This sounds way way too sensible to be the approach at villa. The options are give him so much money he loses all hunger for the game or let him go and watch him flourish at another club.
To be honest I'd sack him even if he gets us up. The best he could do is get us 40 points in the premier league, that's his maximum. Better off getting rid and getting a manager in who might be able to keep us up long term, not just scrap for 40 points and then inevitably fail.
This is the line up I think he'll go with as well. Did somebody say Hoof? The plan (if there is one) will be to let them have the ball, sit back, soak up the pressure and then try to hoof it to Davis and win some knock downs. How depressing.
It will be interesting to see how Dyche does if he's given the job. It's a totally different ball game managing Everton than it is to just grind out ~40 points points with Burnley every year. Also I assume Steve Walsh is still the head of recruitment there so if I was Dyche I'd be making sure I have a veto of any incoming players. You don't want a fat rooney or a £45m sigurdsson as a millstone around your neck.
To the long ball tactics suit whelan because he doesn't have to show for the ball or pass it around in the middle of the park. Ireland have played the same way for years and it means his weaknesses aren't exposed. Put him in a side that want to pass it about and keep possession and he'd be horrendous.
The 'lottery' element is that there are only 3 playoffs games so you don't know who'll be injured, on form, ref decisions, etc. To get promoted automatically you need to perform over 46 games so all of that isn't as important.
Is it just me or does he look like he's carrying a bit of timber? He's got the Wayne rooney build anyway, and probably a similar attitude towards looking after himself and diet.
I see your point in that Blues were the better team and Jota should have scored for them after Hourihane's attempted assist. But it's the level acceptance from Bruce that irked me. He should have been livid with that performance and the hoofing. He wasn't and the fact that it was a derby was his ready made excuse for that tripe that we served up today.
You could get promoted by winning one of those 3 games, drawing one and losing one.
EDIT: Now that I think about it you could also draw all three and still get promoted.