Indecent haste?

[WikiVilla]

Flip that argument over and factor in the more or less guaranteed lure / exposure of CL football year on year

[LeeB]

Flip that argument over and factor in the more or less guaranteed lure / exposure of CL football year on year

Because it's worked for the jocks, hasn't it?

[Villa'Zawg]

Please God, none of this 'Houllier upstairs' bollocks.
The 'DOF' idea is a non-starter, especially if Gerard's health and well being is suspect.

There are a lot of incomings/ougoings and new contracts to be sorted in the Summer, let's sort out a new man in ample time for this to be addressed.

I can see nothing but conflict going down the Director of football route.

As for the Ajax remark from Faulkner, I think we can put that in the 'meaningless soundbite with no substance behind it' category.

Faulkner may not have meant that Villa are copying the Ajax philosophy directly, we don't have the pick of the nations youth as Ajax do for a start. He may have meant that Villa appointed Houllier as manager because he fitted "our philosophy". That's why I asked, what is Faulkner's definition of "our philosophy"?

[JJ-AV]

With the way transfer fees are overly inflated now, the way a Club like ours bridges the financial gap is developing players and selling them while their stock is high at a massively inflated price, then taking a step back, reinvesting it in more players and repeating the process.

We'll have probably brought in circa £50m for Barry, Ash and Milner.

Unfortunately we're still paying for some silly investments when we're close, so we won't see the benefits of it yet. But the Milner money alone allowed us to sign Makoun and Bent. If we'd have brought them two in for Jimmy during pre-season I bet we'd have been better for it.

[Mazrim]

Please God, none of this 'Houllier upstairs' bollocks.
The 'DOF' idea is a non-starter, especially if Gerard's health and well being is suspect.

There are a lot of incomings/ougoings and new contracts to be sorted in the Summer, let's sort out a new man in ample time for this to be addressed.

I can see nothing but conflict going down the Director of football route.

As for the Ajax remark from Faulkner, I think we can put that in the 'meaningless soundbite with no substance behind it' category.

I'd normally agree but some people are definitely cut out for role behind the scenes and Houllier is definitely one of them.
If the right manager is picked then there's no reason to think it couldn't be very beneficial for us.
I dont want a manager having to direct everything football related at our club but concentrate on playing matters.
With the best will in the world, staff and ambassador types aside, there are few football men behind the scenes at Villa.

It does work at other clubs. Particularly on the continent.
Its doomed to failure with tyrannical managers and meddling DOFs. But with better defined roles and the right people, I'm all for it.

I think the Ajax comment was all about the set up part and not the selling your stars part, although sometimes that's inevitable. Especially when you're on the way to becoming a major force and not there yet.

[Concrete John]

With the way transfer fees are overly inflated now, the way a Club like ours bridges the financial gap is developing players and selling them while their stock is high at a massively inflated price, then taking a step back, reinvesting it in more players and repeating the process.

We'll have probably brought in circa £50m for Barry, Ash and Milner.

Unfortunately we're still paying for some silly investments when we're close, so we won't see the benefits of it yet. But the Milner money alone allowed us to sign Makoun and Bent. If we'd have brought them two in for Jimmy during pre-season I bet we'd have been better for it.

I'm all for developing our own players, but if we keep selling them we'll never achieve anything.  At some point we're going to need to be able to ward off the big boys successfully and actually build a winning team.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Please God, none of this 'Houllier upstairs' bollocks.
The 'DOF' idea is a non-starter, especially if Gerard's health and well being is suspect.

There are a lot of incomings/ougoings and new contracts to be sorted in the Summer, let's sort out a new man in ample time for this to be addressed.

I can see nothing but conflict going down the Director of football route.

As for the Ajax remark from Faulkner, I think we can put that in the 'meaningless soundbite with no substance behind it' category.

I'd normally agree but some people are definitely cut out for role behind the scenes and Houllier is definitely one of them.
If the right manager is picked then there's no reason to think it couldn't be very beneficial for us.
I dont want a manager having to direct everything football related at our club but concentrate on playing matters.
With the best will in the world, staff and ambassador types aside, there are few football men behind the scenes at Villa.

It does work at other clubs. Particularly on the continent.
Its doomed to failure with tyrannical managers and meddling DOFs. But with better defined roles and the right people, I'm all for it.

I think the Ajax comment was all about the set up part and not the selling your stars part, although sometimes that's inevitable. Especially when you're on the way to becoming a major force and not there yet.

It would have to be a choice of Houllier's then, otherwise I don't see how it could work.
Otherwise we might well pick a Manager who has totally diffrent ideas on training, contracts and tactics to Gerard.

[VillaZogmariner]

Am I the only one who doesn't want Moyes?

I don't want Moyes either.

[Mazrim]

Please God, none of this 'Houllier upstairs' bollocks.
The 'DOF' idea is a non-starter, especially if Gerard's health and well being is suspect.

There are a lot of incomings/ougoings and new contracts to be sorted in the Summer, let's sort out a new man in ample time for this to be addressed.

I can see nothing but conflict going down the Director of football route.

As for the Ajax remark from Faulkner, I think we can put that in the 'meaningless soundbite with no substance behind it' category.

I'd normally agree but some people are definitely cut out for role behind the scenes and Houllier is definitely one of them.
If the right manager is picked then there's no reason to think it couldn't be very beneficial for us.
I dont want a manager having to direct everything football related at our club but concentrate on playing matters.
With the best will in the world, staff and ambassador types aside, there are few football men behind the scenes at Villa.

It does work at other clubs. Particularly on the continent.
Its doomed to failure with tyrannical managers and meddling DOFs. But with better defined roles and the right people, I'm all for it.

I think the Ajax comment was all about the set up part and not the selling your stars part, although sometimes that's inevitable. Especially when you're on the way to becoming a major force and not there yet.

It would have to be a choice of Houllier's then, otherwise I don't see how it could work.
Otherwise we might well pick a Manager who has totally diffrent ideas on training, contracts and tactics to Gerard.

Agreed. Unless he is compatable there is no point.
I'd trust Houllier to pick the right man too.

[Concrete John]

Am I the only one who doesn't want Moyes?

I don't want Moyes either.

I started a poll a while back (after Wolves at home I think) and Moyes was 2nd favourite with Coyle leading the vote.

However, Moyes would be my own choice.

[Mazrim]

I respect Moyes but my god is he dour.
He makes granite look like marshmallow and he also seems to be in monotone when all around is colour.
I'm not sure about the way his teams start playing November either but he's definitely a good manager.

[Lucky Eddie]

Am I the only one who doesn't want Moyes?

Too much Everton baggage for me, would prefer Jol, Koeman or maybe even McLaren
And no to Coyle also, he hasn't got a good enough CV for the Villa job

Feel free to list the highlights of your candidates cv's that justify their consideration for The Villa job.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I'd be concerened about Moyes style of play, it's a tad negative at times.

Lambert is a possibility, but very much an unknown quantity.

Whoever it is, I hope it's somebody younger, Gerard and O'Neill were getting on a bit.

[PeterWithe]

Could we afford to keep Houllier as a DOF? He's probably on around £3m pa and a new coach would want the same sort of money.

[SteveN]

I have one big concern, Allardyce, I just hope he's appointed as West Ham manager very quickly so he can't even be considered.

Other than that I take the view that you simply have to trust the board's judgment in appointing the right man or in this case keeping who they view as the right man.

Naive possibly, but allows me to worry about something else.