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Moment when you knew a Villa manager was done

KentVillan

By KentVillan
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ender4 Grand Master

ender4

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1 hour ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

I can't remember the game, I've undergone councilling since as it haunted me, but for Steve Bruce it was a game he just subbed on every striker we had and took the whole midfield off 😂😂

Don't all the managers do that in their final game!  It's like a 'F it, this can't get any worse'.

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jimmygreaves Experienced

jimmygreaves

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Probably not the right thread for this but just seeing the list of previous managers really highlights the garbage job Gerrard has done.

Most of those had poor squads, not much to spend relatively speaking, little support by the owners, etc....

Gerrard has had everything. The CEO loves him, the owners are the wealthiest we've ever seen, the best squad in decades, the club (owners, fans, players) were all positive and pulling in the same direction when he came in.....

He couldn't have had an easier time of it.... and he's still managed to **** it up.

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VillaChris Grand Master

VillaChris

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2 hours ago, Xela said:

I loved Gregory but there was some allegedly shady financial doings going on - the whole Balaban affair was one. Spend all that money and not play him? Did we even need a striker after having only recently purchased Angel? 

I don't think its any secret that the Fraud Squad investigated things. 

He mentioned the Balaban fiasco in interview he did with the O/S a decade go as they never ask him in the podcasts he's done in recent times.

Said he'd never seen Balaban play live (so same as Savo and Little) but needed to sign him as we had european registration deadline. Then said he was struggling to fit in with our way of training. Scouting reports were good on him though:

#AskGregory Part Two: John on Doug, Bosko and FA Cup regrets | News | Aston Villa Football Club | AVFC

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Q] Tell us about Bosko Balaban?

A] That will be a millstone for me.

With Bosko, I never saw him play. A lot of it was going on recommendations from the scouting network.

We lost Luc Nillis with a horrific injury. I thought he was going to play a big part for us for many years. We then had to sign someone the following summer.

We kept getting these recommendations about Bosko. I never got the chance to see him but I was told he was a good finisher and might be worth a gamble.

The following summer, my last in 2001, the new season was upon us and we had to register all our players for the UEFA Cup.

We had qualified by winning the Intertoto Cup and we had a closing date. Before we knew it, that was upon us and we either had to sign Bosko or not. There was no point taking him later because he wouldn't have been able to play in Europe.

We had a decision to make. I sat down with the board and after meeting his representatives, collectively - although I had the final decision - we agreed to take him.

Obviously he needed a bit of work to get up to speed in the Premier League. Bosko wasn't doing brilliantly on the training field but he was getting used to the way we were doing things.

I just thought it was going to be a long process. Juan took some time but he got it right in the end. I thought Bosko would be the same.

As it turned out, I left in January and in the end Villa gave him away.

It was just going to be a question of time, in my opinion. I think eventually he would have made it - he'd have got into team and scored a few goals and been fine.

But I didn't have long enough to work with him. I have been haunted with him ever since. Whenever anyone wants to have a go at me, they just say: "Whatever happened to Bosko Balaban?"

So there you go. Considering he wasn't even making the bench a few months after joining I could fully understand why Doug was refusing to give him a similar amount to spend on Muzzy Izzet which was the tipping point for Gregory eventually quitting.

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VillaChris Grand Master

VillaChris

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2 hours ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

I can't remember the game, I've undergone councilling since as it haunted me, but for Steve Bruce it was a game he just subbed on every striker we had and took the whole midfield off 😂😂

That was Sherwood at Leicester wasn't it? Took off Grealish and Gil at 2-0 up who were running the game and put on Ayew and Gestede!!!

Clueless management.

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Straggler Mentor

Straggler

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I accurately called the timing of Sherwood's departure when he was appointed.  It's on the record on this very website, not that I can be bothered to find it.  I'm not really one for making big predictions like that, but I knew that he was not only, not up to the job, but that he wouldn't even be up to faking it for any length of time.

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UpTheVilla26 Grand Master

UpTheVilla26

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33 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

That was Sherwood at Leicester wasn't it? Took off Grealish and Gil at 2-0 up who were running the game and put on Ayew and Gestede!!!

Clueless management.

Probably both did it but I deffo remember a game Bruce did it in and we had about 4 or 5 up front but no Midfield to actually pass to them. 

Also sticking Samba up front, that was painful. 

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sparrow1988 Grand Master

sparrow1988

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1 hour ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

Probably both did it but I deffo remember a game Bruce did it in and we had about 4 or 5 up front but no Midfield to actually pass to them. 

Also sticking Samba up front, that was painful. 

To be fair I remember Louis van Gaal doing this against Ireland in 2001 in a WC qualifier. Ended up with Kluivert, van Nistelrooy, van Hooijdonk, and Hassebaink all on the pitch together. They were even all on before Ireland got the goal to make it 1-0. 

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MrBlack Grand Master

MrBlack

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With Gerrard, it's the loss to West Ham.

I had serious doubts after Bournemouth (and the then lack of changes against Everton). But I still thought he might be able to turn it around. West Ham and his moronic substitutions that took us back ot the team that had failed the previous game, and lo and behold made us fail again.

Not sure how long he'll hang on now, but he'll be gone by the international break.

For Smith, it was the Wolves game.

Bruce, Preston.

Can't recall anything back further than that. I vaguely recall Gregory looking significantly greyer almost overnight after a particularly bad defeat, but can't remember who it was we played. 

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wict01 Rising Star

wict01

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The ones I can really remember vividly:

O'Neill - the Rapid Vienna fiasco. Even though we got 64 points and came 6th again, there was a weird undercurrent of grumbling among the fans about the style of play. A proper European tour might've softened the blow. 

Houllier - as others have said, the illness. He was never coming back.

McLeish - Bolton at home

Lambert - for me, was the 8-0 at Chelsea. You just knew we'd never build anything capable of properly competing in the prem under him. 

Sherwood - Swansea at home after taking the lead and conceding straight after (sounds familiar...)

Garde - Liverpool at home after that brief mini-revival 

Di Matteo - Barnsley away with yet another late equaliser conceded

Bruce - Bolton away in the snow. Completely lost faith that we'd get promoted under him that day. 

Smith - Arsenal away last year. 

Gerrard - well, had a bad feeling about this one since he arrived. 

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