TRO Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 What has gone wrong with Aston Villa? My View Despite the overall acceptance in terms of results all was much better under O’Neill there were underlying problems. In the main too many sub standard signings that we paid over the odds for and put on too higher wage at the same time we let go of players who in some cases were better than the ones we recruited. To compound the matter large numbers of new recruits never held down a regular first team berth. Our efforts in scouting lacked imagination and we made very few signings to make any impact on the first team. All managers make mistakes in transfer dealing…. We made far too many and the good ones had difficulty negating the bad ones. The owner as opposed to the previous incumbent gave the manager the latitude to deal and from what I gather a free reign….until the day of reckoning comes, and that’s when the shit hit the fan. Despite a brief flirtation with Gerard Houllier, where we seemed to have a similar season to the present one, the results have got gradually worse. Alex McLeish has undoubtedly entered a poisoned chalice, He certainly has walked in to the Lions den, but if everything was rosy in the garden, would he have got the job? From what I can gather, from what conditions were laid out at the time ….no manager of any ilk wanted the job, it was deemed as untenable. I never wanted McLeish in the first place and I guess Randy would say and I never wanted this financial situation/ poor stock. Many fans cite Young , Milner and Downing going as the catalyst of our downfall, but Newcastle had Nolan, Carroll & Go, but the difference was they just got on with it and signed Ba,Hafa,Cabaye & Cisse. We sold Gray, Deehan & Gidman in one season, we were all beside ourselves, but the manager of the day went out and bought Withe & Swain & Morley….that’s what good managers/chairman do. It’s no good feeling sorry for ourselves. Moving forward…. We have little chance of big money signings so we have to do it through prudent scouting, patience and damn good work on the training ground…. We have to find some gems. We also need to find a style of football that is conducive to winning more games than we are and attracting folk back to the ground. I have grave doubts that Alex McLeish is the right man to lead us forward, but I do think he has been dealt a bum hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted April 7, 2012 Moderator Share Posted April 7, 2012 Its a combination of O'Neill, Randy and McLeish, how much of each depends on your view. We have threads to cover each of these individually though so we don't need a thread to cover these combined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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