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

[Skorpio]

I agree. sensible and thoughtful post John. 

[Greg N'Ash]

Can I just point out that there are far too many people round here putting their faith in The Fear. He really doesn't know a lot.

Who is The Fear? I'm unaware.

The Fear is a force of nature, some say Malignant, some benign. It's first mentioned in the 1st book of Woodhall's fantasy trilogy, After the Villa: A New Hope. In it he details his struggle with the Fear in middle earth and this theme is continued in the subsequent books, leading to the shocking relaisation that the Fear may be his father, or vice-versa, or just vaguely related through marriage - its never that clear.. In popular culture, boyband The Doves touched on the subject in their 2002 hit "There goes the fear"

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Here's LMA chief executive Richard Bevan's take on it all
From sportinglife.com

Bevan has called for calm, with McLeish's decision to quit his St Andrew's post sparking anger among Birmingham fans and concern among Villa supporters who fear he may not be the right man for their club, having taken Blues down from the Barclays Premier League last season.

Bevan said: "There are always, particularly with social media, going to be fans who are going to be unhappy about particular moves.

"If you go back you've got the likes of Ron Saunders who went from Villa to Birmingham and actually on to West Brom, and George Graham who went from Arsenal to Spurs. You can find many examples.

"This time when perhaps people should just calm down a bit, everyone's a little bit fraught, the reality is can the manager whoever that may be, can he deliver results, can he be given time, can he be given the right budget to achieve the goals?"

[JUAN PABLO]

Bring GH back

Bring GH back

I wish ...           could you see FECK signing Bent

[Greg N'Ash]

I don't really understand what the hell its got to do with Mr. Bevan, but thanks for the history lesson. I'm sure none of us were aware of Saunder's managerial posts after leaving Villa.

[JUAN PABLO]

The fact we appear to have bombed our Houllier to replace him with McLeish leads me question the sanity of the board.

That's the most disturbing thing. You get rid of Houllier who was starting to improve the team and get us playing better since the signing of Bent to hire a manager who just recently got his team relegated again.

I'm putting myself in Randy's shoes and I can't see how he'd come to such an illogical decision.

I feel so sorry for Houllier. He should of stayed.

The man has had repeated dissecting aortic aneurysms, the next one could very well kill him and you want him to have stayed in one of the most high pressure jobs in the world? Keeping Houllier on would be signing his death warrant, i'm glad we got rid of him for the sake of his health.

I understand but it seems like he was sort of pushed out because I get the impression he wanted to stay.

Of course his health is the most important thing but if you're going to get rid of houllier it does seem bizarre to bring in McLeish as his replacement.

yes they made have been worried about Houliers health , thats why he has gone , but f**k what about the fans health if appointing FECK...

[itbrvilla]

Ok, trying to do this calmly and objectively.

I posted on the 'Would you have MON back thread' the other day stating that a club works best when fans, players, manager and board are all pulling in the same direction, so appointing a manager the majority of the fans hated (Martin) would be counter productive and simply not work.  Now, I wouldn't want to say anything negative about McLeish's character, but a similar effect would be created should he take the job; the majority of fans not wanting him means the first slip up and we're on his back, which can't help him when trying to shape the side as he wants it.  This can then translate to the players and effect their performance.  So in general principle it is a bad idea.

Taking the Blues connection out, what is his record like?  Well, he did well at Rangers, so similar to Martin/Celtic, but also got them to the last 16 of the CL, which is good for a Scottish side.  His time at Scotland was decent also - never going to win anything, but he did have them hard to beat and this grew his reputation.  His Blues record has often been talked about, so I won't go over that again.

Football style wise I don't watch Scottish football, so was he as defensive as we've seen in the PL?  It is understandable having a safety first approach when the teams you're facing are better than you, which was the case at Blues and when Scotland manager.  He has the added bonus of a decent forward line already in place, granted that might change with rumoured departures, so if he can tighten the defence without castrating that we'll have a good formula.

Should he come, I can see some quick transfer wins as two of the players a lot of us think we should target are Foster and N'Zogbia, who he obviously rates as he tried to sign him for Blues.  According to Wikipedia (I know!) his signings weren't well recieved at Rangers, but then they had financial issues at the time, so maybe he'll do things differently with Randy behind him.

I think had his last job been with anyone other than that shower down the road, we'd still be very unhappy and asking what Randy is playing at.  However, because it was with them there's an extra layer of venom with some, but that shouldn't distract from the basic question of 'is he could enough'?  I'm far from convinced.

Overall it's a major gamble both with his ability as a manager and with crowd feeling due to his last job.  Randy had limited options after MON walked, but no excuses this time - it's his man and he'll fly or fall with him.   

His win percentaga at blues is shoking despite having promotion seasons also.  All other candidates have a better record with equal or less resources.

[Jimbo]

In other words: 'Don't shit your pants the minute the turtle's head shows. Calmly walk to a latrine and cast Churchill's reflection therein. Only soil your under-crackers when Mr Brown has crashed through the window and is plummeting to earth like a cheap whore's g-string.'

[itbrvilla]

P.S. We might as well get Avram Grant as you'll no doubt find a way of defending him also.

[Concrete John]

the reality is can the manager whoever that may be, can he deliver results, can he be given time, can he be given the right budget to achieve the goals?"

In order:-  no, still no and yes.

[JUAN PABLO]

why even ask to speak to him.. beggars belief

[Concrete John]

P.S. We might as well get Avram Grant as you'll no doubt find a way of defending him also.

If that's directed towards me, then just to point out again I'm not defending McLeish in anyway.  Just trying to dispassionately assess his credentials for the job and concluding that I don't think he's good enough.

[Mazrim]

Have we asked to speak to him though? According the email, which was just a reply, it merely says we're in our rights to if we want.
What we should have said was "No worries, Blues. Big Eck can get to feck. We've got bigger fish to fry."

[Chris Smith]

why even ask to speak to him.. beggars belief

Is that what we've done?

Or have we just told them that if we decide we want to speak to him we're free to do so?

[Greg N'Ash]

why bother telling them you're within your rights to speak to him if you have no intention of doing so?

Come on now.