BG_Villa_Fan

Interesting thing about the 12M management payouts must have been based on salaries, that is some huge salaries there. Wonder who negotiated them?

Must have been MON! Surely! No?

A good result against a direct rival, leaving them 9 points behind.Yay!

It has always been my opinion that one of the reasons why O'Neill left our club was that he wanted to buy McCready and Randy said no thereby stopping the free reign on O'Neill's purchases. History has shown that was one of the very few wise decisions our chairman has made if indeed that was the case?

How could history show anything about a scenario that has never happened and is at best a rumour?

If anything, the more talked about rumour was that MON asked to buy Scott Parker to replace Milner and was allegedly turned down by Lerner/Faulkner, which is exactly something that Redknapp, who managed to get Spurs in the top 4, actually did. Thus, if we're going to base anything on rumours, it was Randy who didn't want to do what the Spurs have done.

cheers - He was not perfect by any means and he had his weaknesses, which managers dont Ferurson, Mourishno and Wenger.

What is true is that we have gone from having:-

- One of the best defences in the PL to having one of the worst.

- One of the best set pieces to one of the worst.

- Some of the best wingers to some of the worst

- top six team to bottom six team.

- Beating Blues loosing to blues.

- high Attendence to low attendeces

- wembley appearences no wembley appearnences

Mean while MON leapfrogs Aston Villa making no new signings winning 10 out of 15.

Yea...yea... but now when yet another team beats us and their fans start a banter you can tell them something like : We lost but our wage bill is under control, how's yours huh? Ha-ha.

It really bothers them, they don't know what to answer back with.

Guess he's right - they ARE special.

Just not in a good way.

Why anybody is clamouring for Martinez when Rodgers and Lambert both play better, more attractive and more effective football is beyond me.

Why would either Rogers or Lambert want to come to Villa?

Dont be ridiculous. However bad things get at Villa we dwarf those two clubs combined and then some.

They'd both jump at the chance if it came.

Do you believe that Lerner wasn't rejected by some managers and McLeish was his first choice, or at least one of his top choices?

Also, Laursen only played about a dozen games in the 06/07 season.

I don't know why this keeps getting ignored.

We also had poor attacking options and nothing close to what Mcleish has on offer.

Thinking back we had an attack of Angel, who as much as I love him, at the time was no better than Heskey is now, an up and coming Gabby, who had scored a single goal in his career prior to that season and Luke Moore who was... well Luke Moore. Damn!

Edit : almost forgot about Baros, the word removed.

Also, Laursen only played about a dozen games in the 06/07 season.

From memory the squad we have now is far superior to the one MON inherited from DOL.

Not sure I agree, don't forget we had bouma Laursen mellberg Barry

Plus MON had cash to buy Petrov Carew and Young

The squads were similar in capability but MON inherited a much better defence

Laursen had played about 10 or so games for Aston Villa before MON arrived. His best years were while MON was in change. Samoe for Bouma, he was rubbish his first season. Barry was on his way to Portsmouth for 4 milion pounds until MON arrived and kept him. Says it all.

King Olof, was of course, king Olof.

MON's first season squad was extremely poor, much much weaker than this season's.

They could make a hockey substitution and bring on a striker for Hart, wouldn't make a difference.

so far MoN is having the new manager effect. If he's magic so far, then so was JG for his amazing start with us. It'll level out when some of the squad realise they aren't the pet favorites and will never get a look in bar 10 minutes in one game occasionally and the same 14 players are flogged silly. They'll finish this season very well, top 10 maybe even take that 8th spot, but see how he fares next season.

Wish we had the same effect with Houllier and McLeish...

I am not sure what I am more worried by; a disinterested Lerner or an interested in Lerner, because I am not sure either is a recipe for success.

An interested Lerner under the right manager would be excellent. Unfortunately we haven't had that yet.

How could an interested Lerner appoint the right manager in the first place? Even if AMC get the sack somehow, the probable list of managers would most likely include Allardyce, Sven and Fistface on top.

Gregory did the same for Villa as MON so how is he better?

Manuel Pellegrini has done the same for Real Madrid as Jose Mourinho, who's better?

An Italian. To take a stand on racism.

You can't say that, it's racialistic!

Italians are proper racist.

They don't want Balotelli to play for Italy (even though he was born and raised in Europe) because he doesn't have "Italian blood".

Extreme cases of unashamed hypocrisy like this one should be quoted and applauded

A whole lot of butthurt in this thread, it's very amusing tbh.

Alex McLeish.

There's one thing about Tottenham fans that I have a lot of respect for - even if they're dead wrong they'll still defend their club and players even to the point of being ridiculous. That's exactly the opposite of what us Villa fans usually do, we're the first to belittle our own. Props, I guess...

I think it would if he wasn't getting paid for the reason you've already stated. He could retire at any time but he hasn't done because he wants the money.

He is a very talented player but absolutely the worst kind of footballer (other than the rapists, drink drivers, shop lifters, women beaters, racists and general menaces to society who think they can kick the shit out of people because they are footballers and get away with it) there is.

So Tevez is in the better 50% then

You really think he would have been sacked at most other clubs. I don't see it apart from maybe the top 6 or 7 clubs.

We finished 9th last season with a far superior squad, we are currently 11th. With haven't been in the relegation zone all season, we haven't gone through a string of half a dozen or so defeats on the trot. He has been here for 22 league games. Last season a manager with a far worse record after 22 games in charge ( 5 less points, 10 more goals conceded, 2 less goals scored ) kept his job so at the very least you'd expect that one with a better record and far less resources both in terms of personnel and transfer funds would also keep his.

I'm no fan of McLeish by the way but I'd struggle to think of any club outside the top 6 or 7 who would have sacked him 22 league games after appointing him.

While I couldn't argue with any of what you've written, there are two peope who are/were actually at the club and one of them has stated that Villa should qualify for the european competitions this season and the other said we were in the 4th , oops 5th to 9th bracked, 9th being the worst possible. We're now 11th.

In essence, Iranian/Chinese/North Korean type of laws dressed up as anti-piracy. Disgraceful.

But they have a scouting setup to replace them. Selling Carroll didn't harm them, it's improved them.

Really??

I honestly don't beleive you need scouts to find the likes of Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Ba and Cisse.

They're needed though, you need to know which one you should buy ( Cabaye ) and which you shouldn't ( Makoun ). Not that easy.

^ Makes you wonder about the next appointment

On a side note, apparently it doesn't take weeks and months to hire a manager even in the middle of a season.

Both QPR and Sunderland's new managers were free agents though. I remember there being thin pickings amongst free agents when MON left.

I'm less inclined to criticise the Houllier appointment than the McLeish one because we were in a pretty desperate situation back then. Last summer however we really should have done a much better job of it.

Well to me it looks like both QPR and Sunderland knew exactly who they wanted and simply went and got their man, unlike us, who had to schedule many interviews ( then cancelled some ) - the whole publicity made it a proper farce.

^ Makes you wonder about the next appointment

On a side note, apparently it doesn't take weeks and months to hire a manager even in the middle of a season.

That actually brings into question the competence , honesty and integrity of those running the club.

It did at the time. We're now well aware of these.

Obvious troll is obvious, tbh, not sure why so many people still bite. It's all about slagging off Villa fans. Apparently as a fan you may not :

1. Express any disappointment, no matter what happens;

2. Demand anything from the owner - better stewardship, better decision making, better hirings, invesment

It works both ways. Apparantly we're also not allowed to be positive about the future under Randy's ownership or under McLeish's management.

If we dont join in and cry onto our keyboards, we get told that we're 'clueless' or have our heads in the sand.

Agreed. I'm not saying that being positive = clueless, but was more about the certain troll's schtick, which is highly offensive to a lot of people.