Confirmed: Houllier is the new Villa manager

[Moorski]

How about this one for a theory, Moyes to us & O'Neill goes to Everton who will also get compensation plus Mon & his staff! just a thought

So Everton get our management team and our transfer kitty?

If we are to get a manager from another club, we will have to pay compensation either way like it or not.

If we went for Moyes who would they get in to replace him who is available? O'neill is avaialble.

However we are unlikley to get Moyes so it seems.

[BOF]

How about this one for a theory, Moyes to us & O'Neill goes to Everton who will also get compensation plus Mon & his staff! just a thought

So Everton get our management team and our transfer kitty?

No, snuggles stays with us. She's too old to move now.

[Shillzz]

How about this one for a theory, Moyes to us & O'Neill goes to Everton who will also get compensation plus Mon & his staff! just a thought

So Everton get our management team and our transfer kitty?

No, snuggles stays with us. She's too old to move now.

Made I chuckle.

[JulieB]

One thing that puzzles me is why Robertson and Walford were straight out the door with MON. Yes I understand that they are a team and they follow him wherever he goes - but at the moment he has gone nowhere! So Walford and Robertson are now unemployed because MON decided he had had enough - strange. If my boss quit his job and expected me to quit with him even though there was no other job to go to I'd tell him to do one!

Yes a very good point..one that I was discussing with someone a few days ago also. Makes you wonder if MON has something else lined up

in the background as a reason for them all to walk doesn't it?

Bingo... methinks MON had a nod & a wink that he and they are up for England job once Capello goes!

[Cracker1234]

Don't most backroom staff leave if a manager leaves? I thought managers take there own backroom staff with them wherever they go.

[Jas]

I'm starting to warm to Alan Curbishley a little. Don't think he'd be a bad appointment.

Worked with low budgets before, and signed some good players in his time at Charlton and West Ham.

[Reality]

MON's back room staff have always left once he is out the door. It has happened throughout MON's managerial career. No surprise really.

[barry'sboots]

I thought a reason MON had nothing to spend was because our wage bill was too high compared to revenue taken in.

Surely if we sell some of the average players and replace them we will have the same problem or are we expecting better players for cheaper wages?

Don't really understand why we have this wage bill issue. As I understand it our wages are supposed to be higher than Spuds (by £10m) and Everton (by £20m) although I can't find figures to support this. Even if, I think, you adjust for the fact we have more permanent staff due to less outsourcing then we would still be higher as the bulk of the wage bill is players and manager. But if you look at the relative squads we must be paying stupid money to a number of players because Spurs seem to have 25+ recognised first team options (even before the acquisition of VdV) and Everton appear to have a similar sized squad to us i.e. circa 18 main stream players and a lot of younger/unknown.

The last available figures I have at hand are for our year ending May 2008 and our wage bill was £50.4m but these figures exclude the arrival of the 8 or so players in that summer. If we assume that the turnover has satyed roughly similar (£75.6m) and our wages are 85% of this then they are circa £65m. Knock off, say, a max of £10m (on the high side I would have thought?), for non-playing staff and reserves and that gives you £55m. I would break our squad down as:

- manager

- 17 recognised established first team regulars

- 5 squad players (Guzan, Lichaj, Hogg, Osbourne, Salifou)

- plus the 6 kids that will participate (Albie, Bannan, the Fonz, Delph, Wiemann and Clark)

I would be surprised if the latter 11 are on a wage much over £20k pw so if I use that then that accounts for £11m, leaving £44m for the other 17, giving you an average wage per recognised first teamer and manager of circa £50k pw.

This seems really high to me given the quality of what we have and maybe explains why MON was moved on??

[avfc89]

I'm starting to warm to Alan Curbishley a little. Don't think he'd be a bad appointment.

Worked with low budgets before, and signed some good players in his time at Charlton and West Ham.

I sure don't want him, he would be a terrible appointment.

[villabromsgrove]

One thing that puzzles me is why Robertson and Walford were straight out the door with MON. Yes I understand that they are a team and they follow him wherever he goes - but at the moment he has gone nowhere! So Walford and Robertson are now unemployed because MON decided he had had enough - strange. If my boss quit his job and expected me to quit with him even though there was no other job to go to I'd tell him to do one!

Yes a very good point..one that I was discussing with someone a few days ago also. Makes you wonder if MON has something else lined up

in the background as a reason for them all to walk doesn't it?

Bingo... methinks MON had a nod & a wink that he and they are up for England job once Capello goes!

I can't wait for the day! "Martin O'Neill has announced his squad for this weeks England international, the ELEVEN players are ...."

[barry'sboots]

I can't wait for the day! "Martin O'Neill has announced his squad for this weeks England international, the ELEVEN players are ...."

Surely you mean 12 players???? ...... Heskey off the bench for the last 15 minutes when we are desperate for a goal?

[thejoker]

Alan Curbishley would do a job and keep us in the top 10, but we would never push on. We have to go for someone who is maybe a little more of a risk (Klinsmann), but could potentially get us top 4, signing some bargain basement european players.

[sgvillan]

And moving Gareth Barry to left back, just for old times sake? No wait........

[Jez]

The mysterious Villa_insider twitter has said there was an interview today and another one tomorrow.

Interesting if true, once again a bit if!

[Shillzz]

I'm starting to warm to Alan Curbishley a little. Don't think he'd be a bad appointment.

Worked with low budgets before, and signed some good players in his time at Charlton and West Ham.

I sure don't want him, he would be a terrible appointment.

I Personally think he'd be a fairly good appointment in terms of the end footballing result, but the damage it would do to morale and the reaction of the underwhelmed fans could undermine any progress.

[danceoftheshamen]

Must admit this is a point i was wondering about too! I mean yes backroom teams usually leave pretty soon after the manager for sure but immediately? Seemed a touch like a 2 fingers up job to me.

[barry'sboots]

Alan Curbishley would do a job and keep us in the top 10, but we would never push on. We have to go for someone who is maybe a little more of a risk (Klinsmann), but could potentially get us top 4, signing some bargain basement european players.

How could you know. Its been so long since he was in management it would be hard to know??

Lets really go for it and get George Graham. He would have loved Sunday's 1-0 with a strong defensive performance.

Sod it. George Graham with Martin Laursen as his no. 2!

[thejoker]

The mysterious Villa_insider twitter has said there was an interview today and another one tomorrow.

Interesting if true, once again a bit if!

Which suggests, if true, that we are only looking at 'out of work' managers because you can't really interview someone without agreeing compo with current club (which I'm sure would have been leaked somewhere).

[barry'sboots]

Which suggests, if true, that we are only looking at 'out of work' managers because you can't really interview someone without agreeing compo with current club (which I'm sure would have been leaked somewhere).

I thought the general had effectively said this earlier today by saying that they wouldn't poach other club's managers?

[Cracker1234]

I'm not sure how things work with managers, but I've always gone to interviews whilst I've been employed in another job.