When will the bullet come?

[pauliewalnuts]

He won't be going anywhere, even if we do get relegated.

[Monty]

I can hardly believe our board are this wrong, but they are.

If he stays up, he won't be sacked, however skin-of-our-teeth it is. The board will feel that it's job done, make excuses about Eck not 'putting his stamp on the team' before not really giving him much money to put his stamp on the team, which he does anyway because it doesn't matter if he has £1m or £100m to spend, his teams will always play in the same gutless, spineless, cowardly way. And we go down next season.

If we go down, they won't be able to afford to sack him and will make the excuse that 'he's got a good record of getting teams promoted', ie he's done it once before. Which, many will rightly ask, was outweighed at the time of his appointment by the number of relegations achieved, ie two.

In short, it's not looking pretty, and we will look back on this stage in our club's history in years to come and wonder, as we do now, what on earth makes the board back this man so much.

[philthebar]

On the assumption that we stay up, and yes that is quite an assumption, then I think he will be given the summer transfer window and the first three months of next season.  If at that time we are not in the relegation zone then he will stay. 

I don't like the style of football, but also feel that our lack of support for the team is a contributory factor.

[VillaAlways]

He won't be going anywhere, even if we do get relegated.

How incredibly small time we would look if this became the case

[villanic]

He won't be going anywhere, even if we do get relegated.

Sadly I think Paulie is right, he isn’t going anywhere even if we go down.

What a sickening thought!

[cheltenhamlion]

He will be our boss at the start of next season. We will just about stay up.

He might get the bullet around Christmas if we are adrift at the bottom. Bumping round the lower reaches like now and he will be here all of next season.

Attendances will drop through the floor next season.

[Clampy]

I've had bets with now 3 people that he won't be here next season. I just can't picture him standing on our touchline in August.

[Monty]

I've had bets with now 3 people that he won't be here next season. I just can't picture him standing on our touchline in August.

I can't believe it either, but it'll happen. Extraordinary isn't it, no other club in the league would put up with this squad being in this position playing this football

[paul_e]

I can't bring myself to think so negatively.

The club have been doing a lot of market research, they will know a lot of people either aren't renewing or are undecided, they will have been told that for the majority this is due to the manager and the 'entertainment' on offer.

Additionally the idea that the targets for the current season were to avoid relegation and cut the wage bill doesn't line up for me.  Cutting the wage bill by allowing the big players who weren't in the squad (i.e. beye) will have been part of it but you don't pay compensation and £2m a year in wages to someone whose sole responsibility is to not finish in the bottom 3.  If things don't improve (which they won't) and we finish bottom 6 I don't see any way the board can ignore that.  Even with the sales our squad is too good to be down where they are.

The only defence I can see McLeish having is that it's the players fault (which he is already using and has been for months).  Any reasonable business man will be slightly wary of a manager who has been in the job this long and the only defence for their performance is that their staff aren't good enough.

I've been super optimistic and voted for before the end of the season but I actually think it will be within the first week after the last game.

[Greg N'Ash]

if we go down he'll get the push. His brief was to keep us up with a no money and a nothing squad and if he does that then he won't get the bullet. Next season will be the same. If i was betting man if we're bottom by christmas Lerner will panic and do the deed, But as far as going this summer if we stay up?, no chance

[Mr Diggles]

He acts in the manner of a man who know's he's as safe as Fort Knox.

I think the fuckwits would keep him if we got relegated for his 'excellent Championship record.'

I honestly think he's more likely to stay if we get relegated, not only because of the prohibitive cost, but also becuase of the ivested interest Villa would have in him by that point. However, stay up and he most probably will stay too.

[Clampy]

I think it also depends on ST sales. There must be a reason why they've put them on sale earlier than they've ever done before. If sales are still low going into June, then who knows.

[Mister E]

I think there are four reasons why it'll be hard for the club to dispense with his services anytime soon:
- Lerner first of all has to ‘man up’ to the problem, accept it and deal with it. Likely? – hmmm.
- Secondly, he has to accept that another large payout might be necessary, on top of of the money paid out to Gerard Houllier, Gary McAllister and (most painful of all) Martin O’Neil and his coterie.
- Thirdly, Lerner would have to find a recruitment process that operates rather more effectively than the appalling way in which the club went about its business las year; an embarrassment to all involved.
- He would then have to find some candidates: who are both available and credible; no easy matter.

I think this current reality is the likely future one.

[Duncan Shaw]

The QIA deal is in the balance to see if we stay up.  If we do and the deal goes through, they will sack him.
If we go down, the QIA deal will be off and Randy will panic and have to sack him.
So I don't think we've got him either way next season.

**Huge pinch of salt**

[Concrete John]

I think it also depends on ST sales. There must be a reason why they've put them on sale earlier than they've ever done before. If sales are still low going into June, then who knows.

But in order for a change to give ST sales a boost, the new manager would need to be someone to get the fans excited again.  Can you see that being the case?