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

[Ponky]

Out of interest has anyone who has been looking on the various fan sites, twitter, facebook etc come across a single Villa fan who is disappointed by the decision today?

Not only have I not found one Villa fan who was unhappy, I haven't found one football fan who isn't happy about this. Again, this was soul crushing football, everyone knew it. Supporters didn't enjoy it, and opposing supporters didn't enjoy it. We were worse than Stoke, IMO, for the neutrals.

I'm not sure the Norwich fans will be particularly enthused...

[OhioVilla]

Out of interest has anyone who has been looking on the various fan sites, twitter, facebook etc come across a single Villa fan who is disappointed by the decision today?

Not only have I not found one Villa fan who was unhappy, I haven't found one football fan who isn't happy about this. Again, this was soul crushing football, everyone knew it. Supporters didn't enjoy it, and opposing supporters didn't enjoy it. We were worse than Stoke, IMO, for the neutrals.

I'm not sure the Norwich fans will be particularly enthused...

Yes, but who cares about them?

[Oaks]

I think that's the biggest endightment against McLeish, every others Premier Leagues supporters seem to be happy he's gone to. He is Mr Antifootball.

[macandally]

Given said he was sad to see him go but says fans got their wish and need to respect it. That is all I think. More Tweets when GH left from players.

Maybe many of the players know it's not ALL down to McLeish, they take some of the responsibility.

I wonder how fans would feel about players donning the claret & blue shirt when they are sniggering about being hung over to their team mates & bragging about the night before an important game. What kind of influence on youngsters say I? Allegedly of course!

If what you are suggesting were true then surely that kind of behaviour should be stamped out by the manager. A good manager would not stand for that on his watch and would stamp it out immediately. In fact under a good manager who players respect they would simply not behave as you suggest.

The only person to blame for McLeish's failings this season is Alex McLeish. In terms of preparing the players and sending them out with a positive professional attitude then the buck has to stop with the manager. Its what he gets paid a couple of mill a year for ffs. You can't statistically be one of the worst managers in the history of this great club and then hide behind the players.

Do you not recall Houllier falling out with "Star" players when he did just as you propose??

You cannot have it both ways. You slate Houllier for losing the dressing room and then slate the manager for not dealing with the bad apples.

A clear out is much overdue, but the club has to be strong in order to do that, not bottle it when the going gets tough like they did with Houllier.

AVFC is not a retirement home for players out to pasture, it is a football club with dreams and ambitions. It now needs to act like one.

[HolteEndRob]

Bloose are well pissed!!!

Sorry cant do small links.

That video is hilarious.

Shame about the grammer though!

It was my birthday yesterday. What a **** present. Cheers Randy, just don't **** about this time!

[maqroll]

I'm over the moon now that he's gone...that was pure torture.

He's gone, we stayed up, hopefully we've turned a corner and Lerner has learned his lesson.

But on a human being level, I feel for AMC, because the guy was hated from day one and could never change that fact.

He seems like a decent enough guy, and I wish him the best. Hopefully he learned a few things as well and is able to improve as a football manager.

[dudevillaisnice]

Mat Kendrick ‏ @MatKendrick

Grant joined McLeish through #avfc exit door. Decisions on Dr Ian McGuinness/chief scout Paul Montgomery will wait until new boss arrives

Mat Kendrick ‏ @MatKendrick

Futures of two other McLeish appointments Adrian Lamb (fitness coach), Terry Gennoe (goalie coach), will be decided when new boss arrives

Good news that Grant has left aswell.. also apparently we paid £2m to get rid of them both according to Birmingham Mail.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

I'm over the moon now that he's gone...that was pure torture.

He's gone, we stayed up, hopefully we've turned a corner and Lerner has learned his lesson.

But on a human being level, I feel for AMC, because the guy was hated from day one and could never change that fact.

He seems like a decent enough guy, and I wish him the best. Hopefully he learned a few things as well and is able to improve as a football manager.

Pretty much where I am at, I called everyone in the UK last night. Even my Mom was chuffed and she don't watch football, I feel 10 kg lighter today and I actually smiled before 11.00 am today.

I am with you on Mcleish, he was so out of his depth it was painful to watch, no 100 % his fault and I can see how it all happened. Towards the end I did feel a bit sorry for him, he's got family as well and he is earning a living.

The lesson for Lerner and any other managers that feel the urge to come to VP, the Villa is bigger than all of you and always will be. At this point our Lion is a very unhappy animal, Lerner, last chance son or we will feed you to it. You got me ?

[thetrees]

He is not walking away with £6m

He'll be getting very little pay off if any

He should get £0.

He has failed.

If I failed in my job as he has in his then I would get the sack and **** all compensation.

No reward for failure.

Houllier and O'Neill were compensated for failure, and it can be argued that McLeish had a tougher job than both of them.

The main thing is that he has gone. If he as a few more quid in his pocket, why should anyone care?

[Demitri_C]

he faile dto hit 40 points so did not get that much acoording to reports.

good and smart clause inserted by randy and faulkner have to say

[Shillzz]

Utterly useless manager, and I'm glad he's gone...

..but I quite liked him as an individual. There, I said it.

[Super-Villan]

I really can't believe that he was on for a bigger bonus if we reached 40 points. How on earth would you explain the lack of attacking substitutions when 2-0 down against Norwich if that was the case? He should have been throwing the kitchen sink at it rather than putting on defenders.

[Willy_Evergo]

I really can't believe that he was on for a bigger bonus if we reached 40 points. How on earth would you explain the lack of attacking substitutions when 2-0 down against Norwich if that was the case? He should have been throwing the kitchen sink at it rather than putting on defenders.

conspiracy theory::

What if someone at the club had a word in the players ears and said that it would be great (now that we are safe) if we didn't manage to get a result a Norwich

[LondonLax]

I really can't believe that he was on for a bigger bonus if we reached 40 points. How on earth would you explain the lack of attacking substitutions when 2-0 down against Norwich if that was the case? He should have been throwing the kitchen sink at it rather than putting on defenders.

conspiracy theory::

What if someone at the club had a word in the players ears and said that it would be great (now that we are safe) if we didn't manage to get a result a Norwich

Or the players themselves were not very motivated to earn their anti-football manager a bonus.

Who really knows though?

[Harry]

Still pissed off that the SHA connection keeps on being brought up in the media. Listened to 5 Live on the drive in to work, as usual, and they had Ray Houghton on saying that the fans never accepted him becuase of his Birmingham connections and then they had a clip from a show last night where Big Ron was saying how shit are squad was and McLeish was never backed properly in the transfer market and had to deal with loads of injuries.

A few home truths:

Would many Villa fans be complaining if we appointed Chris Hughton...eh no?

McLeish joined Villa no doubt knowing precisely what constraints he had to work under. He had financial backing which was used badly.

We were shit before the injuries.

The squad was weaker post Downing and Young but still full of internationals who were not properly managed.

Our record last season speaks for itself. Pretty much every statistic you can drag up shows how poor we were. The players are culpable for some of it but the buck stops with the manager.

And then finally we have an article of the BBC website from Pat Murphy titled "Villa Players to Blame for McLeish Exit" which contains the lines:

But the players have to look at themselves. They have enough internationals and experience in their midst as well as a promising crop of youngsters to realise they should have done far better than finish 16th

Totally agree with that sentiment Pat but who was in charge? The buck stops with the manager..end of. Interestingly the article then goes on about how poor McLeish's record was at Villa. But apparently not his fault either as he is carrying the can for the players according to the model of balanced reporting Pat (can I lick your arse MON) Murphy.

[Morpheus]

I suspect the so-called trouble makers & liabilities in the squad will have been exposed after this season. Any manager who has watched the Premier League over the past two seasons will have seen similar frailties and repeated stuff-ups from the same players under two consecutive managers - enough to ensure that they will be shown the door or at least a seat on the bench.

Hope so. I'll be pissed if a new manager comes in and gives the likes of Warnock, Dunne and Collins yet ANOTHER chance. I know McLeish was lauded by some for giving Warnock especially another chance but it was a massive mistake.

He didn't have the money to replace those players.

[Morpheus]

I really can't believe that he was on for a bigger bonus if we reached 40 points. How on earth would you explain the lack of attacking substitutions when 2-0 down against Norwich if that was the case? He should have been throwing the kitchen sink at it rather than putting on defenders.

My feeling on this is that he had lost the dressing room and even if he'd brought on Messi and Ronaldo we still wouldn't have scored.

The players knew what they were doing.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

he faile dto hit 40 points so did not get that much acoording to reports.

good and smart clause inserted by randy and faulkner have to say

It is a horrifing look into our ambition though ?

If we set the bar any lower to kick in bonuses we might as well give a bonus for been on time every day.

How about a bonus that kicks in after X ammount of home wins for example or per place in the league only starting at 10th and upwards?

[PussEKatt]

I am glad he has gone and unlike some others I have no respect for him as a man either.A man would stand up and admit his mistakes, not hide behind excuses and blame other people.

You are a shit manager McLeish and you don"t admit to your owne mistakes.

I don"t wish you good luck ( because you will no doubt go on and destroy another team ) but I do wish good luck to whichever team you go to next.

They are going to need it.

[Super-Villan]

I really can't believe that he was on for a bigger bonus if we reached 40 points. How on earth would you explain the lack of attacking substitutions when 2-0 down against Norwich if that was the case? He should have been throwing the kitchen sink at it rather than putting on defenders.

My feeling on this is that he had lost the dressing room and even if he'd brought on Messi and Ronaldo we still wouldn't have scored.

The players knew what they were doing.

But this doesn't explain why he didn't bring on attacking players. Unless you're saying he saw the players couldn't give a shit so just sat back and gave up trying to earn himself a huge amount more money? I'm unconvinced. I think fans are just happier believing we paid him off on the cheap because they don't like him.

(I don't like him either, but as for money I think he deserves whatever was in his contract, it would be the club's fault for agreeing to it while knowing the consequences.)