Villaboy69

Personally I don't think the changes he made were too bad, the biggest mistake we made after the sending off was to play to deep.

You have to make the pitch as small as possible when you're a man down and all we needed to do was to play a high line. I know this would have exposed us to the pace of odenwinge but playing as deep as we did just allowed wba to pass the ball around us

I don't think we'd sell him but equally I was convinced that there was no way we'd selling Downing having already agreed to sell Ash.

He maybe here come February but lets face it how do you think he genuinely feel. He came to a club with 2 of the best wide players in the league, scored the goals that took us to mid table safety having flirted with relegation and quickly became the new holte end hero.

Then he sees his supply line sold along with the nucleus of the squad and then has to put up with watching the ball fly over his head and the crap we are serving up this season.

I should imagine he's thoroughly pissed off and extremely worried that playing in this villa side will see his dream of playing in the euros disappear.

And on top of this he has to go back to Sunderland who I think will take great pleasure in reminding him of what a shambles of a club we are at the moment

Spoke to the ticket office and she said it doesnt look like we will be taking the upper tier.

Just goes to show the level of apathy within the club at the moment. Don't think i've ever been to everton within us taking the upper tier :oops:

We are slowly turning into a boring ex PL team called Birmingham....why the hell was he playing in almost all pre season matches if he wasnt going to be in McLeishs plans?

So AM could see for himself just how useless he'd be in the premiership and now the manager has acted accordingly

Best passer gone.

Good job Eck.

best passer - over two yards

I still dont get why he has been let go, he has played a handfull of games, not even enough to let him settle in yet and he's emptying his locker already..

The game is all about opinions and Makoun clearly splits the opinions of an awful lot of us. Thankfully AM doesn't rate him and has shipped him out.

It happens all the time managers have to do it their way. Go on any club forums and there are supporters wondering why their manager has let a certain player go.

Excellent work another player who is contributing very little off the wage bill.

Get ready for action. I see at least 3 new recruits whether they are signings or loans I'm not to fussed.

I'll be amazed and then very very angry if we see no transfers in

hate these Petrov vs NRC debates. Both are crap and i miss teh days of good centre midfielders like Barry and Milner

Both played along side Petrov and neither have reach the level of consistently good performances for their new employers - maybe just maybe it was Petrov doing all the unpleasant things that allowed these two to play to their full potential.

He has no pace, and can't tackle. He's clearly not suited to the more rigorous Premier League and at 28, he isn't suddenly going to learn how to tackle. Finally, Petrov, Delph and Bannan are all better than him.

I agree - although he can make lots of short one touch passes which seems to make him the complete midfielder in alot of people mind :wow:

Wiggy - I think your right - AM will play him and I see him playing in the middle of the 3 in a 4 2 3 1 formation. Unfortunately I think that tells you everything you need to know about our squad at the moment. imo it ain't good enough.

I just don't see anything in Ireland that leads me to believe that he will ever re discover the 6 months of decent form that he had with Man C. Both in terms of ability or desire

Was he any good last night?

No - totally in effective with questionable effort

Not concerned in the slightest with the result. But what last night did highlight is the sheer lack of depth to our squad. It seems as though AM wants to play 4 2 3 1 but this neither suited the players that played yesterday nor the players we would class as out first XI.

Big concern for me is the disappointing form of Albrighton and the lack of ability/control within the midfield. Delph and Bannan look nice players but just don't have the presence of a premiership footballer. Makoun also, nice one touch footballer but can anyone honestly see him dominanting a premiership game. As for Ireland the sooner he leaves the better.

Alot has been said about Petrov on another thread he may not be the best midfielder to grace our club but at the moment he walks into the side with the squad we have at present and that says it all.

Midfield needs strengthening siginifcantly imo. Addition of at least 2/3 players required asap

Ulver not wishing to answer for the general but my son has attended two soccer schools. One with Bryan Small and one with Tony Morley. There were held at Aldridge Comprehensive. Not sure whats happening this year though

pretty rare for first bids to ever be excepted - its part of the game I'm fairly certain we wouldn't have expected Wigan just to accept our initial offer and will be ready to increase. Although I'm sure we will also have a limit in mind which we aren't prepared to go over

I really liked Downing as a player but 20 million quid is a fantastic bit of business.

Re invested wisely and we will all be happy and he'll soon be forgotten I'm sure of that

If you play as AVFC Will you be forced to sell your best player at the end of each season

So what I mean is that the signaling effect will be more detrimental than the mere fact of losing Downing as a player. Slippery slope and all that, we have not been a selling club before, easily because we didn't really have any good players before the latter years. We sold occasionally like Yorke, but every club does that. Selling Downing now would in fact make us a selling club, not just to make money of course (which is the basic factor for being a selling club) but because our players have absolutely no faith in our future plans.

This is absolutely spot on - our stance with SD will indeed signal our intent to everyone. Unless we sell for an ridiculously large fee and by that I mean over £20 million then we had all better fasten our seat belts because I think we will be in for a very bumpy ride

General

I hope you understand the venom coming from some of the post is through the hurt that we are feeling.

Despite all the great things that Randy and the board have done during their tenure the one thing that you will be remembered for is the act that you are about to perform.

To most the appointment of BCFC manager is the Ultimate betrayal

The mirror - we turn him down

We turn down him for McLeish???? Are they nuts!!

Yes it would be a gamble and gamble worth taking. Plus, he would attract good continental players. Ah well

Don't torture yourself anymore the next few months are gonna be bad enough as it is

The one thing our squad needs is discipline. McLeish will bring that in abundance. The talk of relegation is rediculous. Lets give the guy a chance.

and just remind me how two of his 3 seasons in the premiership ended despite him instilling enough discipline in the noses team to have one of the best defensive records.

To dismiss relegation with AM in charge is burying your head in the sand

For all RL's brilliant work over the last few years he is about to commit the ultimate betrayal to us as AVFC fans.

Long after he's gone that is all that he will be remembered for and that is pretty sad really

So we are about to suffer the ultimate gut wrenching betrayal that the board can be bestowe upon us.

The bollocks PR media shite that has been spouted by our Yank owners 'Proud History Bright Future' and all this bullshit about following the heritage virtues and ethos of our great club are about to be rammed firmly up our ring piece.

The manager of a football club is the most important appointment that has to be made he will literally be the life blood of the club. He is the one that determines the ultimate success and our footballing philosophies and we are about to appointment the 'Birmingham City' manager but not just a SHA manager but a failed one. One that got them relegated twice playing the most boring and sterile football ever to disgrace the premiership.

Now I'm not a believer in protesting and the idiots that defaced Bodymoor Heath should be banned for life,but on this occassion staying silent seems so wrong. Say nothing and we meekly roll over and die. Moaning and voicing disapproval when things inevitably go tits up on the pitch is too late.

I say voice your disapproval in a non violent and non agressive manner, make it quite clear that AM is totally wrong in every aspect for this club.

Its then a simple case as to whether you disapprove so strongly as to continue your protest by not attending - afterall this is probably the only true protest that the board will truly understand but again its too late.

I really wasn't expecting to feel like this after all the crap we went through last season

So I admit it - I got drawn in by all this proud history bright future crap. How we will follow the traditions and heritage of this great club.

This board did more in 4 years than we had seen in probably 2 decades and then at the first real sign of difficultly WHAM the two fingers are rammed right up our nose in what is to me the ultimate betrayal to our great football club and most importantly us the fans.

Assuming the inevitable now happens there is no way what so ever that I will be renewing my families 3 season tickets.

I feel sick to the bottom of my stomach I just can't believe it

I'm still clinging to the belief that the board wouldn't dare appoint a manager that would kill the spirit of our club.

Regardless of what your opinion is on his managerial abilities, of which IMO he is clearly rubbish, the fact that he comes from SHA will have a major baring on the view of a vast majority of supporters.

This would be an appointment that would divide the club in so many way.

Proud history divided future