The Big Ecks welcome to VP barometer

[eastie]

mcleish has had my full support from day one and i think he will do a decent job but i must admit i expected him to be given far more financial backing in the job after reading the generals posts on his appointment.

under the current financial constraints whoever took the job would find it difficult and i wish him well in his quest.

[ROBBO]

I wish some of you would live in the real Villa world, nice to be positive and all that but if we go down to Blackburn at home the knives will be showing in his back before he reaches the tunnel.

[Greg N'Ash]

mcleish has had my full support from day one and i think he will do a decent job but i must admit i expected him to be given far more financial backing in the job after reading the generals posts on his appointment.

under the current financial constraints whoever took the job would find it difficult and i wish him well in his quest.

yep. it would have been hard enough coming from blose with a decent transfer budget let alone the pittance they've given him. My suspicion is they're hanging him out dry as he'll get the flack from some if results go awry. Still, he took the job..

[Jimbo]

For our own sakes, we have to welcome him wholeheartedly to Villa Park. Anyone who doesn't needs to wake up, smell the 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' we are in and pull together, otherwise we could be in for a very unsatisfactory season. This is the level we have chosen for ourselves and we have to get used to it.   

[Risso]

I wish some of you would live in the real Villa world, nice to be positive and all that but if we go down to Blackburn at home the knives will be showing in his back before he reaches the tunnel.

The opening few fixtures have been incredibly kind to McLeish.  If he doesn't come out of them with a decent haul of points, he only has himself to blame, and will deserve the stick.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

He'll get a decent welcome from me and most of us I assume. He's our gaffer.
But, reasonably good quality goods will have to be delivered or we'll get pissed off with him and be thinking "What did we expect?/I told you so..." etc.
Talking to someone who works for the club and based at Bodymoor Heath a few days ago who says the players have taken to him really well and felt that the atmosphere around the place was miles better than last season. If he's winning the players over that's gotta be a good sign...

[eastie]

A lot depends on expectations -if people are still hoping for top 6 i think they will be dissappointed but i think top 8 is achievable with a decent cup run thrown in -there is no doubt the ambitions have been lowered somewhat from the days when we felt we could challenge the top 4 and midtable seems to be where we are at.

In many ways the league can be split into 3 tiers and we could probably all name the top 6 now -along with everton , sunderland, fulham and a couple of others we are probably chasing 7th and that europa spot that may be available.

Certainly a finish below 10th would be extremely dissappointing but under the financial contraints i hope people give him a bit of leeway - having said that im sure he must have known the finances before accepting the job.

[Simon Jones]

I wish some of you would live in the real Villa world, nice to be positive and all that but if we go down to Blackburn at home the knives will be showing in his back before he reaches the tunnel.

To be fair, no matter who is the manager, If you go down at home to Blackburn, you deserve all the abuse you should rightly get.

[DeKuip]

He'll be in the home dugout and desperately wanting the Villa to win.

Sadly there will be Villa fans sitting at home wanting him (and the Villa) to fail. And if he makes a huge success of the job these will be the same fans who call him Judas etc when he moves on to a better job.

Good luck Alex. Up the Villa.

[ASHTONVILLA]

I wish some of you would live in the real Villa world, nice to be positive and all that but if we go down to Blackburn at home the knives will be showing in his back before he reaches the tunnel.

The opening few fixtures have been incredibly kind to McLeish.  If he doesn't come out of them with a decent haul of points, he only has himself to blame, and will deserve the stick.

If we get beat at home to Blackburn then he thoroughly deserves any stick he gets.

I was not happy with the appointment of McLeish, partly owing to his poor record in the English top flight, and yes partly down to where he came from and the manner in which he was recruited (lets face it we tapped him up).

Most of that unhappiness is with the board, not McLeish himself. More to the point I am nonplussed with the retrenchment in ambition that this appointment signified, and also the dishonesty about that change in ambition (imagine how well he would do with a chairman that backed him and all that guff).

As a man I have to admit I like like him, he is honest, straightforwards, and is getting on with the job at hand as best as he can. As a manager I still do not rate his ability as good enough to be manager of Aston Villa. Obviously I hope he does well, but I don't think he will.

[ktvillan]

I'm, erm, undecided about the undecided option.  Surely if you are undecided it means he hasn't won you over yet, so your answer to the question posed should be "no".  To be honest,unless you are one of those who is won over merely by the fact he is Villa boss, he hasn't really had the chance to do much winning over as yet.

[Clark W Griswold]

Too early to judge him properly but he certainly hasn't won me over yet.   So far I like the signings he's made but I haven't liked his playing down of expectations which have a hint of "getting your excuses in early" about them.  Also didn't like his selection on saturday, too much trying to shoehorn experienced players into roles and positions that they aren't suited for (Gabby and Heskey) and not enough creativity.

I think he got it just right. Having the strength of Heskey and the pace of Gabby and their discipline to do the job asked of them allowed us to cover for N'.Zogbia's obvious lack of sharpness and unfamiliarity with team mares.

As you say, it's horses for courses and it worked and helped get us a point at a ground where it is always a good result. He did look as though he sorted out some of those donkeys in our defence, and hopefully that will continue. If we could have a whip round to give him a bit more to spend before the end of the month it would be good. If we come into the final furlong of the season looking like we might have a chance of europe i wouls say he's done an excellent job, but we have many hurdles to get over first.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

on the tube home from Fulham on Saturday and in the next carriage were a few Villa and they unfurled a large banner which said LOVE VILLA, HATE MCLEISH !!

I really believe that over the last few years we've picked up fans that would normally have supported the Rags. This is just an addition to the ever growing list.

As for McLeish, I've always admired him as a decent man. If he gets the backing of the fans, as he already seems to have it from the players, I think we could be in for a pleasant surprise. I always saw his appointment as Lerner trying to bring in his own 'David Moyes', I just never imagined he would give the same sort of financial support Moyes has enjoyed at Goodison. That said, we have a small but decent squad, it's up to him to get the best out of them. Comforting is knowing that we have Sid as coach and I get the impression he's far more involved now than under Houllier and McAllister.

Saturday's game can't come soon enough.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Too early to judge him properly but he certainly hasn't won me over yet.   So far I like the signings he's made but I haven't liked his playing down of expectations which have a hint of "getting your excuses in early" about them.  Also didn't like his selection on saturday, too much trying to shoehorn experienced players into roles and positions that they aren't suited for (Gabby and Heskey) and not enough creativity.

I think he got it just right. Having the strength of Heskey and the pace of Gabby and their discipline to do the job asked of them allowed us to cover for N'.Zogbia's obvious lack of sharpness and unfamiliarity with team mares.

As you say, it's horses for courses and it worked and helped get us a point at a ground where it is always a good result. He did look as though he sorted out some of those donkeys in our defence, and hopefully that will continue. If we could have a whip round to give him a bit more to spend before the end of the month it would be good. If we come into the final furlong of the season looking like we might have a chance of europe i wouls say he's done an excellent job, but we have many hurdles to get over first.

That's a load of HORSESHIT Clark and you know it!
;-)

[stubbsyandy]

DeKuip, you talk a lot of sense!