Board must take its share of the blame - General C Krulak

[Concrete John]

As Chris pointed out, Bent pretty much guaranteed we'd stay up. Where would we be without him?

This is pretty much my point - it shouldn't NEED a £20m striker to keep a side like us in the league.  It did because our new manager was making a pigs arse of things. 

Yes, we know that, but that's not the point at discussion - the point was that the board reacted admirably when we needed to spend. They did so on a scale we've never done before.

To read this place prior to January, you'd think we needed to shift players to club together the money for a Bid for Kevin Doyle if we were going to get a striker in in January.

I applaud the board for doing it, it just doesn't make Houllier a better manager in my eyes.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

There have been fuck ups galore this season, but the Bent signing must have took a lot of effort in it's application and the fact that it was all kept hushy-hushy for a long time.

A big plus for the club in my view.

[sfx412]

There have been fuck ups galore this season, but the Bent signing must have took a lot of effort in it's application and the fact that it was all kept hushy-hushy for a long time.

A big plus for the club in my view.

Walkers signing was a great one too

[Rip Van We Go Again]

There have been fuck ups galore this season, but the Bent signing must have took a lot of effort in it's application and the fact that it was all kept hushy-hushy for a long time.

A big plus for the club in my view.

Walkers signing was a great one too

True, that one was kept nicely quiet as well.

[paul_e]

Why does everyone keep blaming the defence on Houllier, the signs were there in pre-season and certainly under macdonald that the defence was prone to a few errors, we'd conceded 13 in 7 before he started so it's hardly like we were solid until then (yes I know 6 were in 1 game but that does nothing to weaken my point).

Prior to that our record from the new year to the end of last season wasn't that great either (37 in 27 I think, something like that).

[Clampy]

Why does everyone keep blaming the defence on Houllier

Because it's not as good as it was last season and he's the manager. The players need to look at themselves as well.

[Risso]

Just out of interest, who would you like to see at the helm next season Risso?

If we're going British then David Moyes.  Continental then Martin Jol. Although if we can use the same powers we did to land Darren Bent, then Hiddink would be nice.  Unlikely though I know.

[Risso]

There have been fuck ups galore this season, but the Bent signing must have took a lot of effort in it's application and the fact that it was all kept hushy-hushy for a long time.

A big plus for the club in my view.

Walkers signing was a great one too

True, that one was kept nicely quiet as well.

Yes they were undoubtedly good signings.  But it hardly takes a genius to pinpoint Darren Bent as a good buy for the club.  Even that divvy Mazrim has been banging on about him for the last five years!

[ROBBO]

Even when it's a positive you tend to find a negative Risso, don't want to trawl all the way back in the threads but were you against the signing of Houllier in the first place or is your obvious dislike for him as a manager come about as the season progressed?

[pauliewalnuts]

Even when it's a positive you tend to find a negative Risso, don't want to trawl all the way back in the threads but were you against the signing of Houllier in the first place or is your obvious dislike for him as a manager come about as the season progressed?

To be fair, Robbo, it's not exactly difficult to understand why people might have come to dislike Houllier over the course of the season, is it?

He\s taken a squad which finished sixth three years running and had it not mathematically guaranteed to stay in the top flight with three games to go, and given us a season sprinkled with gaffes, embarassment and disappointment.

Getting this squad top six this season, given the increased competition, would have been a very tall order, but there's no way on earth it should be anywhere near the bottom six.

I can see some good things he's done, and I'm still undecided about whether I think he should (health permitting) be given a full season, but I can fully understand why lots of people want shot of him asap.

[ROBBO]

Paulie i think there is a lot more to the Houllier appointment than we as fans see. I think the owner was determined to get someone in who as a number one priority would reduce the wage bill and at the same time start to bring the youth through. There are many managers i would prefer before Houller but none of them would come to Villa unless you paid them double what they could get elsewhere. Lerners options were very limited coming right at the start of the season, i think there is a book in this for Houllier, so much has happened.

[pauliewalnuts]

Paulie i think there is a lot more to the Houllier appointment than we as fans see. I think the owner was determined to get someone in who as a number one priority would reduce the wage bill and at the same time start to bring the youth through. There are many managers i would prefer before Houller but none of them would come to Villa unless you paid them double what they could get elsewhere. Lerners options were very limited coming right at the start of the season, i think there is a book in this for Houllier, so much has happened.

Houllier is rumoured to be on 3m a year, ie one of the highest paid managers in the top flight, though, so he's hardly the cheap option. He's hardly done much to work on the wage bill, either, other than increase it.

You're right, though, his options were limited having to find a manager at that point, and I could see why they went for Houllier, but that doesn't change the fact that this has been an absolutely disastrous season from start to finish, and Gerard has to take a very large chunk of the blame for that.

[Clampy]

I look at the players GH has brought in and i think, yeah this guy could work, he knows a good player when he sees one, and the football overall is better to watch.

Then i think back on the season, how he's got us worrying about relegation, losing 3 derbies in the same season, going to Liverpool and being 2-0 down inside 10 minutes against at the time a very very average team, and last but not least, the utterly pointless stupid idiotic team selection in the F.A Cup. For someone so experienced, he's made far too many mistakes. A change would do everyone good.

[pauliewalnuts]

I look at the players GH has brought in and i think, yeah this guy could work, he knows a good player when he sees one, and the football overall is better to watch.

Then i think back on the season, how he's got us worrying about relegation, losing 3 derbies in the same season, going to Liverpool and being 2-0 down inside 10 minutes against at the time a very very average team, and last but not least, the utterly pointless stupid idiotic team selection in the F.A Cup. For someone so experienced, he's made far too many mistakes. A change would do everyone good.

Was it you who said the other day about how infuriating it has been this season that pretty much every time we've looked like getting things "right", he / we have gone and put our big fucking size 11s right in it and made things more complicated than they needed to be? Because that's exactly what has happened.

To give one example, that Man City decision, regardless of whether we had a chance to beat them or not, was a very, very naive one indeed, thinking it wouldn't create ill will.

That was bad enough, but to then come out in the press the next day and say "even with our strongest team, we wouldn't have won anyway" made it 100 times worse. He might feel that way, but to come out and say it? He's supposed to be inspiring us.

[Risso]

Even when it's a positive you tend to find a negative Risso, don't want to trawl all the way back in the threads but were you against the signing of Houllier in the first place or is your obvious dislike for him as a manager come about as the season progressed?

I wasn't pleased when he was appointed and didn't think it was a good appointment, but was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.  As the season has progressed I've become more convinced that it was a poor choice.