Teale's 'tache

The GOAT has retired... Really nice bloke by all accounts, and I'll be forever grateful to each and every member of that promotion team, even the much maligned. Go well Mr Taylor.

I fully expected Emery could get that kind of a performance out of these players, and they are good players, I just didn't expect to see it this soon. Credit to him for getting his messages/ideas across so quickly, and credit to the players for taking them on board and implementing them so effectively. There's still plenty of work to be done, he knows the level he wants us to reach, and he knows what is required to get us there. Next step is to get an away performance to match this one, our home form is good and that alone is probably good enough to keep us up, but if we can get some away form going, that's when you know we are in with a shout of a decent finish. United, despite what some say, are not a bad team, but they were made to look like one. I saw so much of what we'd been lacking, there was so much movement, pressing, organisation, energy... keep producing that and we'll keep winning games. I think these next few games before the break are very useful for him to fully assess the capabilities of this squad, then we'll see what happens in January, I don't think it will be as much of a clear out as many imagine, he can get the best out of these players.

After the euphoria of Sunday it's difficult to know what to expect from us, whereas with Newcastle you pretty much know exactly how they are going to play. So I'm hoping we may have an element of surprise which may help us. Our record up there is awful though, and they are a good team in good form, so anything is bonus from this one, I'd just like to see another positive performance. A point would be most welcome, 3 would be incredible.

The performance against Brentford was very cathartic for those players I felt, I've rarely seen a Villa team so obviously pumped up and motivated from the first whistle to the last, I think it's unlikely we'll see that every game going forward, and it would be unfair to expect Emery to motivate them to those same levels, as the circumstances allowed and created it and circumstances change, but it was certainly needed, a few more performances like that and the disconnect between players and fans will certainly be no more.

A week ago, this forum was a pretty grim place to be, there was very little optimism going in to that Fulham game, we kind of knew it was going to be a horror show and we just hoped it would all be over soon, all we had was that hope. Now? Gerrard is gone, we absolutely walloped bogey team Brentford, we have a world class coach incoming, key players looking to return from injuries early, and the sky's the limit. One thing to keep in mind though is that even though some things can change quickly in football, not everything does, some things are only changed by hard work and repetition on the training ground, over a period of time. We aren't suddenly going to beat everyone 4-0, we aren't suddenly an impeccably coached and tactically flexible team just because a good coach has arrived, it takes time. We have the ingredients (the players), and now we have a world renowned chef(Emery), let's give him time to cook us up something special... (Balti Pie)

I don't know the dynamics of our dressing room, but I feel McGinn and his jokey character doesn't really lend itself to a leadership role, I see him more as more of a soldier, somebody you'd want in the rank and file, good for moral, works his socks off, never gives up. It was a poor decision by Gerrard to give him the armband and it has left McGinn perceived from the outside at least to have been Gerrard's golden boy. I don't know if he wanted the captaincy or if he felt it was too big a thing to turn down or what, but his game was suffering long before it and dropped off a cliff after it, he really didn't need that extra attention. I think the whole thing probably has changed the dressing room dynamic somewhat, and it may take a little time for it to settle back down. Like many under Gerrard I don't think the role he was given really suited his strengths, you see his role for Scotland and it's obvious he's better further forward, harrying in a press, winning the ball higher up the pitch, none of this appeared to be his remit under Gerrard. I think Emery will find some qualities there that he can use, I think there's a few different roles he could possibly play against certain types of opposition, though he'll likely be spending a bit more time on the bench and in truth that may help him to build a bit of confidence again. I don't know if we'll see the best of McGinn again and he may feel it's time to move on, but I think Emery is capable of getting whatever McGinn still has left to offer, the rest is up to him really.

I think Ramsey is one of many who will benefit from just getting some clear instructions again, when he broke through he was praised for his tactical awareness, but you couldn't say that was a strength of any of our players under Gerrard towards the end. Show him a clear tactical plan with his role in it and I think he'll shine, but first, I think the lad could probably do with a bit of a rest, he's been none stop for a while now, with the added pressure of being one of our main goal threats, so mentally as much as anything he could probably do with a rest, the World Cup break seems to be coming at a good time for him in that respect. He's a good player, and a stall in development doesn't mean the end of development, he's still young and is now going to be working with a world class coach for the first time, hopefully there's more to come from him.

Absolute clown show down the Molinuex at the moment. I had a hunch they might struggle this season, simply because I know a lot of Wolves fans wanted rid of Lage over the summer, and if they didn't hit the ground running there was always going to be immediate discontent. A bit like us with Gerrard. Then there was their summer business, they signed what appeared like a few decent players for not insignificant fees and they've looked awful, but the main issue was the outgoings, they lost Coady, Dendonker and Saiss who were all solid consistent players for them. Losing Coady and Ruddy in particular left a big leadership vacuum in the dressing room, and I think that's a big issue at the moment, they lack leadership and not having a proper manger for an extended period will only exacerbate that problem. They've still got a decent technical first 11 when fit and being used correctly, so I'm not sure it's "Dyche Time" yet, but there's no depth there at all, a decent coach and a bit of decent investment and they could wriggle themselves safe I think, problem is neither of those things are on the horizon at the moment. If they lose Neves they'll be down, he's by far their best player by some distance and the last thing resembling a leader they have left.

I thought Emery was a little out of our reach with the position we are in, and his reputation could of got him any number of Champions League jobs, so bravo to those that have sold him the vision. This appointment is mind blowing, this guy is a master tactician, his record is ridiculous, what he's managed to achieve at Villarreal with their budget is just phenomenal, and it's not like he's just excelled at one club, it's pretty much every club, and in different countries, big and small. You can see in the way he interviews that he is utterly obsessed with football, finding solutions, exploring each end every situation to get the maximum out of it. There's no big ego getting in the way, just an endless and relentless desire to improve every minute detail. This is a proper, world class manager, have no doubts. However, I'm not going to expect miracles straight away, it's going to take the players a little while to get used to his methods, and for some of the ideas to be communicated effectively, but when they do we are going to be one extremely tactically flexible team. I can't wait to see what he can do with this squad of players, let alone with further investment.

If this is what happens when the owners gets angry, then we should get them angry more often!

I don't think the players "downed tools", up until the Fulham game at least. I think they simply lost belief in what they were being asked to do. If you are told to do your job a certain way, even though you believe it's not the correct way, at what point do you question that instruction? Maybe not at first, more likely you'll do as you're told and trust the manager giving the instruction, but if the results of those instructions are poor, and then you're asked to carry out the same instructions again? Rinse and repeat this many times and you can see how the enthusiasm for the job at hand wanes. If then the said manager begins throwing you and your team mates under the bus for the poor results... well, we all know how it ended. I'm not saying the players are free from blame, just trying to explain how it's difficult to perform when you don't have confidence in what you are being asked to do. I think there was a cathartic feel to the Brentford performance, I think the whole club needed it, but it's not something I expect to be easily repeated, the circumstances that led to that performance will change. It simply shows that if you can convince the players that what they are doing is correct then they will follow, and they have the talent to do so very effectively .

If it is announced today, then Gregg Evans knows nothing about it... Who could possibly need further proof than that?

If we had a squad of players that were all good at everything we'd never lose a game. It's not realistic, unless you are Man City. Part of a managers job is to take the players he has and make something out of it, a mix of player types and a system that best hides their weaknesses whilst making the most the most of their strengths. You say we have no forward who is a threat in the air, then why on earth have we put nearly the most crosses into the box across the whole league? That's not playing to the strengths of what we have available. In the end, the results weren't good enough for the players we have available, I feel that a new voice, and a new defined system that plays to our strengths will result in better performances. Time will tell, as it always does.

I think this is the most important thing, there's still room to be somewhat old school in your handling of players, but you have to be consistent with it, I don't think Gerrard was consistent. Part of managing a team of any kind is understanding how to motivate each member, and more importantly understanding that not every team member will react the same way, old school may work on some, but not all. I also don't agree with the bombing out of players, it's not something top coaches do anymore, now more than ever it's a squad game and denying yourself part of that of that squad is not really beneficial. Gerrard was quick to bomb out Guilbert and pack Traore off on loan, and in his final game didn't have a fit right back to start and had been begging for a 'bit of magic' in the final third, something that Traore is entirely capable of providing when fit and motivated. I'm not saying these are amazing players that would of kept him in a job, simply that it would of been better to keep them onside than not.

I'm surprised they let Critchley go so quickly with a game just around the corner, but it does suggest they have somebody lined up. I'd be disappointed if we didn't to be honest, I wouldn't want a situation like at Wolves where they've desperately gone from manager to manager being rebuffed and then settling on the current interim until the end of the year, proper clown car stuff that. I'm hoping, much like when Gerrard was appointed, it's just a case of leaving it a few days for optics rather than anything else. I've no idea who that person may be, but they'll need to get the players on board and up to speed quickly as we've a tough run ahead of us.

I have some sympathy for Gerrard. I think he genuinely tried to do his best and made decisions based on what he thought was right, he had some poor luck with injuries and obviously a backroom reshuffle is never ideal, especially when you are the type of manager who relies so heavily on them. That said, he created a lot of his own issues, was given way too much licence with regards to the squad and transfer policy, and simply didn't have the experience to fix any of the issues we already had, let alone those he created himself. It's a classic case of somebody being put in a position they aren't qualified for, and that is very much on Purslow I feel. From Gerrards point of view it was a dream job he'd of been insane to turn down, but it was too much too soon, I don't think it's impossible he could become a good manager some day, but I think it would require a good deal of introspection, recognition of his mistakes and probably an update to some of his philosophies, certainly his man management felt a bit old school, which doesn't work so well on modern day players. I don't get the attacks on him personally, I don't enjoy when any manager gets the boot, it usually means we as a club have failed somewhere. He did what he could and it wasn't close to good enough, I don't think there's anything more damning you can say than that.

If it's coming from Eden's side, I'm not sure he'd be getting any team news in advance, I don't think Eden's knows or needs to know line-ups unless he has intentions of meddling in the team. We run a really tight ship and that's led by Purslow and the owners, I can't see a leak coming from any of them. Also, I don't think it's much of a prediction to guess that Bailey would start anyway, Gerrard was always likely to go as close to the same team as against Man City, so as soon as Bailey was announced fit it seemed highly likely he'd be starting. The Frank thing is more interesting. We may well be interested, so could Wolves or Bournemouth, or any number of teams looking for a manager. The fact is his star is on the rise and that will generate interest, our manager is about to be sacked so putting those two things together isn't difficult, but the timing of his new contract talks certainly suggests Brentford are trying to warn off interest. The problem with these kind of accounts is they can always delete the stuff they get wrong, so when you read through it seems like they are on to something, the odd person will remember and call them out, but who's listening to them?

Not sure what to make of this 'Lyric' guy, he has seemingly got a few things right early on (Kamara, Sarr deal collapsing), things you couldn't easily guess, but also makes some fairly obvious predictions as some kind of proof to his validity. Then there's the random deleting and re-appearance of the account. Last week he was saying that Thomas Frank was 'desperate' to join us, and now he's supposedly signing a new contract. So, clearly he does just guess at some things or is not as close to them as he likes to appear. Also, I don't buy the whole mainstream media are months behind him on Pochettino. Rumours that are months old are long dead, news and situations change too quickly, especially in this day and age, and so are unlikely to be picked up and ran with when there are plenty of more up to date rumours flying around. If I had to guess I'd say he's had some info come his way at some point, likely from an agent, enjoyed the attention it brought and he's made the the most of it, and now wants some more, whether he's still getting information remains to be seen though.

I've no idea why he may want to wait until the World Cup, there could be any number of reasons, family or football related. I would imagine we are not his preferred destination, but if you are waiting for a top class coach who's preferred destination is Aston Villa then you are going to be waiting for a very long time. Anyway, this should probably be in the next manager thread so I'll leave it at that.

I've also seen Fabrizio Romano say that the Gerrard situation is very complicated, which leans a little into the rumour that Poch maybe waiting for the World Cup, because if he is our priority and we have to wait for him then it definitely complicates matters. It also makes me wonder if there is some kind of clause in Gerrards contract about the amount of compensation we'd have to pay should we drop in to the bottom three, maybe we are waiting for that to happen? Maybe we aren't as prepared for this situation as many think and are only just beginning to sound out a replacement? Certainly it doesn't seem a simple 'sack one hire the other' kind of scenario at the moment, which may explain the lack of anything actually happening. I agree though that we'll be looking to minimise the gap between sacking Gerrard and employing the next guy.

As fans we're not privy to definitive facts on decisions that are made at board room level, all we have is our best guess with the evidence at hand. We have a sporting director, his job is to run the footballing side of the operation, part of his job would be to source a list of replacements for an outgoing coach/manager and present them to the board along with his recommendation, the board can then make an informed decision on who's best to appoint. Many feel, myself included, that this was not the process when appointing Gerrard due to Purslow's obvious affiliation with him. Johan Lange is an analytics focused sporting director, what are the odds that on his list of potential new coaches is an inexperienced but big name manager that just so happens to be affiliated with Mr Purslow? I think it's entirely plausible that Purslow put forward Gerrard as a candidate and then sold that appointment to the board. Now, as CEO Purslow is entitled to do that, he is above Lange in the clubs hierarchy, but should he? There's little point in employing a sporting director if you are just going to ignore all of his analytics and advice. I think most would prefer the footballing expert be the one putting the names forward and not the business man. So, in short many blame him for the Gerrard appointment. On top of this, some believe (not myself), that Purslow was the driving force behind the signing of Danny Ings as some way of placating fans after the sale of Grealish. It was a seemingly odd signing. And then finally there's plenty of old rumours flying around about Mr Purslow's time at Liverpool, where he supposedly interfered with footballing matters up to and including appointing Roy Hodgson and signing Joe Cole. How much of any of this you believe is entirely up to you. In the Good Old Days™, it was not uncommon for CEO's and chairmen to be picking and appointing the manager, and in many ways they still have final say, it's just nowadays they have an in house expert to draw them up a list to choose from, less chance of them getting it horribly wrong that way...

I have a number of concerns at the moment. Firstly, when we finally decide to make a change there are going to be some big footballing decisions to make, and I'm no longer convinced by the people that will most likely be making them. First big decision is what to do about Purslow, and how much blame should be attributed to him. It seems he has overstepped in to footballing matters to employ the manger he wanted. This has been a very damaging decision, not only because of what has happened on the pitch, but also the complete abandonment of a club ethos and a 180 degree change in transfer policy that has followed. We've essentially ripped everything up and started again, but this was not the plan we, and likely the owners, were sold when Smith was employed, what was supposed to happen when Smith was relieved of his duties was that another head coach would be appointed that could follow, or work within, the ethos and transfer policy already in place. This way we 'd continue to progress, and losing a head coach would be nothing more than a bump in the road. I'm not sure what was sold to the owners, by Gerrard or Purslow, but it must of been mighty convincing for them to have gone a long with it and abandoned the previously agreed upon strategy. Obviously, whatever was sold has certainly not come to pass, and if indeed it was Purslow's sell then I can't imagine the owners are too happy with him. Some trust will certainly have been broken, nobody likes to be sold something that turns out to be faulty. Do they trust Purslow enough to be involved in appointing the next manager? Should he even of been involved in the process of appointing Gerrard at all? They trust Purslow to do the day to day running of the club and from a commercial point of view he's been doing an excellent job by all accounts, but the footballing side is not really his remit, we have a sporting director for that. Which brings us on to Lange, from the outside looking in it seems like there's been a bit of a power struggle going on. Lange and his philosophies seem to have been moved aside to accommodate anything Gerrard wants, including transfer policy, when in theory it should be the other way around. Lange as sporting director should be dictating to Gerrard the manager, but of course Gerrard can bypass him and go straight to Purslow to get what he wants, it leaves Lange in an unenviable position, and he appears to have just accepted this new arrangement. I think I want my sporting director to be stronger than that. Footballing matters fall on his shoulders and I'd be very interested to learn if he had any say in Gerrards appointment or the change in transfer strategy, has he just said yes against his better judgment or has he just got starry eyed and agreed with anything the great Steven Gerrard has said? Another decision after Gerrard has gone is, what is our philosophy now? Where do we want to go from here and how do we intend to get there? What is our transfer strategy now? Do the owners trust Purslow and/or Lange to get the next appointment correct? Do they want to revert back to the old philosophy? If so how easy is that going to be with Lange/Purslow still in place? If they get rid of Purlsow, then they have to rely on Lange to make the next appointment, if they get rid of Lange they have to rely on Purslow, but he's already shown that that kind of trust could well be misplaced. If they get rid of both?... Do they make an appointment themselves? I don't think that is their style. I feel a lot of these questions need to be answered before we can realistically start drawing up lists of who the best man for the job might be, and also what is the job now exactly? Head Coach or Manager? How much sway should the new guy get? We're in a right old mess, and one bad appointment has put us there, in my opinion one good appointment could go a long way to at least getting us back where we started, but who's making that decision and can they be trusted? I'm sorry about all the questions, I promise I don't have that annoying upwards inflection every time I ask one...

@Muller Yogurt Long Sleever To Add the image you click on the 'other media' button on the bottom right of the area where you create a post then click on 'insert image from URL', then you enter the URL (address of where you image is online) of your image, in this case the URL is: "https://indd.adobe.com/view/publication/3b7d7673-b121-4364-b047-f6249f6fd73c/1/publication-web-resources/image/Screenshot_2022-10-16_at_19.21.54.png" And I'll post your image below for anyone who missed or didn't want to click on the link Some nice stuff there mate, I also tried switching the lion to face to the right, but it doesn't seem to matter how many times I see it facing that way my brain keeps telling me it's wrong, I guess over time people may get used to it, just might be a hard sell to begin with!

Cracking news, even if there's a release clause we've protected our investment somewhat, losing him for nothing would of been a right kick in the bits. On the footballing side, I love the way he plays the game, he always looks like he's having fun, and we could all do with a bit of that in our lives right now! Joga Bonito!