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

[ender4]

I e-mailed Paul Faulkner and asked him if he still thought Europe was realistic and that McLeish was the best man for the job. I've also called Nicky Keyes's direct line and left her a message to call me.

Won't hold my breath but if they do extend the courtesy of replying I'm going to let rip.

its hardly Nicky Keye's fault.

she's an employee doing the best in her job, and its probably been a damn hard job the past few months.

You don't need to give her a hard time if you do get in touch with her. She probably agrees with everything you want to say anyway, not that she can admit it in the job she is doing.

[AshVilla]

http://thepremierleagueowl.com/2012/04/25/why-we-should-all-hope-that-aston-villa-get-relegated/?

Why we should all hope Aston Villa get relegated

What Randy Lerner has created at Villa Park is horrifying. A football club devoid of any ambition, who are content to simply exist in the Premier League.

It’s an awful reality for the fans, and to be charged to watch that team amounts to a mugging. From the moment Alex McLeish was appointed, everybody should’ve known what was coming next – this is a managerial Grim Reaper; wherever he goes relegation becomes a threat. Winning trophies in the two-team league north of the border doesn’t count, McLeish has nothing on his footballing CV that qualifies him to manage a club of this size.

“**** of McLeish, the Villa is ours” sang the home support in the second city last night, and they’re right. The analogy with this club, is of a hotel shutting down for the winter and putting a skeleton staff in charge, with the hope that nothing goes wrong. McLeish is the caretaker, dour and under-skilled, given a job that nobody else really wanted.

If Randy Lerner succeeds with this type of scaling back, then it creates a template for other sides in the leage – ie. you don’t have to compete, you just to exist and pick up the cheque. It’s an insult to the fans and to the game, because it’s first and foremost a spectator sport – but yet, Villa are behaving like a bankruptcy-threatened company. It’s Randy Lerner’s obligation to put a team on the pitch who do justice to the fans that pay their wages, not to just ‘do the best we can with what we’ve got’. This is a proud football club with a great set of fans and a famous stadium, and between them, Lerner and McLeish are turning it into a laughing-stock.

If Villa go down, which looking at the fixture list appears plausible, it will serve as a warning for any other club owner who tries this approach. For the fans you would feel desperately sorry, but it would be for the greater good. Slashing your wage bill, replacing your best players with kids, and hoping that nobody notices is not a way to run a a Premier League team – and relegation would ultimately prove that. Randy Lerner should be told this: if you’re not willing or able to compete in this league, then sell-up to somebody that is – because all he’s doing at the moment is taking advantage of the fan’s loyalty.

McLeish has the ‘full support of the board’ does he? That says it all.

[dudevillaisnice]

20 - Aston Villa have dropped the joint-most points from winning positions of any team in the Premier League. Flagging.

[HongKongVillan]

No news of the sacking then?

[KjParton]

customercomplaints@avfc.co.uk will be emailing my complaints

[villa4europe]

56% pass completion last night

thats the 2nd lowest by any prem team in all the games this season

at home vs bolton in a must win game, its a **** disgrace

[Houlston]

Not exactly a massive surprise seeing as we stuck a left back who cant pass into an area of the field where passing is the most key.

[Voinjama]

How can the club go from 6th place 2 years ago, to relegation candidates now. It is almost unbelievable.

I think Mcleish will leave in summer, no matter how much you are getting paid, this is uncomfortable for him.

[tezzaleed]

I will start off by saying I don't want McLeish, he needs to be gone in the summer regardless. But the players need to take more accountability.

I completely disagree with that. If ever there was a match that was lost solely because of the managers lack of tactical knowledge and bad preperation it was last night.

Fine he had a plan A which seemed to be reasonably successful to start with, but when things changed he was completely incapable of reacting to counter the slight change. Oh and lets look at those tactical changes that caught him out so much shall we. Bolton, shock horror, put on Kevin Davies! No, what a curve ball that is. After the game he was banging on how Davies ruffled some feathers. No shit sherlock and he's never done that before. It's Boltons standard plan B. How in the hell did you not practice what would happen if he was on the pitch, how were the players not prepared to deal with him.

Secondly the two goals were scored straight after we scored. This is covered in management school 101. You are at you're most vulnerable when you've just scored. For the next 5 minutes concentration must be at a maximum. If our team haven't had that drilled into them then that rests squarely with the manager.

These two points alone are enough to condemn the man, but if you add in another falling out with our best CM so he wasn't even on the bench, the replacement of a CM with a forward when we needed to regain some control in midfield to give the attacking players some possession then there is no excuse whatsoever.

So last night no one and I mean absolutely no one but McCleish was to blame for tuning a winning position into a losing one.

[Houlston]

I think Mcleish will leave in summer, no matter how much you are getting paid, this is uncomfortable for him.

Really? I would do a whole load of worse things for £2m than just manage a football club badly and have fans shout at me.

[tezzaleed]

Not exactly a massive surprise seeing as we stuck a left back who cant pass into an area of the field where passing is the most key.

To be fair I think Warnock pplayed well last night. I think him, Herd and Nzogbia were our best players.

[Keyblade]

How he isn't sacked yet is completely beyond me. Gtfo ffs!

[VillaRoy]

Keys and Gray, Eck's pals are now saying it just isn't working for McLeish at Villa, and the manager doesn't fit the club.

Gotta go at the end of the season, if not earlier!

[nobler]

Fine he had a plan A which seemed to be reasonably successful to start with, but when things changed he was completely incapable of reacting to counter the slight change. Oh and lets look at those tactical changes that caught him out so much shall we. Bolton, shock horror, put on Kevin Davies! No what a curve ball that is. After the game he was banging on how Davies ruffled some feathers. no shit sherlock and he's never done that before. It's Boltons standard plan B. How in the hell did you not practice what would happen if he was on the pitch, how were the players not prepared to deal with him.

Correct. His tactical decisions, or lack of this season have been one of the most infuriating factors. Basically he doesn't have any, he is not clued up to the modern game at all and Tezzaleed's quote highlights that even the basics are missing.

A good example for me was the Swansea game at home; I think we came off the back of a decent performance at Stoke and played Swansea two days later. McLeish did no tactical homework for this game whatsoever; we went into the game hoping that momentum would just build up into good form and we just played completely into Swansea's hand, I bet they couldn't believe their luck. We gave them all the space and possession they needed, didn't put any pressure on their defence. It was evident he did no preparation whatsoever for this game.

He's too old fashioned for the modern game, no tactical nous. He's complacent, too defeatist, and for him to be on the wages that he is on, amongst some of the top managers around is absolutely sickening.

[mjmooney]

McLeish short of support at stumbling Villa

Phil McNulty | 09:44 UK time, Wednesday, 25 April 2012

AT VILLA PARK

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish found a supportive voice in American owner Randy Lerner as he walked Villa Park's corridors after defeat to Bolton. He would not have found much sympathy elsewhere.

With around five minutes left of a damaging loss that leaves Villa only three points above the relegation places), the discontent which has simmered since McLeish arrived from relegated rivals Birmingham City last June spilled over into hostile, abusive discontent.

Fans on The Holte End were wrestling with an anti-McLeish "Get The 'Eck' Out Of Here" banner when chants demanding the Scot's sacking - and others of a more unsavoury but equally uncomplimentary nature - rang deafeningly around Villa Park.

McLeish stood alone outside his technical area, almost bemused at how Villa had transformed a deserved one-goal lead given to them by Stephen Warnock into a loss that leaves them with genuine relegation fears as Martin Petrov's penalty and David Ngog's winner gave Bolton the points.

Villa are now only three points above the relegation zone, and when the final whistle sounded on a result that ensures they will endure their worst sequence of home results in their history, McLeish was left in no doubt that vast swathes of the club's supporters inside the ground wanted him out.

One respected Villa media observer of almost 20 years standing had no hesitation in declaring this was the worst abuse he had heard directed at a manager of the club in that time.

McLeish has needed a thick skin from the moment he walked into Villa's Bodymoor Heath training complex in the sunshine last June, switching managerial jobs across the city just days after quitting Birmingham.

The Scot and owner Lerner knew the risks the appointment carried. McLeish may have won the Carling Cup for Birmingham but plenty of Villa fans were unimpressed by his arrival.

They might have enjoyed McLeish's work in taking their rivals down, but this did not mean they wanted him at their club.

Protests before McLeish's arrival hardly hinted at a warm welcome - and results and circumstances conspired until the situation reached the outpouring of anger aimed at one man that was witnessed on Tuesday.

No matter that Villa had actually been excellent for an hour. No matter that McLeish has been deprived of a succession of high-profile players such as Stiliyan Petrov through serious illness and main goalscorer Darren Bent through injury.

No matter that he never had the chance to utilise Ashley Young and Stewart Downing before they left. No matter that he has been increasingly forced to rely on promising but raw academy products.

The bottom line is that McLeish's managerial history means he will not be cut any slack from a fair portion Villa's support and he has not been able to arm himself with the only shield of protection he could in the shape of good results.

It is unfair on Villa's followers to suggest his Birmingham background alone has been the catalyst for such discontent. The judgement comes with results and performances and McLeish has come up short on both these counts.

McLeish has been fighting a battle that could only be won with a good first season - and 13 points from 16 games in 2012 does not come close to bridging the widening gap between manager and supporters.

Aston Villa now have West Bromwich Albion away, Tottenham at home and Norwich away, while McLeish faces the unedifying prospect of being the man who took both of the Second City's clubs down in successive seasons.

It is still in their hands but the manner in which their confidence visibly, indeed almost instantly, drained away once Bolton equalised was ominous.

McLeish fought the good fight afterwards but it is hard to see how he can reverse such a strength of feeling against him from fans frustrated by what they see as an unattractive style, results and - a not insignificant factor - the club he served before arriving at Villa Park.

West Brom manager Roy Hodgson was observing from the stands and it is highly unlikely The Hawthorns will provide any respite for McLeish or Villa this weekend. Indeed they may take a local rival's delight in pushing them closer to the Championship.

McLeish was right to point in the direction of Villa's fine performance for the first hour but the mood turned vicious and sour once it became clear this was a losing cause.

He is still confident Villa will stay up but owner Lerner will have heard how determined so many of his team's fans were to deliver a damning disapproval of McLeish.

The first priority for McLeish and Lerner will be to see this season out and hopefully conclude it still in the Premier League. They must then work out if they can devise a strategy that can somehow win over the thousands of dissenters or cut their losses and decide this is a footballing marriage that is destined not to work.

McLeish insists he will not walk away from a three-year contract and as one of the most battle-hardened men in the game this is no surprise - but he will need Lerner to be as supportive as he was on Tuesday.

BBC

[slabsquare]

How he isn't sacked yet is completely beyond me. Gtfo ffs!

It's got too the point where it's too late to sack him - should have happened weeks ago

Worst management appointment in PL history - we paid £2m compensation for a man with a proven track record of playing ugly football, an immediate history of having just got a club relegated on the back of a very average management career, and the small matter of coming direct from our hated rivals.

And then our worst fears were compounded - he turned an ordinary, mid-table squad into disorganised, frightened relegation fodder - it turns out he is even more uncharismatic, uninspiring, stupid and incompetent than we dared to believe.

This unlovable, charmless, clueless, intellectually-stunted oaf should be running a pub (badly) and dealing with an emerging post-playing career drink problem in some Scottish backwater, not managing one of the biggest clubs in the country

[Its-only-a-game]

How on earth is he still in his role?! I can only postulate that Villa's finances are so poor that Mr.Lerner has taken the view that Mcleish is the best manager he can get - under the circumstances.

....but even that doesn't stack up any longer. I'm truly baffled by it, truly baffled.

Is Randy hoping that Mcleish might quit so he doesn't have to pay him off?? I just cant figure it out!

[jacketspuds]

The media coming out feeling sorry for the abuse that McLeish got last night can **** off. He knew what he was getting into if he didn't succeed. He is being paid £40k/week for the abuse and will no doubt get another wedge if he's sacked. The fans have to work a hell of a lot harder than he does to go to the games and support the team.

McLeish is a lost cause. The players cannot respect him or Grant otherwise they would react much better to his management. Look at the difference MON made to Sunderland vs. Bruce with exactly the same squad. Who says sacking him now won't benefit the club?

If we've got no money to spend anyway then if we don't go down this season we certainly will next year. I'd rather take the hit now and get rid of McLeish.

[Keyblade]

^ That article above is pure bullshit. The same nonsense was spouted in the match commentary. The Ash and Downing excuse holds no water as we aren't comparing him to MON or Houllier. 7 wins in 35 is **** pathetic even for a team like Wolves. It has nothing to do with where he came from, I'm sick of this lame ass excuse.

[NorthEastVillan]

Why had he not been sacked? The only reason that I can think of is that McLeish is holding out for a pay off and Randy does not want to pay out.

So that's it guys. The future of our once great club had come down to two greedy **** posturing and waiting for the other to back down. Pathetic.

I just want to say as well that despite the fact that Eck must go beyond a shadow of a doubt, the players last night must take a huge chunk of the blame. I know the majority are young lads but come on, I'm sure as professional athletes plying their trade in the top league in the world (and being paid a fortune to do so) they must be capable of retaining possession, passing and tackling. Sadly not one of them seemed up to the task last night.

The sad thing is that we are missing the one thing that the clubs beneath us all have in abundance... Fight.