Who Should be Aston Villa Manager ? Now with new, revised poll

[Holy Trinity]

Well he didnt say those exact words no - its called paraphrasing - but thats what it summed up to.

No, it isn't, it's called adding crucial bits to the quote which weren't even hinted at, namely - "if I do not get something that interests me" - which entirely changes the meaning of what he said.

I'd like him to come, too, but he's made it quite clear (possibly because he's contractually not allowed to) that he's not going to.

i recived an eye injury at work afew years ago and won a years wages through 2 claims injury compensation and unfair dismissal. i decided to take a year off as i had a years salary in the bank. however if i had been offered a job  on similar terms to my old one i'd have taken it. i think thats what pauls getting at, he might of been thinking that but answering diffrently. say one thing mean another. i will be very very surprised if he does take a whole 12 months off

Maybe you're right, but we need him to make an about turn in the next week or so, not at some point before the 12 months is up.

also this could be the managerial equivalent of a player(zigic b-lose) pretending another team us/man city in order to get a better deal. he has effectively made anyone who wants him belive he is in a position of great strength and must be paid in accordance

[Maundy]

Cheers mate, nice one sunshine.

No problem Fella!

[tommy_boy]

Rafa had six years of oppurtunity to win a championship for Liverpool, and he only achieved a 2nd place finish only once

[mr woo]

Paulies post regarding hypocrisy in football is spot on. But I'd suggest we're all guilty of it.

If Rafa was to become our manager, and while playing Liverpool, touched the Anfield sign, waved to the Kop, and dry humped Steven Gerrard in the centre circle, you can be sure that as long as we'd won the game, no-one would give a toss.

[hawkeye]

Cheers mate, nice one sunshine.

No problem Fella!

Dont call me fella ;-)

[pauliewalnuts]

As there have been a few withdrawals (taking jobs elsewhere, ruling themselves out etc), we've removed the old poll and started afresh with a limited set of runners - the handful with the lowest odds from oddschecker - to see how peoples' opinions stand now.

Vote counts have been set to zero, so knock yourselves out.

[Mr Diggles]

Rafa had six years of oppurtunity to win a championship for Liverpool, and he only achieved a 2nd place finish only once

Yes, but he had to do it with two of the most inept owners in the league too. Benitez's CV more than satisfies a club of Villa's ambition, standing and potential.

I'd still prefer Rijkaard though.

[hawkeye]

no Martinez?

[Michel Sibble]

Apopletic anger can be one of the signs of reacting to insincere human communication.

Ask your doctor for more information about Neangathol

Neangathol - from HoltePaul Pharmacists, Birmingham

[Redman]

Redman, could you enlighten the Villa fans on Rafa's tactics and his style of football at Liverpool?

From what I can recall when Liverpool played well, they played very well - attacking freely and scoring lots of goals, but when they were bad, they were really bad and would seem to really struggle against the smaller teams having problems of opening up defences etc...

Would Rafa ever implement 'negative' tactics or would you call them 'clever' tactics?

P.S. Ignore the members on Villatalk. That site is a disgrace and certainly does not represent Villa fans, that site is an embarrassment to Villa fans.

Compact, possession football. He was forever gesturing for the defence and midfield to close. And always talking about controlling the game by dominating the ball.

But you're right - at times we struggled to open teams up when off form. We'd often end up playing the entire game in the opposition half but without delivering a final ball. Maintaining shape was very important but that often left us static and left the man in possession with few options. And you could say it was negative. We rarely had men pouring forward and he rarely threw caution to the wind.

I'm sure the above wasn't part of the plan but I think Rafa was always aware of his team's limitations. Priority was to be difficult to beat and if we weren't on top form, he would rather accept a draw than risk defeat. Liverpool was always a work in progress under Rafa, only realising it's potential in the second half of the 2008-09. Our form was so good then, men were pouring forward but still snapping back into shape if possession was lost.

We thought that was the start of something. We just needed to carry on playing like that. You probably remember the 5-0 at Anfield. That was as good as I remember us playing under Rafa. And I remember Gerrard giving an interview where he claimed the team was ready pick up where we left off the next season. But that approach backfired. We didn't have the form to play so cavalier that early in the season. I remember trying it against you and you picked us off 3-1.

That was when Rafa's reign started unravelling. We stopped being difficult to beat.

So that's how I would summarise Rafa's approach as Liverpool manager. Very dependent on form. If form is good, go for the win. If not, take the draw. The idea is make sure you're on form more often.

[pauliewalnuts]

no Martinez?

Good point.

[Jimsta]

Cheers mate, nice one sunshine.

Listen sunshine, your a mate, lets leave it there.

[ozzjim]

Rafa had six years of oppurtunity to win a championship for Liverpool, and he only achieved a 2nd place finish only once

Opportunity while Chlesea were throwing money about like candy, Arsenal were much stronger than now and United were and are the highest turnover club in the world in their most successful spell in history. I think Rafa did pretty well.

[hawkeye]

Good stuff Redman, do you put his failures in the transfer market because of a tight budget or just poor judgement, didnt he complete 64 transfers?

[atomicjam]

As there have been a few withdrawals (taking jobs elsewhere, ruling themselves out etc), we've removed the old poll and started afresh with a limited set of runners - the handful with the lowest odds from oddschecker - to see how peoples' opinions stand now.

Vote counts have been set to zero, so knock yourselves out.

Bugger, I went too quick and there was only McClaren and Hughes available (I voted for the latter)- unless my eyes are worse than I think and I did not see the other options.

Of those in the poll I would vote Benitez 100%. After that I am not sure... Hughes probably, but after its Benitez all abit 'meh' for me.