slabsquare

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/tottenham-struggle-offload-emmanuel-adebayor-2052256

So Spurs apparently don't have the funds to sign Benteke unless they sell Adebayor. So why have they spent the last 4 weeks whispering to their mates in the media about their intention to do so, unsettling our prize asset in the process? Barcelona probably don't have the funds to sign Ronaldo unless they sell Messi. And in case anyone was wondering I currently don't have the funds to bail out Hearts, buy the Royal Mail, or acquire my 20-bedroom country manor dream home in 100 acres of unspoilt undulating countryside - when I do I'll let the world (and Daniel Levy) know. But not beforehand

(Apologies - too thick for short links, please educate me)

Ahh yes, reasons why internet forums like this can be such depressing / tiresome / charmless places to be

Bannan is almost certainly not good enough to be a Villa player, probably not good enough to be in the PL - that's not his fault, that's just the way it is. Nor am I,it's a simple statement of fact but I don't expect people to publicly slate me for it and shower me in personal. speculative abuse

Bannan makes one stupid but very human error of judgement - not uncharacteristic in an immature individual in his late teens or early 20s, particularly when that individual is living a life of minor celebrity and material affluence that nobody could have prepared him for. He's in the public eye so everyone gets to hear about it. And the world queues up to put the boot and extrapolates from that one incident that he is a rubbish human being and a "pisshead". Unless I am missing something where is the evidence that, following the crash, he hasn't got his head down and tried to learn the lesson but, unfortunately, simply not progressed and proved to have the necessary attributes as a top class footballer?

It's so easy for angry, anonymous people to spew their hate-fuelled, personalised, judgemental bile on the internet; to propagate myths, conjecture and hearsay; and to viciously assassinate the character of someone they know next to nothing about, without ever having to back it up with much in the way of meaningful evidence. I'll hazard a guess that these same people are making stupid and very human errors every day of their lives (I know I do) - they would be mortified if angry strangers homed on these errors as evidence that they are terrible people, and screamed and shouted their ill-considered opinions from the roof tops. Fortunately most of us aren't interesting enough to merit that kind of scrutiny. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and try to get his facts right before he does so.

Not a football thing, just another example of what a nasty, sneering, unforgiving society we live in. And it right royally p#sses me off

 

 

true! bring back some old shit experienced pros! bring back playing 7 defenders! stop this 4 attackers bollocks!

Ironically, it is perhaps one of the saddest indictments on Alex McLeish's ability as a manager that his team selections weren't that defensive. The personnel tended to be OK relative to what was available. It was the utterly abysmal instructions they were sent out there with that was the problem.

 

i'm pretty sure we went out with a back 4, and three defenders in midfield in one game, clark, warnock and hutton.

 

O'Hissyfit was pretty adept at cramming 6 defenders in to the team too

 

 

 

FFS, I just do not think we have improved much......and the proof of which one of us is right will be next season.

Aww, don't be angry. It's you that cited THIS season when making your point. It was then pointed out that this season we improved so you have now moved it to NEXT season. Well played though!

 

I am not angry,and like I said only time will tell.

I have been a Villa supporter for over 30 years and I really,really,REALLY hope I am wrong...but I just can not shake the feeling that I am right.

 

 

Unfortunately we won't know for at least a year until we are able to play Wigan again.

 

Genius!

- 2013 - 2018 - Villa win the league every year, 3 Champions Leagues and 4 other domestic cups

- 2019 - 2020 - Wigan are promoted back to the Premier League. Villa beat them 4-1 away and 5-1 at home. PussEKatt grudgingly admits that there are signs of the green shoots of recovery, and that Lambert should be given one more year to prove himself up to the job

 

 

There is nothing I would like better that to be proved wrong on this one BUT the way I see it is that we could not beat Wigan in the first game of the season and we could not beat Wigan 38 games later....FFS how is that an improvement ?

Yes, I know that we lost to Wigan on the first day but changing a loss into a draw is not much of an improvement is it ?!

You've already been proved wrong. You just won't look at the proof.

1st half of season, we were 16th. 2nd half we were 9th. Improvement?

1st third, we were 18th. 2nd third, 17th. Final third, 8th. Improvement?

And that team we lost to on the first day was not Wigan, it was West Ham. Guess what we did to them when we met them next? We beat them.

Look, everyone uses the stats available in order to justify their own stance, but objectively we have improved. Whether you choose to see it or not is completely up to you.

 

Like I said " there is nothing I would like better than to be proved wrong" but I still think we have not improved enough.

Remember this post when we are 5-6 games into next season !

 

You have already been proved wrong in the post you are responding to - you just like wallowing in negativity and won't back down however much your argument gets torn to shreds

And if you are going to make a lame argument at least have the sense to select accurate facts to try to back it up. In your last few posts you have claimed that we played Wigan on the first day of the season (we didn't) and that we lost 3-1 to them in the home game (we lost 3-0). And you conveniently forgot to mention the crucial away victory at Norwich when disparaging our end-of-season efforts. Forgive people if they can't take you seriously - you literally don't know what you're talking about, and are clearly here just to try to drag everyone down to your level of pessimism 

I could barely find a good thing to say about the club 12 months ago after McBluenose smothered the remaining life out of us. It is abundantly obvious that we are in an far better place now - accept that for what it is and you might even get some pleasure out of life

 

 

 

A villa manager who doesn't treat the fans with disdain.

Progress

 

Alex McLeish never had a bad word to say about Villa or the fans and still doesnt. Obviously I prefer Lambert as a manager but McLeish was always respectful to us and the club.

 

Unless you meant Houllier in which case, yeah you have a point

Disagree. Some of McLeish's post match comments were a disgrace. He treated this club like a **** joke.

Agree Mantis, whilst he didn't put the fans down he constantly put the club down

 

Agreed. And if he hasn't slagged off the club since it's because no-one in the media is remotely interested in what the discredited, charmless oaf has to say

 

 

 

 

Im not sure what all the Lawro hate is about.

 

Please refer to my post on page 3 of this thread.  It's not about Lawrenson vs Villa, it's Lawrenson vs football.  He's a dreadful commentator, a terrible pundit and his lack of knowledge in the game is unprecedented.  The BBC stand religiously by this behemoth of inadequacy as if he is the only presenter available, while Sky have picked Gary Neville straight off the pitch who is doing an infinitely better job, despite being many years younger than the aging scouser.

 

 

 

And that is a reason to hate him?

 

 

It's not hate, he is just so inadequate he should not be anywhere near the pinnacle of football critique on supposedly the world's leading broadcaster.  What do you think he brings to the table?

 

 

 

He brings about as much to the table as most of them - bar Gary Neville who you rightly point out is very good. I think Lawro's quite dry in his approach (which I like) and to say he knows nothing about football is bordering on insane. Of course he knows a lot about football. They don't rip it apart like Gary Neville does, but yet I always get the impression Gary Nevilles had all weekend to study it - and actually when you think about it - what he is pointing out is not rocket science. Any numpty with half a footballing brain would be able to see it if they watched it over and over again in slow motion. Thats taking nothing away from him because as I say, he is very good and comes across very well.

 

Its also very interesting that he seems to side with Villa - unlike the other pundits mentioned here 

 

If Lawro was so bad, then he would not be employed. Simple as. He obviously appeals to a certain market, which I imagine would be of an older generation, but as I say I dont mind him and Im 28. 

 

Lawrenson is infinitely preferable to Hansen (a parrot with 5 clichés in his repertoire) or Shearer - he appears to have a personality and a sense of humour which helps

Savage's presence on the BBC is inexplicable. Employing the likes of him, Claridge and effluent-spouting human slug Alan Green seems to be part of a calculated policy to mimic TalkSport rather than trying to raise the bar

 

 

To think, we are only just recovering from the O'Neill era. 

 

Lambert is the man for the future.

Based on nearly relegating us?

No based on rebuilding a crap squad, for reinvigorating a club that had lost it's direction and passion. For buying the best striker we've had in years, unearthing talent like Westwood and lowton, getting delph back on track, playing good attacking football. I could go on. It's the beginning of something special, sure there's still work to be done, but this place is in a hell of a better place than it was before he came.

It's a real shame you can't see this and have to constantly focus on the negatives and the bad start we had. We finished strongly and if it wasn't for a red card would have comfortably beaten Chelsea. Progress has been made. You should join in, because for a change it feels good to be a villa fan.

 

Spot on

Morpheus' posts are generally quite well written but dig beneath the surface and various things stand out:-

- He seems incapable of putting last season into a historical context. Our recent / current circumstances have been a long-time coming - Ellis' eternal dithering, conservatism and failure to fully realise out potential in an era which had been set up to benefit the big city clubs; O'Neill's short-termism, financial recklessness, and self-serving narcissism; McLeish's rank incompetence; and Lerner's well-intentioned but frequently poorly-judged decision-making - these had all contributed to a club which had spent beyond its means, woefully under-achieved over a 20 year period, and saddled itself with a mediocre squad comprising far too many wage hogs

- He regularly makes sweeping generalisations about the views of other posters to back up his own views, referring to "a majority of posters" or stating that "no-one" was predicting our relegation / poor performance at the start of the season etc etc - the reality is that people on a forum like this will express a huge range of views, and that many  individual people will change their position from one week to the next  - falsely claiming that what you say is somehow backed by a mythical consensus amongst other fans doesn't magically give your position any validity

- He has clearly taken against Lambert and seems to be entrenched in a negative mindset (perhaps understandable after what has gone before). He seems incapable of acknowledging any of the positives or the sheer scale of the job that Lambert took on, and has totally unrealistic expectations about where we should be 10 months into the Lambert era

This season has been uncomfortable viewing for me - the idea that our great club could 'do a Leeds' and disappear into the Championship mire and beyond was not a pleasant one. But for all the lows it was very apparent to me throughout that the nadir had actually been under McLeish the previous season. Even if we had gone down Lambert was clearly making the best of what he had been given, putting us on a sustainable financial footing in the longer term (perhaps the most important thing of all), creating the beginnings of a squad with potential and hunger, off-loading the remains of the mercenary dead wood, and refreshingly managing to deliver some half-decent football along the way - the bigger picture is that we have turned a corner after a long slow decline (which, when O'Neill was in charge, we didn't realise was already very much under way) and that we now have good reason to be more positive

AAAAAAAgggggghhhhhh!!

 

Didn't come on here for ages and ages as I couldn't bear the endless premature complaiang of a couple of people who thought they knew better than the Manager.

 

I assumed I could come on now and see the most positive forum for years - how wrong I was.  But for the same reasons/people.

 

I would have thought ANYONE could see that Lambert has been the best thing to happen to this Club for many many years.

 

We are finally OFF the ridiculous 'star player' merry - go round (Samba anyone ?), we are breeding a real Team ethos, with young hungry players (who at worst will be sold off to enable continued re-investment).  We ar enow one of the best placed Clubs in the Country following last year which in so many ways was a modern day nadir.

 

We play exciting football, we will get better and better.  We cut and chopped and risked for a reason, and it has worked.

 

Yes only a few points off the bottom, but equally only a few off top 10, and so much to build on. 

 

I would agree that defensively there is work needed, but anyone can see how much tighter and better the Team got at that as the season went on.

 

I feel so sorry for those who still aren't happy - and pray I don't get sat next to them next year - bring back standing so the enthusiasts can be together !!

 

Roll on 2013/14

Hard to fault most of this. Blame Ellis, Lerner, O'Hissyfit, McBluen#se. But get real. Lambert was dealt a rotten hand by those who had gone before - he cut it fine but the very best we could have hoped for was that he would keep us up this season. And he did it with a commitment to decent football (which, barring Houllier, we hadn't seen for 6 or 7 years), and by assembling hungry, unproven youngsters to replace the mediocre mercenaries who were bleeding the club dry

The crisis of the wage hogs which the narcissistic dinosaur O'Hissyfit created is over. Now we cash in on Bent and N'Zogbia; offload Dunne and Ireland; upgrade on a few of the others; and hope that Benteke stays for at least one more year or sell him for a fortune. But I genuinely believe that the only way is up

I hate that Villa have become a bottom 5 club, that even next season we will probably only be mid-table. But we have to be realistic - we're rebuilding after an era where people with huge egos failed to be realise our potential, or recklessly gambled with our long-term livelihood to try to boost their own reputations, or dragged us into the mire with their breath-taking incompetence. The worst is over. With Lambert a better future beckons

I don't recall that many fans predicting Villa would go down.

Savage is a repugnant character. But from early in the season until the last 2 months there was every reason to believe that his prediction was going to come true. And, given that we have finally become safe with only 1 game to go, we have scarcely rammed his words back down his throat. There are many reasons to loathe this preening, wibbling oaf but predicting our relegation, and nearly being proved right, is hardly one of them

Oliver Holt's Head Successfully removed From Mon's Backside!

Oliver Holt's Head Successfully Removed From Oliver Holt

PL Sanction Use Of Holt-Head Ball for 2013/14 Season

O'Neill Disappears Up Own Backside After Holt Head Removal

Biggest Club In Country's Second Biggest City Finally Realises Potential - Media Left Disorientated

Villa To Take Season Off After Lambert Admits "Our 30 Years Of World Domination Is Starting To Spoil The Game"

Of those suggested in the original post Pongo Waring, Tony Barton and Alan Evans all stand out. A lot of the others are half-familiar names to me so I can't comment

I like the idea of the whole European Cup team being included, but it would be as a team - only Cowans, Withe and Evans merit being there as "great" individuals (who knows what Shaw might have achieved but he got injured so the argument ends there)

At the risk of sounding like an right old fart (45 and fading fast) I do wonder whether these kind of things prompt younger fans to laud their recent heroes rather than seeing the bigger picture, as in 120+ years of history. It makes me smile when someone refers to the likes of Angel as a "legend" when he was just a reasonably good player who did ok in a relatively mediocre period of the club's history. From the Premier League era only Yorke comes close to joining Our Lord as a truly great player (maybe special consideration for Mellberg for his loyalty, attitude and rapport with the fans). Including Stan is just sentimental and misses the point of what a Hall of Fame is all about - we can (and have) shown our respect for him in other ways, and anyone who fights (and has hopefully won) that particular battle deserves total respect, but he is not by any stretch of the imagination a great Villa player

A Hall of Fame is about the truly great players in a club's history - for a big but historically under-achieving club like Villa between 12 and 20 would be about right at this stage. The good news is that, once the post-Ferguson Lambert / Villa dynasty has ruled world football for the next 30 years there will be at least another 20 inducted by 2045

I just wanted to make clear the point that he hasn't stopped funding us,

that it's fair to criticise for many things, but financial backing

isn't one of them. It's just not been true to this point, and accounts

show this.

Blandy, so the fact we failed to be able to bring in even a decent loan player in January knowing we were desperate to just survive was a sign of financial backing? Nice flags for Bradford game though, really useful they were in that match.

 

He has wasted money but when it was REALLY needed bottled it and leaves us in great danger of going down - for that I am not appreciative!

You've ignored virtually everything he wrote. This is why modern football sucks, and why the world economy is in such a mess. If in doubt throw some (borrowed) money at it - sod the long-term consequences, don't plan ahead or put things into a context. Most of Villa's current problems must ultimately rest at Lerner's door because he has been the man in charge and his judgement has been poor. But having inadvertently allowed others to gamble on our future existance to pamper their own egos, whilst squandering the millions and millions which he gave to them, he is at least making our financial survival his immediate priority, and for this we should be grateful. He can't be expected to continuously throw good money after bad in the hope that it might just work out ok. It may be hideous to watch and it should never have been allowed to happen, but I would rather have a team playing somewhere to support in 20 years time than no team at all

Well if we don't get a super rich owner then we can forget winning anything other than maybe the odd League cup for decades. How this is supposed to be entertaining i really don't know?

 

A question i have always pondered is whether you should be happy to go along & watch a game lose, lose or draw? (Ok with the odd random win popping up now & then)

 

Frankly i am bored of that now. I insist on at least having a chance to see us win something of note, even if it is just occasionally. To have to put up with mediocrity decade after decade however is simply soul destroying & eventually makes the whole thing rather pointless. I was brought up watching a good Villa side who won things & this utter garbage we have to endure now is unacceptable in my opinion.

 

So Yeah i would take someone who had the ability to make us at least competitive any day.. I have endured the alternative for 30+ years now.

The curse of being a Villa fan today. The modern game stinks but it was a game created for big city clubs like us. With the possible exceptions of Newcastle and Leeds (who both got close, albeit at a cost) we have failed miserably to take advantage of the riches and glory on offer, and have looked a gift horse in the mouth.

If you're (random example) a Stoke fan then every season of beating the odds exceeds your expectations and watching football continues to be a thrill. If you're a Villa fan then disappointment is that much easier to find because failing to realise our potential (i.e. regular finishes in the top six, winning the odd trophy, flirting with and occasionally achieving Champions League qualification, attracting quality players) is that much easier to achieve. Plodding along amongst the Premier League also-rans and never making the great leap forward gets to be tedious.

That said I would rather we were achieving on merit than being bank-rolled to the top table by some amoral, sociopathic, egotistical billionaire. It's only my opinion but I will take relegation over losing the soul of my club like Chelsea and Man City have done

This is the thinking I have the greatest difficulty in dealing with - the idea that Randy Lerner is somehow an observer in this process, who has now had to step in to stop what was happening.

 

It was HIS "strategy" all along.

 

Phase 1 - let's go for top 4. Let's spend big on young players who will get us there. Nearly did it - OMG, we have some injuries in our defence, let's panic buy a whole new defence who can maintain the challenge.

 

Phase 2 - hang on, I can't afford this. Let's sell to buy - oops, there goes MON. Oh well Kevin Mac says he can do it with the youth team, let's give him a go. Hmm, or maybe I meant Gerard Houllier? OK, let's buy Bent for the largest fee ever paid for a Villa player ever, phew! relegation avoided.

 

Phase 3 - shame about Gerard, I know, how about Alex McLeish (letter of recommendation from Sralex). Oh dear, nearly relegated again and the fans hate him and the players he brought in are rubbish.

 

Phase 4 - OK, Paul Lambert, let's recruit an almost entirely new team who don't cost too much, drive out the remaining players on premier league pay and hope for the best. Sorry Paul, you must have misheard if you thought there would be money for players in January. Ah well, if we go down, Paul will get us back up...

Lerner has made many mistakes, and you have outlined most of them above - he is a well-intentioned but naive man who appears to have inherited his father's huge fortune but little of his business sense.

But his biggest errors were, as goes for the rest of us, falling for the Cult of O'Neill so totally, and ceding so much financial control to a man who clearly acts only for himself and had no concern for the impact of his behaviour on the long-term future of the club. O'Neill is a good defensive organiser and motivator who is reliant on long-ball tactics to achieve results. He brought in more bad players than good, often for inflated fees and on exhorbitant salaries, then refused to use many of them or realised himself that they weren't good enough, and stormed off in a hissy-fit when he was told that his strategy was unsustainable. He used the club to bolster his reputation and to earn the lavish praise of an inexplicably adoring and unquestioning media who, where Villa are concerned, forever seem incapable of scratching below the surface, looking at the wider picture and putting things into context. His misuse of Lerner's money, and his abuse of the trust placed in him, was reckless and contemptible in the extreme. He is an over-rated egotist who cannot take blame for his actions, and cares nothing for the mess which he created and ran away from.

Lerner  appears to be past his sell-by date and, whatever happens between now and the end of the season (and I think we all know deep down what is going to happen), he should sell up, both for the sake of the club and for the sake of his own financial future.

But however much the state of my club frustrates me, and however much I have grown to despise the moral cess pit of modern football in which morons, bullies, yobs, sociopaths, and self-absorbed, shallow ego-maniacs like Alex Ferguson, Suarez and Terry, Robbie Savage, Alan Green and a whole host of others are feted, rewarded and allowed to prosper unchallenged, I despise Martin O'Neill more than any of them

Top ten finish; 1 cup run at least; improved quality of football (virtually guaranteed); youth to be tried, tested, assessed and, if necessary, dispatched once and for all; and the remaining dross (Hutton, Warnock Dunce in particular) to follow Heskey out the door and be replaced by credible alternatives

Dunno what Bob Carolgees has been spouting but I see that Villa-hating, Lerner-bating, self-important, self-appointed 'most-connected-sports-journalist-in-the-Midlands' and 'close-personal-friend-of-Ellis' Pat Murphy is at it again:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18275337

In particular:-

"Villa are not the enticing proposition they once were, and Norwich are no 'country cousins' by comparison - Carrow Road's 22,000 season tickets last season matched that sold at Villa Park."

No attempt to put that stat into context, just another opportunity to put the shoe in to our club - anyone know what made this pompous, silly little has-been so bitter?

This will undermine the argument to remove the manager and replace at a cost of around £10m

The players have a lot to answer for this season

Gibberish

Manager responsible for performances on the pitch, and for installing discipline off it.

Manager has brought the club into disrepute with his ineptitude and negativity for the last 9 months, not for 50 seconds outside a night club

Plenty of dead wood in the club needs to go, and Collins and maybe Delph could be amongst them, but the manager must take the blame first, and has to go

Why the Fook is AM asking Bent to be on the bench when he knows he's not kicking the ball yet? That could be a silly question .... he only needs to head the ball really!

Alex McLeish insists Villa won't rush Darren Bent back before the end of the season - but the record signing is making good progress.

McLeish revealed he explored the possibility of calling on Bent for Villa's Barclays Premier League survival push.

But, although the 28-year-old striker is progressing well with his recovery from ankle surgery, it was decided not to risk him for the games against Tottenham or Norwich.

"I said 'are you ready to go on the bench at the weekend or something," said the Villa boss.

"He said: 'No, not quite, but I'm making good progress, so boss it might be too soon'.

"I don't believe there is a chance of him playing again for Villa this season.

"The doc thinks he's got a chance for the Euros though, so if he's talking he's talking about four or five weeks.

"He's running and he's working individually with the physios.

"I'm not sure if he's at the level of striking a ball yet, but he can't be far away from that now.

"The physios will still be working on him to get him back to his peak fitness again.

"We have to make sure he gets back good and proper."

i didn't read it that way to be honest. i don't think he was going to put him on the bench if he couldn't kick a ball.

the thing i didn't like about that is how vaguely he seemed aware of bent's progress. if your best striker was out you'd be well on top of every second of progress he was making towards being fully fit. no "not sure" about it!

Agreed - this is ridiculous:- "I'm not sure if he's at the level of striking a ball yet, but he can't be far away from that now."

How can the FOOTBALL manager at a top professional FOOTBALL club be so vague about the ability or otherwise of his injured star striker to KICK a FOOTBALL? Granted that little that McBl#enose says or does any more is going to meet with the approval of myself or other Villa fans, but is this not a measure of the fact that he is, amongst many other things, inept and a bit thick?

Yep, Lerner and Faulkner must take a lot of blame - they were cajoled by O'Neill into paying inflated wages for players who were, in a majority of cases, not good enough to merit the expenditure

But this brings into stark relief again how appallingly Longball O'Hissyfit behaved - he played a significant part in creating this mess, with Lerner never having promised to have bottomless pockets - Lerner relied on his football expertise for guidance, and O'Hissyfit was happy to tell him that Beye, Davies, Sidwell, Reo-Coker, Knight, Dunne, Harewood, Collins, Salifou, Shorey etc were worth silly money in terms of wages or fees, that these players would be the basis of our bright future and our plans for growth.

As soon as Lerner rightly told him that he would need to sell to buy / recoup some of the money he had squandered, he was off out of the door - happy to take the plaudits in the good times, but not willing to share responsibility and try to put things right when times were changing - a huge ego, a facade of charm, disgraceful timing in his departure, and a total lack of loyalty to the club.

I am sick of people editing out the flaws of this Media Darling

Hilarious that some people are so certain QPR Will get a draw at City if they have nothing to play for. Yet they cannot see us possibly getting a point at Norwich who Will have nothing to play for.

Could not put it better myself !

Possibly because, yesterday aside, QPR have shown the occasional ability in the last few weeks to put together a half-decent performance and orchestrate a win as a result, something which we have not done for a long time.

It would be lovely to say that McBl#enose will lead us to glorious victory in at least one of our last 2 games, and therefore mean that we have controlled and mastered our own destiny. But he has shown zero signs of late that he has either the ambition, the charisma or the intelligence to do that. Until he proves us wrong we will continue to rely on the other dross around us at the bottom losing games and keeping us up by default

it is amazing that we are unable to pass a ball. Surely that is pretty basic for a professional footballer.

We have players of mediocre technical ability (many of them from the MON era when possession was also not a high priority) and a manager who can only think of one neanderthal way to play the game and has no motivational or organisational skills to put even that ugly tactic into effect

How he isn't sacked yet is completely beyond me. Gtfo ffs!

It's got too the point where it's too late to sack him - should have happened weeks ago

Worst management appointment in PL history - we paid £2m compensation for a man with a proven track record of playing ugly football, an immediate history of having just got a club relegated on the back of a very average management career, and the small matter of coming direct from our hated rivals.

And then our worst fears were compounded - he turned an ordinary, mid-table squad into disorganised, frightened relegation fodder - it turns out he is even more uncharismatic, uninspiring, stupid and incompetent than we dared to believe.

This unlovable, charmless, clueless, intellectually-stunted oaf should be running a pub (badly) and dealing with an emerging post-playing career drink problem in some Scottish backwater, not managing one of the biggest clubs in the country

We're in a no win situation I'm afraid boys and girls.

1. We're relegated and McLeish is sacked. Whilst I can see one or two teams putting together a bit of hitherto unseen form, I can't see 3 or more doing it to put us into the bottom three. Plus Swansea are slipping at an alarming rate. So I think we'll be safe.

The no win part comes from if indeed we are safe then Randy is sure to keep McLeish on.

Actually thinking about it, even if we do go down, RL will probably point to AM's record of getting Birmingham promoted. My god, he's the unsackable manager!

Wake me up from this nightmare!

:cry:

Find it inconceivable that McBl*en*se will still be here next season whatever happens.

If we're relegated he will be sacked (frankly I think he would resign - I don't think there would be enough security guards for hire in Britain to keep him safe if he stays in Birmingham)

And if we stay up (which I think we will - I think we will crawl dismally and pathetically towards 38 points and just about survive) then I believe the voice of the so-called "silent majority" (patronising clearing in the woods, it's O'Leary's "fickle" jibe all over again) will have its say - Lerner may have wanted a season of consolidation and belt-tightening but I can't believe that he will be satisfied at the ugly, ineffectual, defeatist, small-time, humiliating way in which McBl*en*se has carried out his job, and the fans have made it abundantly clear that this simply isn't good enough