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

[GaztonVilla]

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?

There's a difference between getting a bonus and being denied a pay-off.

I think there was a clause in his contract that if he didn't get to 40 points then either party were entitled to terminate the contract without penalty.

[SikhInTrinity]

That Adrian Lamb needs to leave he's bloody useless!

[GeorgeVilla82]

Two season tickets just renewed. And I have a slight hangover this morning from celebrating yesterday's news.

[snowychap]

I'm glad that McLeish has gone but am still rather nervous as to what the future holds for the club.

[Demitri_C]

dont know if this has been reported but what a load of dross from ron atkinson. guy doesnt have a clue

Aston Villa treated Alex McLeish harshly - Ron Atkinson

Sacked Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish was never given a chance to succeed, says former manager Ron Atkinson.

The ex-Scotland, Rangers and Birmingham boss was sacked on Monday after Villa finished 16th in the Premier League with just four home wins all season.

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“It's the most bereft Villa team I've seen since the start of the Premier League”

Ron Atkinson

"From day one, he's been swimming upstream," Atkinson told BBC Radio 5 live. "I think there's a big hangover from the fact he came from Birmingham."

"I don't think he's been given a fair crack of the whip," he added.

"If he'd come straight down from Rangers, everyone would have said he's a great signing for them."

And Atkinson, who managed the West Midlands club between 1991 and 1994, leading them to the runners-up spot in the Premier League's first season in 1992-93 and the League Cup in 1994, said McLeish had never had the players or investment to make a success of his time at Villa.

"They need some stars there, because the fans love that - they want to see players that add a bit of glitter to their weekend," he continued.

"All they've seen this year is a manager having to work with some very ordinary, mundane players. It's the most bereft Villa team I've seen since the start of the Premier League.

"The new England manager is likely to pick an England squad containing six or seven players who've all been Aston Villa players in the last few years. And they've gone."

But Atkinson insisted the job was still a prestigious one.

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Martinez quizzed on Villa link

"Definitely, without a shadow of a doubt," he said. "At the moment, it badly needs investment; it badly needs quality.

"A club of the magnitude of Aston Villa can't keep selling players and not replacing them with good quality."

Former Villa midfielder Ray Houghton echoed the views of the man who brought him to the club, arguing that Villa's American owner Randy Lerner "knew it was going to be contentious" when he recruited McLeish from city neighbours Birmingham.

"I think Alex was unlucky," he told BBC Sport. "I don't think the fans ever took to him coming from Birmingham. I felt he was hampered. The squad isn't strong enough."

Houghton, who played more than 100 times for Villa from 1992-1995, also said the vacant Villa post was a good but "extremely tough" one, and warned that fan expectations needed to be more modest.

Alex McLeish's Villa record

Appointed: 17 June 2011

Games managed in all competitions: 42

Games won: Nine

Games drawn: 17

Games lost: 16

FA Cup progress: Beaten 3-2 by Arsenal in the fourth round

Carling Cup progress: Beaten 2-0 by Bolton Wanderers in the third round

"Whoever takes over will have an extremely tough job as I don't think any money is going to be made available in the summer. The next manager is going to have to know what he's working with and what the expectations are," he said.

"It is a very good job for someone. But you have to bring in the right manager who's used to working at a lower level or knows the lower league. I think the expectations from the fans have to be tempered and they have to look at the situation more realistically."

Sunderland's former Villa boss Martin O'Neill also expressed his sympathy for his successor.

"It was a difficult season," he said. "I know he went into it with eyes wide open, and it was always going to be a hard job, but nevertheless it's disappointing.

"I will give him a call when times smooth over a little bit."

Meanwhile, one of the men tipped to succeed McLeish, Wigan manager Roberto Martinez, described talk of his leaving the DW Stadium as "speculation".

"All that counts is the good of Wigan Athletic," said the Spaniard, who turned down an offer to move to Villa Park last summer.

Complete nonsense

[Chindie]

YEah Big Ron said all that on 5Live last night. Pat Murphy just responded with reeling off off how terrible he'd been in cold hard facts.

[jacketspuds]

Bye Alex. Your sacking has made me weep...from my cock.

[legov]

A belated YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[Mantis]

I have great respect for Big Ron for what he did for us but what he's said there is just ridiculous. The SHA connection has been massively overemphasised by the media. Even when he first joined it wasn't the main reason why we didn't want him. Big Ron says "If he'd come straight down from Rangers, everyone would have said he's a great signing for them." While that may be true to an extent (although I don't think people would be calling it a great signing) it was his dreadful record at SHA that put most people off. What Ron and most of the media are missing is that it wasn't the fact that he came from SHA that was the problem, it was what he did there. It pisses me off that we're getting criticised for not wanting a manager with two relegations in three Premier League seasons and a record of low-scoring dour football. Even now that we've been proven correct we're still getting flak. It's ridiculous. Also, our squad may not be great but it certainly should be finishing higher than 16th, or at the very least not be the most boring team in the league.

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.

He did though. He spent nigh on £10m on N'Zogbia and bought Hutton when we didn't need a right-back at all.

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.

Agree completely.

[Tayls]

Thank goodness.

Phase 2 is scary though - bringing the right man back in!!

Perhaps we will be the first club to immediately hire someone who has just been sacked from that club?

[Majkee]

Just close the thread and leave this foo-fooking history of AMcL behind us.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

Just close the thread and leave this foo-fooking history of AMcL behind us.

Print the thread and get it binded and sent to Lerner in the states.

All the wasted hours of posting and arguing could have been prevented, it's not like we did not warn them or tell them. Doing things on the cheap, and lets be honest shopping at Small Heath was never going to end well will always end up like this.

They are no doubt busy finding a new manager and I hoe they do the right thing. Get a DOF, get a manager who does not even know the word hoof, decide which players we need and get them in quickly. It's OK getting rid of the manager, but to turn this mess around 10 M and 2 loans in the summer just aint going to do it. We need a new spine for the team, 35 -45 M should do it.

* Hint for Lerner - Man City. Progress since you came to the Villa vs our progress in the same time? Hmmmm wonder how they do it ?

or

38 points for the season for us, I wonder what the differnece is ?

[Mantis]

Lerner doesn't have £1bn to spare. Not many chairman have that kind of money to spend on a football club.

[Grievemeister]

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.

I thinkthe number of shots we had per game would back your argument there.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

Lerner doesn't have £1bn to spare. Not many chairman have that kind of money to spend on a football club.

If he had actually listened to someone and not hired Mcleish or Tick Tock (GH) it would have more money now to play with.

What I am saying is doing things on the cheap in the prem is us all over and look where we are. We have players stating they are not coming to the Villa as we are not a big club anymore.

I am not saying lets go to Harrods for every signing, let's just not do the Aldi thing all the time. Bent is a good example, only bought as a panic buy to slot into a position where we just sold the supply to the top 4 ?

Right player, wrong time, wrong reason, wrong, wrongy wrong.

It makes no sense at all. Buy them early in the summer and lets get some pride back instead of messing around on the last day. SPurzzz and the like get 4 or 5 in one go and have them all on the pitch for photos, the Villa are walking around new street checking the photo booth coin returns for the odd quid here and there. Not good enough.

[wedge]

So now everybody should be renewing/buying season tickets? Oui?

[brummybloke]

i only found out yesterday morning, music to my ears that the ginger gibbon has been forced out of the club, the dirty pasty mokey faced idiot can now look at all the money he got forruining the club

at least that part of the cancer is out, now to remove faulkner from any footballing decisions ever ever again

put that man behind a till in the club shop where he belongs, not trying to hire a new manager

my son will get the shitty cheap looking crap kit this summer now, i wont buy one for me, im not wearing shitty clothing no matter what is printed on it.

at least the club will get money from me again now, probably anothwer 35k also will now spend when there was no way on gods green earth they would have if the gibbon was still here

[cheltenham_villa]

Lerner doesn't have £1bn to spare. Not many chairman have that kind of money to spend on a football club.

If he had actually listened to someone and not hired Mcleish or Tick Tock (GH) it would have more money now to play with.

What I am saying is doing things on the cheap in the prem is us all over and look where we are. We have players stating they are not coming to the Villa as we are not a big club anymore.

I am not saying lets go to Harrods for every signing, let's just not do the Aldi thing all the time. Bent is a good example, only bought as a panic buy to slot into a position where we just sold the supply to the top 4 ?

Right player, wrong time, wrong reason, wrong, wrongy wrong.

It makes no sense at all. Buy them early in the summer and lets get some pride back instead of messing around on the last day. SPurzzz and the like get 4 or 5 in one go and have them all on the pitch for photos, the Villa are walking around new street checking the photo booth coin returns for the odd quid here and there. Not good enough.

I think you'll find the Bent signing was right player, right time. Else we'd have got relegated.

[maqroll]

Big Ron saying he was mistreated by Villa because of the SHA connection....fool.

[villaajax]

It's a real shame that Big Ron has become senile :|