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

[VillaRoy]

Wolves replaced McCarthy with his lackey. God forbid that Lerner would be stupid enough to appoint Grant in place of McLeish.

God forbid he was stupid enough to appoint McLeish, so that wouldn't be such a farfetched idea .

[pacbuddies]

Wolves replaced McCarthy with his lackey. God forbid that Lerner would be stupid enough to appoint Grant in place of McLeish.

God forbid he was stupid enough to appoint McLeish, so that wouldn't be such a farfetched idea .

I know but I am hoping that he wouldn't be so stupid twice in such a short space of time!

[VillaRoy]

Wolves replaced McCarthy with his lackey. God forbid that Lerner would be stupid enough to appoint Grant in place of McLeish.

God forbid he was stupid enough to appoint McLeish, so that wouldn't be such a farfetched idea .

I know but I am hoping that he wouldn't be so stupid twice in such a short space of time!

Houllier (dodgy ticker, out of football for years) and McLeish (rival manager, relegations galore). It sure can happen dude :oops: .

[SeanO]

do not copy text from another site, fail to identify it as a quote and fail to link to the original article

[TrentVilla]

McLeish is a lying sack of shit.

[Richard]

Mcleish is trying, and succeeding in some quarters, to give the impression that none of this is his fault, that he is doing his best in very trying circumstances and it is everything going on around him that is the problem not him.

[TrentVilla]

Exactly that Richard and while he isn't the only problem at the club he certainly isn't a victim of circumstance.

He is flat out trying to save his skin and reputation at the moment in order to buy him more time in this job or help him walk away with his reputation if he gets the boot.

Honest McLeish? He can't even be honest with himself let alone anyone else. The man is a joke as well as a piss poor manager and he needs to be driven out of Villa Park as soon as possible.

[CI]

Don't worry lads come 5pm today he'll be another step closer to the trap door

I've got a really bad feeling about today's game

[Richard]

The article in the guardian re him taking 15th if offered it now is another example of that and a total disgrace.

[Woodytom]

The article in the guardian re him taking 15th if offered it now is another example of that and a total disgrace.

For the sake of stress levels, I think Il avoid that article Richard.

Not that I wouldnt this minute take 15th tbh, but I dont get paid millions to achieve success at the club.

[dudevillaisnice]

The article in the guardian re him taking 15th if offered it now is another example of that and a total disgrace.

agree and the board are finally getting what they wanted when they hired him - lower expectations.

[TrentVilla]

Alex McLeish has admitted that Aston Villa are fighting for survival but the Scot remains confident he will avoid the ignominy of back-to-back relegations from the Premier League. Although Villa are five points clear of safety with a game in hand, they have enjoyed only one victory in their last eight league matches and travel to Liverpool on Saturday looking nervously over their shoulders as Bolton, Queens Park Rangers and Wigan all won last weekend.

McLeish was in charge of Birmingham City when they were relegated on the final day of last season – a fate he also suffered three years earlier at St Andrew's – and the Villa manager does not want to contemplate the prospect of taking a team down for a second successive campaign. "I don't believe it will happen. That is my school of thought," he said.

"I know the media will bring it up, that's fine, I can handle that. It will maybe be on the tip of everyone's tongue. [but] it is not something I believe will happen."

It has been a difficult period for Villa on the pitch and a traumatic time off it with the news that Stilian Petrov has been diagnosed with acute leukaemia. Randy Lerner, the club's owner, flew back from the United States this week to visit the Bulgarian, who has been undergoing treatment in London. Lerner later went to the training ground where he addressed the players about Petrov's condition and also offered them some words of encouragement for the last eight games.

"He wanted to speak about [Petrov]," said McLeish. "I said [to him]: 'Just have a chat with the lads in general, I think they would appreciate it because I'm sure they're fed up with my voice every single day and it's always nice to hear somebody else's voice, especially the owner's.' He spoke well. He spoke about Stilian's illness and about the lads and their own battles over the next few weeks, and wished them well. He's obviously concerned that we try and get back up the table a little bit – that's natural. [but] he never put them under any pressure or never had to say any Churchillian speech, or anything like that. It was just a natural moment."

Villa's squad remains severely depleted ahead of two games in the space of three days, at Anfield on Saturday and at home against Stoke City on Easter Monday. As well as Petrov's absence, Villa will once again be without Darren Bent, Richard Dunne, Carlos Cuellar, Ciaran Clark and Jermaine Jenas for both fixtures. Alan Hutton has recovered from a calf strain but Charles N'Zogbia is doubtful and Andreas Weimann is also struggling.

"We don't have the experienced squad to cope with [two games in the space of three days] but we've certainly got numbers," McLeish said. "There will be a lot of unfamiliar names that will take the field or be on the bench.

But we are confident that we can go in with these guys."

McLeish is an %$£@T**&

[Pilchard]

Just like his football, every interview these days appears to be negative, defensive and a bag of crap.

The bloke is a loser and you get the feeling he knows it. How can you expect anything from the team other than losses and crap football when the manager is so negative towards its prospects and players?

You thought David O'Leary was negative? McLeish is on another planet compared to that.

[Morpheus]

Exactly that Richard and while he isn't the only problem at the club he certainly isn't a victim of circumstance.

He is flat out trying to save his skin and reputation at the moment in order to buy him more time in this job or help him walk away with his reputation if he gets the boot.

Honest McLeish? He can't even be honest with himself let alone anyone else. The man is a joke as well as a piss poor manager and he needs to be driven out of Villa Park as soon as possible.

I believe AM is partly 'a victim of circumstance.'

He became manager when this club was on it's way down after the O'Neill era. He had no control over our best players being sold or wanting to go leaving us with a very poor squad. He has also had our chairman cost cutting to bring the wages down and hasn't had the type of funding to put his stamp on our team quickly enough. He has also had to deal with one of the worst injury crisis this club has seen in several seasons particularly at the wrong time.

While i am no fan of AM it is however very narrow minded to suggest that circumstances haven't gone against him in his reign as manager here. Yes he hasn't helped himself with his negative tactics. Yes his statements to the media have been questionable but given the same circumstances Ferguson and the special one would also be struggling in the Premiership with the same squad of players.

[the_eristic]

Wait, Andy has picked up a knock? Fffffuuuu...

[KHV]

Exactly that Richard and while he isn't the only problem at the club he certainly isn't a victim of circumstance.

He is flat out trying to save his skin and reputation at the moment in order to buy him more time in this job or help him walk away with his reputation if he gets the boot.

Honest McLeish? He can't even be honest with himself let alone anyone else. The man is a joke as well as a piss poor manager and he needs to be driven out of Villa Park as soon as possible.

I believe AM is partly 'a victim of circumstance.'

He became manager when this club was on it's way down after the O'Neill era. He had no control over our best players being sold or wanting to go leaving us with a very poor squad. He has also had our chairman cost cutting to bring the wages down and hasn't had the type of funding to put his stamp on our team quickly enough. He has also had to deal with one of the worst injury crisis this club has seen in several seasons particularly at the wrong time.

While i am no fan of AM it is however very narrow minded to suggest that circumstances haven't gone against him in his reign as manager here. Yes he hasn't helped himself with his negative tactics. Yes his statements to the media have been questionable but given the same circumstances Ferguson and the special one would also be struggling in the Premiership with the same squad of players.

Ferguson and Jose would not struggle with this squad. they would know which tactics to use, what system to play,what style and above all else they would have the ability to motivate. its all ifs and buts i know. however i believe fergie or Jose would have had this squad in the top 8 and not heading for the championship.

[Denis_B]

i believe fergie or Jose would have had this squad in the top 8 and not heading for the championship.

Unfortunately both of these are one offs and were not available last summer were they?

It's about as much use as saying if we had Tevez, Messi and Puyol we wouldn't be where we are now

[Morpheus]

KHV i value your opinion and of course respect it but with our current squad i do not think even those great managers would have us in the top eight.

I accept that there would be an improvement however slight that may be?

[VillaGoMarching]

Some of his latest comments are so cringeworthy, stating that he'd take 15th now just absolutely shows the some of his ambition.

Later he says he backs 'a few' of the kids, to come through this period and make it, he should be publicly backing all of them regardless of his opinion about who's good enough.

If anyone had any doubts about wanting rid of him, I think the recent diatribe from him should convince every last person.

[coda]

Alex McLeish admits he would accept a 15th-place Premier League finish

The Aston Villa manager believes his side will stay up, but would accept his club's current position in the league

It was the sort of question that Alex McLeish could easily have ducked by trotting out the line about "trying to finish as high up the league as possible" but instead, the Aston Villa manager gave a brutally honest answer. Asked whether he would take Villa's current 15th place as a final league position if he was offered it now, McLeish laughed a little uncomfortably before replying: "Aye, probably, yeah." His mind ticked over for a few seconds as he digested the idea a bit more. "I think, absolutely."

It was a response that provided a measure of just how concerned McLeish is about Villa's predicament and, although the supporters who are keen to see the back of him will probably seize upon it as evidence of an unacceptable lack of ambition, the reality is that survival is all that matters right now for the Midlands club.

These are worrying times for Villa. Although they have a five-point cushion separating them from the bottom three, as well as a game in hand on four of the five clubs below them, McLeish's side are anything but comfortable.

They have won only one of their last eight league matches, are without a long list of first-team players, including the captain, vice-captain and top scorer, and have a tricky run-in to negotiate, starting with Saturday's visit to Anfield, where Liverpool are desperate to end their own poor run.

After that Villa are at home against Stoke, on Easter Monday, followed by a trip to Manchester United six days later and then Martin O'Neill's eagerly awaited first return to his former club, as manager of a renascent Sunderland side, the weekend afterwards. By that point, we should have a decent idea of whether Villa will be feeling the heat during the remaining four matches, against Bolton (h), West Brom (a), Tottenham Hotspur (h) and Norwich (a).

The fixtures would be testing for McLeish's strongest XI, let alone the patched-up teams he has been putting out lately. Serious injuries to key players Darren Bent and Richard Dunne, together with the dreadful news that Stilian Petrov has been diagnosed with acute leukaemia, has ripped through the spine of the team and left McLeish short of leaders as well as numbers. Villa's starting lineup in the home defeat against Chelsea last Saturday included six academy graduates aged 23 or under. On the bench there were four teenagers who have never made a first-team appearance.

The contrast with the squad that Gérard Houllier, McLeish's predecessor, had at his disposal this time last year is stark. Although Villa had the same points tally from 30 games and, coincidentally, also travelled to Merseyside (to face Everton as opposed to Liverpool) on the back of a home defeat the previous Saturday that plunged them into relegation trouble, Houllier was able to call on seasoned internationals to turn their fortunes around. Villa collected 15 points from a possible 24 to secure an unlikely ninth-place finish that went some way to papering over the cracks of an otherwise dismal campaign.

Good luck, however, with trying to find a Villa supporter who expects something similar to happen again. Bent, who scored six times in the final eight games last season, is still recovering from an ankle injury and will not play again for Villa this term. The other influential attacking players last season, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing, who scored or set up 31 of Villa's 48 league goals, departed in the summer for Manchester United and Liverpool respectively. The creative void has been huge.

After Gabriel Agbonlahor, who has five assists to his name, no other Villa player has laid on more than two Premier League goals this season. In fact, the full-backs, Stephen Warnock and Alan Hutton, have set up as many goals as Charles N'Zogbia, Stephen Ireland and Marc Albrighton, three of the flair players who McLeish would have expected to provided a regular supply line.

Against that backdrop, it is little wonder that the rest of the statistics look so dire. Villa have won only seven league matches this season, and if they lose at Anfield they will have their lowest-ever points total at this stage of a Premier League campaign. All of which would be yet more ammunition for the sizeable anti-McLeish movement.

McLeish insisted this week that he has no regrets about taking the Villa job, although the Scot will surely feel differently if his fourth season in the Premier League ends with a third relegation, after previously taking Birmingham down twice. "I took my chances to come to England," he said. "It has been a little bit of a rollercoaster. We are working this season with a lot of young players but, combined with the experienced players, I believe these guys will see us through this rocky spell."

They better had otherwise the financial pain for Villa will be considerable. In February, Villa reported that they lost £54m in the year from 1 June 2010 to 31 May 2011. Their wage bill has proved to be unsustainable in the Premier League and with no provision in the contracts for pay cuts in the wake of slipping into the Championship if they go down, it was put to McLeish that relegation does not bear thinking about. "No, it doesn't," he replied. "So that's why I believe that we'll stay up."

The press seem to be blaming injuries and transfers out rather than McLeish.