Alex McLeish confirmed as manager

[The Laughing Policeman]

All; this talk of CV's is getting a bit silly. So let's look at the CV of Aston Villa Football Club.
Since 1884 we have had 32 managers.
Only nine of the 32 have won a meaningful trophy.
Between those nine they they won a total of 24 trophies.
One of the nine, George Ramsay won twelve of those trophies. 6 League Championships and 6 FA Cups.
So the other eight won a grand total of twelve trophies between them.
Now I can't see any top class manager looking at that and thinking "oh yes I'll have some of that".
Yes, in our eyes we are a great and proud club. But prospective managers probably look at our past record in terms of winning things and don't see our record as being very inspiring and probably wonder if they would be better off going elsewhere.
And before you all jump on me and accuse me of running the club down. I'm not. I'm just trying to point out we are where we are and we have to accept it.

They'd find only 3 clubs with more trophies and one of those hasn't won the big one.

All-Time Honours Table - Clicky

Edit: and from that same link, this is what a good season's trophy haul looks like,,,

If McLeish can scoop up that little lot he might get a few on side. Specially that shield, it's the dog bollocks is that.

I'm sure that guy second from the left front row is Des Bremner's grandad.

No it's not Des's grandad. Thats Des himself.

[ez]

All; this talk of CV's is getting a bit silly. So let's look at the CV of Aston Villa Football Club.
Since 1884 we have had 32 managers.
Only nine of the 32 have won a meaningful trophy.
Between those nine they they won a total of 24 trophies.
One of the nine, George Ramsay won twelve of those trophies. 6 League Championships and 6 FA Cups.
So the other eight won a grand total of twelve trophies between them.
Now I can't see any top class manager looking at that and thinking "oh yes I'll have some of that".
Yes, in our eyes we are a great and proud club. But prospective managers probably look at our past record in terms of winning things and don't see our record as being very inspiring and probably wonder if they would be better off going elsewhere.
And before you all jump on me and accuse me of running the club down. I'm not. I'm just trying to point out we are where we are and we have to accept it.

They'd find only 3 clubs with more trophies and one of those hasn't won the big one.

All-Time Honours Table - Clicky

Edit: and from that same link, this is what a good season's trophy haul looks like,,,

If McLeish can scoop up that little lot he might get a few on side. Specially that shield, it's the dog bollocks is that.

I'm sure that guy second from the left front row is Des Bremner's grandad.

Were they doing Movember?

[The Laughing Policeman]

Not certain, but I think that could be the 'F**k You Lot We've Won Everything Shield'.

[LeeB]

Thats not a shield, it's a portal to another dimension.

[Rancid custard]

Good luck Eck, I've got this strange feeling we're going to be alright.

[Arsey]

32 managers seems very low especially as we've had 5 in the last 9 months...(okay 2 were caretaker managers and obviously don't count as full time managers).

How many have we had in the 20 years of the Prem

BFR
Little
Gregory
Dolly
GT
MON
Houllier
McLeish

[dave.woodhall]

I have a feeling that's Charlie Athersmith, strong claimant to the title greatest Villa player of all, who also played for Small Heath.

[eastie]

I have a feeling that's Charlie Athersmith, strong claimant to the title greatest Villa player of all, who also played for Small Heath.

Better than Paul McGrath? Impossible !

[ez]

Not certain, but I think that could be the 'F**k You Lot We've Won Everything Shield'.

I feel sorry for the player sat behind it 

[dave.woodhall]

I have a feeling that's Charlie Athersmith, strong claimant to the title greatest Villa player of all, who also played for Small Heath.

Better than Paul McGrath? Impossible !

Better than Paul McGrath. Charlie Athersmith is the only player in history to win every honour he could in a season.

First one to name them all wins a prize. I'll open up another thread for it. 
 

[Tony]

I'm quite happy with an endorsement from a man who managed McLeish to a league title with Aberdeen before winning more trophies with Man Utd than we've had hot dinners.

Didn't fergie also sing the praises of Djemba Djemba, encouraging us to sign him?

[Toronto Villa]

Does anyone know for sure what the shield is? And by that I mean its title instead of "Fucking big".

Is it the Atari six-a-side shield?

fuck me Lee. That was my guess.

[taylorsworkrate]

I have a feeling that's Charlie Athersmith, strong claimant to the title greatest Villa player of all, who also played for Small Heath.

Better than Paul McGrath? Impossible !

Better than Paul McGrath. Charlie Athersmith is the only player in history to win every honour he could in a season.

First one to name them all wins a prize. I'll open up another thread for it. 
 

Even better than Mark Kinsella?

[Fuse]

Have a look at the hierarchy of clubs in the English Premier League. Keep going down the list until you come to the clubs that would have an endorsement from Alex Ferguson for their new manager on their official website. Chelsea? Nope. Arsenal? Don't be fucking stupid. Tottenham, then? Keep going... Erm, Everton. Fat chance. Okay, Stoke, Fulham, Wigan... wait, here's the one. Aston Villa.

What a message this sends out about our place in the pecking order. It used to be the job of everybody else to write us off as a smalltime footballing irrelevance. Now we've just confirmed it. The appointment of McLeish is one thing. But patronising crap like that from a rival manager in our own league is offensive beyond reason for any self-respecting Villa fan. It says: accept it, we're lapdogs and be grateful for that.

If we'd appointed Jose Mourinho, do you think for one second that an avuncular Fergie would come on our website and say nice things about him like the old git on the Werther's Original advert?

Christ on a penny farthing.

Firstly I was pissed off to find that we had appointed Ferguson as our DOF - when did that happen?

Honestly I can understand him giving a good word but what relaly annoys me is that there is more from him on our website than there is from our baord on why they chsoe him. Least theyc ould do was to explain their reaosnign behind it instead of begging Ferguson to do their dirty work!

[Fuse]

Alex McLeish signings at Rangers: http://rangerspedia.org/index.php/Alex_McLeish_Signings

I can think of O'Neill spending way more and their records in terms of trophies in Scotland are comparable.

McLeish even brought through youth players there like Chris Burke and Charlie Adam who faded out of the picture only after he left.

Some decent buys amongst those and a lot of them free transfers (should please Lerner!)