Houllier - released from contract with FFF

[Maradona10]

Blandy, so much sense spoken. Some people think its Monopoly, we don't generate enough income, we go on about how big we are, we can't even sell out against Bolton.

Whilst I agree with Blandy on the whole, no-one sells out when they play Bolton at Home ;-)

But we shouldn't be getting 34k either.

[Rob182]

We don't even know how much they are prepared to spend. I'd say wait until next summer before coming to conlusions.

I completely agree.

Though times are hard, we don't know how much Randy is willing to allow Houllier to spend.

The general opinion is that O'Neill would have been given money to spend in the summer but he needed to cut the wage bill before bringing in more players.

I fully support Randy's logic.

My opinion is that O'Neill didn't want to appear too wasteful so put higher asking prices than realistic on the players we wanted to get rid of. I'd have been happy if we'd sold Beye, Heskey & Davies at cut prices if it meant we could bring in a player or two.

[Mantis]

I think if you cut Heskey's price you'd have to start paying clubs to have him.

[villa4europe]

Blandy, so much sense spoken. Some people think its Monopoly, we don't generate enough income, we go on about how big we are, we can't even sell out against Bolton.

Whilst I agree with Blandy on the whole, no-one sells out when they play Bolton at Home ;-)

But we shouldn't be getting 34k either.

Maybe the club should have done more £10 tickets? At least they did something, 3 seperate offers ran for saturdays game

[bickster]

Blandy, so much sense spoken. Some people think its Monopoly, we don't generate enough income, we go on about how big we are, we can't even sell out against Bolton.

Whilst I agree with Blandy on the whole, no-one sells out when they play Bolton at Home ;-)

But we shouldn't be getting 34k either.

Why? football crowds are on the wane across the board, people are having to tighten their belts, football attendance is an expensive luxury. That crowd is 4,000ish down on last season, thats pretty much in the right ball park I reckon considering the current economic climate. Prices have risen, jobs and wages haven't risen as much. Some people just got priced out of football and its not just us its every club across the board this is no Villa phenomena. Also the luxury prices we as customers pay, some people really do expect to be entertained for that money. If the club really do want to get attendances up, entertaining football would be an avenue to explore... but we've just appointed a walking festival of dull football as manager, those that wish to be entertained will not be encouraged back by his particular brand of football imo.

[Maradona10]

Bickster, my main point on this, we can't expect Randy to pump in millions, if we only get gates of 34k, considering we are one of the most reasonably priced sides in this league, we just can't compete with the likes of Spurs, Man City or Liverpool. They destroy us on revenue.

[blandy]

...The club should not go on about aiming for champions league and winning things because we wont be doing that anytime soon. (I note that they are changing their ambitions by the way)....the club have set this expectation...

I don't mean to be, er, mean spirited, but I don't fully agree with you in return.

I assume that Randy wants to win stuff and be in midweek EuroTelly Cup games, and to be fair we've got in the idiotic UEFA cup and got to Wembley and stuff, so not really hollow words, and like you say they seem to have downgraded to "compete within our means" or some such - hardly a false rallying cry, that. In other words the current expectation is mid table.

If the previous manager hadn't have dropped his bundle, I'd have said mid-table was under-ambitious fopr this season, but I think Houllier will have a harder job given what he's inherited and the lack of opportunity to sort things out till next summer, in terms of squad weaknesses.

[villacrossthemersey]

Blandy, so much sense spoken. Some people think its Monopoly, we don't generate enough income, we go on about how big we are, we can't even sell out against Bolton.

Whilst I agree with Blandy on the whole, no-one sells out when they play Bolton at Home ;-)

But we shouldn't be getting 34k either.

Why? football crowds are on the wane across the board, people are having to tighten their belts, football attendance is an expensive luxury. That crowd is 4,000ish down on last season, thats pretty much in the right ball park I reckon considering the current economic climate. Prices have risen, jobs and wages haven't risen as much. Some people just got priced out of football and its not just us its every club across the board this is no Villa phenomena. Also the luxury prices we as customers pay, some people really do expect to be entertained for that money. If the club really do want to get attendances up, entertaining football would be an avenue to explore... but we've just appointed a walking festival of dull football as manager, those that wish to be entertained will not be encouraged back by his particular brand of football imo.

I take your point Bicks but if Houllier emulates half of what he did at Liverpool (Silverware wise) I daresay we may get an increase, albeit not a substantial one. For the first time in quite a while I missed a home game this weekend - The airshow was potentially more exciting !!

In future if I can`t attend would you be interested in the offer of borrowing my two season tickets?

[Risso]

..if Randy has no money left to throw in, fine no one will blame you, but then find investors who will. or look at selling up. we cant go on not spending a penny we will go back to teh dark ellis days and our players like young, gabby and dunney will go

That's the blinkered answer, IMO.

Football isn't and shouldn't be about how much money an owner or investor will throw at players. That route is utter stupidity long term.

I do accept that if you fail to spend money, then you're not going to succeed, but I don't now, and never have accepted that the owner should throw his personal money around to make the Club successful.

The idea that you change owners like some clubs change managers is ludicrous. Get this rich bloke in, when all his money's gone, throw him away and get the next one, ad infinitum. If people can't see the utter idiocy of that kind of thinking, then I despair.

That is counter to all common sense, all financial sanity and would be counter to the rules under which the club will have to operate.

What needs to happen at Villa is not simple, but there are a few basic tenets which underpin things.

1 - Don't spend more than you earn, unless the spending is on infrastructure that will pay back the "mortgage"

2 - Keep the costs for staff wages at a reasonable percentage of income - 60% or so (the UEFA max limit is 70%).

3 - Do your utmost to sustainably increase income in all areas

A business plan based around either an owner throwing money at things, or the hope that an even richer owner will come along is utterly stupid.

It's everything that is wrong with football and everything that is wrong with the thinking of some supporters.

That would be the sensible route. Unfortunately, Villa are miles away from that sensible approach as things stand. Whilst we're nowhere near as bad as the likes of Chelsea or Man City, we've basically had a rich bloke financing us since Randy turned up. Our wages our a massive proportion of our turnover, and I'm not sure that the wages thrown at utterly average players like Heskey and Beye could be termed "sustainable".

[briny_ear]

^^^Interesting article, but I'm almost certain he isn't our manager any more...

:-) thank god ......

The point is though a lack of activity in January does not really prove a lot other than its a difficult time to do business - or so certain managers say. I would be very surprised if we did not see at least a couple of signings in - and even 1 out, but it wont be the sign that we have this "no money" that some are saying.

The old 25 player ruling may change things this year, and reports in the press on a daily basis seem to indicate clubs are willing to dump players now in Jan - see Man City (and that is not Citeh!) this morning re. Given

BTW, I noted with interest this quote from the article:

Although most observers agree that Villa's capture of Emile Heskey for £3.5 million was one of the deals of last month, and one which has strengthened the side significantly ahead of the rest of the season...

Just shows how tricky these January window thingies are all round... :winkold:

[keefa3011]

I can't believe the amount of negativity about the new manager at VP. What happened to the good old days of supporting your club, and therefore your manager too?

I for one am happy to have got Gerard Houllier ahead of Billy-Bob Bradley, Gareth Southgate or Sven Goran Eriksson.

Out of what was available, I honestly believe we have a good man, but of course only time will tell.

[TrentVilla]

I can't believe the amount of negativity about the new manager at VP. What happened to the good old days of supporting your club, and therefore your manager too?

I for one am happy to have got Gerard Houllier ahead of Billy-Bob Bradley, Gareth Southgate or Sven Goran Eriksson.

Out of what was available, I honestly believe we have a good man, but of course only time will tell.

Great, good for you. Others however don't agree and others think even if he its nothing to be too excited about.

Whatever peoples views they are entitled to express them, it doesn't make them any less of a fan neither does it make you a better fan because you are positive over the appointment. Not being excited by an appointment doesn't mean you aren't a supporter.

[drat01]

Just shows how tricky these January window thingies are all round... Wink

Very true :-)

I have to agree with Pete B. here on looking at the state of the club into which GH has joined.

When MON joined us along with Randy, the first major difference we saw was in how the club was run, the problem is MON ruined a lot of things with awful signings and costs for players like Harewood, Heskey, Maloney etc etc. OK we are starting to rid ourselves of some of that crap, and expensive crap it is, but the result is we still are not bringing in the revenues to support that sort of luxury. One of GH's major tasks will be to redress this along with keeping the club going forward, and I think this is a lot of what he has alluded to so far.

Clubs the size of Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have got massive fan bases world wide, I am always so disappointed when I see so many of their shirts in the 4 corners of the world on my travels. Very very rarely do you see a Villa shirt. We are a mid table premiership club on that side of things and very little will happen to change that in the near term.

GH didn't have to join us but he did so, he comes with a decent / good CV and brings with what on paper seems a decent backroom team. We are in a difficult position because of how that mardy arse left us 5 days before the season started. But there is still a long way to go

[bickster]

For the first time in quite a while I missed a home game this weekend - The airshow was potentially more exciting !!

Especially on Sunday, it was cancelled

[TrentVilla]

Clubs the size of Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have got massive fan bases world wide, I am always so disappointed when I see so many of their shirts in the 4 corners of the world on my travels. Very very rarely do you see a Villa shirt. We are a mid table premiership club on that side of things and very little will happen to change that in the near term.

True. However it is worth remembering that they have those fans around the world as a result of their success on the pitch and not the other way around.

We need to address our ability or inability to fill the ground and generate income but we also need to address why people are staying away and why generations of Brummie's have grown up supporting clubs in Manchester and London.

Football is a product and the truth is the product served up at Villa Park hasn't been all that great for a very long time.

[bickster]

Bickster, my main point on this, we can't expect Randy to pump in millions, if we only get gates of 34k, considering we are one of the most reasonably priced sides in this league, we just can't compete with the likes of Spurs, Man City or Liverpool. They destroy us on revenue.

Didn't say anything about pumping millions in. I said some people want to be entertained. They are completely different things. More money does not equal more entertainment, though more entertainment may indeed equal more income. Nor am I saying I personally want to be entertained but it is a reason why some other fans are no longer going to the game.

[bickster]

In future if I can`t attend would you be interested in the offer of borrowing my two season tickets?

Thanks for the offer mate but I have one of my own, I just haven't been able to use it yet this season but for me the reasons were all personal (West Ham - On Holiday, Everton - no way was I spending 3hrs 20mins each way on a train to get to the game and Bolton - The missus Aussie Relatives have descended upon us and I valued my life!), hopefully my attendance percentage will increase from hereon in

[keefa3011]

Great, good for you. Others however don't agree and others think even if he its nothing to be too excited about.

Whatever peoples views they are entitled to express them, it doesn't make them any less of a fan neither does it make you a better fan because you are positive over the appointment. Not being excited by an appointment doesn't mean you aren't a supporter.

Sorry, my intention wasn't to say that I'm a better fan than others, or anything as foolish as that.

[Risso]

Except the simple fact is the statement is not accurate. Again you two believe that he has NOT signed anything yet. So effectively you are saying Aston Villa football club with an incredibly succesfull business man at the helm, has a press conference to present GH as our new manager with nothing signed. C'mon guys that is dreamland.

On the other hand, you seem to be saying that an honest and successful football manager was lying when he said he hadn't signed anything.

Houlston we have a problem!

[mjmooney]

GH didn't have to join us but he did

I was in France when the GH Villa appointment was announced, and there was quite an interesting little article in l'Equipe about it. They made the point that it was a good time for GH to bail from his French FA job, as he was associated with the Domenech regime, and there was a "new broom" approach going on since the Laurent Blanc takeover.

Had it not been for Villa he may have been out of a job.