misanthrope

The self-delusions have begun, save it until the announcement please.

Rational, intelligent, forward thinking, thought provoking. Might want to watch that kind of attitude around here, will get you in trouble.

Sorry can I just clarify your notion here. You believe that the best thing to do in this situation and to alleviate fan rebuke, is to give probably the most opposed manager that has ever taken charge at villa park for numerous reasons, a load of money to spend and hope he does the business with it?

Rational no, remarkable though.

I'm not actually sure which is more concerning, appointing McLeish and telling him to work with what we have or appointing McLeish and backing him with huge sums of money. It might just be the final straw of Lerner's investment if this guy wastes the last of it.

How am I supposed to get to this gathering living 200 miles away and not even finishing work for another 3 hours.

If it doesn't turn out to be McLeish then it was a genius move really, pretty much the entire fanbase has been humbled and their expectations shattered over the last fortnight, so much so we'd probably hail Curbs coming in as opposed to this.

I find it astonishing that some of you are attempting a positive spin on McLeish, the self-delusions are inexplicable at this point in time. Can you honestly say that this is the best we can do in terms of a managerial appointment and keep a straight face? Irrespective of any connections with SHA this is an absolutely woeful decision should it come to pass. I find it even more unfathomable that some of you are changing your minds about our managerial appointment and direction as a football club because of some graffiti???

I'm sure this is when some kid interjects and decides to lecture me on the real meaning of support and so forth. I'm afraid I will give my honest feedback until the point that I see McLeish sit down at our press conference, at which point I will be forced to delude myself as you have, and get behind him.

Until that day, this potential appointment deserves the feedback it's getting, utter contempt.

Words fail me at this point.

I guess my question would be, are you prepared for the backlash if McLeish is indeed appointed? Considering someone like me, who I like to consider as a mild-mannered man absent of a rash temper, is strongly considering not driving the 400 miles there and back every fortnight to watch the team I love. This is a real testament to how uninspiring this appointment would be and how affronted we would feel as fans, I literally don't think there are another 4 people alive to count on one hand that I would consider boycotting my support for in opposition.

Regards

Please save trying to delude yourselves until he's at the press conference. You'll need the energy then.

There are numerous things that don't add up here and should be enough reassurance for anybody.

1) We state the manner in which Hughes left Fulham was detrimental to his chance at the Villa job - McLeish's exit was worse.

2) We state we are after a manager that understands the principles of the club and can take us forward - To anybody of sound mind this does not constitute a two time relegation candidate.

3) We state we pulled out of McLaren because of supporter backlash - This has multiplied tenfold as a result of the McLeish rumours.

I tell you what I have never seen so many rediculous posts in one thread, ive just been listening to talksport on the way home and the guy on there summed it up,

any avfc fan who thinks we are going to attract ancelotti, deschamps, rijkaard etc is bark raving mad, either that or your living in the past. I mean come on, we are NOT a top 6 team now, we got close under Oneil and we could not make the next step.

It really annoys me at this club how many fickle fans we have, they are exactly the ones who dont give a single manager 2 weeks let alone 2 years at our club and ultimately that is our down fall... In one way I hope McClaren gets the job so these fickle fans that want to hand in there season ticket can because there the type we dont need in the ground creating an atmosphere so shit that no one would want to stay around... rant over

On to relistic matters, its going to be one of the following four more than likely so I suggest we start looking at the positives in these guys maybe?;

Hughes

Martinez

McClaren

Coyle

theres an outside chance it might be Moyes or Benitez or possibly even someone else we havnt though of.. but comeon, lets be a bit more realistic guys..

Delusional and incoherent rant hiding behind what's 'realistic' with a stab at your own fans in the process. Try to think for yourself rather than bandwagon the thoughts of people on talksport who's very occupations are to talk a load of outrageous shite to facilitate income via CALLERS.

It's about time we employed someone with tangible credentials rather than an 'up-and'comer' because the consenus of the pundit world thinks they did a good job getting 14th or avoiding relegation at a shit club the previous year.

I hope we don't get Ancelotti. I've a feeling he'll come in, neglect the youths, fill the team up with pension age Italians, play turgid football and ultimately leave the club with a big bill and a bit of a mess.

I sort of feel the same way. Im just not convinced by him.

Ok your not convinced by a man who has won titles in England and Italy and has 2 European Cups. Just who do you want then?

Avram Grant has also won plenty of silverware.

Catch my drift?

Oh yes let's compare Israeli competitions to Italian, English and European ones, smart move. Ignorance is absolutely shocking on here.

Thinking about it a lot I don't want Ancelotti. He is a manger who manages big names and big egos that's his skill. He's not an inspirational manager who will inspire more average players to perform. I can't see him pulling any good value signings off either. He just isn't the sort of manager you need at our level - if he became Villa manager I think that we would see a similar scenario to what happened with Ramos at Spurs ... Although, I think as someone mentioned further back when Ancelotti was being mentioned as something of a pipe-dream, if he was to come along with Ray Wilkins at his side, that may be a different story.

Wealth of misinformation here, the guy made a name for himself by promoting a serie b side then managing a club in a very similar situation to Villa and taking them into the champions league. His signings were modest and were not on anywhere near the wages our club can offer today. Fair enough the money has inflated since then as has his reputation, but you people saying all he does is manage clubs with bags of money is farcical.

The man is proven at all levels, an absolutely world class manager which unfortunately for us, leads me to believe we have no chance of getting him.

Was blatant to anyone even half sane that Ancelotti was talking patronising crap about West Ham etc.

If we have seriously tried/trying to get him we'd have to offer him a lot and a warchest in transfer money.

Hes won 2 champs league , the Premiership , FA cup , serie a etc - hes a manager a calibre and would take a hell of lot of convicning to manage a side outside of champs league. As would be risk to his own reputation.

Patronising? The man is as humble as managers get. Sure his comments were flippant and I don't think anybody was taking him fully seriousl. That said I still think there is truth in the fact he would like to stay in this country and I don't think he would be holding out for champions league only.

As to risking his reputation, MON was hailed as the second coming of christ for getting a 'mediocre' club 6th place finishes, how much worse could he do in honesty.

"I would coach West Ham - why not? It's a challenge to manage a team in the Championship.

"The atmosphere at West Ham is amazing. It doesn't matter if you manage a top team or a smaller team.

"It's more important to work. I was happy to train in the second division when I was learning."

vs

The former Chelsea manager is known to have no interest in the position. Ancelotti, according to sources close to the Italian, is holding out for a club that can offer Champions League football.

Something doesn't quite add up there.

We have an opportunity now to get this appointment right and install confidence back into the players and fans alike.

Appointing Hughes, Mclaren or Rafa would be a parity move and to be honest, i'd honestly rather GH had stayed than any of those. This would also undoubtedly mean Ash would move on and neither inspire Downing to push the pen.

Ancelotti on the other hand, a man who has stated he is desperate to stay in England, would be inspirational and instill a fan confidence back into our board and club. The people claiming that he would not take a wage cut are wrong in my opinion, moreover I imagine we could offer him pretty close to what he was on anyway, even at Chelsea. The defining factor of getting this guy to manage our club will be the budget to work with and this is where my doubts start to surface. This is one of the only appointments that I can honestly see Ash staying for, probably Downing too, else we'll soon have to prepare acceptance for losing our players to pool and spurs, aswell as the 'top 4' because we are no longer a challenging club, we are 'stabilising'.

As for Moyes, I would like him as a secondary but I have seen the guy in numerous interviews and he just oozes the vibe that he will not entertain a move sideways, as much as it pains me to say that. Plus it would probably end up being more expensive than Ancelotti.

Very happy with appointment, and for the first time in what seems like decades. A step up, a step forward, really pleased.

Heaven forbid my mates catch onto the fact i'm fully behind GH. They may remember a decade ago I said he looked abit like a fish. Totally busted. I want Jol instead.

I could win two titles with Lyon. That team was so much better than the rest of the league you hardly needed much managerial talent to win. It's how they went backwards in Europe that was a worry

He also quite Lyon because he needed a break.

My worry is all the poor signings he made, team deteriorated under his management. That's my worry. He'll go sign garbage.

We're all pretty used to signing garbage and still finishing 6th, maybe this time the garbage will at least have some fancy names.

The only thing Jol has over Houllier is age, even still i'd probably prefer Houllier.

The way people are being so selectively negative with Houllier's extensive years in the game is pretty embarrassing to read.

What's more important? That we might sign a few shite Frenchmen or that we might win a few trophies? People seem hell-bent on criticising someone who wins things. It must be very therapeutic for them but Villa live in the real world and, if we get him, we will have hired above ourselves IMO.

We aren't going to win trophies by signing shite Frenchmen because we don't have Owen, Gerrard and Carragher waiting for a team built around them. He had the makings of a title winning side there and failed to surround them with anywhere near the same level of talent.

You lost me at Carragher.

Any time Ive seen PT talk about Houllier he's always been very positive! I know it's only rumour but I think it could be a real possibility! That also being said he did talk Mons side when he left and was saying how we'd struggle to replace him. Whos knows?

Find me a pundit who hasn't formally been associated with Villa that didn't take his side. Charlie Nicholas who I can usually tolerate called us fickle just last week on SS for 'turning' on MON.

They will always side with the pro rather than the fans, it's just the nature of the business and not wanting to get sued

Like it or not, in the public eye we're a club that has overachieved in the past few seasons rather than a fantastic club back to where it should be. And the general public, along with alot of Villa fans themselves attribute that rightfully or wrongfully to MON.

Phil Thompson to be assistant.

One of the most biased pundits i've ever witnessed, not just in favour of liverpool but also against any club he doesn't much like, of which one seems to be Villa so i'd be surprised if he came.

A truly insufferable individual and you can just tell from the other pundits on SS that he is very difficult to work with. Of course this is just conjecture, but in my opinion pretty accurate.

If Gerard really needs him to work at his best then I will get behind him as hard as that may prove.

You had best start warming to Gerard as it's looking more and more likely.

Structure wise, if given the chance, I think he will set some decent seeds and at the very least overhaul an ancient scouting system.

As for the actual football, we've hardly been blessed with it over the last 4 years or more have we.

Thanks for your posts General

I, along with many other fans greatly appreciate your responses here providing us with an albeit virtual bridge between club and support.

Support falls on a fairly large scale of fanaticism and emotions are running high as i'm sure they are from within. Excuses aside, some people are just inherently impatient but I trust you know they are no lesser fans than we.

I have been firmly behind Randy since the beginning and nothing has changed in this regard and this is the position of the vast majority, on here and otherwise.

If you would indulge me on the managerial situation, would it be possible to give us a hint or incling as to how many interviews/candidates there have been or will be?

Many thanks

Think we'd have had to want him in the first place to be fickle.