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

[macandally]

The message boards have been going crazy. Dreadful manager, relegated twice with Blues, finished third with Rangers... Forget the fact that he got Blues to their highest League finish in over fifty years and a League Cup, a bigger achievement than Villa have managed in the last 16 years. Forget the fact that he won the Scottish Premier League twice with Rangers - sure it was only against Martin O'Neill's Celtic and sure he signed a bunch of players on Bosman free transfers. Sure if he had money he would have misused it I'm sure. Forget the fact he won seven out of ten matches at Scotland, including one away to France in Paris, sure Scotland have proven how good they were since. Forget the fact he took Rangers to the last 16 of the Champions League, further than any other Scottish side. Forget getting Hibernians in Europe, who are second last in the League now. It's not important... He got Blues relegated twice and finished third with Rangers. Although his predecessor Paul Le Guen lasted only a few months in the job, what with no money to spend that McLeish had to contend with, sure it was probably McLeish's fault they did so badly under Le Guen.

We don't care where he came from. Those 500 or so protesting outside the ground, before he was even appointed, no we all gave him a chance. What did the banner say? "No McLeish at Aston Villa".... No, that's not why we don't like him, it's the style he plays. Were people booing at his first home game at Villa Park against Blackburn? Ah, it was only a few. Sure every other manager has had a few boos on their first game I'd say. And it's four months since we've won at home. That is unacceptable. It doesn't matter that fans haven't been getting behind the team, who needs home support these days!

And it's been so so boring... Way too many draws! I mean that draw against QPR, awful stuff. We had 23 shots in that game. Nearly fell asleep. And it's definitely McLeish's fault we only scored two. Sure under Martin O'Neill we were always playing positive end to end football. It's only a matter of time before we lose 7-1 to someone. Even at the weekend, what was McLeish thinking telling the players to take shots on Paul Robinson in that form. Why oh why didn't we appoint Andre Villas Boas or Rafael Benetiz in the summer? Randy Lerner, hang your head in shame. How dare you consider cutting costs after pumping €260 million into the club. You've only half done the job! If you had appointed a decent manager, Ashley Young, Stuart Downing, Brad Friedel, James Milner, Gareth Barry would surely have stayed. And don't start me on the injuries. There's only one person I'm blaming for them, McLeish!

What we need is to get our fingers out as fans. Sign petitions, wave anti-McLeish banners at matches. We've had enough of a manager we've never accepted, never encouraged and consistently berated. He's just not doing the job he should be doing. Look at our eleven remaining fixtures, we're bound to lose eight or nine of them and probably go down. I know we've only lost nine of the previous 27 but we're bound to go downhill from here. Sure we're in a relegation battle don't you know. Only eight points clear of some quality teams like Blackburn, Wigan, Wolves and QPR. Sure they are picking points at an increasing rate , 0.8 a game. If they continue like that they'll finish on 31 points, and we may not get those two points to see us safe. There's only one way to escape relegation, sack McLeish now!! You aren't a true fan if you even think for a moment we should give him a chance to build his own team.

Did I mention he got Blues relegated twice and finished third with Rangers?

http://astonvilla.ie/entry.php?b=33

a decent article about Eck

Where?

[The_Lions_Roar]

I know that barring a takeover it's extremely likely that McLeish will be here next season. However, that doesn't make me any less against him being our manager. The prospect of having to put up with enough season like this fills me with dread. It's not so much that I fear us going down (although I do fear that), it's that I just don't know whether I can bear another season of this low-scoring, boring, negative football that McLeish teams play. Sure results may improve but even if that does happen we'll probably still be boring and negative. **** that.

I seem to remember a west brom team playing particularly attractive football, they went down.

Don't get me wrong, i want to be entertained, but firstly I want to win matches, I really couldnt care if we won 1-0 every game as i'd look at the table and couldn't give a shit how we got there.

Whereas if we went all out attack and lost every game 4-3 then we'd go down and i'd be gutted. There's a fine line, I seem to remember MON drawing a lot of games in his first season.

Edit: We drew 17 games under MON in his first season. Was that boring, negative football? I don't seem to remember anyone complaining that MON made us a team that was hard to beat and then built on it. If we equal that this season then at least we'll stay up.

Why are you jumping to extremes? I don't want us to go to the complete opposite and start being ridiculous, I just don't want to see us so negative and boring all the time.

We've had 46 attempts on goal in the last 3 games yet only scored 2 goals.

Compare that to arsenal who have had 39 attempts on goal in their last 3 games yet scored 10 goals.

Corrct me if im wrong but boring and negative wouldn't have meant so many attempts on goal?

[Big_John_10]

15th place

33 points

7 wins

And people are happy? How has Lerner managed to get people to accept this shit?

[Zatman]

We've had 46 attempts on goal in the last 3 games yet only scored 2 goals.

Compare that to arsenal who have had 39 attempts on goal in their last 3 games yet scored 10 goals.

Corrct me if im wrong but boring and negative wouldn't have meant so many attempts on goal?

very true

didnt we have 23 shots vs QPR a month ago. its a lot better than at start of the season and if people took off their anti-mcleish blinkers they could see it

[The_Lions_Roar]

15th place

33 points

7 wins

And people are happy? How has Lerner managed people to not only swallow this shit?

I wouldn't say happy, giving the manager a chance is what i'd call it.

I see you've conveniently dodged my who would you have in place of him given our current financial state?

[deeps]

Mcliesh will remind us all soon enough why he should get the sack.

[The_Lions_Roar]

We've had 46 attempts on goal in the last 3 games yet only scored 2 goals.

Compare that to arsenal who have had 39 attempts on goal in their last 3 games yet scored 10 goals.

Corrct me if im wrong but boring and negative wouldn't have meant so many attempts on goal?

very true

didnt we have 23 shots vs QPR a month ago. its a lot better than at start of the season and if people took off their anti-mcleish blinkers they could see it

Im by no means an AM fan but i've yet to call for him to be sacked.

Also i guess those same fans say taking Nzogbia off and bringing on a striker was a defensive move.

[deeps]

We've had 46 attempts on goal in the last 3 games yet only scored 2 goals.

Compare that to arsenal who have had 39 attempts on goal in their last 3 games yet scored 10 goals.

Corrct me if im wrong but boring and negative wouldn't have meant so many attempts on goal?

very true

didnt we have 23 shots vs QPR a month ago. its a lot better than at start of the season and if people took off their anti-mcleish blinkers they could see it

Im by no means an AM fan but i've yet to call for him to be sacked.

Also i guess those same fans say taking Nzogbia off and bringing on a striker was a defensive move.

The fans booed because N'Zogbia was looking dangerous whilst Albrighton was pretty poor.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Corrct me if im wrong but boring and negative wouldn't have meant so many attempts on goal?

That's a good point, we should've been at least two up at half-time against Fulham based on chances created. Again on chances created we should've beaten QPR, Newcastle, Wigan and Blackburn and McLeish is not entirely to blame if the team aren't converting these chances! I know many other teams can say they should have won matches they have not but it wouldn't have been a surprise if Villa had an extra nine points on the board and then where would we be: above Liverpool. Football is a fine line and McLeish is still learning about his players and their desire, strengths etc.

I've read a lot of rubbish about the players not wanting to play for McLeish and it is just rubbish. The last few matches I've seen players show passion and fight, non more so evident than against Fulham; Ireland was getting stuck in, so too N'Zogbia and I signal these two as players not normally known for that fight which shows to me the players do care.

It doesn't necessarily happen that a manager can walk into a team depleted by losing two very good PL players in Young and Downing and succeed at making the team compete with the top six. Time is a necessity, look at how other managers struggle at new clubs: Hodgson at Liverpool, Hughes at QPR, Villas-Boas at Chelsea. McLeish was marked unfortunately with many because of his former employers and they still cannot let that go, it is childish and utterly pointless as it is to the detriment of the team. McLeish doesn't care about Blues now as he is manager of Aston Villa, this is what's important and of course a litle patience!

Up the Villa.

[Mantis]

I know that barring a takeover it's extremely likely that McLeish will be here next season. However, that doesn't make me any less against him being our manager. The prospect of having to put up with enough season like this fills me with dread. It's not so much that I fear us going down (although I do fear that), it's that I just don't know whether I can bear another season of this low-scoring, boring, negative football that McLeish teams play. Sure results may improve but even if that does happen we'll probably still be boring and negative. **** that.

I seem to remember a west brom team playing particularly attractive football, they went down.

Don't get me wrong, i want to be entertained, but firstly I want to win matches, I really couldnt care if we won 1-0 every game as i'd look at the table and couldn't give a shit how we got there.

Whereas if we went all out attack and lost every game 4-3 then we'd go down and i'd be gutted. There's a fine line, I seem to remember MON drawing a lot of games in his first season.

Edit: We drew 17 games under MON in his first season. Was that boring, negative football? I don't seem to remember anyone complaining that MON made us a team that was hard to beat and then built on it. If we equal that this season then at least we'll stay up.

Why are you jumping to extremes? I don't want us to go to the complete opposite and start being ridiculous, I just don't want to see us so negative and boring all the time.

We've had 46 attempts on goal in the last 3 games yet only scored 2 goals.

Compare that to arsenal who have had 39 attempts on goal in their last 3 games yet scored 10 goals.

Corrct me if im wrong but boring and negative wouldn't have meant so many attempts on goal?

How does that prove that we've not been negative this season?

[Big_John_10]

15th place

33 points

7 wins

And people are happy? How has Lerner managed people to not only swallow this shit?

I wouldn't say happy, giving the manager a chance is what i'd call it.

I see you've conveniently dodged my who would you have in place of him given our current financial state?

Given our current financial state we still seem to be paying mcleish a good wage.

Do you think no other manager would work for that amount?

Is a manager who relegated his team twice in 3 seasons the only option to us?

Again how has randy managed to get fans to lower their expectations and just accept the shit served up to them?

[mjames333]

Certainly there are many alternatives I would prefer to McLeish but I don't understand why people are so high on Rodgers. He failed at Watford and failed at Reading. Granted he has done well with Swansea but how much of that team and philosophy was already put in place by Martinez and Sousa?

Lambert is a much better shout but I'm guessing we are stuck with Eck for now so hopefully he can prove us wrong and get us moving in the right direction.

[Cizzler]

Certainly there are many alternatives I would prefer to McLeish but I don't understand why people are so high on Rodgers. He failed at Watford and failed at Reading. Granted he has done well with Swansea but how much of that team and philosophy was already put in place by Martinez and Sousa?

Lambert is a much better shout but I'm guessing we are stuck with Eck for now so hopefully he can prove us wrong and get us moving in the right direction.

What makes you think Rodgers failed at Watford :? ?

[mjames333]

Certainly there are many alternatives I would prefer to McLeish but I don't understand why people are so high on Rodgers. He failed at Watford and failed at Reading. Granted he has done well with Swansea but how much of that team and philosophy was already put in place by Martinez and Sousa?

Lambert is a much better shout but I'm guessing we are stuck with Eck for now so hopefully he can prove us wrong and get us moving in the right direction.

What makes you think Rodgers failed at Watford :? ?

don't remember them being anything but mid to lower half

[nick76]

We've had 46 attempts on goal in the last 3 games yet only scored 2 goals.

Compare that to arsenal who have had 39 attempts on goal in their last 3 games yet scored 10 goals.

Corrct me if im wrong but boring and negative wouldn't have meant so many attempts on goal?

very true

didnt we have 23 shots vs QPR a month ago. its a lot better than at start of the season and if people took off their anti-mcleish blinkers they could see it

no blinkers, just watching game after game. to be fair it couldnt have been much worse than the start of the season but doesnt mean now is satisfactory by any means.

[Keyblade]

There was a period from late December to January where it seemed like AM was slowly correcting things, and getting us to play better. But he completely destroyed all of that with the City debacle, and the poor performances at Wigan and Blackburn. 1 last gasp win against Fulham where we were a minute away from equaling our worst ever home run doesn't change that.

[lexicon]

15th place

33 points

7 wins

And people are happy? How has Lerner managed to get people to accept this shit?

Who's happy with the situation in general?

Anybody?

Or would that fit inconveniently with your outrage?

[quizme]

I have severe reservations about McLeish, but not to the extent that he can do nothing right.

Indeed, with a few reasonable signings in the summer, by McLeish or A.N.Other, I am optimistic for next season.

This is exactly where I stand. I think we are not that far away from beeing a (very?) good team. The time our youngsters get on the pitch this season will be important to their development. This together with a few good signings this summer will hold us in a good position. I know I´m an optimist....

[quizme]

Martinez must be kicking himself he didn't take it now

I really really wanted Martinez last summer, I think he would have done well.

[quizme]

The message boards have been going crazy. Dreadful manager, relegated twice with Blues, finished third with Rangers... Forget the fact that he got Blues to their highest League finish in over fifty years and a League Cup, a bigger achievement than Villa have managed in the last 16 years. Forget the fact that he won the Scottish Premier League twice with Rangers - sure it was only against Martin O'Neill's Celtic and sure he signed a bunch of players on Bosman free transfers. Sure if he had money he would have misused it I'm sure. Forget the fact he won seven out of ten matches at Scotland, including one away to France in Paris, sure Scotland have proven how good they were since. Forget the fact he took Rangers to the last 16 of the Champions League, further than any other Scottish side. Forget getting Hibernians in Europe, who are second last in the League now. It's not important... He got Blues relegated twice and finished third with Rangers. Although his predecessor Paul Le Guen lasted only a few months in the job, what with no money to spend that McLeish had to contend with, sure it was probably McLeish's fault they did so badly under Le Guen.

We don't care where he came from. Those 500 or so protesting outside the ground, before he was even appointed, no we all gave him a chance. What did the banner say? "No McLeish at Aston Villa".... No, that's not why we don't like him, it's the style he plays. Were people booing at his first home game at Villa Park against Blackburn? Ah, it was only a few. Sure every other manager has had a few boos on their first game I'd say. And it's four months since we've won at home. That is unacceptable. It doesn't matter that fans haven't been getting behind the team, who needs home support these days!

And it's been so so boring... Way too many draws! I mean that draw against QPR, awful stuff. We had 23 shots in that game. Nearly fell asleep. And it's definitely McLeish's fault we only scored two. Sure under Martin O'Neill we were always playing positive end to end football. It's only a matter of time before we lose 7-1 to someone. Even at the weekend, what was McLeish thinking telling the players to take shots on Paul Robinson in that form. Why oh why didn't we appoint Andre Villas Boas or Rafael Benetiz in the summer? Randy Lerner, hang your head in shame. How dare you consider cutting costs after pumping €260 million into the club. You've only half done the job! If you had appointed a decent manager, Ashley Young, Stuart Downing, Brad Friedel, James Milner, Gareth Barry would surely have stayed. And don't start me on the injuries. There's only one person I'm blaming for them, McLeish!

What we need is to get our fingers out as fans. Sign petitions, wave anti-McLeish banners at matches. We've had enough of a manager we've never accepted, never encouraged and consistently berated. He's just not doing the job he should be doing. Look at our eleven remaining fixtures, we're bound to lose eight or nine of them and probably go down. I know we've only lost nine of the previous 27 but we're bound to go downhill from here. Sure we're in a relegation battle don't you know. Only eight points clear of some quality teams like Blackburn, Wigan, Wolves and QPR. Sure they are picking points at an increasing rate , 0.8 a game. If they continue like that they'll finish on 31 points, and we may not get those two points to see us safe. There's only one way to escape relegation, sack McLeish now!! You aren't a true fan if you even think for a moment we should give him a chance to build his own team.

Did I mention he got Blues relegated twice and finished third with Rangers?

http://astonvilla.ie/entry.php?b=33

a decent article about Eck

Sorry for the long quoting, but I really liked that post.