Alex McLeish confirmed as manager

[Concrete John]

he'll be given 2 years max at Chelsea, if he doesn't win the European Cup he'll be fired and his repuatation will be diminished.

And he 10s of millions of pounds better off.  Don't know about him, but I'd live with that!   

[garyshawsknee]

Zigic 6 million
Gardner 3.5 million
Foster 6 million
Beausjour 4 million
Michel 3 million

Total 22.5 million

Edit: urgh, I see Villas-Boas has resigned

He could of really made a name of himself next season in the Champions League, but he'll be given 2 years max at Chelsea, if he doesn't win the European Cup he'll be fired and his repuatation will be diminished.

This guy could be the next special one,but seems a risk as he's only had one full season,no champion league experience and as you say hell only get two years to win it or he'll be out

[Villa'Zawg]

Zigic 6 million
Gardner 3.5 million
Foster 6 million
Beausjour 4 million
Michel 3 million

Total 22.5 million

Edit: urgh, I see Villas-Boas has resigned

He could of really made a name of himself next season in the Champions League, but he'll be given 2 years max at Chelsea, if he doesn't win the European Cup he'll be fired and his repuatation will be diminished.

Sorry, my mistake. McLeish spent £40m in the last 2 seasons but some of it was in the summer before the takeover was complete.

[Somniloquism]

Zigic 6 million
Gardner 3.5 million
Foster 6 million
Beausjour 4 million
Michel 3 million

Total 22.5 million

Edit: urgh, I see Villas-Boas has resigned

He could of really made a name of himself next season in the Champions League, but he'll be given 2 years max at Chelsea, if he doesn't win the European Cup he'll be fired and his repuatation will be diminished.

Sorry, my mistake. McLeish spent £40m in the last 2 seasons but some of it was in the summer before the takeover was complete.

Didn't the total deals including wages equal over £40mil. Someone recently posted that the Zigic deal is almost £20mill including wages of approx £80000 pw for 4 years. If that is true it makes MON look restrained.

[The Situation]

I can only imagine how horrendous Zigic's basketball skills are for him to be playing football at 6'8''.

I bet he's like Darko Milicic on roller skates.

[Monty]

Did I see that McLeish really said the words "I don't think Birmingham played bad football"? Now there's defending yourself and there's just being plain wrong. Of course they played bad football, and if he doesn't see that I don't know what's wrong with his eyes. "The main problem was with the lack of goals" - yeah, thanks to the bad football - "it didn't help that...Nikola Zigic didn't play again after the Carling Cup final". Yeah, because over-reliance on a vaguely talentless Big Man doesn't scream bad football. I really hope he changes, but the proof will be in those first 7 games of the season up until Man City away in October (and in fact, in most games until what looks like a tricky Christmas period), winnable games in which we should be looking to take the game to the opposition. If he tries to play mostly on the counter, I feel my fears would be justified.

[Chris Smith]

Did I see that McLeish really said the words "I don't think Birmingham played bad football"? Now there's defending yourself and there's just being plain wrong. Of

And there's attempting to apply an objective judgement to a subjective topic.

[Monty]

Did I see that McLeish really said the words "I don't think Birmingham played bad football"? Now there's defending yourself and there's just being plain wrong. Of

And there's attempting to apply an objective judgement to a subjective topic.

And there's a pedantic contradiction for the sake of argument. None of the top teams in any major league in Europe play football like Birmingham did under AM. I accept that Blues weren't trying to be one of the top teams, but the best football is at the very least defined as the most successful, and no successful team in any league plays like Blues did. Even Man City regularly dominate possession, play the ball short and occasionally play thrilling stuff (usually against us, the bastards).

[PaulTheVillan]

Blues played to their strengths

[enigma]

The thing that bugs me is there's always an excuse for when he screws up. It never seems to be his fault at all and I'm seeing those same excuses put forward by Villa fans now (the very same ones that were laughing at him sending his club to the Championship a couple of weeks ago).

And what really gets me is if it goes tits up at Villa, he'll get off scot free yet again as it's us fans that'll take the blame for not giving him a chance.

[Monty]

Blues played to their strengths

You can create your own strengths with your transfer policy. Blues strengths were such that they went down.

[Chris Smith]

Did I see that McLeish really said the words "I don't think Birmingham played bad football"? Now there's defending yourself and there's just being plain wrong. Of

And there's attempting to apply an objective judgement to a subjective topic.

And there's a pedantic contradiction for the sake of argument. None of the top teams in any major league in Europe play football like Birmingham did under AM. I accept that Blues weren't trying to be one of the top teams, but the best football is at the very least defined as the most successful, and no successful team in any league plays like Blues did. Even Man City regularly dominate possession, play the ball short and occasionally play thrilling stuff (usually against us, the bastards).

Define "successful". Winning a cup maybe?

[Monty]

Define "succesful". Winning a cup maybe?

I said successful in the league, as in finishing in high position, and consistently over a few years as well. The sheer number of games is a better way to statistically judge the success of a style as the sample is bigger. Also, even though you can 'fluke' your way to a cup, the cup competitions are dominated by the teams who finish high up in the league anyway.

[Brian Taylor]

It is all semantics now. I don't expect an awful lot. Good cup runs and middle to upper end of table. Any less is unacceptable.
I don't like it but this is The Villa and we, the fans, are stuck with it.
Villa Boas cost £12.5m and we pay £7m for McLeish...great stuff..shheesh. I hope he is at least half as good!
This is The Villa we're talking about!

[Chris Smith]

Define "succesful". Winning a cup maybe?

I said successful in the league, as in finishing in high position, and consistently over a few years as well. The sheer number of games is a better way to statistically judge the success of a style as the sample is bigger.

We've seen with Burnley, The Baggies and Blackpool what happens when promoted teams try to play pretty football in this division against teams with much better players. He built a side based on a strong defence and but for an injury to Dann would probably have seen them stay up and win a cup. By their standard that would be success.