Paddy Reilly, Director of Recruitment

[adrenachrome]

[ciggiesnbeer]

In that McLeish interview on Talksport this week he said they had done all the background work on Benteke in his season in charge.

McLeish says a lot of things. He had done all the work and wanted to sign Messi and Bale

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2284693/Gareth-Bale-Alex-McLeish-reveals-close-signing-Birmingham--EXCLUSIVE.html

http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/villa-boss-mcleish-i-tried-sign-barcelona-star-messi-rangers-2663851#.VOVtBUuBs6U

oh and in their prime he knew about and wanted to sign Owen & Bellamy

http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/09/21/1514935/alex-mcleish-birmingham-city-wanted-to-sign-michael-owen

http://www.espnfc.com/story/323656/mcleish-admits-i-wanted-bellamy-too

Mcleish's "I was going to sign..." transfer record is incredible. Particularly when you compare it to his actual one....

[Villa in Denmark]

In that McLeish interview on Talksport this week he said they had done all the background work on Benteke in his season in charge.

McLeish says a lot of things. He had done all the work and wanted to sign Messi and Bale

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2284693/Gareth-Bale-Alex-McLeish-reveals-close-signing-Birmingham--EXCLUSIVE.html

http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/villa-boss-mcleish-i-tried-sign-barcelona-star-messi-rangers-2663851#.VOVtBUuBs6U

oh and in their prime he knew about and wanted to sign Owen & Bellamy

http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/09/21/1514935/alex-mcleish-birmingham-city-wanted-to-sign-michael-owen

http://www.espnfc.com/story/323656/mcleish-admits-i-wanted-bellamy-too

Mcleish's "I was going to sign..." transfer record is incredible. Particularly when you compare it to his actual one....

To be fair, he'd wanted N'Zogbia for a long time before he finally got his man.

[edgysatsuma89]

I bet loads 'tried to sign' Freddy Adu but you won't hear about that.

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

Peoples secret in the know friends only ever appear to have bad things to say. It's a British phenomenon this desire to put people down.

except that he tells me lots of other stuff, not always bad, but nothing that is relevant to a discussion about Paddy Reilly so your point isn't really that valid

[Richard E]

Gregg Evans is tweeting that Reilly has gone now Steve Round is in situ.

[Ads]

Aye.

Mail Article

Looks like he's been Rounded on and fired.

[Toronto Villa]

I don't blame Paddy for everything. And I am sure he played a part in this summers player recruitment. But it was never going to last was it? I think we've been very precise since Xia arrived and made changes as needed based on circumstance. It was always suggested that Riley would be gone as soon as the new Technical director arrived and so it has proved.

[cdward]

"Another one bites the dust"

[old man villa fan]

I don't blame Paddy for everything. And I am sure he played a part in this summers player recruitment. But it was never going to last was it? I think we've been very precise since Xia arrived and made changes as needed based on circumstance. It was always suggested that Riley would be gone as soon as the new Technical director arrived and so it has proved.

I think the difference this season is that RDM/Clarke/Xia (and possibly Little) have worked out the team they wanted to develop and how much money it was going to cost.  Last year we bought players without much thought as to how they would be integrated, even though some of them were good players.

[Jon Crofts]

Another waster gone.

[SoccerHQ]

I just thought he was another like Faulkner and Tom Fox to be overpromoted.

The guy started here as a stats guy and then morphed into a scout at Liverpool. And so we get him back and hand him the keys to the warchest....

[Phil from the upper holte]

Paul Lambert felt that he couldn’t do his job properly with Riley on board.

Loved that bit, Lambert couldn't do his job full stop

[DB]

Paul Lambert felt that he couldn’t do his job properly with Riley on board.

Loved that bit, Lambert couldn't do his job full stop

Under the circumstances to work under, I think Lambert did alright, kept us in the PL. Not totally useless unlike Sherwood and Remi.

[curiousorange]

Like a lot of people involved with data, they can generate figures and make them look pretty, but have no idea what they actually mean. I always figured Paddy Reilly was like that.

You can say Reilly wasn't to blame and no, he wasn't solely to blame for the relegation. However, when Xia bought the club he was told the squad was good enough to win promotion. If Lerner really thought that, he was probably led to that opinion by Reilly who, at best, was incompetent enough to think that was true, or at worst...well, I like to think the best of people. It might have been a tough job to find good quality players for peanuts, but plenty of squads (I'm looking at you, Leicester City) manage that, and Reilly got paid a lot for doing a terrible job.