PS Mr Lerner

[davevillan]

He was always going to make changes to the Blackburn side. Bent cup-tied, Baker injured, Pires was never going to start last night. Judging by the bandage on Walkers arm when he came on, maybe thats why he didnt play him??
You cant compare the team last night to the Moscow team, that was a team of reserves/youngesters with hardly any 1st team experience. The team last night had plenty of experience, it didnt help conceding in the first 5mins.
GH felt that team with the tactics was good enough to get a result. Maybe questions need to be asked of the players for not performing to the standards he expected?

[dave.woodhall]

You keep missing the point, Eastie. I don't fully support his selection, I think he made a couple too many changes. What I am saying is that I understand why he did it and accept that he, as the manager, has every right to pick the team he sees fit without getting all the abuse he has and that calls for him to be sacked because of it are verging on insane.

Are you suggesting  that a manager should be able to pick any team he likes , however perverse, whilst remaining immune from criticism from the supporters who pay his wages?

This thing is though, that GH doesn't get much rational criticism. For every constructive, valid bit of argument against him or his decisons, there are many more hissy fits about how he should be sacked NOW! and the club's falling to pieces.

[cdbearsfan]

I have defended him and thought he was getting to be the manager we wanted him to be. Very disillusioned now. Don't see the point if we aren't even going to try to win trophies any more.

[PaulWinch again]

You keep missing the point, Eastie. I don't fully support his selection, I think he made a couple too many changes. What I am saying is that I understand why he did it and accept that he, as the manager, has every right to pick the team he sees fit without getting all the abuse he has and that calls for him to be sacked because of it are verging on insane.

Are you suggesting  that a manager should be able to pick any team he likes , however perverse, whilst remaining immune from criticism from the supporters who pay his wages?

This thing is though, that GH doesn't get much rational criticism. For every constructive, valid bit of argument against him or his decisons, there are many more hissy fits about how he should be sacked NOW! and the club's falling to pieces.

Agreed, I wasn't thrilled by our selection last night. However overall recently now we have players back we have been dramatically improved. We've also started to play in an entertaining manner and GH deserves much more credit than he gets for that. Talk of sacking is ridiculous.

[Risso]

It's still a possibility. I would have been a possibility had we played our full team and beaten Man City. I don't understand your point.

And if it was just to avoid the risk of injury then why bring Young, Downing and Walker on when the game was lost? Also, why play Clarke and Dunne - we have no cover for them if one gets injured?

My point Is that the manager wanted to rest some players and have a look some others so took the opportunity. He can't leave them all out but he did what he thought would be best for the squad. You don't have to like it but I would expect that you at least make an effort to understand it.

You said in one of the pre-match threads that you thought that we'd give them a decent game and maybe nick a win.  Given that the way we approached the game made that an impossibility, I'm surprised that you're not more upset.

[brontebilly]

Id prefer to see Mr Lerner explain the financial results from last season. 88% of turnover going on player wages. That kind of financial management put the club in serious jeopardy. We can blame MON and dont get me wrong he is also culpable but MON wasnt signing the cheques. To be honest it was disgraceful that the future of the club was gambled on a Champions League place.

This seasons figures will be worse Id imagine. It is only this summer where the squad will be trimmed significantly. Which is why in the midst of all this, we should have put everything into the Cup tie at City. To reassure the supporters that we would still try and be as competitive as possible, to reassure current and future players that the future at Villa is still a good one. To be honest with Houllier on board I cant imagine much enthusiasm for season tickets.

[KevinGage]

There is only one way this debate about whether Houllier is or is not a competent manager will be resolved.     We scrape survival in the Premiership and he gets a whole summer to discard those he considers to be dead wood, to bring in new wood and to get them all playing the way he wants them to play.

If we start the new season with good football and good results those of us who think he is years past his Best By date will have been proved wrong and those who say he should be given more time and those who disagree are insane will be proved right.

I feel very strongly that he is yesterday's man and should never have been appointed in the first place and I fully expect the autumn of 2011 to be every bit as bad as the autumn of 2010.   I really hope that I am wrong.

I'd agree with most of that Brian, save I'd be very reluctant to continue this experiment beyond the summer.

No point getting shot now, last thing we need is more instability. And of course part of the reason we were faced with a relatively limited selection pool last time out was the timing of the departure of the last guy. 

Come May 22nd though I hope that's it for him and us -poetic that it should also be against his favourites.  I really don't fancy another season like this one; same waffle at press conferences, same largely ineffective football, same defensive howlers and so on.

[Chris Smith]

You keep missing the point, Eastie. I don't fully support his selection, I think he made a couple too many changes. What I am saying is that I understand why he did it and accept that he, as the manager, has every right to pick the team he sees fit without getting all the abuse he has and that calls for him to be sacked because of it are verging on insane.

Are you suggesting  that a manager should be able to pick any team he likes , however perverse, whilst remaining immune from criticism from the supporters who pay his wages?

No, I'd I'd wanted to suggest that I would have posted "a manager should be able to pick any team he likes , however perverse, whilst remaining immune from criticism from the supporters who pay his wages".

The point here is fairly obvious to me, the clubs priority is staying in the Premier League and the side he picked last night was done with that in mind. It doesn't give us any guarantees, of course, but there's little doubt that a number of our players will be sharper on Saturday than if they'd played 90 minutes last night.

As fans we  have the right to criticise but abuse is another thing and calling for him to be sacked because some don't like the side he picked is mental.

[Chris Smith]

It's still a possibility. I would have been a possibility had we played our full team and beaten Man City. I don't understand your point.

And if it was just to avoid the risk of injury then why bring Young, Downing and Walker on when the game was lost? Also, why play Clarke and Dunne - we have no cover for them if one gets injured?

My point Is that the manager wanted to rest some players and have a look some others so took the opportunity. He can't leave them all out but he did what he thought would be best for the squad. You don't have to like it but I would expect that you at least make an effort to understand it.

You said in one of the pre-match threads that you thought that we'd give them a decent game and maybe nick a win.  Given that the way we approached the game made that an impossibility, I'm surprised that you're not more upset.

In response to the idea that we had zero chance and that defeat was inevitable I said that although they were favourites I couldn't accept the idea that we had no hope whatsoever. I'm pissed off that we're out of the cup but I never had any sense that we could win it this year (due to the defence) so I'm more relaxed about it that many.

[ROBBO]

I heard City supporters booing their side last week, you remember when they hadn't got a pot to piss in? now to draw at home is not acceptable. We have become the age of instant gratification where nobody is prepared to look ahead, we want it and we want it now otherwise we will scream our heads off. If we finish above mid table then Houllier has done a good job
considering the disaster he inherited. I will wait until the middle of next year when he has his own squad before i will pass judgement on him.

[olaftab]

Rest some players > why?
Look at some players in the 5th round of the FA Cup at Man city > why?
Select a player to make his debut in a tough fixture surrounded by irregular team mates > why?
Play Delph at LB > why?
Play all 3 Heskey, Agbonlahor and Delfouenso > why?
It hurts me that we virtually gave them a free ride in to the qtr final. FA cup wins are precious and we threw it away without a fight.
Why why why did you do this to us Houllier?

[5ft811st2 Durham]

You keep missing the point, Eastie. I don't fully support his selection, I think he made a couple too many changes. What I am saying is that I understand why he did it and accept that he, as the manager, has every right to pick the team he sees fit without getting all the abuse he has and that calls for him to be sacked because of it are verging on insane.

Are you suggesting  that a manager should be able to pick any team he likes , however perverse, whilst remaining immune from criticism from the supporters who pay his wages?

No, I'd I'd wanted to suggest that I would have posted "a manager should be able to pick any team he likes , however perverse, whilst remaining immune from criticism from the supporters who pay his wages".

The point here is fairly obvious to me, the clubs priority is staying in the Premier League and the side he picked last night was done with that in mind. It doesn't give us any guarantees, of course, but there's little doubt that a number of our players will be sharper on Saturday than if they'd played 90 minutes last night.

As fans we  have the right to criticise but abuse is another thing and calling for him to be sacked because some don't like the side he picked is mental.

I agree that this was the rationale and like many others I strongly disagree with it as if Houllier does not feel capable of leading  a squad of players as talented as ours  into 17th position or better whilst attempting to win the odd cup match then he shouldn't be doing the job in the first place.

What makes the situation even more absurd is that Houllier won't actually admit that he played a weakened side in order to improve our survival prospects.  Really he is just insulting the intelligence of our supporters and the criticism or "abuse" that he gets is not only inevitable but totally justified.   

 

[Brend'Watkins]

As this is primarily a letter to Randy Lerner I'd just like to let him know that this week has seen two outcomes that I thought in my life I'd never see..

1) Our neighbours win something of note


2)Watch the one time record holders of the most prestigious domestic football knock out competition throw the towel in when there was a chance this season of trying to get that record back.

How does that play any part in our bright future?

[hawkeye]

The people on here that are trying to justify our managers decision just dont get it, he killed a lot of supporters rationale for supporting the club, there is absoloutely no justification for Aston Villa to act in this cowardly and disrespectful way. You should read again what VCTM said, why on earth should any one comit to a club that is not commited to the majority of it supporters. Yesterday was one of the darkest days in our history and what is so sad about it was the fact that it was self inflicted.

[dave.woodhall]

The people on here that are trying to justify our managers decision just dont get it, he killed a lot of supporters rationale for supporting the club, there is absoloutely no justification for Aston Villa to act in this cowardly and disrespectful way. You should read again what VCTM said, why on earth should any one comit to a club that is not commited to the majority of it supporters. Yesterday was one of the darkest days in our history and what is so sad about it was the fact that it was self inflicted.

No, no over-reaction here either.