McLeish - Yes / No / Unsure

[VillaAndLoyal]

Would those eight people care to share why they would still back Alex McLeish? It all seems a bit quiet from the 'yes' camp. And please, try not to make it too obvious that you A.) are related to Alex McLeish, B.) are Alex McLeish, C.) are Randolph Lerner, General Krulak or Paul Faulkner, or D.) are one of the few Small Heath fans to have discovered the internet.

If we lose or draw at the mighty Bolton Wanderers, I can see the spare bedsheets making a reappearance for our next home game. That's if anybody bothers to turn up, of course, as our players don't on a weekly basis.

[John_Lerwill]

Ridiculous Biased question after today's performance - but I will vote on it any way...!

The problem is so much deeper than the manager, are you incapable of realizing this. Until we do things are not going to get any better.

I would prefer him over Martinez any day.

Its the board you need to question not Mccleish.

Having stated a couple of months ago that I was happy to give AM till January, I have to say he needs replacing now before he drags down the morale of the team too far.

These are the comparative league stats for Blues and Villa in the last 2 seasons, after 14 games:

Blues 2010-11 P14 W3 D7 L4 F15 A17 Gd-2 Pts16 Posn 13th

Villa 2011-12 P14 W3 D7 L4 F16 A18 Gd-2 Pts16 Posn 9th

Spot the difference!! (Villa 4 places higher for some magical reason).

But it's not just these stats but the sheer poor effort that is on display, even at home - "fortress Villa Park" that was.

AM out, I'm afraid. But the board has to sort out its own ideas as well.

[pete165]

A little anecdote that says an awful lot:

My dad doesn't really like football, watch football or know much about it - but when Villa are on, he switches on his Sky Sports (which he has for other sports like fishing!) and has a watch to see how they're getting on for me. I spoke to him on the phone this morning and he said that after half an hour, he turned it off because it seemed like every time we got the ball we just 'kicked it up the other end to the man utd players' and 'didn't pass it to one another'. He said that he doesn't 'know anything about football really but it wasn't the villa [he] remembers'.

I told him that he wasn't wrong.

The thing is, with Keegan, Barnes and my Dad knowing something is badly wrong, it's clearly not just a case of deluded fans expecting too much.

Quite clearly it's not going to end well - so why prolong the agony - if it's because we can't afford McLeish's pay off, we really are in a bad way. I suggest banners next home game.

[Dodgyknees]

Ridiculous Biased question.

How can it be biased when there are three very different options?

Yes, No, Maybe. Simple. None of them hold any weight unless you choose to bloody vote.

[pacbuddies]

I read the 'Your Shout' letters page of the Birmingham Mail a few days ago and out of 11 letters from Villa fans only 3 were pro McLeish.

However, in my opinion, the best letter was from a SHA fan who was seemingly happy that they now could watch football played the proper way under Chris Hughton rather than the dross served up by McLeish over the past few years.

That just about summed it for me. Even a SHA fan recognised that McLeish is a boring anti football manager.

[Harry]

As we have 7 people between Villarocker and myself that won't be renewing under McLeish maybe we could keep a running total on here? The odd journo has been noted on here and a public declaration with a total number of unrenewed season tickets may put on more pressure than a private email?

You can probably add my son and and myself to that list. I probably won't renew for the two of us based on what we are seeing on the pitch. My mate and his son who we go with are unlikely to renew and I was talking to another mate before the game yesterday and he and his mate were thinking about not renewing. All in all that's another six.

Might be a good idea to get a thread going with a poll to see who amongst VT posters will not be renewing.

[Mantis]

Blues 2010-11 P14 W3 D7 L4 F15 A17 Gd-2 Pts16 Posn 13th

Villa 2011-12 P14 W3 D7 L4 F16 A18 Gd-2 Pts16 Posn 9th

My word that is **** scary. We need to do something. He's going to take us down.

[TheDrums]

Over 200 votes and he has 4% support. Brutal.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

These are the comparative league stats for Blues and Villa in the last 2 seasons, after 14 games:

Blues 2010-11 P14 W3 D7 L4 F15 A17 Gd-2 Pts16 Posn 13th

Villa 2011-12 P14 W3 D7 L4 F16 A18 Gd-2 Pts16 Posn 9th

Spot the difference!! (Villa 4 places higher for some magical reason).

disturbing stats!

Ive said lot of times we play like Birmingham did last season but was unaware we had carbon copy stats of theirs!

One stat find troubling as well is that Birmingham only lost ONE more game than we did last season. Wolves lost FIVE more than they did but it was Birmingham who went down.

He does not know how to get a side to win games .

His only thought is to defend , defend , defend - to try and kill a game without the ball and just hope to sneak something.

He is the worse manager in the Premiership for this.

Completely antifootball.

[Robbie09]

Big NO for me!

I was all for giving McLeish a chance to prove me wrong and hoped that he could, but it all depended upon him changing his previous playing style. The fact that he managed the Bluenoses didn't matter at all to me and I mean that. Let's face it, if he had got them a top 10 finish and a cup win last season, whilst playing attractive football and making good signings, not many of us would have been concerned about his appointment.

The fact that he relegated the noses twice, managed Rangers to 3rd place in a two horse race, made some really poor signings - Zigic, Ridgewell, Davies, Jerome etc - played really negative, dull and defensive football, all added up to a very poor choice of manager for Randy Lerner to make.

I will say one thing in defence of McLeish. I think that you could throw any other manager in the world into our football club and he will still struggle to get us keeping the ball out of our net. I would say that McLeish realises more than anyone how bad our defenders are and that is the reason he is trying to give them as much extra cover as possible. However, that is also is biggest flaw because surely the best thing to do in that situation is to play to our biggest strength, which is our attacking play! I was going to quote Jeremy Clarkson and say that our defenders should all be shot but let's face it, the bullets would miss them all. Those defenders of ours don't get in the way of anything!

Houllier wanted us to play to our strengths last season and had two very good wingers available to him to do so but McLeish does not have this luxury. But, playing Heskey on the wing or in the hole when there are far better players at the club to do so is also a poor showing from him and shows up his lack of competence as a manager in the Premier league. He has a jewel in Bent but seems determined not to play to his strengths for some reason.

I think we can all appreciate Randy's decision to watch the bank balance and the wage bill but to do so whilst having McLeish in charge is just too much for us to take as fans. If we had a manager in charge who tried his very best to get us playing some attractive football then we could probably live with the cut-backs a whole lot more, even if results were not always as expected. But, to see our stars leave and then have to endure the poorest management style ever, well, that is just too much to sit back and watch.

I think the only way we can try to make Randy take real notice is to threaten to stay away. There are 20,000+ of us season ticket holders who have already parted with our hard-earned cash to watch this season unfold. Not too many of those 20,000+ will want to have paid that amount of money and then stay away, especially with the current economic climate. However, I propose that all of us season ticket holders who are against McLeish - together with as many fans who attend random matches - all write to the club, maybe addressing the letter/email to Paul Faulkner or/and Randy himself, expressing our anger and feelings at McLeish and the performance of the team under his management style.

I am going to send my email after the 19th game has been played. Then we will have seen half a season under Mcleish's management. I am going to write to the club stating that, if they fail to employ a new manager by the start of next season, they will have lost me as a season ticket holder, together with my Dad and Brother who feel exactly the same as I do. The three of us are that disappointed with the quality of football that we are seeing that we all feel like we cannot get excited for the upcoming Villa games, which is a bloody terrible state to find yourself in as a lifelong fan of your local club.

I want to go to see my Aston Villa try to win football games, not try to lose by as few as possible! I have had enough of seeing McLeish's boring, defensive, dull, negative, non-imaginative style of, well, I was going to say football but it isn't, is it?

UP THE VILLA!

I'm all up for the non renewal of season tickets as a genuine expression of concern. I travel with three other season ticket holders and on the way up to the game we had all pretty much decided not to renew if McLeish is still in charge next season. I will admit when I saw the team sheet I had a little flicker of hope, but the performance was the same old same old and we left in the same opinion as we arrived. I don't think I would watch this team on the TV never mind pay for a season ticket. I've had a season ticket for some 25 years and we have all been going as a group for the whole time so this is not a decision taken lightly. We have decided that we would be better just going out for a meal and a drink and rely on each others company for the entertainment.

Pretty much sums it all up fro me. After 40 years of being a season ticket holder, i won't renew my 3 tickets if McLeish and Faulkner are anywhere near VP next season.

[Stevo985]

I actually think now would be the perfect time to sack him. We're not going to get anything from our games up until January anyway, so there's nothing to be lostfrom getting someone new in. Even if they take a month to bed in, we won't be losing anything we would have got anyway.

Won't happen though. He'll be here next season, even if we're in the Championship

[Mantis]

I'm a firm believer that we need to keep going to games to support the team. However, I'm just not sure how we can get through to Randy. I'm starting to think that maybe something drastic is needed such as a large-scale one-game (preferably on TV) boycott. We'll see how things go but I'm getting really worried now. It's not so much the results as it is the way we're playing. Games against the top 6, home and away, are write offs. Even against the lesser teams we rarely have a go.

I actually think now would be the perfect time to sack him. We're not going to get anything from our games up until January anyway, so there's nothing to be lostfrom getting someone new in. Even if they take a month to bed in, we won't be losing anything we would have got anyway.

Won't happen though. He'll be here next season, even if we're in the Championship

I agree. We have to act in the next 28 days or so. There are feasible alternatives available who are out of work, so it shouldn't be a problem getting them in.

[TheDrums]

He was there yesterday and heard the boos. He seen the protests in the summer. He doesn't care.

[Mantis]

He was there yesterday and heard the boos. He seen the protests in the summer. He doesn't care.

I think his heart's in the right place. If we can mobilise enough support for our cause maybe he'll listen?

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

I don't think I'll watch/listen to us until he's gone. It's too depressing, too frustrating and a tad tragic.

[TheDrums]

He was there yesterday and heard the boos. He seen the protests in the summer. He doesn't care.

I think his heart's in the right place. If we can mobilise enough support for our cause maybe he'll listen?

If his heart was in the right place he'd have been to more games this year and never appointed McLeish in the first place.

[Mantis]

What so you think he wants to see us fail?

[claret75]

He can't take the club anywhere, but he is a safe bet to keep us in the PL after a very dodgy season. I don't mind a season of mediocrity as long as he doesn't stay here after.

Lerner didn't look too impressed in the stand on Saturday.

[cbr600rr]

im not a anti mcleish but i dont blame him, is it am fault bent failed to hold on to the ball last night? ,herd gave the ball away to much,the list goes on & on,i dont know who is to blame to be honest,it just feels like theirs more wrong than right

[andym]

im not a anti mcleish but i dont blame him, is it am fault bent failed to hold on to the ball last night? ,herd gave the ball away to much,the list goes on & on,i dont know who is to blame to be honest,it just feels like theirs more wrong than right

of course bent failed to hold on to the ball, he was completely isolated upfront due to the managers tactics. anytime the ball came near him he had 3 man u players surrounding him with no support from our players.

mcleish's idea of getting bent service seems to be having the back four smash long balls up to him. but bent is 5ft 11 and the complete opposite in style to a target man, going up against several 6 ft + defenders. you would have to be a complete idiot to think those tactics were going to work.

and as teams like swansea are showing, a team of cheaper and supposed poorer players can still play good football with the right tactics and coaching on the training pitch. can you imagine mcleishs training sessions consisting of anything to do with technique, passing, movement?

he has to go