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

[eastie]

Alex McLeish has agreed to be Aston Villa boss after shaking on the deal with owner Randy Lerner after dinner at the American's London home.

McLeish, 52, is now set to be unveiled as Villa's new manager after his controversial resignation by email from neighbouring Birmingham.

Relegated Brum are still contesting McLeish's shock exit on Sunday.

They claim he was tapped up and want £5.4million in compensation.



Now Villa are pressing ahead with the appointment, despite their plans causing uproar on both sides of the Second City.

Villa's training ground was defaced on Wednesday with anti-McLeish graffiti saying: "Bluenose scum not welcome" painted on a wall at the entrance.

But McLeish and Villa are ready to go ahead after meeting on Tuesday night at Lerner's London home, just hours after the club revealed they would interview him.

McLeish, Lerner and chief executive Paul Faulkner discussed a lucrative three-year contract for the Scot, whose pay was due to halve to £800,000-a-year in the Championship.

And groom-to-be Faulkner hopes to unveil McLeish and get the switch completed before he gets married at the weekend.

Birmingham are complaining about McLeish's defection to both the Premier League and FA, however.

They say McLeish resigned in a conspiracy with Villa to avoid meeting his large contractual compensation clause.

McLeish's backroom staff of Peter Grant, Andy Watson and Dave Watson will follow him out of St Andrew's to Villa.

Chief scout Paul Montgomery, who MirrorFootball revealed on May 24 had been sacked by Blues, and doctor Ian McGuinness may also make the switch.

McLeish will become the first boss to cross the city since Ron Saunders in 1982.



Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Aston-Villa-Birmingham-news-Alex-McLeish-accepts-Villa-job-during-meeting-as-owner-Randy-Lerners-house-

[JUAN PABLO]

first game

 Jerome    Bent

Nzogbia     Gardener    Makoun    Larsson

Ridgewell   Johnson   Collins    Lichaj

                Foster

[eastie]

Once former Aberdeen stopper McLeish takes charge of Villa, fans can expect him to shore up their leaky defence - which cost them this season - because resolute defending was City's trademark.

And I would expect at least a couple of Birmingham first team stars, such as Foster, to follow McLeish across the city as Blues seek to balance their books following relegation.

With better players, such as Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton and Darren Bent at his disposal at Villa Park, McLeish will then be able to lose his tag of playing negative football.

Granted, Birmingham have consistently failed to score many goals since McLeish arrived at the club in November 2007.

But I saw them play some decent stuff last season and they have just been missing an accomplished striker to hold the ball up and score.

McLeish identified solutions in Roman Pavlyuchenko and Bobby Zamora - as I exclusive revealed at the time.

But neither striker was signed despite weeks of groundwork, adding to McLeish's frustrations at St Andrew's.

He has been widely criticised for his negative brand of football but this is because he hasn't had a huge budget at Blues to blow on top players.

McLeish has had money, but in the words of one of his close pals, you cannot make a great omelette if you don't have the best eggs.

He apparently felt the prospect of leading Birmingham in Europe this season and being ordered to guarantee promotion against the backdrop of key player sales was Mission Impossible.


Or as his pal amusingly told me: "Like taking on tanks armed with just a machete!"

I really think that, with better resources, McLeish will do a decent, conscientious job for Villa - if the club's supporters give him a chance; which they sensibly must, however angry they may feel.

Hopefully both Blues and Villa will have decent campaigns next season.

McLeish hasn't been alone in getting plenty of abuse as even Lerner and Villa's chief executive Paul Faulkner have come in for sustained stick for the first time.

I am sure they will admit they could have handled their managerial search better after missing out on Wigan boss Martinez.

But, as relative newcomers to football, they are learning on the job - whether fans like it or not - and we all make mistakes occasionally.

They could hardly go around lining up a new boss when Gerard Houllier was still in hospital - they would have been slammed for that too!

Sometimes in the fickle world of football, you are damned either way.

McLeish probably was just that at St Andrew's whether he stayed or went.

But he has had the balls to make a big decision and back himself, and I admire him for that.

It shows how ambitious he really is.



Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/james-nursey/James-Nursey-Why-Alex-McLeish-joining-Aston-Villa-is-great-news

[Doorbell]

A very small amount of humour for these dark days....

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/movie-en-59e8ecc06d764788d401d2a45424be60.html

[j3598]

Well, it's been a right rollercoaster the last few weeks. Personally I've gone from being over the moon thinking it was Ancelotti and Wilkins nailed on for the job, to having a bit of a gripe about the idea of Hughes, warming to the Benitez alternative, being stunned like I'd took a size 9 in the gonads when the Martinez story came out, being a little less nervous when the brolly worrying cock smoker was ruled out, to complete disbelief at where we stand today.
Having said that, the anger at the very idea - how dare they moment has now passed. It's with reluctance, but they are going to do it regardless now, so frankly I hope they just get on with it and get us out of the firing line.
I love this club and as such can't turn my back on them based on the actions of an individual, although Randy's reputation has taken a bit of a hiding over this.
Going forward I have my fingers crossed til they go gnarly that they prove me wrong. UTV

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

I have just renewed my season ticket despite McLeish

[eastie]

The worst worst possible thing he could do would be to bring in his own staff and get rid of the likes of Sid and KMac. There is no way in a million years that he or indeed Randy would be stupid enough to get rid of Sid and KMac. They would simply be fanning the flames of an already smouldering fire.... They wouldn’t would they?

mcleish has to be given the freedom to choose his own staff, and its being reported grant, and andy watson plus dave watson will be joining him , maybe sid can go back to his old job with kmac but i expect gmac will be shown the door.

[VillaAlways]

Shitting hell McLaren has confirmed the camncelled interview thing in he presser WTF !!!

[nodge]

The worst worst possible thing he could do would be to bring in his own staff and get rid of the likes of Sid and KMac. There is no way in a million years that he or indeed Randy would be stupid enough to get rid of Sid and KMac. They would simply be fanning the flames of an already smouldering fire.... They wouldn’t would they?

mcleish has to be given the freedom to choose his own staff, and its being reported grant, and andy watson plus dave watson will be joining him , maybe sid can go back to his old job with kmac but i expect gmac will be shown the door.

You're not really from Coventry are you?  You're Mad Eastie McLeish from East Fife on a one man mission to convince all Villa fans that your uncle, Big Eck, is the best man for the Villa job.

Fair play to you though for your persistence.

[badluckeric(gates)]

Shitting hell McLaren has confirmed the camncelled interview thing in he presser WTF !!!

Again in English please?

[VillaAlways]

Shitting hell McLaren has confirmed the camncelled interview thing in he presser WTF !!!

Again in English please?

Sorry,Mclaren has confirmed in his live press conference we approached him and the interview was cancelled just before.What the hell is going on

[badluckeric(gates)]

oh ok thanks.

[eastie]

The worst worst possible thing he could do would be to bring in his own staff and get rid of the likes of Sid and KMac. There is no way in a million years that he or indeed Randy would be stupid enough to get rid of Sid and KMac. They would simply be fanning the flames of an already smouldering fire.... They wouldn’t would they?

mcleish has to be given the freedom to choose his own staff, and its being reported grant, and andy watson plus dave watson will be joining him , maybe sid can go back to his old job with kmac but i expect gmac will be shown the door.

You're not really from Coventry are you?  You're Mad Eastie McLeish from East Fife on a one man mission to convince all Villa fans that your uncle, Big Eck, is the best man for the Villa job.

Fair play to you though for your persistence.

the best man for the villa job available in my eyes was mark hughes.

[eastie]

Anyone else detect that mclaren seems to be speaking in a weird kind of broken english at his press conference?

[maidstonevillain]

Shitting hell McLaren has confirmed the camncelled interview thing in he presser WTF !!!

Again in English please?

Sorry,Mclaren has confirmed we approached him and the interview was cancelled just before.What the hell is going on.

I might be wrong, but I assume, as previously reported, McClaren had an interview arranged and it was cancelled.