Still no apology from the club!

[German James]

I agree with every word I've read over the past page or so that has been written by Shrek.

So do I.

[Chris Smith]

The way to show your disgust is to boycott the first home cup game of next season. A 10,000 crowd will really focus their attention.

People have been boycotting cup games for years which is hy I'm surprised by a lot of the "outrage" as many of them don't put their money where their mouth is when it comes to "loving" the cups.

[Nev]

Maybe the club can issue new match tickets categories for next season:

A
B
C and
D the games that the manager thinks we can't win.

I'm laughing on the outside but my soul is weeping.

[VillaZogmariner]

The way to show your disgust is to boycott the first home cup game of next season. A 10,000 crowd will really focus their attention.

People have been boycotting cup games for years which is hy I'm surprised by a lot of the "outrage" as many of them don't put their money where their mouth is when it comes to "loving" the cups.

I think the best way to show your disgust is to plan a march from a pub, you were going to go to anyway, to a match that you were going to attend too.

[TimTheVillain]

Well since Gerrard has been here he has got rid of the useless Sidwell, Carew, Ireland, Davies and has dropped the shite Petrov and Warnock.

He has then bought a 20+ goal a season striker, a quality Midfielder in Makoun and has improved the way we play.

We have had an absolute nightmare with injuries and think he needs abit more credit than he gets.

I'm for one glad we dont have a bunch of lazy money grabbers in our team, meaning our young lads don't get a chance.

Yeah he has fucked up a few times, but he will have learned and I am really excited about next season.

I think he's prepared for a new Manager, Owen Coyle I am hoping.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Apologising makes him look even more foolish I think. A very bad move.

Damned if he does. Damned if he doesnt.

[Mister E]

I tend to agree with shrek and SubM'r ... yes, some of the public statements have been crazy; some of the media and fans have been less than balanced.
Crap start to the season, crap midpoint and probably a continuation of the same.
This may be the rose-tinted view but depending what the investment situation looks like, next season will start with a stronger, more talented squad with a flexible gameplan that we didn't have under the last manager.

[TimTheVillain]

Apologising makes him look even more foolish I think. A very bad move.

Damned if he does. Damned if he doesnt.

Damned.

[paul_e]

I really can't understand the level of indignation on here about this.  He picked a team for the cup that wasn't our best 11 but the only players that came in who aren't considered part of the first team are Herd and possibly the fonz.  That Petrov was shit isn't Houllier's fault, we can see the guy's legs have gone but we have to try to get some value out of our club captain for the rest of the season.  The only genuine criticism I can understand was the decision to play heskey fonz and gabby together which made is a bit narrow and took away our creativity, but I remember reading loads of people saying the fonz should be tried in the hole so maybe GH saw the same potential.

We lost the game, and maybe we could've won with the best 11 but there was no guarantee about it and in all honesty we'd probably have struggled with our best side, that's what happens when you play against a team that has been assembled for around half a billion pounds who have decided that competition is their best chance of winning something this year.

Then he then felt he had to come out and say something because the fans were demanding his head probably led to him badly wording his initial response.  Rather than 'we can't beat Man City' I think he was probably trying to say, as I did, there was no guarantee the best 11 would have won won either as it'd have still been a tough game.  Given that he rested a few players but in most cases replaced them with players who deserve a chance (Bannan, Fonz, Bradley) or should be good enough to put in a good performance (Petrov, Heskey, Gabby) he probably didn't intend the throw the game as many are suggesting.  The problem was, as he says in the guardian piece,  we conceded very early which will always make things tough against a title challenging side, they then stayed tight and got 2 more on the counter.

As someone else has said it feels like, for a lot of people, he wasn't who was wanted and when the wins didn't come in the first month or 2 (because of injuries as much as anything) people made their minds up that he should be 'ex villa manager' asap and are jumping up and down about anything they think might increase the chances of him going.

The reality is we're playing the best football we have in years and have lots of very exciting young players who have shown they can handle the big stage, yes this season is a bit of a write-off but there are so many positives for the next couple of seasons that we may well look back on this year as needed to allow the changes that had to happen.

[Rico]

No other Villa manager in living memory has ever sent out such a weakened team. Disgraceful! The game's about winning! Winning matches and winning trophies.

I'm sorry, but this has made my blood boil.

It's too late for apologies, but he better pull his finger out between now and the end if the season. No, tell you what! Just fuck him off now! I just literally can't bare the man anymore!

[German James]

There are a fair few people on the wind-up, I reckon.

[TimTheVillain]

I really can understand and do many non Villa fans in all the media - written or on the radio.

Hopefully we can all look back on this season as the season that was the beginning of Villa's success, but that's not guaranteed either ,

I don't understand why you don't understand, but I am one who looks at Fulham getting a draw at Eastlands the previous weekend and who felt we did have a chance of beating Citeh or at least bringing them back to VP.

If Houllier was to communicate his masterplsn maybe we could buy into it - however, throwing away that game was not a clever move at all and the man had a mountain to climb to win ove the fans.

In my opinion, we need a younger, more vibrant Manager and one for whom the players will enjoy playing for.

That way. even the most expensively assembled team will become beatable.

Get rid at the end of the season and replace with a Manager who will be able to motivate , to enlighten and to make the dressing room a team of self belief.

[dave.woodhall]

No other Villa manager in living memory has ever sent out such a weakened team.

Bollocks, and at the same time typical of what's been said since Wednesday. We've been putting out weak sides ever since the League Cup at Chelsea in 1998 yet it's only now that's it's a sackable offence.

[Rigadon]

No other Villa manager in living memory has ever sent out such a weakened team.

Bollocks, and at the same time typical of what's been said since Wednesday. We've been putting out weak sides ever since the League Cup at Chelsea in 1998 yet it's only now that's it's a sackable offence.

I'm not sure the majority of post-wednesday moaning equates to people wanting Houllier sacked Dave.  Certainly for me its more a growing disillusionment with the snowballing number of gaffs he seems indifferent to. 

[Shrek]

No one was moaning when Bannan and Delfouneso were superb against Blackburn in the cup.

I think Houllier is still genuinely concerned about relegation, so wanted to protect our best players.

I wish we had gone for it, but I think we should move on now and support the lads.