the person with the banner, thanks for setting the upbeat tone for the day!

[Rip Van We Go Again]

What a load of drivel.  Best option my arse, he was probably the cheapest option due to Randy not having the balls to go for a manager who was currently employed. 

See, comments like this make you sound weirdly desperate to criticise Randy.

I don't want to have a go at Randy, he's done so much for us, but the buck stops with him and this appointment could see us doing a Portsmouth.

Our wage bill to turnover is almost the same as when Pompey went down.

Shockingly bad business sense from the club.

It's not that obvious. This argument has been done ad nauseum on here but he's had terrible luck with injuries and inherited a squad full of some right c***s.

****** they may be, but they still managed 6th for the last 3 seasons.

[WikiVilla]

Houlliers appointment was wrong
Only Lerner & Faulkner can carry the can for that, can't they ?

[Risso]

I've rarely read such a complete pile of rubbish on here.  Looking at 7th?  You'll have to remind me when that was exactly.  You can castigate me all you like for my views on Lerner, but the fact is that under his mismanagement, we're in serious trouble.  The main reason for this is his poor choice of manager, and poor decision to stick with him despite all the exceedingly poor football, and desperate decisions like chucking in the FA Cup game.  All the nice but insignificant touches like mosaics and free scarves won't mean a thing if we get relegated.  That'll set the club back years.

[Brend'Watkins]

everyone's entitled their opinion, but when your in a dog fight, that kind of banner simply isn't going to help matters. Everyone's on edge right now, and if the fans transmit that to the players it only gets worse.

Absolutely.

Since that Do'L banner it appears that every one in the upper Holte simply has to show their creativity with old sheets and always in a negative way.

[Greg N'Ash]

i'd say lerner has made mistakes but they weren't foolhardy ones. MON leaving left us in the shit - short term he took the option of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater and went for some continuation with Mcdonald. that didn't work, which given what we know now about the attitude of some of the players is not surprising. Houlliers appointment was a WTF?! moment for most of us, but again, the choices were limited - people like Moyles wouldn't have jumped ship mid-season so someone with experience at the top level in the premier was at least logical. - Again whatever GH mistakes and there's been many, he hasn't been helped by the poison in the squad continually making their presence felt. To me Randy's been trying to play a crap hand as best as he could all season and if he seems relectant to jetison yet another manager then i'm not surprised really. 4 managers in a season is rarely a blueprint for sucess

[Sam Smith]

Having grown up listening to endless anecdotes relating to the glory years of the 70's and how inspirational the Holte has always been, one can only wonder what was on the minds of the Villa 'faithful' yesterday as the events unfolded at VP.

I wholeheartedly embrace the supporter’s right to criticise and voice their disaffection at the pallid, ineffectual performance of our highly paid team but does voicing this disapproval before or during the game help? We played against a team of predominantly cheap, run of the mill players on wages comparable to our youngsters who comfortably did a job on us! A job as directed by their management’s tactics and ably supported by the negative atmosphere created by a vociferous minority of malcontents on the much lauded former terrace. If they are unhappy with Houllier, and even I, as a supporter of his, offer no defence to yesterday’s tacticless debacle, then surely they should express that discontent after the game when it has no affect on the performance?

When you consider the teams we are playing in the run in and their recent experience of relegation battles I fear our disunity will be our greatest Achilles heel. Blues, West Ham, Albion, Wolves and Wigan have all been here before and do we really expect the Blackburn and Blackpool fans to turn on their clubs / teams / managers as we did yesterday? Should we not leave the post mortem to the end of the season? The Chairman played his hand in January and I don’t see what other options we have until we know the outcome of this traumatic campaign.

We told D O'L we weren’t fickle. I am beginning to wonder!

[Risso]

A lot of the poison in the squad is down to Houllier himself.  He's just as big a twat as the likes of Dunne and Warnock.  Just because he's a manager doesn't alter the fact that he's behaved just as badly.  I've never heard of the likes of Warnock, Collins and Beye causing problems at any of their previous clubs, yet they're amongst at least half a dozen players who are now deemed to be troublemakers. 

I've worked for some right pillocks in my time, and the fact is that in whatever industry you work in, a bad manager who alienates staff will cause problems in the workplace and give rise to poor performance, and that's exactly what we're seeing now.

[1_Pablo_Angel]

I've rarely read such a complete pile of rubbish on here.  Looking at 7th?  You'll have to remind me when that was exactly.  You can castigate me all you like for my views on Lerner, but the fact is that under his mismanagement, we're in serious trouble.  The main reason for this is his poor choice of manager, and poor decision to stick with him despite all the exceedingly poor football, and desperate decisions like chucking in the FA Cup game.  All the nice but insignificant touches like mosaics and free scarves won't mean a thing if we get relegated.  That'll set the club back years.

After the Blackburn FA Cup win we were looking more solid and had started to get a decent little run together in the league. We had won 4 and drawn 1 of our last 5 games. The prevailing attitude then was one of 'onwards and upwards'.

It's easy to say that appointing Houllier was a bad decision. In hindsight, it certainly looks like it. But looking at it from Randy's POV at the time, who was there that would have been better? Who would you have hired that we definitely could have got? Same question applies for sacking him after a few months; who could we have got that was a clearly far superior candidate?

Previewing my post, I see Greg Nash has got it absolutely spot on there.

[1_Pablo_Angel]

Houlliers appointment was a WTF?! moment for most of us, but again, the choices were limited - people like Moyles wouldn't have jumped ship mid-season so someone with experience at the top level in the premier was at least logical.

And could we have afforded the compensation Radio 1 would surely have demanded?

[Greg N'Ash]

trouble with that theory is Houllier wasn't here when Dunne was living in the pie shop pre-season, he wasn't here when they were putting in gutless performances under Mcdonald. I think you'd struggle to find someone who would say GH is an easy man to get on with given the evidence but still there seems to be certain members of the squad who don't seem to be happy with whoever they're playing under

[1_Pablo_Angel]

Having grown up listening to endless anecdotes relating to the glory years of the 70's and how inspirational the Holte has always been, one can only wonder what was on the minds of the Villa 'faithful' yesterday as the events unfolded at VP.

I wholeheartedly embrace the supporter’s right to criticise and voice their disaffection at the pallid, ineffectual performance of our highly paid team but does voicing this disapproval before or during the game help? We played against a team of predominantly cheap, run of the mill players on wages comparable to our youngsters who comfortably did a job on us! A job as directed by their management’s tactics and ably supported by the negative atmosphere created by a vociferous minority of malcontents on the much lauded former terrace. If they are unhappy with Houllier, and even I, as a supporter of his, offer no defence to yesterday’s tacticless debacle, then surely they should express that discontent after the game when it has no affect on the performance?

When you consider the teams we are playing in the run in and their recent experience of relegation battles I fear our disunity will be our greatest Achilles heel. Blues, West Ham, Albion, Wolves and Wigan have all been here before and do we really expect the Blackburn and Blackpool fans to turn on their clubs / teams / managers as we did yesterday? Should we not leave the post mortem to the end of the season? The Chairman played his hand in January and I don’t see what other options we have until we know the outcome of this traumatic campaign.

We told D O'L we weren’t fickle. I am beginning to wonder!

Agree completely with this. Make your feelings known after the game if needs be. Personally, I don't think Randy will take a massive gamble on sacking Houllier at this late stage (which I find understandable) but if people want to let him know this is what they want to happen then support the lads on the pitch for 90 minutes and get the banners and don't know what you're doing chants out afterwards. He's not going to sack him mid match, is he.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

We'll never know the full story behind the Beye and Warnock shunnings, but fucking hell, how we could have done with the pair of them playing to the best of their ability.
Especially as they're being paid a combined £80,000 per week.

An in form Warnock is far superior to Clark or Baker.

What has happened?
He was reserve left back for England ahead of Baines not so long ago.

[Risso]

After the Blackburn FA Cup win we were looking more solid and had started to get a decent little run together in the league. We had won 4 and drawn 1 of our last 5 games. The prevailing attitude then was one of 'onwards and upwards'.

It's easy to say that appointing Houllier was a bad decision. In hindsight, it certainly looks like it. But looking at it from Randy's POV at the time, who was there that would have been better? Who would you have hired that we definitely could have got? Same question applies for sacking him after a few months; who could we have got that was a clearly far superior candidate?

Previewing my post, I see Greg Nash has got it absolutely spot on there.

Your self delusion isn't even based on facts.  After the FA Cup game, these were our results:

Lost 3-1 to Man U
Drew 2-2 with Fulham
Drew 1-1 with Blackburn
Won 4-1 against Blacburn
Lost 3-0 against Man City (FA Cup)
Lost 3-2 against Bolton

So I make that 1 win in 5 or 6, depending on whether you want to include the FA Cup humiliation or not.  If you actually meant BEFORE the FA Cup game, then we won two out of five league games.  And it's not just hindsight with regards to Houllier either.  The bloke was in semi-retirement pushing paper for the French FA.  He hadn't been linked with a top job in years.

[1_Pablo_Angel]

Mad isn't it. His form nosedived alarmingly since he was called up to the squad, I think it was just before last Christmas? Seemed almost a different player overnight.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Mad isn't it. His form nosedived alarmingly since he was called up to the squad, I think it was just before last Christmas? Seemed almost a different player overnight.

I'd heard from a very reliable source that he turned up for one training session reeking of alcohol.