Alex McLeish confirmed as manager

[Concrete John]

Welcome, Big Eck.

A few thoughts:-
1.  Fergie only says nice things about you if you aren't a threat/rival to him, so that more than anything shows where we are in the footballing hierarchy right now.
2.  I don't agree with the notion that Randy has given up, but what we see between now and 31/8 will answer the question.
3.  I notice the statement and SAF's comments about his CV does not mention the two relegations with SHA - let's call that 'positive spin'!

What we've got is a manager who seems to be of good character and never slagged us as Blues boss.  That alone should mean we wipe the slate clean and judge him from this point forward.  It'll be a uphill battle and every defeat/signing we don't like will be greeted with extra venom and every victory/signing we do like will be tainted with a negative preconception of both him and the board.  But he's intelligent enough to know this and if he's up for that challenge he's a very brave man.
       

[frank]

I'm disappointed - but he's our manager now and I wish him every success. He certainly has a good run of fixtures to start with - top of the table by the end of August?

[Richard]

Welcome Alex! Good luck, and ignore the vocal minority.  Once we start seeing good football and good results they'll go quiet.

Hardly a minority mate did you notice the 85% or so disagreeing when his name was first put forward. Anyway I hope he proves the vast majority wrong and you can hardly blame him for taking on what is a much better job than his last one !

[N'Rexy]

His honeymoon period will last about 50 minutes. I give it until the 5th minute of the second half of our first pre-season game. If we look like shit he is going to get pelters from there on. A mad appointment, he has no goodwill in the bank whatsoever and the board are now running on empty too.

Good luck, you are going to need it.

[Hookeysmith]

Alex

I think you are a decent man (having spoke to you several times) and have always been respectful of our club even when you were associated with the undead.

I admire you as you must have bollocks the size of a horse to have done what you done

You obviously wanted the job to go through all this shit to get here - now its yours please take care of it and do listen to what has been said

We cannot demand success, we cannot demand trophies but we can demand that we do not start every game thinking a 0-0 would be a good result.

I for one will accept that you probably was fighting for your life at the dog shit and with limited resources had to grind out the results where you can

this is the biggest club you will ever manage and i am sure you have seen from our set up a light year away from what you have been used to. so now you have it look after it

If you think the response to your appointment was rough - god help you if you try to play like the dog shit did

welcome and i really hope you do well

[DBTW]

The man has shown a lot of courage and bottle to take the job. Let's get behind him and see what he can do.
I'm sure there wont be any patting of other teams crests or waving to opposition fans....and he definitely wont be calling his own fans fickle....unless he wins the league that is!

[ROBBO]

Welcome Alex! Good luck, and ignore the vocal minority.  Once we start seeing good football and good results they'll go quiet.

It's not the minority it's the overwhelming majority dont you read other posts? and this is going to be the problem if he doesn't get us up and running right from the start posters will savage each other before turning on the manager and the board. I now want him to be a success and prove the majority wrong but i can see a difficult season ahead.

[Meanwood Villa]

Rewind back to May 22nd and the demise of our friends down the road. One of the more amusing comments on this site was along the lines of- If McLeish takes them down a third time do they drown? Oh how I laughed. Now he is our manager. Alex McLeish is Aston Villa manager. I am absolutely dumbfoudned. How has this happened?
Prove us wrong Alex, please prove us wrong.

[Risso]

The man has shown a lot of courage and bottle to take the job. Let's get behind him and see what he can do.
I'm sure there wont be any patting of other teams crests or waving to opposition fans....and he definitely wont be calling his own fans fickle....unless he wins the league that is!

Courage?  He's taken over a football club where he'll probably be booed a bit for 90 minutes every other week, in return for a multi million pound salary.  He hasn't stormed a military bunker to rescue injured colleagues.

[Muscle-Dolphin]

It kinda bothers me that he just relegated Citeh.  Why wasn't the Board concerned about the fact that he has lead teams to relegation two out of the last three years?  At any rate, at least he has some semblance of enthusiasm (Houllier was a dud).

[Rip Van We Go Again]

The man has shown a lot of courage and bottle to take the job.

I just can't agree with this, his wage has rocketed from 800k pa to £2m pa.
No other club in the world would offer him a wage like that, or a position in a well respected Premier football club.

The only other positions he would have been offered, other than us, is a return to Hibernian or another Championship side.

He's fell off the roof of Rackhams and landed in a suit.

[Concrete John]

Welcome Alex! Good luck, and ignore the vocal minority.  Once we start seeing good football and good results they'll go quiet.

Hardly a minority mate did you notice the 85% or so disagreeing when his name was first put forward. Anyway I hope he proves the vast majority wrong and you can hardly blame him for taking on what is a much better job than his last one !

The 'vocal minority' are not those that didn't want him, but those that are unwilling to give him a chance now he's got the job.

[QBVILLA]

From the moment McLeish was linked with the job the fact he's coming from the Blues hasn't bothered me.It's the two relegations in four seasons, the negative dire tactics, the fact that he managed a side to 37 goals in 38 games that has put me off.Since when has this been a way of enhancing a CV? Had he finished last season with that cup and a mid table finish then we'd be talking in different terms, gloating even about nicking him.
Got to admire Mcleish for having the bottle or ego to take the job but I can't see how this is going to end well.When Kermit was pensioned off I thought the only way was up,now I just feel gutted.

[Chris Smith]

The man has shown a lot of courage and bottle to take the job. Let's get behind him and see what he can do.
I'm sure there wont be any patting of other teams crests or waving to opposition fans....and he definitely wont be calling his own fans fickle....unless he wins the league that is!

Courage?  He's taken over a football club where he'll probably be booed a bit for 90 minutes every other week, in return for a multi million pound salary.  He hasn't stormed a military bunker to rescue injured colleagues.

There are many different types of courage and it does take balls to do what he's done. Yes he'll be well rewarded but I'm sure he's not exactly a pauper so he could gave easily opted for the quiet life.

[Jockey Randall]

Welcome Big Eck.

I'm going to push all this dire football stuff to the back of my mind and judge you on what you do for Aston Villa.

The time for slating this appointment has passed in my opinion and hope everyone will now just get behind the guy and see how far we can go.