MrDuck

I've never dated a website. That would just be weird.

Any young manager with no Premier League experience is likely to be more of a gamble.

The idea of Rafa coming in appalls me. We already have one manager who openly admits his love for Liverpool, the club where he ultimately failed... do we really need another?

I'd rather Dave Bassett than either of those!!! Even Fred Bassett would be a step up.

I'd go as far as saying the manner in which he left the club and his general attitude might seriously affect the thoughts of any chairmen considering him for their clubs. Totally unprofessional, also the manner in which he took most of the 1st team coaching staff with him, showed a complete lack of respect for the club and it's fans. He wanted to inflict the most pain he could. He comes over as a very arrogant, self centred man. He will never manage a club on the scale of Villa again. And there was me thinking nobody actually knew what happened yet... Still, nothing like forming solid opinions on speculation eh? MON has a track record of success everywhere he's been. There will be plenty of takers for him when he wants to work again.

Just curious here... I see a number of people saying they wouldn't mind Hughes as manager. What do people see in Hughes? His track record is not exactly remarkable.

To be fair, your relative Donald could have done a better job than GH this season Mr D.

Didn't Curbishley get an interview too? Did he? Jesus. We really were scraping the bottom of the barrel. While there are others I'd prefer to Curbishley, he's hardly bottom of the barrel. Did a brilliant job for Charlton and was doing an excellent job at West Ham too. He doesn't really have any black marks against him as far as I can see... other than the bizarre attitude so prevalent on here that if a manager has never won honours with a big club then he can't be any good. Much like Allardyce, I suspect with decent resources at a decent size club (like Villa), he'd probably do pretty well. And I have absolutely no doubt he'd have done a far better job than Houllier. But personally I'd take Moyes out of the realistic candidates for the job right now

Didn't Curbishley get an interview too?

Not the point. I think in the interests of fairness, sporting integrity and to avoid putting everyone in a difficult position, the game should be moved. You are right that Citeh would probably win that fixture more often than they wouldn't win it. But it doesn't mean there wouldn't be question marks. The league must be seen to be 100% squeaky clean and this fixture would clearly have a conflict of interests for Stoke City thereby potentially bringing the league into disrepute. Ergo move the fixture. It solves all the problems and it's very easy to do. Definitely.

Yeah, I think the comparison with Owen is very valid. And Fowler too, although Robbie had a bit of drink issue as well which didn't help matters.

Captained France to European Championship win in 1984. Remarkable performance in that tournament - scored 9 goals in 5 games including two hat-tricks, player of the tournament award.

he could come back and start performing as we know if he puts in the hard work Hard work? Stephen Ireland?

I like Harry. And I'd rather have him here than Houllier any time.

Am I missing something here? What's the connection between Ashton and SWP? Yeh SWP broke his ankle very badly on England training and that basically led to other injuries and effectively ended his career. Ah, gotcha. Thanks!

Am I missing something here? What's the connection between Ashton and SWP?

I can see Moyes leaving this summer. I can also see Everton letting him go for the right compensation. As much as he's done at Goodison, there's a kind of feeling in the air that maybe its time for both to part ways. Moyes probably has ambitions of his own that he won't be able to fulfil at Everton due to the ever tighter budget there. Everton may also feel its time for a fresh face and fresh ideas I think Moyes would find the Villa job quite appealing. He can't go any further at Everton unless they find new investment from somewhere. The idea of coming to a similar size club but with more money for players is probably quite appealing I think. It's not like he's gonna get a chance at one of the CL clubs anytime soon. And I reckon he'd be a great manager for Villa for what it's worth.

Why don't we just relocate to Merseyside and be done with?

When was the uphill bit?

Well it came back to bite them didn't it?

really??? Really. I just don't see any of those people as a step forward. Appoint them and we might avoid relegation now but the best we can ever hope for with them is lower mid-table. I really think we have to stay with a foreign manager to really revolutionise our club like Wenger or Mourinho have done and lets be fair Houllier did for Liverpool. Jol, Van Gaal someone in that mold is what we want but we'd obviously need to wait for the end of the season for that if GH is shown the door. Well, I wouldn't see Dowie as a step forward. And don't get me wrong, I'd rather see us with someone of the calibre of Mourinho or Wenger in the long term. But in the short term, we need someone else. How many times do we see a manager come in and turn a club around towards the end of the season? We won't get a Mourinho character at this stage of the season will we? Curbs and Fat Sam are both available, and have succeeded in similar situations that we are in now with West Ham & Blackburn. **** next season, all we should be worried about is doing everything possible to make sure we're not relegated. But... for all that, I think Fat Sam and Curbs are very hard done by on here by some. Allardyce is widely recognised as a manager using modern ideas, he worked wonders at Bolton and was doing very well at Blackburn. Sure he would have done well at Newcastle given half a chance. I think at a decent club with some backing, we wouldn't see his Bolton-esque football for long. He's done well in the past by making the most of small resources, his style of play has effectively been forced upon him by his budget, and it's served him and his clubs very well. For what it's worth, I think he'd get us challenging for Europe again. As for Curbishley... again, what black marks has he got? Did a great job for years at Charlton, then was doing a great job for West Ham before they **** him over. Much like Allardyce, I think given the resources he'd do a great job at a big club. It's all very well saying they're mid-table managers, but the reality is that both Bolton and Charlton were a complete mess before these guys turned them around. They turned them into respectable mid-table Premier League clubs and I think that is just as worthy an achievement as, for example, Houllier coming in to Liverpool and winning just a couple of trophies in half a decade. Although personally I'd probably plump for Moyes or Coyle.

really??? Really.

Big Sam: would get us fighting and saved Blackburn in a similar situation. Alan Curbishley: saved West Ham from a worse situation than we're in. Ex-Villa player, knows what the club is about. Both available. Would anyone place their money on Houllier keeping us up as opposed to one of those guys? Although frankly I'd take Dowie over Houllier right now.

Good work Spurs! Hope they go on to win it.