Brendan00

You may have a point there, although I also think there are cultural differences at play there in terms of how views are expressed in the UK and USA. However my point to you is that I take exception to being told that the Board is listening to fans by not interviewing Steve McClaren as a result of fans' reaction to his possible appointment, and then you go and appoint a man whose appointment would obviously stir up huge vehement opposition amongst fans (in fact no other potential appointment in the whole of world football would stir up as much opposition from Villa fans as Alex McLeish). The double-standard here is remarkable, and makes a mockery of the line that you in fact listened to fans reactions regarding Steve McLaren. I don't have a problem with the Board not taking fans views into consideration when making an appointment, but I do take issue when you say that you do and then the next moment choose to do the opposite. It seems to me that was just a good opportunity to curry favour with fans by using the fact that you didn't favour Steve McClaren anyway and dressing it up as "listening to fans". Can you explain the double-standard in saying you listened to fans and not interviewed one manager as a result, yet the next moment you appoint a manager in spite of huge, almost universal, opposition from fans? Then there was the nature of Mark Hughes' resignation from Fulham being used as an excuse for not pursuing him. Yet you go and employ Alex McLeish who resigned from BCFC by e-mail. Was this a case of using the nature of Mark Hughes' resignation as an excuse to fans for either not wanting, or not being able to, pursue Mark Hughes (a very popular potential appointment amongst fans), and using it as a way to appear to be taking a 'moral' stance? General, what has angered me most in this whole issue is not the appointment of Alex McLeish (even though I most definitely would not have wanted him) but the way in which the Board appears to have lied to us, the fans (with the reasons given regarding McClaren and Hughes). We're not fools General, we can spot double-standards, and we take great offence at being 'sold a line. We're not minions to be talked down to, and we won't tug our forelocks and just blindly accept what we're told, and we do not like being lied to. I think we're entitled to a bit more respect than that. That is why I, personally, am angry; not because McLeish has been appointed, but because of how the Board has treated us, the fans. That was well out of order, and won't be forgotten for a long time.

General, Randy Lerner, Paul Faulkner and yourself should hang your heads in shame. Appointing a manager renowned for playing 'hoofball', who has lead his club to relegation twice in 3 years, who's club has just been relegated, and who's a bluenose to boot. What perplexes me General is why the club says it listened to fans opposition to Steve McClaren and didn't interview him as a result, yet go ahead and appoint McLeish despite complete universal upraor from fans. Was the comment about listening to fans over Steve McClaren just making good PR out of the fact that you never wanted him in the first place? And then there was the manner in which Mark Hughes resigned being seen as a factor why he wasn't suitable for Aston Villa. Yet Alex McLeish resigns by e-mail and that's OK. Can you explain that? In appointing McLeish, despite the ferocity of opposition from fans, Randy Lerner has undone all the good will he has built up with the fans since taking over at Villa. We even begun to regard him as 'one of us'. Not any more. A sad day for Aston Villa. Incidently I have not renewed my season ticket, and many others have done the same. There will be many empty seats at Villa Park this coming season.

The club was quick enough to speak up when fans voiced objection to McClaren. Now over a much more unpopular candidate there is nothing but silence from the club. It looks like McLeish is coming to Villa Park then, and if this is the case then dear God, does Randy Lerner know what he's done, and what the reaction from fans will be?

Appointing McLeish as manager at Villa will result in even less fans at matches than there were this season, and it will result in banners hanging from the Holte End calling for Randy Lerner to go. I presume Randy, the Board and yourself realise this and therefore are not considering appointing McLeish as manager.

Hello General, Do you, or anyone else on here, know the official policy regarding taking photos (for personal use) at games? Cheers

Barry missed chances and shot wide. We would have been a goal ahead in the first half if Barry hadn't missed that fairly easy chance from 10 yards and shot wide. For someone of Barry's calibre that really is poor. Scoring goals is not our problem, as I said we would be 3rd last year if the league was based on goals scored. Our problem is, and has been, the goals we let in. The goals we let in were the reason we didn't finish higher than 6th (which was a great finish for last year, but if we had not let so many goals in we would have finished higher). Winning is not just about scoring goals, it is about stopping goals going in. We're very good at the former, but pretty poor at the latter. Of course I would love us to score more goals, but surely the priority must be sorting out the major weakness we have in letting goals in. Even look at yesterday's game. Ok so we scored 4 goals, but Citeh would have scored 2 more if it hadn't been for Friedel. Citeh were rubbish, but even they opened us up at will whenever they made an attack. You knock Petrov, but it was Petrov that was breaking up play, gaining possession and holding Citeh back, he did his job very well. But look at the goals Citeh scored. The penalty was conceded because Luke Young challenged Michael Johnson and he went down, after the midfield just let him through and our defense seemed to be half asleep. What a fabulous debut Luke Young made yesterday, he was a joy to watch! And the last goal Citeh scored was a disgrace, we just let them score, the whole team (apart from Friedel) seemed to be asleep. No wonder Friedel was pissed off at our defence yesterday, he would have come away with a clean slate if we had done our job defending yesterday. If Barry hadn't missed an easy shot and we hadn't have been so rubbish defensively, the score would have been 5-0 yesterday. I am of course pleased with a 4-2 win (my leg was scraped and bleeding all down the front from jumping up and down and scraping it on the seat in front yesterday), but we could have done a lot better and we were facing pretty rubbish opposition.

How can you have been disappointed in Petrov? He was great yesterday. Ok, Shorey did make a few mistakes, but he played better than he did in the FH game. Give him another game or two and he'll have settled in nicely. NRC wasn't that good I thought, he isn't comfortable playing on the right. But the biggest disappointment was Barry. He looked like a pretty average player yesterday, there was no sign of the play-making, commanding Barry yesterday. I didn't think that we were that great yesterday. Citeh were dreadful. Our main problem was our defence, throughout the whole pitch. That last goal that we conceded was a dreadful mistake, it was scored because our defence was poor. That goal should not have gone in. We have no problem scoring goals, we have a problem in the goals we concede, same old story. A great attacking winger on the right will NOT get us a Top 4 slot. Scoring goals is not a problem for us (we were the 3rd highest team for scoring goals last season and we finished 6th!). It's our poor defensive play that holds us back, we score enough goals, but we let far too many goals in. Hopefully MON will sort it, as we won't make a Top 4 spot with poor defensive play, no matter how good we are at scoring goals.