Where will we finish then?

[Phil from the upper holte]

Still pride of the midlands...6th

[Dave Cooper please]

I always say 8th in these polls so, 7th.

[Brian Taylor]

KT..perhaps? Milner going concerned me more than McGeady being brought in.
I did not see the McGeady deal in same light as yourself. Now seems we have neither player nor the manager.
We must see who is appointed. GT was heavily criticised but he gave us some good players through the Youth scheme.
If we were to lose Gabby now that would be a blow.
I have watched the Villa for so long now and the highs are thin given the reputation of the club. I suspect I have a few more years to wait for the great years to return.
I have a sense trepidation bourne out of deja vu. At you say with MON we had some sort of consistency. I know I would be dreaming now to think we can exceed the aspirations of the top 4-5 teams given their funding. Money buys talent these days and MON was short there.
I just don't see McGeady at any price solely as being the reason for departure. If he turns out to be a major talent maybe the price would've been cheap. MON was never a spendthrift compared with other managers. He was certainly aggrieved at a lack of funds forthcoming from the sale of Milner. There has to be a lot more here than meets the eye.
MON is gone now an that is that. We will see who follows.  I still have the view that AV will be middling to average over next couple of years until economy improves..I hope I am proved wrong and talent will out.
It takes a long time to sort a team..Ferguson was on the way out years ago. Success expected so quickly now only money can provide instant results. I don't think MON was given enough time to prove his theories. US soccer has not taken off in the way expected nad the economy is in big trouble. I diverge, but having been to China recently you'd think there were only 2-3 teams in UK. 700m catchment is what all about. That is where the money is. US problems explain the curtailing fo MON's ambitions.
Profit is paramount and we both know with players wages/costs it is difficult to strike a balance so the moolah must come from somewhere and that follows success.
Lerner is a repro of DE and Doug is in there backing him; and I do not recall many good times ever being associated with his reign. MON will go on somewhere an start again. He is undoubtedly a great talent and needs nurturing. I wonder if this farrago occured earlier in year would he be at Liverpool now?
Moneymen run the game now and the MON's are just cut down to size to fit in with the books.

I fully expect Lerner to put in a bid for Mesut Izil to replace Milner..a Brazilian or two and..naah. Villa will go on as they have forever but they will need that magic element of economic improvement or extra funds coming from somewhere to boost expectations.
McGeady would have kept the Irish contingent happy and they are a worldwide phenomenon..I can understand MON's thinking.
I don't run the club..I am just a long term supporter.

[Brian Taylor]

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/scottishpremier/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/08/11/SOCCER_Celtic_Nightlead.html

"I get the impression Aiden was holding off to see if he could get a club in England.

"But with the size of the transfer fee, I don't think there would be a team in England who would be interested in paying that for Aiden McGeady.

"The way I look at it is he (O'Neill) wanted to sign Aiden McGeady and I don't think Villa wanted to go above the £5million limit.

"Aiden has got to go to Moscow and prove himself.

"If you don't do the business, there is nobody interested in you.

Tommy Gemmell quote...

Celtic get £9.5m and he gets £40k a week.

It follows that MON had a £5m limit then. £40k a week wages? What would they have to pay Gabby?

They put MON in an invidious position.

How many potential Premier League players are there available for £5m?

I can see RL doing deals for strikers like DE did with Ginola and Juan Pablo..
Who picks the players now?

If that turns out to be the case I wonder where we will be..

Meanwhile Milner comes on at Wembley and combined with efforts of A. Young and Barry, Gerrard goes on to score twice. The game is turned round..

I rest my case..commentator says Milner is on way to Man Citeh..great!!

[Greg N'Ash]

mid-table i reckon. team needs to rebuilt and rubbish has to be sold and morale repaired. 9th

[Dan England]

Despite his limitations O'Neill did leave us with a fairly solid and reasonably talented squad.  I don't see why people think we might be in relegation trouble just because a good but not brilliant manager has left, and Milner will probably go.  If utilised properly I don't see any reason why we shouldn't do just as well as I expected under O'Neill, around 7th or 8th, or better.  Unless a complete fuckwit of a coach is brought in.

Brian Taylor, do you think this season would have seen us any more likely to push on when O'Neill's idea of taking us to the next level was apparently signing McGeady at whatever cost?  I certainly didn't think so.

Nail on head for me.

[Dan England]

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/scottishpremier/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/08/11/SOCCER_Celtic_Nightlead.html

"I get the impression Aiden was holding off to see if he could get a club in England.

"But with the size of the transfer fee, I don't think there would be a team in England who would be interested in paying that for Aiden McGeady.

"The way I look at it is he (O'Neill) wanted to sign Aiden McGeady and I don't think Villa wanted to go above the £5million limit.

"Aiden has got to go to Moscow and prove himself.

"If you don't do the business, there is nobody interested in you.

Tommy Gemmell quote...

Celtic get £9.5m and he gets £40k a week.

It follows that MON had a £5m limit then. £40k a week wages? What would they have to pay Gabby?

They put MON in an invidious position.

How many potential Premier League players are there available for £5m?

I can see RL doing deals for strikers like DE did with Ginola and Juan Pablo..
Who picks the players now?

If that turns out to be the case I wonder where we will be..

Meanwhile Milner comes on at Wembley and combined with efforts of A. Young and Barry, Gerrard goes on to score twice. The game is turned round..

I rest my case..commentator says Milner is on way to Man Citeh..great!!

Do you want me to get the razor blades out for you?

Any more than £5m for Mcgeady would be ridiculous. 40k a week for Mcgeady is outrageous. If MON wanted to exceed that no wonder he was told to do one. Where has there been any suggestion that RL is picking the transfers? The result tonight had very little to do with Barry, Milner and Young and was done to two moments of sheers class from Gerrard. Please save yourself a heart attack, it really is not that bad.

[JJ-AV]

Top half with a manager who can use the season to get to know his players and clear out the dead wood in January and the Summer.

Friedel and Carew's contracts are expiring.

He should have money from the Milner deal to reinvest.

An average season beckons but the futures bright.

[TheSandman]

I also query what on earth some Celtic player from forty years ago knows about what is going on at our club. Admittedly, he played with MoN at Forest for a bit which may mean he is pushing a certain story or agenda on behalf of someone. Though I doubt MoN would enlist some random team mate to do so in a PA article that will only be of interest to Celtic fans.

It's a bit like asking Brian Little what is going on inside the Celtic dressing room.

[ktvillan]

Brian Ive just picked out a few points from your lengthy reply.

MON will go on somewhere an start again. He is undoubtedly a great talent and needs nurturing. I wonder if this farrago occured earlier in year would he be at Liverpool now?

O'Neill needs nurturing?  You are aware he is 58 or 59 years old aren't you?  Any more nurturing and he'll be at retirement age.  If Liverpool were interested I think they would have made an approach.   Personally I think they knew he actually isn't as good as some would have us believe.

 

Moneymen run the game now and the MON's are just cut down to size to fit in with the books.

And the money men would be quite right to put the long term economic viability of the club first, especially after having seen so much investment not put to best use by the manager.

McGeady would have kept the Irish contingent happy and they are a worldwide phenomenon..I can understand MON's thinking.
I don't run the club..I am just a long term supporter.

So you think it's a good idea to base a transfer policy on keeping our, probably relatively limited,  Irish fan base happy.  As opposed to signing players that are better than what we already have.  That's frankly quite bizarre.

[Brian Taylor]

Bizarre? Villa used to field half the Irish national time..back in the day.
It was a way of guaranteeing attendance amongst the ex-Pats in Brum and more recently their Anglo-Irish offspring. Now we field a good proportion of the National team. Times change.
I know little or nothing about McGeady and he like MON has gone the way of all things as far as Villa is concerned. I hoped he was as good as I thought MON was.
I was trying flippantly, perhaps, to take something positive from this sad affair. As for £5m limitation on spending then we are going to have to get someone from a new territory like the USA who wants to get into the PL.
My point on nurturing is it takes a long time to achieve success. Buying players at £5m a pop there ain't much hope. McGeady may have been an act of desperation as even at £9.5m it is not Premier League stuff..£40k a wk excepted.  (I wish him well on the latter and hope his is worth it or he'll find out about the other side of Russian hospitality). I still believe it is more losing Milner than gaining McGeady.
We have/had half a team and that quality showed in the game at Wembley. Man City will take another another soon and who replaces him? I hope Lerner has the magic formula to restore morale and winning ways.
MON left and that looks a brave thing to do currently. RL left him no alternative.
You need years to develop a team and we got half way..6th place is just not good enough these days. I wonder how many 'Star' players will be there next season if they do not get fellow players of similar quality?
It is a difficult job without the financial lubricant that runs the transfer market.
MON has gone and that is that..for me the AVFC PR machine has some selling to do..
The new incumbent has a hard task ahead and some harsh critics to face.
I wish whom ever it be all the best.
How long will they give him to produce the goods? I can see the negative time factors here..and I want to be positive..

[atomicjam]

6th, its what we do.

[Nelly]

I voted for 8th. I think if we have a good season we could finish 2 places higher, a bad season, 2 places lower.

Either way, I think we can already can this a transitional season. If the new guy hits the ground running - great, if not, we'll (hopefully) be better prepared next time around.

[KevinGage]

Christ, so much of it. But:

MON left and that looks a brave thing to do currently.

Brave?

I can think of many words to describe his actions, but that's not one of them.

Plus if McGeady really was worth throwing his job away over he really has taken full leave of his senses.

The bloke wasn't even getting into the Celtic side at one stage last year, and Liam Lawrence (available for about £2.5 million this summer) regularly outperforms him in the Irish set-up. £9.5 million is crack prices (or more likely some creative Ruski tax dodge), and fair fcuks to our board for not having the outright stupidity to match that.

We have Ash, Downing and Albrighton for the wide slots. Ireland looks to be on the way, so that's another creative outlet. Just because the board were only prepared to sanction £5 million on McDoughnut doesn't mean they won't stump up the cash for a good player.
They went above and beyond the call of duty letting MON spend that much on him quite frankly.

[Brian Taylor]

Oh well that is that..yesterday's news.
How can you succeed when 6th is acceptable to the board? It is back to the good ol days where DE was happy to survive in the PL.
So he resigned before he was pushed!?
He was rubbish and the replacement will be even better than John Gregory!
There is something dodgy about the McGeady Russian deal ..too right.
We'll remain 6th without a source of good players who can be sourced for £5m or less and are happy with significantly less than current PL pay rates.  Chinese, Yanks, Turkish? Even Turks get well paid these days.
At least MON has retained his self-respect and personal reputation.
and he is brave to go...with his legal background I am sure he could sue for constructive dismissal.
No more eh? He is gone and the next guy has a hard job to do improving on what MON achieved.  Steering clear of 'unknown' players from former clubs will be a start.

So 6th it is then..if we have a following wind!