Confidence-o-meter

[brian green]

I am not optimistic about the season ahead.   The manager seems to want to engineer our expectations to Small Heath levels the ethos for which is any season you do not get relegated is a good season.

We have fallen too far and too fast from those heady days when we were leading Stoke by two goals and Arsenal's slot was there for the taking.

I think we have been brainwashed into downgrading our hopes and expectations like the man who convinces himself that his wife's ugliness is balanced by her ability to cook. 

For me, the dull football and mid table finish will be failure.   I accept that for others it will be comfortable and sensible but I don't follow Villa for comfort or security.   I want highs not contentment and for that reason McLeish's comments today that 9th may be too much for us is one of the most depressing things I have ever heard said about our club.

I am braced for an awful season.   

[Chris Smith]

Brian, surely a msn of your experience knows better than to put much store by the comments made by a manager at a press conference. If you read the quotes they are fairly non-committal, acknowledging how tough the league is but not making himself a hostage to fortune by making rash predictions.

Better to judge him on what he does, rather than what he says.

[Louzie0]

I have just had a quick look on the outright odds There is the obvious 4 then liverpool on 10/1 Spuds at 50 Everyon and Us at 300 and 2000 the rest

Looking at who Liverpool have signed so far I don't see such a difference between them and us at the moment, let alone the other 2 clubs concerned.  I still think lots of people are assessing them as if they are in Europe next season.  And they are not.  Just checked their fixtures.  Still nothing.

That said, what happens if Blues' financial credibility collapses and the full wrath of the FA descends upon them, yea unto the 1000th generation, or to the point where they can't do anything except train in the car park?  And they can't go to Europe, even on the ferry from Harwich?

Are L'pool the next in line by default?


Come on, you Blues...

[brian green]

Its not what he said Chris, it's the fact that it needed to be said at all.   Of course he will be circumspect, of course he will be guarded of course he is going to cover his arse but the saying of it at all at this time after everything which has happened since the O'Neill flounce leaves me with a profound sense of emptiness.

It's like holding your baby in your arms after the christening and saying with a bit of luck this son of mine will one day get a job of some sort and stay out of prison.   It is bleakly true but it ain't what the occasion calls for.

Houllier was a verbal smart arse.   McLeish is a damner with faint praise.

[Rigadon]

Confident we'll be back to MON levels of competitiveness.  Will reserve judgement past that.

[taylorsworkrate]

I suppose there is also an element of Mcleish looking after his own back in the "tough to get ninth" comment.

We finish 8th and what a unbelievable job he has done.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I suppose there is also an element of Mcleish looking after his own back in the "tough to get ninth" comment.

That's the only thing until now that he's done to piss me off. Read his post match comments on the OS, the man talks so much sense. He really seems to understand the game and how to motivate players. Our previous two managers could only manage one of the two.

[Iago]

I suppose there is also an element of Mcleish looking after his own back in the "tough to get ninth" comment.

We finish 8th and what a unbelievable job he has done.

"At least we are not Leeds" -  my least favorite dictum 

[brian green]

I agree with you Mark.   He is clearly a football man through and through.   The tough to get ninth comment demeans the club the fans and the players but it is the only real blunder he has made.   I would much have preferred him to say despite the departure of some excellent players we have a squad of players who are perfectly capable of beating any team in the Premiership on their day.   It is my job as manager to make it happen on a weekly basis.   The tough to get ninth was  lumpen verbal hoofball.

[Chris Smith]

I agree with you Mark.   He is clearly a football man through and through.   The tough to get ninth comment demeans the club the fans and the players but it is the only real blunder he has made.   I would much have preferred him to say despite the departure of some excellent players we have a squad of players who are perfectly capable of beating any team in the Premiership on their day.   It is my job as manager to make it happen on a weekly basis.   The tough to get ninth was  lumpen verbal hoofball.

When he made those comments he'd seen his team play once, against lower league opposition, so the comments you suggest would have been just as meaningless, other than to provide us with a bit of rabble rousing rhetoric.

[Toronto Villa]

I really don't why anyone would get wound up over those comments. His team in two games haven't played anything like the football that his reputation suggests. In fact quite the opposite. It's been quick and to the point, with a continuation of the type of play that GH had been encouraging. They've worked hard for each other and defended better. Why hang to a manager's words when the actions of the players and the team in general are so much louder. For me the Luke Young interview was a real insight into the changes that have taken place already at the club. It's all been positive so far.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I really don't why anyone would get wound up over those comments.

It's very simple TV, football is all about hope, especially pre-season. The last thing I want to hear from a Villa manager is how we'll be lucky to finish midtable or repeat the disaster of the previous season. Don't drag us down to the expectations of the Rags. This is Aston Villa, ffs.

Apart from that, I like him.

[Toronto Villa]

I really don't why anyone would get wound up over those comments.

It's very simple TV, football is all about hope, especially pre-season. The last thing I want to hear from a Villa manager is how we'll be lucky to finish midtable or repeat the disaster of the previous season. Don't drag us down to the expectations of the Rags. This is Aston Villa, ffs.

Apart from that, I like him.

I understand, but I'm going to get my hope from what I see in the team and the club, and not in a few guarded words by the manager. If AM had come out and said top six is the target I wouldn't be any more optimistic about the season to be honest. I'd still be on the cautious side until I see the evidence. From the little we've seen and heard so far, the entire team looks more committed to the cause and that on its own is big step forward. We need to add some quality, but I think AM knows that. Somehow, after all the PR disasters from last season, I think the club have told the manager to be extra responsible in the press yet behind the scenes they'll still support him. At least that's my read on things.

[Caiphus]

Last year biggest failure was that when they tried to manage expectations of the fans, they couldn't exceed them.  Everyone knew it was most likely going to be a transitional season, GH came in with his comments about Villa being seen as a 7-12th place club (which the supporters took the wrong way as to his intention imo) and then when we had a transitional season and finished between 7-12th everyone was annoyed that their expectations were met and that it felt weird because we didn't feel like we got to the top half on merit, it was just that in a shit year, there were 11 teams even worse.

In all honesty, even with losing 4 of our best players from last year (I'm including Friedel and Reo Coker) I still think there are 12 teams that are worse than us in the division.  AM has already said in an earlier interview that finishing lower than last year would be considered a failure and if he can come in, get somewhere near decent performances out of some of our previously unsettled players use the kids well after kmac, GH, and GM did the hard work of blooding them last year and finish in the top 10 it will feel like he has done well.  He knows that doing worse than that the fans who are already on a knife-edge will turn on him. 

[mike]

I agree with you Mark.   He is clearly a football man through and through.   The tough to get ninth comment demeans the club the fans and the players but it is the only real blunder he has made.   I would much have preferred him to say despite the departure of some excellent players we have a squad of players who are perfectly capable of beating any team in the Premiership on their day.   It is my job as manager to make it happen on a weekly basis.   The tough to get ninth was  lumpen verbal hoofball.

When he made those comments he'd seen his team play once, against lower league opposition, so the comments you suggest would have been just as meaningless, other than to provide us with a bit of rabble rousing rhetoric.

Sometimes leaders need to use rabble rousing rhetoric. Being positive and motivational are not bad skills to have. Even if he's being more positive in the dressing room, players will hear these kind of things and think that he doesn't really have much belief in them. The simple fact is there was no need to say it. Keep the negative stuff in your own mind if you want to inspire others. The christening analogy is spot on.