staying for a while, and the whole process starts all over again. We're on page 557 and i'm sure a lot of those pages say the same stuff and im at the point where i don't look at the thread any more... would the moderators allow a thread to get to 1000 pages?
  10. Arsenal away = Lose Bolton home = Win Chelsea home = Draw Fulham home = Win Liverplop away = Lose Manure away = Lose Norwich away = Draw Stoke home = Draw Monderland home = Draw Spurts home = Lose Boggies away = Draw 11 more points, finish on 41 points... BUT... it does matter when we play them. Last season Pool and Arsenal's seasons were over when we played them last two games and we won both of them. So when we play West Brom 3rd last game they may be safe, we'll have more to play for so that could easily be a win. Same with Norwich last day of the season.
  11. Would Andre-Villas Boas come to Villa??? Or would we get stuck with Mick McCarthy or Gary Megson if McLeish did go?
  12. Here's a question... What's the minimum requirement from these next 3 games, (i think Wigan Blackburn and Fulham...) for McLeish to justify staying in the job for the rest of the season. I'd love 9, suppose i'd settle for 6... I've a feeling somehow it'll be 5, prob with one win against Blackburn, who have returned to being awful!
  13. I think that quote is very unfair, its biased, any bunch of facts and statistics could be used to make opposite points... For instance, here's another look at McLeish's record... (Please don't castigate me, i'm only writing this to illustrate a point) After a successful playing career, winning a European Cup Winners Cup, Super Cup and three Scottish Premier League titles, Alex McLeish took over at Motherwell in 1994, and led them to an impressive second place in the Scottish Premier League finishing behind Walter Smith's Rangers. After the club failed to build on this, he ressigned and took over at Hibernians. In his first full season he won the Scottish First Division and in 2001 finished in third place in the Premier League and reached a Scotish Cup Final. He then took over at Rangers and won the Premier League in his first full season. Then followed a particularly difficult time when their financial state saw them lose many of their top players. Nevertheless, after making the Bosman free transfers of Jean-Alain Boumsong and Dado Prso he led Rangers to the Premier League title in 2005, edging out Martin O'Neill's Celtic and next season the side qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League. After leaving Rangers, he became the Scottish National team manager, winning 7 out of 10 games, including an historic 1-0 defeat of France in Paris. He left his position as Scotland manager to take over at Birmingham City, and in his first full season (2008/09) led them to promotion to the English Premier League. By January 2010, he had guided them to a 12-game unbeaten run, a club record in the top division, was named Premier League Manager of the month for December 2009 (the first Birmingham manager to receive the award) and led them to a 9th place finish in the Premier League, their highest in over 50 years. The following season the club won the League Cup. However, due to a number of injuries to key players like Scott Dann and Craig Gardner, the club got caught in a relegation battle, and were relegated on the last day of the season following a defeat to Spurs. Despite Birmingham City saying McLeish would keep his job, he resigned and was appointed as manager to Aston Villa, to oversee a difficult period when the wage bill was being significantly reduced and he was told he would have to sell to buy.... I think you'll agree if you read this version of history it tells a very different story, but all of it is factually correct.
  14. The Next four games will prove McLeish's worth as manager, away to Wigan & Blackburn, then at home to Fulham & Bolton.. Think we should wait off judgement til then, no shame in losing to top of the table 1-0.
  15. So stupid protest now... We aren't in any danger of relegation and if we do need to protest in the future, this will undermine it cos it won't have nearly as much impact. Like nobody listens to a constant moaner when they eventually make a proper complaint.
  16. We are 9 points ahead of the relegation zone. We are 9 points behind 5th. We are comfortable unexciting midtable. Now lets stop getting overly worried!
  17. The big problem for McLeish last year was Scott Dann getting injured, the previous season he was rock solid, they had to manage with Liam Ridgewell and Roger Johnson as their defensive partnership... Plus Craig Gardner was injured for 12 games... Big loses for a relatively weak Birmingham side.... But look, if you want to go on previous clubs you can make a heck of a case for Houllier being a good manager... But it was a complete mismatch at Villa, he completely underestimated the clubs ambition... We have to get out of the past and look at what he's doing now! On the negative, we have played some very poor football at home and rolled over to most of the 'big' sides. On the plus we have a good away record and he has finally managed to get Stephen Ireland playing well. We are 11th in the league, I'd be disappointed if we finished there, we should be top half, so he has work to do. Let's stop going over his past and look at where we are now.
  18. I disagree there... Petrov was the only player missing but we started with collins/dunne, downing, young, gabby... Villa were looking very dodgey at times last yr and if it wasn't for Lerner splashing out during jan on bent we could well have gone down, a luxury Blues didn't have when new owners came in and refused to back McLeishor publically support him. That game is a perfect example of why McLeish is a step up from Houllier.
  19. I feel its very hard to have a reasonable debate about McLeish on this feeds because I do feel there is a bias against him. I'll say here and now that I'm not a huge fan of his, but I'm willing to give him a chance, but he must get the team playing better and / or winning else he won't have a future here. But back to my original point, I see that people are always recalling McLeish's failures in the past and conveniently ignore his successes. For instance, when people say "He finished 3rd with Rangers and got Blues relegated twice" it is unfair not to take account of the fact that at Rangers he was dealing with cutbacks after the failed Advocaat era, won 2 domestic cups in his first year, won 2 Scottish titles in the next 3 years (against M'ON's Celtic) and got to Champions League last 16. With Blues he came in, failed to impact enough in his first season and got relegated but got promoted staight away, had a record unbeaten run and won a League Cup next season...Then had a bad run and got relegated on the last day of the season. McLeish has had ups and downs in his managerial career, all balancing out each other. Failing at Villa would end his managerial career outside of Scotland probably.
  20. Funny how people conveniently forget Rangers got to the last 16 of the Champions League, McLeish had a 70% win record as Scotland manager, came into a sinking ship at Brum but got them promoted at first attempt, failed to keep a threadbare thin squad up but won a League Cup. Look at how Brum have disappeared since. We won today, get off the guys back, anyone who criticises him today is out of line, wait til its justified, but it isnt today!
  21. Well I didn't consider him as the owners didn't like the way he walked out on Fulham saying he wanted a bigger club, yes he would be better than McLeish but i'm not sure he would come to midtable Villa.
  22. I have to say it's getting a bit tiring seeing people post McLeish out, useless manager, worst in the country etc... If people want him to be sacked, who do they actually think we can get as a replacement. That's the problem and why I don't think he'll be sacked. Managing Aston Villa is a thankless task, we've got high expectations, because of our previous glories, but money is not being invested so unless your a bit of a miracle worker you'll probably be deemed a failure, even if you're doing an ok job. I'll put my money where my mouth is, if McLeish was fired, if we wanted any manager in the Premiership to leave their club and come to us it'll have to be someone who's not higher than us and has run their course at the club... The only one I can pick out is Mick McCarthy, maybe QPR's owners will go for a foreign manager in the summer so Neil Warnock? If things don't improve at Bolton, maybe Owen Coyle will become availalble. Anyone unattached at mo - well Nigel Worthington just left the Northern Ireland job, he was ok at Norwich. And in the Championship Sven left / was fired by Leicester and Steve McLaren is available after a disastrous stint at Nottingham Forest. The only manager I could see happy to leave their side in the Championship is Tony Mowbary, doing well at Boro but no guarantee they'll go up, or Leeds manager and fomer Villa player Simon Grayson. So McLeish out??? Then we face the prospect being managed by one of these: McCarthy, Warnock, Coyle (?), Worthington, McLaren, Sven, Mowbary or Grayson. I'm not sure any of these would do a better job.
  23. How is Lerner a Fraud? He spent £64m buying the club, then invested over £200m of his own money? What fraudelent acitivity has he done, I'm really at a loss here..
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