Mons tribunal hearing?

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Tribunal latest: It was the supporters fault.

[Greg N'Ash]

Reported as "deadlocked" i heard. The club maintain the level of spending was unsustainable, while MON claims he was given assurances he had a free reign on what to buy. In the end they've decided to skip lunch and bought sarnies instead.........

[Concrete John]

Sorry Chris. I was referring to your reply to Mellin's post where you cannot understand how anyone would claim finishing 6th 3 times was poor use of the millions chucked at the squad.

As I said, the sides that finished above us had more expensive squads so the money argument is a total red herring. It's not transfer fees that were the issue it was wages and we failed to increase revenue to keep pace with our improvement on the pitch. Perhaps if a few more fans who could afford it backed the club it might have been different.

It's a quite a simple fact, which some stubbornly refuse to accept, that you need to spend in order to get anywhere in the CL.  Did people seriously expect us to get stablished in the CL chasing pack without serious investment?  When you tally up the cost of our squad with others around us we weren't out of sync, although the wages/turnover had gotten out of control, so that means that MON didn't overspend compared to our results, even if he did compared to our turnover, yet he didn't overachieve either.  He did a decent job.

[Phil from the upper holte]

What a load of Bullshit, why would an ex employee affect key decisions involving Aston Villa

[Percy McCarthy]

I don't think some realise just how close we got to qualifying for Champions League. Were it not for career-ending injuries to Laursen and Bouma I think it's as close to 'nailed-on' as you can get. And, without those injuries, a lot lower net spend as well.

[martin]

The bloke's a ****** for doing it.

I thought about trawling back through records of sales and acquisitions, promises broken and promises kept, successes and failures, to qualify that response.

Could have, but ultimately couldn't be bothered because it wouldn't have made an iota of difference.

The bloke's a ****** for doing it.
 

[Chris Smith]

The bloke's a c*** for doing it.

I thought about trawling back through records of sales and acquisitions, promises broken and promises kept, successes and failures, to qualify that response.

Could have, but ultimately couldn't be bothered because it wouldn't have made an iota of difference.

The bloke's a c*** for doing it.
 

That's a bit harsh. Sure, you'd expect Villa to show a bit of class and honor a contract but it's Randy's money and I don't think he deserves to be called a ****** for trying to hold on to it.

[Concrete John]

The club maintain the level of spending was unsustainable, while MON claims he was given assurances he had a free reign on what to buy.

Thinking about this, there are two actual issues here:-
1.  Unsustainable spending needs to be addressed and the manager ha to work to that budget.
2.  A 'free reign' means he can buy who he likes within that budget.

So him being told he's only got £10m to spend is fine, but being told you've got £10m to spend and you can't spend it on who you want is another thing.

If the latter case is what happened then I think there is a case to answer.

[TheSandman]

Interesting that the tribunal is 'looking at the termination of his contract'. What exactly is their to look into? He left didn't he. Unless there is something we don't know about...

I don't think any manager would have a contract permitting him to spend all the money he liked so I doubt it is to do with that.

[pauliewalnuts]

He did a decent job.

He bought some good players.

He bought some shit players.

He was profligate with some of the contacts he handed out

The board should maybe have been less trusting in that sense, but they weren't stupid enough to say"you decide the budget", I can't believe anyone thinks that.

He was asked to work on the wage bill - just like any other manager has to - but he decided he was too big for that and fucked off at the worst possible moment for us.

Did an ok job, then shat on us.

[PaulWinch again]

He did a decent job.

He bought some good players.

He bought some shit players.

He was profligate with some of the contacts he handed out

The board should maybe have been less trusting in that sense, but they weren't stupid enough to say"you decide the budget", I can't believe anyone thinks that.

He was asked to work on the wage bill - just like any other manager has to - but he decided he was too big for that and fucked off at the worst possible moment for us.

Did an ok job, then shat on us.

Pretty much my view on it.

[Gareth]

He did a decent job.

He bought some good players.

He bought some shit players.

He was profligate with some of the contacts he handed out

The board should maybe have been less trusting in that sense, but they weren't stupid enough to say"you decide the budget", I can't believe anyone thinks that.

He was asked to work on the wage bill - just like any other manager has to - but he decided he was too big for that and fucked off at the worst possible moment for us.

Did an ok job, then shat on us.

The only thing I would add is that he never addressed the problem of why we were excellent for 7 moths then ran out of steam

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

anyone can be a chequebook manager

Kevin Keegan says you can't.

[VillaZogmariner]

Like it's already been said, despite the lack of transfer activity in pre-season (and even then we were only one player down on last season, albeit a very good one) GH was left with a squad of players that he should have done a whole lot better with.

That is true, but you also have to factor that the teams we were competing with last season strengthened their squads, whereas ours became weaker in the Summer. And that is no fault of Houllier's.

Yes the squad became weaker (1 player less i might add) but was it really weak enough to pick up 19 points less than last season?

No it wasn't.

The upheaval of all that happened when MoN left and the horrendous injuries we have had for chunks of the season have contributed to that too though. Not 19 points worth, but I'd say at least 12 points worth.

I'd love to know what equation you're using for that.

I'm not using any equation at all - just pure guess work and opinion.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

He did a decent job.

He bought some good players.

He bought some shit players.

He was profligate with some of the contacts he handed out

The board should maybe have been less trusting in that sense, but they weren't stupid enough to say"you decide the budget", I can't believe anyone thinks that.

He was asked to work on the wage bill - just like any other manager has to - but he decided he was too big for that and fucked off at the worst possible moment for us.

Did an ok job, then shat on us.

The only thing I would add is that he never addressed the problem of why we were excellent for 7 moths then ran out of steam

Excellent? Excellent in getting results but overall the football was as disjointed as it gets. The only interesting thing was guessing which 45 minutes we were going to turn up. He did a good job when he first arrived but in hindsight I'd have looked to have seen him replaced after his first two seasons, given the job to somebody that could not just motivate and also knew a thing or two about tactics. Villa Park was never going to be a happy place with MON's football style.

Oops! Sorry, just read your post again and have to agree, we were excellent for 7 moths.