markavfc40

I can't see his contract just being terminated. He isn't worth anywhere near the 6 mill we spunked on him but he should be worth a mill or so to someone.

She has already been entered for it but is yet to decide if she will do it.

I'm with Trent and Big John having defended him on many occasions but today he was diabolical.

You keep spouting this shite but Houllier didn't manage us for 10 of the league games. In the 28 games he did manage us we took just 33 points at 1.17 points a games. Under the 10 games under K Mac and G MAC - 5 games each we took 15 points at 1.5 points a game. Houllier was well past his use by date and sadly for us a disrespectful tosser just to add insult to injury. McLeish was just useless but wasn't helped by having to sell of 38 mill of talent, losing three of our best players in Young, Downing and Freidel and having less than half the money to replace them. Hollier inherited a squad that had just finished 6th with our best ever Prem 38 game points total, less Milner but with Ireland, had 30 mill to spend and still had us in or around the relegation places for 5 months serving up gutless tripe. He was a disgrace. The relief I felt when we **** him off was huge as that useless, disrespectful prick never deserved to manage this great club with its fantastic support.

Not sad to see him go. He never gave less than 100% and had one very good season but then couldn't sustain/repeat that under Houllier or McLeish. Good luck to him.

I think it is, woody. I don't get the recent posts about Collins from a lot of people. He's not Paul McGrath, but for me he gave his best in the shirt. It always seems a shame when players are metaphorically shoved out the door by fans with a boot up their backside, on the way. He played for Aston Villa, which is a) an honour and something that unless the player concerned behaved appallingly kind of gives them a bit of kudos and respect in my book. Some leave having never been remotely good enough, some having been excellent and most, somewhere between those two extremes. Personally I wish him well. Pretty much where I am at. Can't fault the effort he put in and I wish him well.

I'm inclined to agree. Under O'Neill in 07/08 we averaged over 40k, in 08/09 39.5k and in 09/10 with two long cup runs to fork out for we still averaged just under 39k. The above was done with what was relative success whilst finishing 6th but suggests that if we could say regularly finish in the top 4 we could average 45-50k and sell out a number of games with a 52k stadium.

Not wishing to defend McLeish AT ALL but this is a slight distortion of the facts. Bent was out injured from 25 February to the end of the season. I'm firmly on the "Houllier and McLeish were just different varieties of rubbish" side of the argument. Why waste energy trying to resurrect the reputation of the one of the managers who helped create our two-year nightmare? The majority then. To be honest I'm surprised Bent scored as many as he did with the way McDefend tried to utilise him. Well its the majority but only just as he started 21 league games which is only 55%. Anyway this is way off topic.

Not wishing to defend McLeish AT ALL but this is a slight distortion of the facts. Bent was out injured from 25 February to the end of the season. I'm firmly on the "Houllier and McLeish were just different varieties of rubbish" side of the argument. Why waste energy trying to resurrect the reputation of the one of the managers who helped create our two-year nightmare? Very true on both points. Bent only played 5 more league games last season than he did in 2010/11 - 21 games last season compared to 16 the previous one.

This! Its like comparing Dairylea to Laughing Cow in an international cheese tasting competition Sums it up nicely.

This is fantastic news. Proud to have had Stan associated with this great club and lets hope that's now the case for many, many more years to come.

Your rewriting history somewhat. We didn't finish 9th under Houllier. He wasn't manager for 10 games. In his 28 games in charge we took 33 points - 1.17 points per game. In the 10 games he wasn't around we took 15 points - 1.50 points per game. Like many others have said arguing over who was worse out of Houllier or McLeish is pointless as they were in their own ways equally as bad. Houllier was well past his use by date, inherited a far better squad of players, had 30 mill to spend and went on to disrespect this great club and its fantastic supporters on numerous occasions whilst his team produced gutless tripe on the pitch and at times went out accepting defeat before a ball had been kicked due to the managers attitude. McLeish was just out of his depth and the final nail in his coffin was having to sell off our two best players, losing two other very good players in Friedel and Luke Young and then being given less than half what he had brought in to spend on replacements. The fact we were shite under him given his limited ability and having a transfer budget of minus 20 mill was no surprise. I am just relieved the last two years of being served up tripe are over.

It was only uncertain because that lying bastard wanted his compensation. Ah the final piss take. Disrespect this great club, play down our standing with in the game, disrespect our great fans, serve up gutless tripe and surrender games before they had even kicked off and at the finish hold out for a nice big pay off. Regardless of his illness he had shown time and time again he was now completely out of touch with the game and didn't have a **** clue what he was doing. It said it all about the man that he made out he could still do a job just so he could drain the club of a few more quid.

Houllier was out at Villa long before his illness that decision had been made. I still can't believe the 6 and half months (5 months in and around the relegation zone), 28 league games and 33 points and serving up gutless tripe under that pratt cost us the best part of 5 mill. Anyway back to Lambert as TRO said its good to see us all again united as one behind a manger.

Very much this. The last two years have been hell and we have lost too many games before walking out onto the pitch due to the attitude of the last two managers. It would have been great to have seen what Lambert could do with a team containing Ash, Downing, Petrov, Ireland, Freidel a defence that had come off a season of being the 4th best and still knew how to defend and a Gabby that hadn't had all the confidence drained out of him. Then on top of that had 30 mill to spend in the January transfer window. One things for sure we wouldn't have spent 5 months of 2010/11 in and around the relegation places serving up gutless tripe and the hell we had to endure last season when we should have gone down. We are were we are though and I am just thankful Lerner/Faulnker got this one spot on. The early signs are very good. Lambert is already showing he is a very shrewd operator in the transfer market and Lerners money will go further than it ever has with him spending it. It is now time to look forward I guess and put the last two years firmly behind us and again start looking forward to a bright future.

The early signs are that you are spot on with this. I like what he is doing. With the signing of Vlaar he will have spent around 9 mill on three players. Two that look like they will walk straight into the first team and one very promising youngster who looks well capable of challenging for a first team place. Certainly in the case of KEA and Lowton the early signs are they look to have excellent attitudes and a desire to succeed. I was over the moon when we got Lambert and although its obviously very early days I am impressed with how he is going about things. The man has been a success throughout his career and has a burning desire for that to continue. I just don't see him failing with us.

Like you and many others on this site I have seen more managers come and go over the years than I care to remember and you do get a feel if someone feels right for our club. Just as I felt Graham Tyalor back in 87 was the man to lift us from the doldrums I also had a feeling that Houllier and McLeish were completely the wrong choice. Lambert to me just feels like the right man at the right time. The perfect fit for us. He will certainly need a decent level of backing but with it I can see good things over the next few years with him in charge.

It was worse than dull. We played for a draw at home against that shower of shite. It was a reflection of the manager - **** gutless and a sign of things to come. As bad as McLeish was last season it shouldn't excuse how poor Houllier was before him.He inherited a decent squad which then included Ash and Downing and then had the best part of 30 mill to spend in January. We still however spent 5 months in the relegation mire and were well in the mix to go down with less than a handful of games to go. Its old news anyway and I am sure we can all agree that even though it is sad how we wasted the last two years and had to watch gutless tripe it is so good to again have a very good manager and be looking forward with some optimism

Hard to believe that squad, less Milner but with Ireland, spent five months of that season in or around the relegation zone serving up gutless tripe on numerous occasions.Spurs at home against 10 men for most of the match, Sunderland at home, Wolves at home, Arsenal at home, Sha at home, Blackburn away, Man City away twice, Liverpool away were as bad as anything I'd seen up until last season. Thank **** both Houllier and McLeish are now nothing more than bad memories.

That is a matter of opinion obviously. The facts will show however that we improved season on season under him for 4 years both in terms of league position for two seasons and then in points for another two. We also had two very good cup runs in his final season alongside our best ever 38 game Prem season in terms of points and the first time we had finished in the top 6 three times on the spin in over 50 years.

I like Ireland. He has had it pretty rough since he signed. Houllier was a complete tosser and just didn't give Ireland a chance and then did his usual trick and bad mouthed him in the press. Then McLeish arrives who didn't have a clue about how to set a team up to attack. I can see Ireland really flourishing under Lambert.

What possible evidence can you have for saying that? It's pure guesswork. I hate the way people invent facts to suit their argument on this site. There's nothing to suggest he wouldn't have come to us in 2009 given that he came to us in 2011 when we were in a much worse position. But would Harry Redknapp have sold him to Villa? Not only a rival club but one where he receives abuse and had recently had someone try to bounce a 50p coin off his head. Bent was available but not necessarily to Villa. He had no problem selling us Hutton When we signed Hutton we certainly weren't a threat to Spurs. In 2009 we we very much one of their rivals.

Depends if you are judging him purely on the time MON was manager or his overall contribution to Villa. Overall he was a great signing, his second season imo he was our best player, not only that but we turned a profit on him. Even better than that he went to a competitor and turned back to useless again What's not to like? Sums him up nicely. I thought he did pretty well for us in his first season as well especially when you consider he had a broken foot when we signed him and missed the start of the season so it was always going to take a while for him to get up to speed. He still finished that season with 6 assists and 3 goals.

Judging the players on what they did under the man that signed them I'd say this. For the approx 27mill spent on assembling the back 5 of Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Warnock in there full season as a unit under the man that brought them they performed excellently and looked well worth the money. Following his departure on the whole they have not looked the same as much down to poor management as loss of form. As for the rest Waste of money - Davies, Sidwell, Beye, Shorey, Harewood Hit and miss - Reo Coker ( paid 3 mill too much ), Maloney, Heskey, Carson Did Well - Knight, Luke Young, Brad Guzan, John Carew Excellent Signings - Petrov, Milner, Ash Young, Downing The jury is still out on Delph for me but this is now a massive season for him. The rest were just short term signings or cost peanuts and not worth commenting on.

WTF. Zat Knight cost 3.5 mill did a decent job for 2 seasons never giving less than 100% and was then sold for 4 mill. He was far from a disaster. Agathe was a short term squad filler early in O'Neills tenure at a time when the window was shut, Kiraly was a short term signing due to a keeper injury crisis a few months after O'Neill arrived. Milner was signed two years after we had him on loan. If O'Neill didn't sign him then who did.