KMitch

Did I say he would? Pretty sure I explicitly said I don't think anyone would act that way again...

This... It wasn't just the sign... Lots of disrespect from the man toward us that night. "Forgetting" to go into the away dressing room after the game and walking into the Liverpool dressing room instead Cheering/waving to the Liverpool fans when we were getting our teeth kicked in Telling the press in his after match interview that he didn't mind losing to Liverpool "because [he] likes Liverpool" TBH, I find it hard for any professional today to replicate Houllier's behavior that night, regardless of their connection to the other club.

The first publicly questionable decision I've seen from him over the past 3 seasons. You could make a solid case for letting Smith go, but it's a hard sell to say that Gerrard is a much better option than Deano at this point. Time will tell, I guess.

Not thrilled at all with this one. I don't see him as an upgrade on Smith at all, but I'll back him. Hopefully he gets us into Europe next season, or the board is as ruthless with him as they were with Smith when he hits a bad run of form.

Purslow still lives in London, and I'm pretty sure Sawiris does for part of the year too. Smith's interview 3 years ago was also done in London.

TBH, I can see many Premier League clubs refusing to sell to Newcastle, unless they pay a ridiculous price, just like they've been trying to do with Man City. This will force them to look abroad for most of their signings.

I would have laughed and told you "No way they would sack Smith that quickly... Plus, Gerrard???? Come on... Our club has more ambition than that..." I was sure wrong.

The press are showing pictures of him in London right now, but ok...

I really want Eastie to be trolling us all with this Gerrard nonsense and he knows who we're really after...

...and in other news, SSN would like to report that water is wet, the grass is green, and the Pope is still Catholic.

Or he could be John Carver... Took over Newcastle when they were in 10th and did his best to nearly relegate them that season. Or he could be Steve Kean... Took over Blackburn when they were mid-table from Fat Sam (anyone is an improvement on him, right?), and was one of the worst managers I can recall. Or he could be Frank de Boer... Another "winner" as a player, and even managed Ajax/Inter Milan before he went to Crystal Palace... Didn't score a goal in their first 4 games under his watch, which led Mourinho to call him "the worst manager in the history of the Premier League".

If that wasn't what you were implying, please... Explain yourself...

Get us to Europe next season. I'm still convinced Smith would have done it.

So now Gerrard is Poch 2.0? I'm usually an optimistic person, but this is farfetched...

Talk about revisionist bullcrap. Not once has anyone suggested "Klopp or GTFO" in the slightest in this thread. Having to read page after page of the anti-Smithers droll on for over a year about how many "better" managers would leap at even the suggestion of managing Villa and now you're all ready to embrace Steven Gerrard for no reason other than "he's a winner"? Unreal.

I love how the "Smith Out" crowd are all on their high horses now, telling the rest of us to grow up... The irony is sickening...

Not sure a 41 year old Stevie G is worth that much anymore, but we finally got him for a bargain £30m, lads!!! CM position is sorted!!!

Things I'm not bothered by and could not care less about: The Liverpool connection The media circus/speculation over his next job after Villa The amount of compensation we'll end up paying to Rangers What he did as a player or his personality on the field Things that I am concerned about: His overall lack of experience as a manager (only ~3 years of experience) Never had to manage a team in a bad run of form or having to turn around a team not meeting expectations The huge step up to managing Villa from the SPL The lack of evidence that he's an improvement on Smith The missed opportunity of appointing a better manager and this may set us back another 2-3 years in our pursuit of European football

I'm dejected. I haven't felt this badly about a Villa managerial appointment since McLeish. So much for all the interested & high profile candidates Percy alluded to. We sacked a fan favorite manager who hasn't let us down in 3 years at the first sign of a bad patch in form, when he hasn't even had his strongest first 11 available for him to utilize once this season. For his replacement, we went for a manager who has only managed a football team for as long as NSWE has owned Aston Villa. His experience is purely at a club where they spent more money than any other team in the league, and managed to beat their only competing club because they lost their manager and made a poor appointment with his replacement. Forget all the player history/Liverpool connections. I don't care about any of that. I think it's equivalent to promoting someone right out of grad school to being a C-Suite executive at a huge company, purely because he's famous for doing something else and friends with the CEO. Do I think Gerrard is an upgrade at all on Dean Smith? Absolutely not. I think Smith would walk the SPL with Rangers, if given the opportunity. Do I think this appointment is a massive mistake and will cost Purslow his job within the next two years? Yes, I do. I'll officially be changing my avatar once Gerrard is announced, because I think Purslow has lost the plot here. Will I back Gerrard? Yes, just like every other Villa manager we've had, but I'm not happy at all. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and Gerrard ends up turning the team around and leading us into Europe, but I just can't see that happening at this time. Gutted.

Percy is the only reporter with an actual source at the club. He only puts his name on speculation articles when he knows them to be true. He's the only Tier 1 Villa news source.

Welp, that's coming from Percy, so looks to be true. Can't say that I'm excited about Gerrard in the slightest.

Exactly. For the first time ever in my time as a Villa supporter, we actually had a playing philosophy from the youth team, all the way up through the board room.

For sure. Grealish was Luis Suarez/John Terry levels of hate. Watkins is the new "most hated" Villan, up there with Mings and Martinez.

Was listening to Ben Foster's podcast with Neil Cutler and they got on talking about Aaron Ramsdale, which led them down the path talking about recruitment. Cutler talks about how huge personality is when recruiting them, but also speaks about Johan Lange and his process with scouting/recruiting players and working with the coaching staff. ~50:00 minutes in they get on this topic and lasts through ~55:00 minutes. Interesting to hear just how much of a partnership recruitment is between the stats side of the scouting department and the coaching staff for recruitment. Cutler also talks about how some clubs don't even involve the coaching team in the recruitment decisions at all, and just sign players based off of stats alone. Also explains why we have had a predisposition to signing UK based players, because of all the background they're doing regarding the player's personality and temperament, which can be a huge gamble if you don't have contacts who know the player personally.

Yeah, I'm wondering if Newcastle are finding it hard for people to be interested in working for them because of political reasons, which might not affect other clubs.