GeordieVillan

Moyes. If he won't come, then Grayson. With Moyes though, I hope people aren't expecting attractive expansive football - his Everton team wasn't known for this. His Everton team were solid and direct. I would also point out that they were the kind of team that went on long periods of good form, followed by long periods of bad form - John Gregory style.

7 games left. Get a new manager in, win all 7 games, survive and then rebuild for next season. We must never allow ourselves to skirt this close to relegation from the Premier League again. Thank god we didn't leave it too late.

What an idiot. We have short memories though - if he starts doing the business, we will get over it soon enough.

Grayson never should have been sacked by Leeds. They were building a strong foundation (think Swansea, Southampton) and would have been a solid Premier League team by now if they hadn't been so stupid.

Can't wait to see which manager wants to be the next one to ruin their career. If we can persuade Moyes, that would be an impressive coup. That would be an appointment which would unite most of the fans, in the same way the MON appointment did. Say what you want about the board we are putting together, but they must be quite an impressive and formidable bunch when it comes to meeting prospective managers, especially the British ones. If it can't be Moyes, then I still want Grayson.

Quite ridiculous. The manager of the club has just left - this is almost as bad as the Lescott tweet.

I expected him to do much better with our existing squad. I have alot of sympathy with him if he was promised money to spend and lied to by his employers, but perhaps they decided to cut their losses (far too early but thats a side point). I also have sympathy if he has uprooted his family and things havn't worked out so quickly, and I feel sorry for him if this affects his future career prospects (Villa really is a managerial graveyard). I have no sympathy for his results - I think there is alot of managers out there that would have done better in hindsight. It was always a risk to employ him, in the same way that it was a risk to buy all these inexperienced players in the Summer. Both these risks could have yielded big success, but sadly they have both led us to relegation. I don't begrudge him doing well in his next job, he's done nothing to offend me or insult the club in his time here, other than do what I feel is quite a poor job. I felt the same way about Sherwood. I think Garde was given alot of slack for his team selections and tactics. I can't believe he's only been our manager for 4 months - it feels like 2 years.

Thats pure speculation. Based on what we've seen under Garde, its highly likely we will lose every game from now until the season ends. A new manager with free reign to what he wants and pick the players he wants with an eye on next season might just stop the rot and win a couple of games or at least get some draws before the end of the season. I find your attitude bizarre - "we are going to lose anyway so why bother trying to change something". You should takeover from Randy.

I'm not saying he's going to be the next big thing - I'm saying that it aren't going to play him in the Championship, then why are we holding on to him? If he can't get in our team in the Championship, he will never get in our Premier League team (assuming we get promoted), we might as well let him go and build a career somewhere else. Why mess him around with loans moves every year? Unless we are preparing for life in League 1 and we think he's going to play regularly for us then.

If he is not going to be here next year, either because he is quitting or because we are sacking him, then he might as well leave now. We are down, so let the man for next season come in now and try rebuild some of the confidence and get a few wins before the end of the season. We could lose every game between now and the end of the season if we carry on like this, and that destroyed confidence might seep through to the beginning of next season.

I don't think many teams will be after him, if any at all. He was hyped for about a dozen games and then has fallen totally off the radar. Based on what we have seen, there are much better young players at other clubs that clubs like West Ham will be after before they go for Grealish. He needs to apply himself in the Championship, help get us promoted and then have a good full season in the Premier League. Then he will move on. I've just said the same thing about Gardner - if we aren't going to play him next season, then there is no point at all in keeping him.

If he doesn't get a chance next season, then why have we bothered to keep him for so many years? We could have sold him and made some money, and also let the guy try re-build his career.

Shiiiiittt maaannnnn......

For what reason do you think so little of Grayson?

Big Sam isn't an option. If Sunderland go down, he won't quit because he's too stubborn to accept failure, and they won't sack him because they will know he's probably one of the best out there to get them back up.

I think we need to do what West Ham have done. Bring in someone of the ilk of Big Sam - not necessarily fashionable, but solid and you know what you are going to get (although granted he's not pulling up trees with Sunderland right now). Then once we are back in the Premier League and established for a couple of seasons, then we look to bring someone in who can push us on to the next level. I would genuinely give Simon Grayson a go if we could get him. I've always been really impressed with him and how he sets his teams up, and he's done well everywhere he's been other than one sticky spell at Huddersfield. I think he would get the best out of any decent players we manage to keep and have coming through the youth teams, and he also knows the lower leagues well and his knowledge would help us bring the right players in. He's also managed teams to promotion, albeit not promotion from the Championship. To be honest, Grayson was my choice when MON left, when Houllier left and when McLeish left, and he's now got 5 years more experience. I think he would get us back up and then we would have to make a decision as to where we go next.

Not good reading - and I'm an accountant. Any business posting figures like this would be set for a massive overhaul (or dare I say it - takeover as a business in distress), but then football clubs are a bit of a unique animal. Perhaps this explains why Hollis has been brought in though - someone with proven financial pedigree, even if without any background in football.

This is hindsight. And you ignore the fact that confidence was shattered under Sherwood's watch. I have to say though, on reflection I've been really disappointed with Garde so far. I expected and hoped for much much more.

And thats the reason we need to play Gestede - he actually poses a threat in the box and it makes things happen.

Oh, and Cissokho has taken a few games, but he's now very poor again. Typical Villa.

Why Garde didn't bring Gestede on at half time, I don't know. We are not going to win games relying only on Lescott scoring goals from set pieces. 2 shocking goals conceded. Even now, why would you not bring Gestede on for Bacuna and go for it? No fight at all from most of the players, and I don't believe the manager is helping the situation.

We should get Gestede on and play him up front with Gabby. We can win this, Stoke are nothing special. It would have to be one of Gil or Veretout to come off, as Bacuna is giving Hutton cover with Arnoutovic. Can't believe it, if we win this then we are closing the gap again. 3 points here and the Liverpool result is less significant.

Lets say we won the next 2, on your logic that would mean we are aiming for 4 wins from games including Swansea, Bournemouth and Newcastle - then we might feel as though things are back in our hands to extent (although not really). What I'm trying to say is back-to-back wins would make a massive difference to us. Sadly I've been saying this since the Newcastle game in December.

Totally disagree - we need to focus on catching the team above us, and then once we've caught them, focus on the one above etc. We won't need 38 points if everyone else collapses, we just need to get close enough to be in contention, sooner the better.

We're in the zone though where one bad week will see us fall 11 points adrift again, and then the glimmer fades significantly. We need to win the next couple of games, and then when we lose 1 or 2 it won't finish us.