It is partly where he's come from, but it's also his managerial reputation in general & it's hard to separate the two. I think if it was McGrath he would not be getting the same venom, but that is an extreme contrast because McGrath is a player beloved to the fans here, so of course they would be more generous to him.
A better question would be if it was a different manager with no links to either Villa or Birmingham. I think it is very possible for a manager with no previous history with the club to quickly become heavily disliked by a fanbase.
How about a hypothetical for you:
If McLeish had done everything exactly the same this season & all previous seasons, with the sole difference was that instead of it being Birmingham who he managed and relegated twice, it was with a similar sized club with no particular link to Villa (say, Portsmouth) - do you think he would be getting the same venom?
I think it would be slightly less, but it wouldn't take long to get to the same point he's at now. He would still have the relegation & bad football reputation, the appointment would still have been met with much skepticism, albeit probably less hatred at the start - but the football would quickly speak for itself.
yep i can agree with that, eventually with this style of footy us fans would become unhappy and be looking for a change in management. but i just feel that calling for mcleish to be sacked was always going to happen even if we improved on last season. after a decent (not great, but decent) start to the season considering our squad, people were calling for his head when we went out of league cup to bolton. it was as if people were just waiting for our first defeat so that they could finally say what they wanted to since his appointment. i might be wrong, thats just how i percieved it.