Alex McLeish confirmed as manager

[madirishvillain]

Taking away his connection with Blues (and how boring is the contanct referral to our neighbours!) his football pedigree stands up as both a player and a manager.

Ignore the 3 relegations and somehow managing to fionish third with Rangers, and yeah, I guess his foiotball pedigree as a manager does appear ok. But it'd be bloody stupid to ignore those things, so it doesn't. He's got a record that is, at its very best, quite bad.

I've seen this '3 relegations' thing a few times now, but surely it was just the 2 with the Dark Side?  Has this now become accepted as it's been mentioned a lot or have I missed something?

One was with Hibs.

he also managed rangers to 3rd place in a 2 horse race

[Villa'Zawg]

I've no problem with Ferguson's endorsement of McLeish. I think it is a genuine and honestly held opinion. Now all you have to do is read and understand what he said and why he thought it a good appointment for us. You won't be able to read it in the dishonestly edited version on the official website but this is what he said...

"...By the time Alex took over at Rangers they weren't spending the kind of money which they previously had, so he did a great job. In all his jobs he's had to deal with that kind of situation of making do with what you have and making the best of it, and that's a quality. Villa represent the same type of challenge."

Where can you find the full version of Ferguson's statement?

The Independant - Clicky

[ROBBO]

Now the manager is in place the thing that worries me most is what decent player will want to join  club whos board is made up of clowns. Players have no loyalty and if results go agaist us in the short term Bent will start looking it's human nature.

[jibba81]

The statement is awful. Using terms like 'unquestionable' just invites criticism. In fairness, the quotes from Feck himself are pretty sensible, but this Faulkner guy is a prick.

Based on?

I feel that the use of language in the statement is provocative and the content is littered with inconsistencies and conjecture, causing further damage to the relationship between the fans and the board and the buck stops at Faulkner (as I presume that he would have final approval on such a statement, correct me if I'm wrong)

Terms like 'unquestionably' and 'not in question' and 'proven abilities demonstrate clearly'  are statements designed to say 'we are right, you are wrong', and I feel that it is a tad passive aggresive.

[Steve R]

McLeish is not a bad manager. I often felt that small Heath had the better deal when they had him and we had O'Neil. That doesn't make him good enough for Villa. It's the kind of appointment - first steps in the right direction - that would have had value when replacing O'Leary. We have moved on since then, or at least we should have done.

We should still be aiming to break into the big time, We earn less than the teams we are trying to overtake and money is all. We need a manager who can outperform the competition in order to bridge this gap.

O'Neil wasn't the man to do this, McLeish won't be either. A totally uninspiring and unimaginative appointment. It is also opportunity wasted. The manager's post at Aston Villa is (or should be) a very attractive proposition and there aren't that many that come up for grabs.

[Concrete John]

One was with Hibs.

I don't think something like that way back in his career has any real relevance to present day PL football.  I fully agree the two at Blues do.  For instance, and apologies this is from Wikipedia, did you know that in his first job Rafa was manager of Real Valladolid for the 1995–96 season, but was sacked after only two wins in 23 games with the club bottom of the Primera Division?

[MoetVillan]

Board full of clowns?  Id take our clowns over any of the other clowns in the PL.  Only Arsenal seem to have their heads screwed on and they have player issues, fan issues etc.  Seems a lot of hysteria at the moment.  Alex will probably have to achieve more than most new managers to start winning new hearts, but i think that underlines how much he wanted the job.  It appears that he jumped at the chance to manage us, which some of the so called "Preferred men" did not.  I want someone who wants to manage us and succeed.  Not, "Oh ill do it til the next big job turns up"  I listened to the Steve McLaren interview and I still think we have the right man between those two.

[Le Lapin]

At least he'll get a good pre season with the players to see what we have.
Maybe Stephen Ireland might respond to Alex, and if so we'll have a good player on our hands.
With a motivated squad all pulling in the same direction we might have a more consistant season than we have had for a long time.

...........New Goalkeeper
Young.....Collins.....Dunne.....New back/Warnock
Alrighton.....Petrov(or someone better) Delph......New Winger(Downing if he stays)
.......................Gabby........Bent................
We have Makoun and Bradley who might make the step up. Clarke is going to be a great player as well.
There is a huge lot of work to be done to get this squad into a reasonable shape for the season, three or four good quality players need to be brought in for us to have any chance.

[Ian.]

To be honest the reaction towards him has been staggeringly evil by some. I find it very odd and quite embarrassing. I agree it was a strange appointment but he has had some success and he must have some inner belief to come here during this unusual period.

All the best, go out there and prove the doubters wrong (me included) and ignore the mind boggling personal insults which he does not warrant.

[pooligan]

Oh my god it gets worse !  Did he really manage to steer Rangers to 3rd in a 2 horse race. That takes some doing .

[Ads]

McLeish win us a trophy, any trophy. We'll take mid-table for some silverware, but doing well in the league too would be nice.

Win the FA Cup and I’ll love him forever.

[VillaAlways]

Board full of clowns?  Id take our clowns over any of the other clowns in the PL.  Only Arsenal seem to have their heads screwed on and they have player issues, fan issues etc.  Seems a lot of hysteria at the moment.  Alex will probably have to achieve more than most new managers to start winning new hearts, but i think that underlines how much he wanted the job.  It appears that he jumped at the chance to manage us, which some of the so called "Preferred men" did not.  I want someone who wants to manage us and succeed.  Not, "Oh ill do it til the next big job turns up"  I listened to the Steve McLaren interview and I still think we have the right man between those two.

Top Post

[Concrete John]

he also managed rangers to 3rd place in a 2 horse race

He also took Motherwell to 2nd it the same 2 horse race that they weren't even in.

Look, I'm not defending the appointment, but lets not paint it out to be worse CV than it is.  What he is is a half decent manager with a reputation for defensive football.  And we should be aiming for higher.   

[Ads]

Oh my god it gets worse !  Did he really manage to steer Rangers to 3rd in a 2 horse race. That takes some doing .

He did, but he also steered Rangers to besting O'Neill's Celtic who were (shock horror!) spunking cash on fees and wages, while Rangers were in the process of surrendering to the TSB.

[brontebilly]

A truly awful appointment. The actions of the board have reduced AVFC to a laughing stock.

I think McLeish is an alright guy. With Euro 2014 next summer, those decent players that remain at the club will be looking to impress. Even Houllier made some good signings so McLeish might too.

With a good start, we might finish top 6 ala DOL's first season. If not, a painful relegation battle with McLeish leaving by mutual consent before the end.

We still have good players - L Young, Dunne, Collins, Clark, Cuellar, Delph, Albrighton, Downing, Bent, Gabby can all be good EPL players next season.

McLeish will need to decide on Beye, Warnock, Ireland, Petrov, Heskey and one centre half to go. Finding buyers will be tricky. Might be worth giving a few of them another chance. Petrov and Heskey are finished but they are the kind of players McLeish is probably going to like unfortunately.