The, he's finally GONE! Tell us your thoughts Thread

[Villarocker]

The dire football served up this season is surely proof that he isn't good enough. I am sick of this crap about him losing Downing and Young. Neither of those players have spent any time on the pitch for McLeish. Remember the old saying - you can't miss what you didnt have?

I would argue he is in a better position than Houllier. He has had a firing again Gabby, a wanting to play again Ireland, all our "inexperienced kids" have had a half season of Premier League football and all the "senior" pros are magically not missing any games through injury. How many of those injuries last season were genuine and not put on because they didn't like having to adhere to the boss's new ways? Not many, I bet!

For me, AM has had it much better than people think. He had a £30m+ forward line to work with and managed us into creating nothing for them. The best striker pairing this club has had in years by the way!

He needs to give this senior players a kick up the arse and get them performing to their pay grade and then we might see some football worthy of cheer. At least some of the games under Houllier were entertaining.

[dudevillaisnice]

I think the club's policy about having "premier league" experience in a manager is ridiculous in my opinion.

[kidlewis]

Looking at the table now our next two games will push us very close to safety. (33 points)

If we win tomorrow the likelyhood is we will be 11 points clear of the drop. I cannot see both Bolton beating arsenal AND Blackburn beating Newcastle. One of them is going to lose.

so that is 11 points clear with 15 to play

the next week we play Newcastle with the Top part of the table playing against each other and the bottom also doing the same. It is highly doubtful we will win at Sports Direct Stadium, however if we do it's going to look like a 13 point lead with 14 to play.

The end of March and early April is going to be the tough ride. We need as many points as we can before United, Liverpool and Chelsea run hit us.

the optimist is saying (win these next two and top have is more likely than not)

pessemist is saying (if we don't pick up 4 points in these next two games it's pretty worrying)

[Ginko]

The dire football served up this season is surely proof that he isn't good enough. I am sick of this crap about him losing Downing and Young. Neither of those players have spent any time on the pitch for McLeish. Remember the old saying - you can't miss what you didnt have?

I would argue he is in a better position than Houllier. He has had a firing again Gabby, a wanting to play again Ireland, all our "inexperienced kids" have had a half season of Premier League football and all the "senior" pros are magically not missing any games through injury. How many of those injuries last season were genuine and not put on because they didn't like having to adhere to the boss's new ways? Not many, I bet!

For me, AM has had it much better than people think. He had a £30m+ forward line to work with and managed us into creating nothing for them. The best striker pairing this club has had in years by the way!

He needs to give this senior players a kick up the arse and get them performing to their pay grade and then we might see some football worthy of cheer. At least some of the games under Houllier were entertaining.

Sorry, there's not much I agree with in this post. When you talk about the Young and Downing "crap", you say that you can't miss what you didn't have, well we as a team did have them and we do miss them and anyway you look at it, Mcleish has been without two of our major creative outlets. Bringing in N'Zogbia was his call, he has to take responsibility for that, but not having those two players would affect our team no matter who the manager was.

AM has not had it better than Houllier at all, he's had less money to spend for one. Those things you mention about Gabby being back in form and Ireland starting to play well, well is it just a coincidence that they started happening when AM took over from GH? Using things like that to criticise him is ridiculous, those are two things you have to praise him for. The same could be said for the lack of injuries. It was well documented that the intense fitness training regime Houllier implemented was one of the major reasons that we had such an injury crisis, so the lack of injuries has to be a positive you can take out of Mcleish's training surely? I also don't think the players faked injuries just so they didn't have to play for Houllier, either way it's something you can neither prove nor disprove so it can't be used as a stick to beat Mcleish with.

The £30 million forward line is only effective if you have the creative players to compliment them, as stated above.

I'm not saying I'm a fan of Mcleish, but it does seem that certain people on here are blaming every little thing on him and I think that's unfair, also some of the comments about him I've seen on here are frankly childish and pathetic. Do I want him here? Not really. Has he made mistakes? Absolutely, but not everything is his fault and he came into the club with an incredibly tough job to do, sometimes I think we should cut him a little slack, and definitely stop calling him pathetic names. I like to think that the community on here is a little better than that.

[holtelower]

Of course I am always wanting Villa to win, but more than ever, I want us to win tomorrow night.

If we do, and Sunderland / Norwich draw, we will be 8th, not that far off 7th.

I hope we win, it will be deathly silence on here. 8th going into February, nt far off 7th and playing them the weekend.

We may even talk about europe !!

Or, maybe, people will just continue to slag everything off about the club and the manager.

[Mantis]

I hope we win more than ever tomorrow because we haven't won at home for three months.

That and the fact that I'm making yet another 6 hour round trip up to VP tomorrow.

[holtelower]

I hope we win more than ever tomorrow because we haven't won at home for three months.

That and the fact that I'm making yet another 6 hour round trip up to VP tomorrow.

Here is a novel thought.

If the fans actually attempt to support them team, instead of sitting in silence waiting for one of them to make a stray pass and then vent ultimate rage at the team - we may just do it.

The only time this season I have heard the fans support the team was Arsenal, now I know we lost it, but how well we played that day.

Just a thought.

[Big_John_10]

So our biggest rivals are in the championship because of our current manager.

And now they're currently enjoying watching their team play decent football and scoring goals for fun because they don't have our current manager.

Its a joke.

Please Randy do us all a favour and **** off as soon as possible. You are an utter failure of an owner in this sport and we're going no where with you making the important decisions.

[picicata]

I hope we win more than ever tomorrow because we haven't won at home for three months.

That and the fact that I'm making yet another 6 hour round trip up to VP tomorrow.

Here is a novel thought.

If the fans actually attempt to support them team, instead of sitting in silence waiting for one of them to make a stray pass and then vent ultimate rage at the team - we may just do it.

The only time this season I have heard the fans support the team was Arsenal, now I know we lost it, but how well we played that day.

Just a thought.

Which came first though? The good support or the playing well?

It was always going to be an almost impossible task for McCleish to win other the crowd and is one of the main reasons he should never have been hired. But he is here now and we should try and support the team.

Personally I think the crowd support, or lack there of, in the home games is slightly over played. The truth is that we play a defensive style, built to play on the break and this style of play simply suits playing away better when the opposition feel they have to take the initiative. When asked to take that initiative ourselves at Villa park we are not tactically set up to do so.

[Keyblade]

It's true. thhe atmosphere at VP when things aren't going swimmingly is pretty poisonous. and it was the same last year. I was watching this goals of the season (last season) programme and one of the goals was Jarvis' winner at VP. I honestly thought someone muted my tv for a second that's how bad the atmosphere was.

[Mantis]

So our biggest rivals are in the championship because of our current manager.

And now they're currently enjoying watching their team play decent football and scoring goals for fun because they don't have our current manager.

Its a joke.

Please Randy do us all a favour and **** off as soon as possible. You are an utter failure of an owner in this sport and we're going no where with you making the important decisions.

What about McLeish?

[Big_John_10]

So our biggest rivals are in the championship because of our current manager.

And now they're currently enjoying watching their team play decent football and scoring goals for fun because they don't have our current manager.

Its a joke.

Please Randy do us all a favour and **** off as soon as possible. You are an utter failure of an owner in this sport and we're going no where with you making the important decisions.

What about McLeish?

It goes without saying i want him **** off

[andym]

teams we have beaten under mcleish

blackburn - currently 18th

hereford - lower league opposition

wigan - bottom of the league

norwich - i expect to beat the promoted teams at home

bolton - currently 17th

chelsea - only good team we have beaten - looks like a complete anomaly to be honest

bristol - lower league opposition

wolves - currently 19th

we have also lost more than we have won at home and conceded more than we have scored at VP.

not pretty reading is it?

[holtelower]

Does it matter who you beat ?

Going from that list we beat Bolton, who beat Liverpool, we beat Wigan, who beat Chelsea, Blacnkburn who beat Arsenal..............

So if you went through a season beating the bottom 10 home and away , picking up 60 points.

Beat 8th 9th at home

and lost the other 18 games it would be a crap season , even though you would get Champions League football ?.

I just dont see peoples logic, I really don't.

If we win tomorrow we are 9th , or 8th.

I dont give a shite who we beat to get there. and I dont give a shit if beating Wigan, Albion and Blackburn earn the points to get us 6th.

[villianusa]

Please Randy do us all a favour and **** off as soon as possible. You are an utter failure of an owner in this sport and we're going no where with you making the important decisions.

Serious question as I don't know the answer. What were you feelings on him as an owner when we took 6th for three years running?

[macandally]

I hope we win more than ever tomorrow because we haven't won at home for three months.

That and the fact that I'm making yet another 6 hour round trip up to VP tomorrow.

Here is a novel thought.

If the fans actually attempt to support them team, instead of sitting in silence waiting for one of them to make a stray pass and then vent ultimate rage at the team - we may just do it.

The only time this season I have heard the fans support the team was Arsenal, now I know we lost it, but how well we played that day.

Just a thought.

Mate the people who dont like the McLeish generally stay away, so what you are actually saying is those who are tolerant of him are causing a poisonous atmosphere at Villa Park?

Nice on you.

..............................and as usual, everyones fault except McLeish who is supposed to set up, motivate and send out a team mentally, physically and tactically capable of winning the game.

[Mantis]

I hope we win more than ever tomorrow because we haven't won at home for three months.

That and the fact that I'm making yet another 6 hour round trip up to VP tomorrow.

Here is a novel thought.

If the fans actually attempt to support them team, instead of sitting in silence waiting for one of them to make a stray pass and then vent ultimate rage at the team - we may just do it.

The only time this season I have heard the fans support the team was Arsenal, now I know we lost it, but how well we played that day.

Just a thought.

Which came first though? The good support or the playing well?

It was always going to be an almost impossible task for McCleish to win other the crowd and is one of the main reasons he should never have been hired. But he is here now and we should try and support the team.

Personally I think the crowd support, or lack there of, in the home games is slightly over played. The truth is that we play a defensive style, built to play on the break and this style of play simply suits playing away better when the opposition feel they have to take the initiative. When asked to take that initiative ourselves at Villa park we are not tactically set up to do so.

McLeish winning us over would be an almost impossible task because he's a poor manager. He's out of his depth here.

Yes, I would agree with much of that last paragraph. Also, our home support has been poor for some time (for the reason you mentioned) but I think it's been at its worst this season because of the tripe that's been served up at VP. We're very rarely the better team.

Please Randy do us all a favour and **** off as soon as possible. You are an utter failure of an owner in this sport and we're going no where with you making the important decisions.

Serious question as I don't know the answer. What were you feelings on him as an owner when we took 6th for three years running?

Presumably that was all MON's doing.

Personally I think Randy's getting it a bit harsh from some fans. I strongly disagree with the decision to appoint McLeish and the decision he is making to keep him in the job but on the whole I think he's been a good owner.

[Mammoth10]

I hope we win more than ever tomorrow because we haven't won at home for three months.

That and the fact that I'm making yet another 6 hour round trip up to VP tomorrow.

Here is a novel thought.

If the fans actually attempt to support them team, instead of sitting in silence waiting for one of them to make a stray pass and then vent ultimate rage at the team - we may just do it.

The only time this season I have heard the fans support the team was Arsenal, now I know we lost it, but how well we played that day.

Just a thought.

Mate the people who dont like the McLeish generally stay away, so what you are actually saying is those who are tolerant of him are causing a poisonous atmosphere at Villa Park?

Nice on you.

..............................and as usual, everyones fault except McLeish who is supposed to set up, motivate and send out a team mentally, physically and tactically capable of winning the game.

What a crock of shite. There are huge numbers of mcleish haters who are still down at VP, fair play to you as you are genuinely staying away, but the notion that I've heard banded about on here (not necessarily from you) is that 90% of fans are against him, by your reasoning above VP attendances must be 90% down too leaving us other 10% to cause the poisonous atmosphere!

[Villarocker]

The dire football served up this season is surely proof that he isn't good enough. I am sick of this crap about him losing Downing and Young. Neither of those players have spent any time on the pitch for McLeish. Remember the old saying - you can't miss what you didnt have?

I would argue he is in a better position than Houllier. He has had a firing again Gabby, a wanting to play again Ireland, all our "inexperienced kids" have had a half season of Premier League football and all the "senior" pros are magically not missing any games through injury. How many of those injuries last season were genuine and not put on because they didn't like having to adhere to the boss's new ways? Not many, I bet!

For me, AM has had it much better than people think. He had a £30m+ forward line to work with and managed us into creating nothing for them. The best striker pairing this club has had in years by the way!

He needs to give this senior players a kick up the arse and get them performing to their pay grade and then we might see some football worthy of cheer. At least some of the games under Houllier were entertaining.

Sorry, there's not much I agree with in this post. When you talk about the Young and Downing "crap", you say that you can't miss what you didn't have, well we as a team did have them and we do miss them and anyway you look at it, Mcleish has been without two of our major creative outlets. Bringing in N'Zogbia was his call, he has to take responsibility for that, but not having those two players would affect our team no matter who the manager was.

AM has not had it better than Houllier at all, he's had less money to spend for one. Those things you mention about Gabby being back in form and Ireland starting to play well, well is it just a coincidence that they started happening when AM took over from GH? Using things like that to criticise him is ridiculous, those are two things you have to praise him for. The same could be said for the lack of injuries. It was well documented that the intense fitness training regime Houllier implemented was one of the major reasons that we had such an injury crisis, so the lack of injuries has to be a positive you can take out of Mcleish's training surely? I also don't think the players faked injuries just so they didn't have to play for Houllier, either way it's something you can neither prove nor disprove so it can't be used as a stick to beat Mcleish with.

The £30 million forward line is only effective if you have the creative players to compliment them, as stated above.

I'm not saying I'm a fan of Mcleish, but it does seem that certain people on here are blaming every little thing on him and I think that's unfair, also some of the comments about him I've seen on here are frankly childish and pathetic. Do I want him here? Not really. Has he made mistakes? Absolutely, but not everything is his fault and he came into the club with an incredibly tough job to do, sometimes I think we should cut him a little slack, and definitely stop calling him pathetic names. I like to think that the community on here is a little better than that.

You say we have weakened our team by letting go of Young and Downing but their stats didn't hold against Albrighton's and N'Zobgia's last season.

You then said that he hasn't been given the money to spend that Houllier had but he has inherited the players that Houllier bought with that money so he has that money at his disposal by the very fact that the players are at the club. I was going to argue that McLeish would probably have bought Bent anyway but then I realised that he would more than likely have gone for Crouch instead, as he likes to play to that kind of forward judging by the strikers he's managed previously!

I don't think N'Zogbia is a bad signing and I think he was starting to look more like his old self until he was dropped recently when bent came back into the team.

I don't want McLeish here but I am willing to give him a chance to bring in his own players before judging him fully. However, I do fear for where we will end up. His transfer record is hardly inspiring is it? The football this season as been atrocious at times and very uninspiring. I hope he turns it around and wins us all over but I fear for us with him in charge. Not because he came from Blues either!

I couldn't give a toss who he managed. We would have been very grateful for him deserting SHA if he had them finish above us last season, together with winning the cup and IF playing good football. The truth is, he relegated them twice, took Rangers to 3rd in a two-horse race and his teams play boring, unattractive football. THAT is what concerns me most.

[Houlston]

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