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

[Clampy]

Me and my best mate have just spent over 20 minutes on the phone trying to think of positives about McCleish coming, and we did'nt come up with many. It's not him personally, it's his record, it's not good and we could and should have done better.

I do dearly hope that he proves us all wrong though and he does a cracking job. I'm going to get behind him, because we have too. The abuse he'll get from behind the dug out if goes wrong though dose'nt bear thinking about.

[Bottom Right 89]

Has anyone mentioned the Peace Cup yet?

Sadly I think we get a one season ban from the peace cup after last nights protest.

[PeterWithesShin]

"Didn't Ron Saunders get relegated with both Small Heath and Albion?"

If he'd just done that in the 3 seasons before joining us it might have caused some consternation when he was appointed. As he did it after he left us I doubt it's relevant to McLeish.

[deanl123]

The board don't like how Hughes left frowning upon his decision and as of a result didn't want anything to do with him, yet they're quite happy with how McLeish left (probably even worse) and then go and give him the job?

I'd like this discussed in here to get some replies and to create a topic of conversation.

The only thing we know about the hughes thing, is that we definately know nothing. Villa did not speak about it, and hughes did not speak about it. You have read the papers who said Randy didn't like the way he left, but we also know for certain that no journalist knows what happened either!

[pauliewalnuts]

Me and my best mate have just spent over 20 minutes on the phone trying to think of positives about McCleish coming, and we did'nt come up with many. It's not him personally, it's his record, it's not good and we could and should have done better.

1. He's a nice bloke.

2. He might buy Foster, Dann and Johnson, which would go a long way to solving our defensive woes (although, thinking about that, I'm a bit terrified that he or any other Villa manager we appoint this week will also have to buy two full backs and a goalkeeper to achieve a decent defence).

[Bottom Right 89]

Me and my best mate have just spent over 20 minutes on the phone trying to think of positives about McCleish coming, and we did'nt come up with many. It's not him personally, it's his record, it's not good and we could and should have done better.I do dearly hope that he proves us all wrong though and he does a cracking job. I'm going to get behind him, because we have too. The abuse he'll get from behind the dug out if goes wrong though dose'nt bear thinking about.

It's not that Blue'n'White gangster shit is it? this goes out to all the vile scum.....hee hee

[dl9]

Say what you like but I've got one of those tartan caps with the built in ginger hair and have been dying to give it an outing. All my prayers are about to be answered.........

[Dave Clark Five]

Didn't Ron Saunders arrive in 1974 as a manager with a reputation for dour football?
Didn't Ron Saunders get relegated with both Small Heath and Albion?
Didn't Ron Atkinson get relegated with Sheffield Wednesday in the job he had before joining us (as well as winning the league cup and promotion)?

Oh yes, and didn't Everton (under the great David Moyes) win just one of their last 10 games in 2003-04 and finish 17th with 39 points? A dour Scot with a strong character he went on to prove himself didn't he?

Also, if you've ever been to Man City you might have noticed a large mosaic tribute to Joe Mercer, who was manager during the most exciting years in their history - having previously suffered relegation as manager of both Villa and Sheff Utd.

The fact is that none of us know yet whether Alex McLeish's best years are still ahead of him. It just might be that the relegations McLeish has suffered go on to make him him a better manager in the future - he seems intelligent enough and resilient enough to be the type of character who might learn from his mistakes. He's certainly showing a lot of bottle by taking the job on.

So, as he hasn't even taken charge of a training session yet, let alone had a season in charge of the team, NONE of us are in a position yet to say whether this is a catastrophic appointment by Randy Lerner or an absolute masterstroke.

Try telling this to those who know nothing apart from two relegations.
Then again, don't bother, as they will never remember it all.

[The Situation]

The board don't like how Hughes left frowning upon his decision and as of a result didn't want anything to do with him, yet they're quite happy with how McLeish left (probably even worse) and then go and give him the job?

I'd like this discussed in here to get some replies and to create a topic of conversation.

The only thing we know about the hughes thing, is that we definately know nothing. Villa did not speak about it, and hughes did not speak about it. You have read the papers who said Randy didn't like the way he left, but we also know for certain that no journalist knows what happened either!

But if they didn't have a problem with how Hughes left I would of thought it make the most sense to give the job to Hughes straight away rather than fannying around for over 2 weeks and then giving the job to McLeish, who ironicially resigned by E-Mail.

I'm putting myself in Randy's shoes and I still have no idea what's going inside his head.

[Dave Clark Five]

Say what you like but I've got one of those tartan caps with the built in ginger hair and have been dying to give it an outing. All my prayers are about to be answered.........

The souvenir shop are going to make a killing out of this. Claret and Blue caps with ginger hair.

[PeterWithe]

2. He might buy Foster, Dann and Johnson, which would go a long way to solving our defensive woes (although, thinking about that, I'm a bit terrified that he or any other Villa manager we appoint this week will also have to buy two full backs and a goalkeeper to achieve a decent defence).

Someone may have to explain this to me, how does spending £20m buying 60% of a relegated defence, that conceded 1 less goal than our current one, represent progress?

[pauliewalnuts]

It's pretty hard to forget the relegations when the last time we were all gathered together in one place, we were all wetting ourselves laughing at one of them.

What concerns me more than the relegations, though, is the dire football. He'll have a better base here with a much better collection of players, so relegation fighting shouldn't be an issue, but if he starts playing ten men behind the ball at home, as he has done for much of his career, then I'll be very worried.

[jibba81]

Absolutely abysmal lapse of judgement from Randy. I hope it wasn't a move to show the fans who's boss. He will have to be the most succesful Villa manager since I started watching in 1990 to make it worth the bad feeling that has been created here. And quick. Good luck with that Alex.

Up the Villa

Dr.Jo
BFR. 1 League Cup.
Brian Little. 1 League Cup.
John Gregory. Inter Toto Cup.
Graham Taylor.
DOL.
MON.
GED.
Bloody hell theres a lot of success  to live up to there.

You could've stopped at the second manager in your list and proved my point.

[pauliewalnuts]

2. He might buy Foster, Dann and Johnson, which would go a long way to solving our defensive woes (although, thinking about that, I'm a bit terrified that he or any other Villa manager we appoint this week will also have to buy two full backs and a goalkeeper to achieve a decent defence).

Someone may have to explain this to me, how does spending £20m buying 60% of a relegated defence, that conceded 1 less goal than our current one, represent progress?

Because Foster, Dann and Johnson are very good players, certainly an improvement on Marshall, Dunne and Collins.

It'd be interesting to see how their goals conceded figures were affected when Dann was injured.

[PeterWithe]

They cant be that good, they were protected by having the whole team behind the ball for the most part and they still finished in the bottom three.

Must admit I only saw them in our games against them and the League semi.