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

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I wonder how much we'd have to achieve under Mcleish for him to be accepted. Top 6? 4? 1? The League or FA Cup?

If he tries the 10 men behind the ball bollocks with us, he'll be on to a loser from the start.

[The Laughing Policeman]

Just back from my local where bluenoses were coming up to me patting me on the shoulder and saying 'we feel sorry for you'.
I haven't felt that humiliated since 1971.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Talks have been productive and will continue this evening, according to SSN, and no announcement tonight. Promising?

Mail said this morning that it would be announced tomorrow.

[Matt Collins]

I do actually feel sorry for both Lerner and Mcleish.

Randy has spent a fortune, with the ambition now looking much more difficult than it did 4 years ago. He's mis-handled this situation very badly, but I really don't think we should doubt his intentions.

And AM seems to be a genuinely good and principled man and a decent guy. I just don't think there;s much to suggest he's much of a good manager, or certainly not one who can take us where we thought we still had aspirations to get.

I think it's the clear signal about the decline in ambition that hurts the most. The only way to dispel that is really to go and spend a fairly hefty chunk on some genuinely exciting players.

You do wonder what on earth Bent is thinking now!

[ozzjim]

I do actually feel sorry for both Lerner and Mcleish.

Randy has spent a fortune, with the ambition now looking much more difficult than it did 4 years ago. He's mis-handled this situation very badly, but I really don't think we should doubt his intentions.

And AM seems to be a genuinely good and principled man and a decent guy. I just don't think there;s much to suggest he's much of a good manager, or certainly not one who can take us where we thought we still had aspirations to get.

I think it's the clear signal about the decline in ambition that hurts the most. The only way to dispel that is really to go and spend a fairly hefty chunk on some genuinely exciting players.

You do wonder what on earth Bent is thinking now!

Bent will be onto his agent I am sure.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Just as I said in earlier post fuse...it's the start of cost-cutting with a view to cutting long term losses. (I don't really WANT to believe this, but....) The appointment, if it happens, makes a big statement of intent that is 100% negative and nothing to do with a "shared vision" of taking the club forward. What F***in vision's that then? I have a feeling RL has given it a go, thinks it's a waste of dosh and is trying to pull out gracefully...as the actress said to the Villa director!

A cynical view is that it's the start of an exit strategy.  It would be difficult for Randy to sell a club he's supposed to love; but if the fans turn against him, that's a great excuse to get out.

So how could he engineer that, after being much-liked and respected?  Why - by appointing the worst possible candidate!

[Fuse]

He'd have been a good choice when Doug was here. I like to think our ambitions and resources are greater now. The one thing I can't understand is how a lot of the reason for Houllier was his scouting network and contacts, and how this would fit in with the idea of an Ajax-style approach (which I think would be great), yet we now seem to have gone back to the style of O'Neill-lite.

If you take aside his involvement at Blues which doesn't bother me in the slightest (I know it does for many though) I think that it is what the fans see as Randy giving up in ever challenging by choosing a manager who in reality is suited to a lower mid-table PL club.  My reading of his reasonsing behind this si that Randy is now looking at an exit stategy and the first phase is employing someone who is willing to manage with a lot less funds than have previously been made available.

Whether we see a fire sale of all of our good players as a second phase will be interesting, but i would not rule it out.

Just as I said in earlier post fuse...it's the start of cost-cutting with a view to cutting long term losses. (I don't really WANT to believe this, but....) The appointment, if it happens, makes a big statement of intent that is 100% negative and nothing to do with a "shared vision" of taking the club forward. What F***in vision's that then? I have a feeling RL has given it a go, thinks it's a waste of dosh and is trying to pull out gracefully...as the actress said to the Villa director!

Agreed. I can only hope thatRandy finds us a decent and very rich owner to pass over the stewardship to.

[Matt Collins]

I really can't see that scenario, though I wonder if he'd sell if he got a monster offer from the far east.

Would be hard to recoup his cash I'd have thought though.

Whatever happens now, I really can't see this ending well.  I'm pretty worried about a Man City / Leeds spiral of doom / poisoned chalice scenario. There's no real reason that couldn't happen to us at all, though of course it shouldn't.

[Fuse]

I do actually feel sorry for both Lerner and Mcleish.

Randy has spent a fortune, with the ambition now looking much more difficult than it did 4 years ago. He's mis-handled this situation very badly, but I really don't think we should doubt his intentions.

And AM seems to be a genuinely good and principled man and a decent guy. I just don't think there;s much to suggest he's much of a good manager, or certainly not one who can take us where we thought we still had aspirations to get.

I think it's the clear signal about the decline in ambition that hurts the most. The only way to dispel that is really to go and spend a fairly hefty chunk on some genuinely exciting players.

You do wonder what on earth Bent is thinking now!

Bent will be onto his agent I am sure.

He definitely will be looking to jump ship. Only trouble is his options are limited - he either goes abroad or the only possible candidates might be the barcodes or Everton if they sell a load of players.

I think he is stuck for the time being.

[SteveD]

I'm actually quite relieved the Lerner bubble has burst. It was always a little too good to be true for me and I couldn't quite join the happy, clappy brigade. A wonderful first few years, the right things being done, said and put into place. Last summer was a watershed with Milner going, MON fed up with what he could see coming and then the protracted appointment and fiasco over Houllier. We will always be too far behind to chase Champions League but I'm hugely disappointed - it's one thing to have a sensible approach but now we have also completely sacrificed imagination and dynamism.

[Fuse]

This shared vision statement is laughable. It is all well and good the board and manager having a shared vision but if the supportes don't share it then it won't work. That is if they even bother to tell us what the bloody vision is in the first place!! Which they have not done since they have been here and seem arrogant enough that they don't feel it necessary to tell us either.

This will all end up with us getting relegated, I am certain it will.

[The Situation]

How the fuck do Sky know whether or not we've had 'productive' talks with McLeish?

They're as bad as Talksport.

[Nev]

After predicting that we would "rue the day" MON left this club (whatever the reason), that Ireland would be an awful signing, GH was the wrong man at the wrong club and that Pires was a huge folly of a signing I predict that Randy will be actively seeking a buyer within twelve months.

For the sake of balance, I also said we'd get relegated last season, Arsenal would turn over Small Heath at Wembley and in 1991 I confidently stated that whiskey-face would never win the league with Newton Heath.

[VillaAlways]

How the fuck do Sky know whether or not we've had 'productive' talks with McLeish?

Because McLeish is going to be be our new manager

[pauliewalnuts]

What I find really surprising is that, having spent five years cultivating such excellent relations with the supporters, they've gone and do the one thing they could realistically do which would do more damage to those relations than anything else.

Looked at purely on the "what would it do to the relationship between club and fans" level, and ignoring the footballing rights or wrongs of it, a couple of weeks ago I would have banked my house on the club never thinking about making an appointment like this, so acutely aware have they been of the value of PR.