Kevin MacDonald

[Dante Lavelli]

On Saturday I discovered that Arsenal youth play training matches quite close to my flat.  They appeared to be playing Swansea on Saturday so I stopped to watch.  My main observation, other than I was a lot further from being a pro footballer that I thought, was how calm and positive their coach was.  Similarly there were no parents on the touchline. 

It was a bit bizarre and exactly how you'd imagine the Arsenal set up to be.

[chrisw1]

Playing devils advocate here.
Could it be a case of player and parents being over sensitive?
The fact it went so far would indicate not, but, I think some parents just want to hear how good their kid is and don't like it when a few home truths are told.

I've sat by the dug out at Next Gen games, so I know he's pretty brusque, to say the least.

It's a fair point.  Anyone who gets involved in youth coaching at any level is aware that some parents can be utter bellends.

There's two sides to every story and obviously in this day and age authorities always ere heavily on the side of caution. 

Swearing at players?  Come on, who hasn't had coaches who have done that?

Of course it may all be entirely true and he may be a heinous bastard and genuine bully.  Equally, it's may be possible that he's a bit old fashioned / robust in some of his methods and this has been blown out of proportion.  I think without being there or speaking directly to people who were it is really difficult to judge.

Hopefully the club will have a fuller picture based on more than a newspaper article and will make the right decision for the right reasons.

[Dante Lavelli]

I think those of us who have had family in the academy over the years can attest to quite a few of the allegations.

Without divulging too much, in your opinion was it the whole culture at that level or are a couple of individual coaches to blame?

[mattjpa]

Listening and reading what KW has come out with recently, I have faith in him to do the right thing. He seems to get the club and have the authority to do the right thing, irrespective of sentiment. Kmac's reputation has been tarnished here over the last couple of years and regardless of whether he is in the right or wrong in this instance, I dont think he is the future of the club.

He was held in such high regard 5-10 years ago though

[CT]

He plummeted in my estimation that night at WHL.

Agreed.

..and at Southampton in the League Cup

[chrisw1]

He plummeted in my estimation that night at WHL.

Agreed.

..and at Southampton in the League Cup

A couple of games in charge of the most dysfunctional and poorest quality Villa team in decades shouldn't define a 10+ year career at the club.

[eamonn]

Bannan and that crop of contemporaries would often praise MacDonald quite a lot when they had come through. When you're winning and on an upward curve I guess everything is rosy.

I thought he had left the club for Forest or Swindon a couple of years ago.

[Risso]

Didn't realise the chump was still with us to be honest.

[godzvilla]

According to this article in today's Times, it appears that the ' bullying' culture is not limited to Mac Donald, although his general demeanour and erratic behaviour in the dugout at Reserve Games has been commented on in the past , and not only by some of our fans but writers on other Club sites reporting on those games...........Godzvilla!

“League officials are expected to have a regular presence in the club over the coming months to assess the club’s progress with implementing these actions. Failure to do so could have significant ramifications for the club.”

Villa were also accused in the letter of showing “a lack of focus on player welfare, [and] failure by the club to implement its procedures and poor communications” in their management of the complaints. It said that the club “did not keep you informed during the investigation process and failed to provide you with an outcome despite repeated attempts by you over several months to get one”.

Villa said that they had co-operated fully with the investigation, adding: “The club also welcomes the Premier League’s comments that there has been a significant improvement since the change at the top level of the club.”

[Virgil Caine]

I think of general concern is the following taken from the article 'Poor leadership and coaching are also alleged'. If this accusation is aimed at MacDonald rather than Villa as a whole then I think his position must be under threat.

[TheMalandro]

He plummeted in my estimation that night at WHL.

Agreed.

..and at Southampton in the League Cup

A couple of games in charge of the most dysfunctional and poorest quality Villa team in decades shouldn't define a 10+ year career at the club.

No, the fact he sabotaged, in my opinion, Garde's start to his Villa career.

[chrisw1]

He plummeted in my estimation that night at WHL.

Agreed.

..and at Southampton in the League Cup

A couple of games in charge of the most dysfunctional and poorest quality Villa team in decades shouldn't define a 10+ year career at the club.

No, the fact he sabotaged, in my opinion, Garde's start to his Villa career.

yeah, I'm sure that was exactly what he had in mind. 

[Jimbo]

Whatever it takes to flush the stink out of this club, it needs to be clean and fresh by the end of this season if we want to function as an actual football club next season.

[Clark W Griswold]

Whatever it takes to flush the stink out of this club, it needs to be clean and fresh by the end of this season if we want to function as an actual football club next season.

Agreed. A bit of balling and shouting when necessary can be a good thing but belittling and personal insults are counter productive and the type of thing only an utter arse hole would resort to. Fuck him off.

[Dante Lavelli]

Kinda surprised he is still about, as one of Rounds' first jobs should have been to take stock of what we already had and identify problem areas.  For this to escalate this far it should have been easy to spot.