MacDonald Out.

[Pvb1968]

Hate long posts.

[dave.woodhall]

What I really don't understand  is that both of them have worked at the Villa under managers such as Brian, Sir Graham & McLeish and with owners/directors like Messrs Stride, Faulkner & Lerner, who for any faults they might have had were decent and honourable men. Yet they all seemingly let this culture prevail for so long. It's strange.

[Toronto Villa]

That’s the bit that I don’t get. It’s not like this just happened or happened just while the club was going through a spell of off the turmoil that meant it was somehow missed. Some of the people we hold in the highest of esteem must have known about it in detail or would have been at minimu aware and allowed it to continue. How does that happen?

[algy]

I agree with everything you said apart from the BFR bit, I can have an unblemished record in my job and be extremely racial friendly but if I was to make the same comment Big Ron did then I'd be sacked. So why should Big Ron be any different?

Yeah, thought after I'd written it, it's not a great example ... defending racists isn't cool, is it?

[Risso]

I agree with everything you said apart from the BFR bit, I can have an unblemished record in my job and be extremely racial friendly but if I was to make the same comment Big Ron did then I'd be sacked. So why should Big Ron be any different?

Yeah, thought after I'd written it, it's not a great example ... defending racists isn't cool, is it?

I agreed with what you said.  Ron was punished for it at the time.  He resigned before he was sacked by ITV, and obviously for a good while his reputation was in tatters.  But I don't think a one-off mistake, however bad, should sully a person for life, who is I think, a decent man and certainly not a racist.  He's apologised numerous times, and made amends.  As the man himself points out, nothing in his behaviour and the way he treated people up until then mark him out as a racist.  Far from it.

[brontebilly]

In the interests of balance, on Irish radio recently Keith Andrews interviewed a former Villa youth player Danny Earls who was very positive on McDonald and McAndrew.

Andrews pushed him on it a bit but Earls, while saying they were old school, reckoned their approach was to toughen up lads for a career in professional football.

[Legion]

One mans banter is another mans bullying.

[SoccerHQ]

What I really don't understand  is that both of them have worked at the Villa under managers such as Brian, Sir Graham & McLeish and with owners/directors like Messrs Stride, Faulkner & Lerner, who for any faults they might have had were decent and honourable men. Yet they all seemingly let this culture prevail for so long. It's strange.

Lerner must've just seen him as a good club man. I know he turned up to watch training from time to time but that was to watch first team. Obviously if he'd heard Mac hurling abuse at the young kids as way of motivation he'd have probably given him the boot.

I'm still convinced that if Newcastle 6-0 had never happened he'd have been appointed manager.

[themossman]

Hate long posts.

Thanks for your contribution.

[pauliewalnuts]

Hate long posts.

Thanks for your contribution.

It was at least succinct.

[eamonn]

A bit tossery though.

[dave shelley]

Hate long posts.

I know what you mean.  It's a real bastard having to keep climbing up a step- ladder with a twenty-pound sledge hammer to hammer them in.

[brian green]

I hate long posts.  Have to stand on a box to hit them.

Seriously, on topic, what seems to be happening at VP at long last is the looking into all the dark corners and secret places that allowed the club to become so torn apart by factions within the club.  The Secret Santa episode being a clear symptom of the malaise.

[brian green]

Beat me by a nose Dave.

[Mister E]

One mans banter is another mans bullying.

And that is the point, I suppose, which explains Dave W's earlier comment about how long this all went on: for some people, the toughening-up process was a necessary development component ...
... although toughening-up can quickly become both misconceived and shift from useful to excessive and bullying.