Club Statement

[Risso]

We'll find out the true figure in time, don't worry.  As I said before though, however much it is, is too much.

[hilts_coolerking]

Wasn't aimed at you in particular.  Just point out the large contradictions in this thread.

"We hushed it up because we don't want anyone to know we paid up the full £5.4m they wanted - what a disgrace!"

"We paid £3m - what a disgrace!"

Paying £XM wouldn't have been a disgrace if we'd tapped up somebody really good.  To do it for McLeish is I think what has riled a lot of people.

[Villa'Zawg]

I know that they have made the appointment and we have to carry on for the greater good, but I would like just one, just one ditty of the logic that they used to even contemplate employing him in the first place.

As Spock would say "it's illogical captain"
 

Ferguson's comments on the appointment are the only logical explanation I have seen, albeit with obviously worrying implications for our ambition.

"At Rangers, for instance, by the time Alex took over, they weren't spending the kind of money which they had done previously, so Alex did a great job there. He managed to unite a unit there and do very well. 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 that. He's got the experience now of doing all of these things and Aston Villa will represent the same type of challenge."

Blimey, hadn't seen that before. Makes grim reading.

But it does at least provide a logical explanation to the question "why McLeish?".

[kippaxvilla2]

Always remember the tweet from the Talksport correspondent the night before it happened.  'Good news for Villa fans if you like ginger Scotsmen'.  How elated I was to find out we were getting Moyes.  And it turned out to be McLeish.  Even Strachan would have been better.  Reminds of the time where we claimed to have agreed (on the OS) a fee for both Bellamy and Hughes and only ended up with one of them.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Wasn't aimed at you in particular.  Just point out the large contradictions in this thread.

"We hushed it up because we don't want anyone to know we paid up the full £5.4m they wanted - what a disgrace!"

"We paid £3m - what a disgrace!"

Paying £XM wouldn't have been a disgrace if we'd tapped up somebody really good.  To do it for McLeish is I think what has riled a lot of people.

Exactly.
£3m or 3 magic beans, it shouldn't have been anything for a Manager of his calibre.

[Mazrim]

If Blose had got what they wanted they would be bleating about it in the press about 2.6 seconds after recieving the money.

Not if we asked, as part of the settlement, for it to remain undisclosed.

But if they got they wanted, or in their view, entitled to, why would they accept any conditions?
It was a compromise. McLeish drops his claims, they drop theirs, some sort of fee is involved. Likely nobody will ever know the details and who came off best if at all and I very much doubt the Telegraph know either.
Villa never release any financial details they dont have to, even when there's no harm in it. Par for the course.

Of course, we should never have got involved in this to begin with.

because that was a condition for us agreeing to give them what they wanted without dispute? Regardless of the merits of the case, we could have made it a drawn out affair as we did with O'Neill.

Which suits neither cause. They wanted their new staff in as the new season approaches, likewise we do.
McLeish has claims against them and no doubt vice versa. They're in massive financial shit, so I reckon we offered them something, which is better than nothing, they accept and everybody gets on with it.

[taylorsworkrate]

£3m for him and the others according to the Torygraph.

Compares with paying about £20 for a kebab

[Mazrim]

£3m for him and the others according to the Torygraph.

Compares with paying about £20 for a kebab

You've been to London then?

[Concrete John]

£3m for him and the others according to the Torygraph.

Compares with paying about £20 for a kebab

You've been to London then?

Having just come back from a weekend in Dublin, I find that quite cheap.

[Hoppo]

Gordan Strachan!! Weve got McLeish now get over it and get on with it.

[Mazrim]

True enough. Dublin is the biggest piss take city I have ever been to in terms of stinging foreign eejits.

[Concrete John]

True enough. Dublin is the biggest piss take city I have ever been to in terms of stinging foreign eejits.

I'm Irish, although with a quasi-thick Brumie accent, so it's not just the foreigners they're after!

[Mazrim]

True enough. Dublin is the biggest piss take city I have ever been to in terms of stinging foreign eejits.

I'm Irish, although with a quasi-thick Brumie accent, so it's not just the foreigners they're after!

I'm half Irish and they still took the full piss out of me.

[Eigentor]

Exit the era of paying in excess of substandard players.

Enter the era of paying in excess of substandard managers.

[Eigentor]

I think that the board's stipulations in terms of what they wanted from the manager led to a number of better candidates either being ruled out or ruling themselves out.  With time pressing and the field thinning, I think the board panicked, hence tapping up McLeish.

I think this is quite close to the truth. From what I gather, we never made a serious attempt to get the likes of Ancelotti, Moyes or Benitez. Maybe we tried to contact them, had a brief chat with them or their agents, but at the slightest hint of difficulty we moved on to another target. Of course, we'd like to live in a fantasy world where the manager we want comes running when we call. In reality, decent managers would like to know what they are going to before they accept a job. So we ended up with someone who would come regardless.