LockStockVilla

Pardon me while I step outside to throw my degrees in the bin :shock:

So FIT! Alex Morgan, USA

He is a prick and a shit DJ.

You could be right, but the way I see it is McLeish is very well capable of bringing it out. First off, alot of managers would have come in straight away and shipped him out for nothing at all, just to at least get his wages and questionable attitude away from the squad. But Alex is being reasonable and giving him that second chance to prove his worth, hopefully adjust his ego/attitude, and to get back to playing his best football, and that should be enough to motivate Ireland if he wants to call himself a footballer. I don't necessarily think Hughes is the only man that could do this. McLeish is a decent man manager and hopefuilly he shows it here with players such as Mr. Ireland.

General, the way some of our lads have been acting up in the past year or so I give you and Alex the greenlight to start the beatings :winkold: ...Keep up the good work and I look forward to the upcoming campaign!

That will be another 10 million added on. Please and thank ya!

I came to that conclusion this morning because in the online shop with the new away hero shirts...the only two they seem to not have listed are Bent's and Ireland's

A sensible person would think that a player would be put off if the teams pursuing him were putting in such derisory bids. I would see it as a sign as that club not truly valuing me for what I was worth and if that they REALLY wanted me that bad they could pay the asking price and cut all the bullshit. One thing that will never ever change...Liverpool are scum of the earth and we should never do business with them lot.

With Warnock hopefully we give him preseason to prove himself and if he shows no improvement upon the form which saw him just hacking away at attackers and giving away foul after foul until he became a liability every time he stepped on the pitch then ship him out FAST.

This would certainly be a good idea because it would be Eric's best shot at progressing by getting regular football to develop himself. Grayson seems to really have rated him as a player and hopefully a move back to Leeds can give the boy lots of confidence as well making him a more important part of the team for the future.

Nice little video I do not think anyone has posted... http://tinyurl.com/6esb9tg

What I am thinking with N'Zog is he can play either left wing OR in the hole if we fancy playing someone right under Bent. That way he is not necessarily a replacement for Downing or Ash, but I would say more so Ash because I think he brings the creativity and flair we lose with Ashley. Because face it, in the past seasons when Ash did not play, we looked lost going forward, so we need a signing to step into his boots, and I think N'Zog can do it, given he played a big part in keeping Wigan up last campaign.

I definitely would not throw him in reserves, certainly do not do that to a decent player! However, I agree we play tough with him. What I do not get is why players will not go ahead and at least sign larger contracts so that their club can at least get better money for them. Like with Ashley, I had no problem with him leaving, he was very loyal for some time but it would have been nice if he would have extended just to get us a bigger fee. For example, Modric did it, and now his club will get at least 30 mill if he is signed. Baffles me a bit, but I suppose players are scared of getting stuck in a place they dont want to stay??

My view on Downing is I am not too bothered if we keep him for at least one more year. If we can seriously line up some great signings into the squad to reinvest with and we get crazy money then fine. In a case like that I would like us to take a punt on some younger talent to come good like we did with A. Young (possibly people like Chamberlain, Canales, Shaqiri, some under 21 Spanish Youth). Otherwise if we keep him then all we really need to do is buy possibly another midfielder or two, fullback, gk, and we would be looking like a very decent side.

We should try and push a deal for Downing to Man City, then we can actually get top dollar and he will realize he is not even that great when he warms the bench with Jimmy and Gaz.

That's as maybe. But you're describing (the good) half of the Premier League there. Maybe we are just not used to handling players of this ability and/or mindset. The flair players can often be more difficult to keep happy. But if we could do it then he'd solve a big problem. Many on here dont buy that ''he's streets ahead of anyone else in the squad in terms of ability'' line, but i do. Its no coincidence that when he was playing alongside Robiniho he looked like a superstar. He is that good. Oh no question he can be absolutely amazing and has bag loads of potential to be world class. Only problem with someone who has potential and also has a bad attitude is managing to keep them happy and motivated. I'm all for giving one more chance to prove himself up until January, if he cannot manage it by then, ship him out.

I totally agree that Downing does not owe us anything just because we bought him injured and all that business. The only thing that leaves me irked about him is the whole webchat he did with us where he basically said he was happy staying here. If he wants to leave, fine, he would not be the first. But what he did was very misleading and shows a true lack of class on his behalf if he ends up signing a transfer request and pushing any move through.

Let whoever have him, and on the way out Stan can break his foot again...need to make sure he leaves in the same condition he came...let him have his fun DJ'ing in **** Merseyside...clearing in the woods.

This. While I don't think we will ever see the best from Ireland....I think him and Makoun could work very well together because in the games Ireland played he would always make passes that would not work out, but the idea of them was brilliant, just other players were not on the same page really and working for the balls he was playing. Makoun is a very decent and creative player with the ball so him and Ireland could very well partner together in a positive way. Also, Ireland could work very well with Bent. Bent very much likes playing alone up top and sticking Ireland in the hole, he would be able to play alot of through balls and neat passes through to Bent and I think Ireland would have a boat load of assists. My only concern is Ireland cannot defend for shit, so I think we would need an improvement in the DM position on Petrov. Possibilities here could be Mulumbu, bringing Reo Coker back, OR and this is what I would love...playing Ciaran Clark as our DM.

At worst Lichaj can be a very good backup for us. A natural right back who in the past month in the Gold Cup for the USA showed he is very capable and competent at also playing left back. A young Luke Young!

If we want a good shotstopper who doesnt command his box well enough we already have that in Guzan...I hope we look past Given

The shear fact that nearly all of us agree the next manager should not be AM says it all. We all never agree on anything, but we have this thing dead on. Just pray the board is not about to leave us feeling betrayed and dissapointed.

I agree with you but WHO are the options here ..... I'm trying hard to see a positive in McLeish because, quite frankly, there are no other candidates which is why they will appoint him this week. I'd rather have Kev Mac or Poyet or many of the better Championship managers or Coyle or Moyes but fact is, they don't want to come here. We are a club coming off a season of player unrest with big name players wanting to leave and with a management team who got turned down by a guy who'd rather be at wigan than Villa !!! What about Zola?? Plays attractive football, gives kids chances, kept a poor West Ham side up, and very well respected by players and managers. McLeish is not our only option, that is for certain.

General, As many before me have stated, Randy Lerner and the rest of the Aston Villa board have had the backing of the majority of Villa supporters over the last few years and we have felt that Randy was helping to bring our dear club back to the upper echelons of the Premier League. We totally appreciated the money he has invested into our ground, training facility, and quality players. Surely we would love to see this continue and I for one hope it does. However, the whole McLeish situation raises many questions for the supporters and puts us all in a very precarious situation. First of all, his Blues connection aside, much of the time McLeish has spent managing has been in the SPL, where admittedly the standard is much lower (being a Heart of Midlothian ST Holder I have witnessed this first hand many years). At Rangers, he failed to win the title a few years which is seen as a failure in most eyes, and he even managed a ten match span with no wins as Rangers manager, which is truly pathetic to anybody who knows an iota about football. Moving on from there, it has to be said he has been relegated TWICE in the Premier League, the one league where his experience really does matter. We cannot sit here and say that he did not have proper financial backing because he spent around 40 million over the past two years alone. To be honest his buying record is also poor. He splashed large money on Zigic and actually bought Curtis Davies off us. Also, other teams spending less...the likes of Wigan and Blackburn somehow managed to stay up, so I am sorry but the story that he had no proper backing is not enough in this case. And while I will admit we do not know the true story of his exit from Birmingham, why would we even want to risk getting into more legal battles so shortly after we finished dealing with MON? It goes without saying that we the fans are experiencing many negative emotions at this time and if the club ignores the mass amount of supporters and goes ahead with hiring this man, we will feel very disrespected and be left to believe that maybe the Board does not understand what supporters want and what the history/ethos of our proud club is. You previously stated that the Board cannot allow the club's decisions to be made by supporters, but in cases such as this the club must understand all the implications of its actions and realize they are seriously risking creating a massive rift in the fan base. Even look at people with assosciations to the club like Ian Taylor who are absolutely shocked in the current state of affairs we are in. Mention of McLeish has left supporters realizing they would be happy with the likes of Hughes, McClaren, Martinez, Benitez, Houllier, and others they were quite afraid of in the past, and that goes towards saying alot about the turmoil his appointment could bring upon us. Backtracking a little, I realize the club has yet to hire anybody, so everything is a bit hypothetical and essentially seen as a argument against making particular decisions. At this point I still have faith in the board and hope that you all make the right decsion for this club and while us supporters cannot make the decisions, you must realize we are the club's foundations, and at the end of the day we will always remain, and that stands for something doesn't it? To conclude, I know when many people post articles/letters on this thread from you regarding this, they do not always get the warmest of responses. But to reiterate, I do not write this to patronise you or the board, and I am not sitting here saying the club MUST appoint a manger by so and so date. All I am saying is that I have been following this club my entire life and I have always been proud to call myself a Villan, and I still am. Please help this conitnue in the future and help steer our club where it belongs. Kind Regards, LSV

He seems to be a mug. As soon as I get my masters degree next year I will send in my CV to replace him. He has a damn masters in history, albeit from Cambridge, that in no way makes him a suitable candidate to help guide our club. I fear Lerner trusts him and relies on him too much, which is very dangerous. I really want Houllier back in frame at Villa so he can possibly give some sense to our board, or at least get someone in that understands Villa like Graham Taylor or Big Ron...anything really...