NeilS

The problem we have is that none of us know exactly what we are paying out on players wages, it is all guess work. Part of me thinks that surely our wage bill can't be that big now, with the dross that we've been left with? But the other part of me thinks we're still carrying the likes of Ireland, Beye, Heskey, Dunne, Warnock, Collins on big contracts, all of whom I would clear out of the club if I was in charge.

Sadly I think we're stuck with McLeish until the summer at least. My only hopes are that we somehow scrape enough points together to survive at the end of the season, and then Randy wakes up to the monumental blunder he has made. We then have to hope that Randy has better fortune with his search for a new manager, one that can lift the club again, not send it into a deep slumber. Hopefully with a new man at the helm, and a few of the big earning donkeys off the wage bill, the future will start looking brighter again.

400 people have voted and 87% want McLeish out. That is all you need to know really.

Yep, it is a damning statistic. An even worse statistic is a 3-4% approval rating. I'm suprised that this poll hasn't been quoted in the media somewhere. They usually love this kind of thing.

My worry is who the hell would we get to replace him ...

My worry is who the hell Randy would get to replace him....

And with the speed that the board/Randy & Faulkner moves at, how long will they take to get someone in as replacement. If they sacked him now we might get someone in for the tail end of the January transfer window. If they sack him after Christmas then it will be caretaker for the rest of the season at best.

It's not going to happen though, we'll be stuck with him until the summer now in my opinion. If I were Randy though, I would be sounding out potential suitors for the job right now.

12 votes out of 329 says it all.

Also, posting that within hours of such a shit performance was always going to get that outcome.

Its a limited poll....... people will vote in etremis because it doens't allow for a more nuanced arguement.

The problem is that, that was 1 shit performance out of many shit performances this season. How many games have we truely played well in? There has been no glimmer of hope for anyone to cling to. Even under GH we had the odd good performance where you could see what he was trying to do.

He spoke of great things, and an exciting attacking game

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2379458,00.html

Good find, I also remember feed back on from the meeting on here from fans who attended, and they were generally positive about what he said. I think that McLeish knows how to talk a good game, just not how to play it.

The way I see it, he has had all summer to work with the team and work on the team getting it to play how he wants it to play. Defensive drills, Fitness drills, and attacking drills. He spoke of great things, and an exciting attacking game with the fans at their meeting early in the summer, so I thought maybe he will try something different to what he did at sha. I thought at that time, I'll give him a chance to prove himself.

So far I see no visble signs of improvement, only reverting to type, the sha type that got them relegated. No improvement on the defence which was shocking for most of last season even though he had all summer to sort it out, the midfield that most could see was physically weak in the centre was not addressed.

His purchases have been poor. He tried to address the lack of creativity with N'Zogbia, who he can't seem to get playing, and even then he is not the creative force of Young or even Downing. I get that he has lost some key players, and not spent all of the money received in, but he is not the only manager in this boat in the PL. He has bought Hutton who looks next to useless at RB. Jenas who has been injury prone for the last few seasons. Given is his one decent buy, but i think that was because Houllier had done most of the work in Jan to get him in. Seriously McLeish is doing a very bad job of proving me wrong, and more importantly a bad job of managing Aston Villa.

Can anybody seriously tell us that the players within our squad are not good enough to play at a higher tempo and with more drive and committment than how this clown sends the team out.

I can't remember ever going to the Manure game where the crowd was so quiet. We new what to expect from the very first minute.

NO belief and its running right through the club

Spot on, I watched the highlights on MotD, and the ground was eerily silent considering the crowd was in excess of 40k. It had the atmosphere of a reserve game. All hope has been drained from the fans, and Lerner needs to do something to lift the club again. That would be to appoint a decent manager, sadly I think he is incapable of doing so.

Hmmmm, looking at the poll results to date, it does look like Randy has finally found a manager to unite Villa fans. Sadly, not with the desired results. :cry:

No.

I wasn't keen when we appointed him, but though I'd give him some time to prove me wrong. Unfortunately he has performed exactly as I and others here had feared, even afer a set of fixtures that most would think were easy. Yes we have lost some key players over the summer, but he still has some fairly talented players left in his squad, and his purchases have left a lot to be desired. The players we have got don't seem to be performing for him, or don't seem to be understanding what he wants from them. He keeps bemoaning insipid first half displays, so why hasn't he done something about this? Maybe he can't get his points across in the pre match team talk, or maybe he is shifting blame to the players? Either way, it points to bad management in my opinion.

I guess we're stuck with him for this season at least, I dread to think what will happen if he is still here at this point next season.

Putting my middle name into the equation brings up some interesting ones:-

Saleable Rhyming

Eyeballing Harms

Eyeballs Harming

Rambling Eyelash

A Harems Bellying

Ballerina Gem Shy

Baaing Her Smelly

Bargain He Smelly

Anally Ember Sigh

Layman Gerbils Eh

Beagle Liar Hymns

Bagel Snail Rhyme

Bagel Manly Shire

I could go on.

Been Silly

Bin Eel Sly

If he really was the money grabbing anti-christ that some paint him out to be on here he would have just said 'no thanks' and ran his contract down with us.

Which he has done up untill now. The last yr of his contract. So yeah he is the money grabbing anti-christ. Fail to see how you can still defend him.

Yep, this move smacks of, I have got to play to get my next contract offer. If he didn't play between now and the end of the season his playing career would probably be over.

Our whole back four needs replacing, but to be fair to McLeish his hands are tied until the players contracts run down as nobody has shown signs of buying any of them, so we have to make do with what we have got for now. With Beye vritually gone, and Warnock's contract running down hopefully he'll have some scope to improve that area of the team in the near future (Assuming he doesn't get sacked).

The major plus for Thorn was the “fantastic performance” of 19-year-old Gardner, who is on loan at the Ricoh Arena for the next month from Aston Villa. “He was exceptional,” said the manager.

Thank you for the link.

Good to read that he has had an excellent start. Also good to see some of the comments from the fans praising him, and wishing for him to stay longer. Hopefully he will now build on this good start, and come back firing on all cylinders for us in the New Year.

Apart from the cracking headed goal, does anyone know how he got on in the rest of the game? How was his overall play?

I also think that the Chelsea fans can see that AVB has potential to go onto greater things than he is currently doing, especially after his great spell at Porto, and with a rebuild of the squad required. With McLeish we're getting what we feared, our nightmares are playing out in front of our own eyes.

If it was a vendetta, then it carried on from the previous manager who also didn't play Beye.

He's still learning the trade - harsh to slate him at this point in his career.

Due to injuries and MON he is still almost in his first full season in the PL. I agree with the poster who said that he would like to see him in a more attacking role as he has all the weapons in his game to be a threat in the final third, wheras tackling has never been his strongest point. Take off the shackles of being a defensive midfielder, and I think you would see a different Delph.

Also, to write him off at this point in his career is foolish. I seem to recall quite a few people on here slating Bale and Dawson a couple of seasons back, those two players are not doing so bad now are they.

What is PF's role exactly

From what I can see he's not adding any value whatsoever

I'm thinking his role is similar to that of Comical Ali during the war in Iraq, ie chief BS merchant.

Haha what a joker. We are not going to qualify for Europe this season. Unless something has changed, I think 6th place is the final Uefa spot, and we're already 7 points adrift from 7th place, even at this early stage of the season (after a relatively easy set of opening fixtures) . Our best chance of Europe is winning a cup, and we're already out of the cup we have most chance in. i'm afraid I have to agree with Richard, in that i think we'll be battling to stay in the PL for most of the season.

Question for SGC, have you actually seen Gardner play or are you judging him on a poor warm up you saw?

saw him last night in the nextgen, thought he was awful bar the goals

Is this the first/only time you have seen him play? Or have you seen him a number of times?

yes first time, wasn't impressed

It seems strange to dismiss someone as not good enough based on one performance. Especially as he scored 3 goals in that performance.

Hopefully, we'll see whether he has the ability during his loan spell at Coventry. Fingers crossed it will be beneficial move for the player and he takes the chance to shine, like Walker did last season with us. And, hopefully he'll come back a better player for the experience.

Question for SGC, have you actually seen Gardner play or are you judging him on a poor warm up you saw?

saw him last night in the nextgen, thought he was awful bar the goals

Is this the first/only time you have seen him play? Or have you seen him a number of times?

More quality then Herd, who is a fryer but not much else!

More suited to working in a chip shop then?

I appeared on tv back in the 80's as a young lad. It was on Motd, and it was Villa playing at Kenilworth Road against Luton Town. I was seen a couple of time nervously chewing my Villa scarf, we lost 2-1 I think, with Frankie Bunn scoring a late winner for Luton.

Also, I'm ashamed to say that you could see me in the crowd for the show Deal or No Deal a few years ago now when it was fairly new, I blame my Wife who made me go to see it with her. I didn't know what i was letting myself in for.