If McLeish was sacked, who would you want in?

[Villafirst]

Lerner put his bollocks on the line to appoint McLeish, therefore there is no way I believe he will sack him. He's in this for the immediate and medium term future, we don't like it, obviously, and things have to change somewhere, but replacing McLeish isn't going to happen.

Yeah, but how will Lerner look when we're relegated? I predict AM will be gone by the first week in January 2012. Our league position will be bottom-six after all these tough games in December. Lerner will panic that his asset will lose massive value at the thought of the drop. He'll appoint a new Manager and give him a fair budget to work with to ensure survival.

[Greg N'Ash]

precisely. no chairman is going to cut us to the bone like Lerner has over the past 18months and then watch all the savings thrown away by a relegation

[Rick_avfc]

Lerner put his bollocks on the line to appoint McLeish, therefore there is no way I believe he will sack him. He's in this for the immediate and medium term future, we don't like it, obviously, and things have to change somewhere, but replacing McLeish isn't going to happen.

Yeah, but how will Lerner look when we're relegated? I predict AM will be gone by the first week in January 2012. Our league position will be bottom-six after all these tough games in December. Lerner will panic that his asset will lose massive value at the thought of the drop. He'll appoint a new Manager and give him a fair budget to work with to ensure survival.

I really cant see that happening especially first week of Jan.  He will stick by Eck and give him a couple of mil to sign a player or sanction some loan signings.

[Compass]

Lerner put his bollocks on the line to appoint McLeish, therefore there is no way I believe he will sack him. He's in this for the immediate and medium term future, we don't like it, obviously, and things have to change somewhere, but replacing McLeish isn't going to happen.

Yeah, but how will Lerner look when we're relegated? I predict AM will be gone by the first week in January 2012. Our league position will be bottom-six after all these tough games in December. Lerner will panic that his asset will lose massive value at the thought of the drop. He'll appoint a new Manager and give him a fair budget to work with to ensure survival.

If by some miracle RL did sack AM in the new year then we'll have to put faith in him making the next appointment on what he thinks is 'right' for the club. And by the time he finds his 'right' man the transfer window will be shut. Have you seen how slow he is at hiring a manager, nevermind the fact he is a bad reputation of appointments anyway? You can actually see him hiring Steve Bruce next because that's how much of a joke he is at making appointments.

We're in a lose-lose situation with Randy. Nothing will be resolved completely until he is out of this club. Just ask the Browns fan what they think of him. Only difference is they don't have to suffer relegation.

[Greg N'Ash]

if there's nowt to be done and its already hopeless then why do you want AM out Compass? Surely it doesn't matter

[Concrete John]

precisely. no chairman is going to cut us to the bone like Lerner has over the past 18months and then watch all the savings thrown away by a relegation

That same argument could be applied to Houllier 12 months ago, when results were actually worse and we had to improve to get to 9th.  Yet rather than sack him for fear of relegation, Randy backed him in the market to buy Darren Bent.

[Compass]

I would have prefered it if Sid Cowans was in charge for the remaining of season. But I read something recently about he wouldn't want the job due to the pressure. The board have proper fucked us up with this appointment regardless.

[PaulWinch again]

precisely. no chairman is going to cut us to the bone like Lerner has over the past 18months and then watch all the savings thrown away by a relegation

That same argument could be applied to Houllier 12 months ago, when results were actually worse and we had to improve to get to 9th.  Yet rather than sack him for fear of relegation, Randy backed him in the market to buy Darren Bent.

True but Mcleish had a preseason to try and get his side in order, Houllier came in much later. Whilst Mcleish has a weaker squad, you'd expect him to have a much better handle on things by now.

[VillaAlways]

precisely. no chairman is going to cut us to the bone like Lerner has over the past 18months and then watch all the savings thrown away by a relegation

That same argument could be applied to Houllier 12 months ago, when results were actually worse and we had to improve to get to 9th.  Yet rather than sack him for fear of relegation, Randy backed him in the market to buy Darren Bent.

True but Mcleish had a preseason to try and get his side in order, Houllier came in much later. Whilst Mcleish has a weaker squad, you'd expect him to have a much better handle on things by now.

We had one more point this time last year although our league position was lower

[Compass]

precisely. no chairman is going to cut us to the bone like Lerner has over the past 18months and then watch all the savings thrown away by a relegation

That same argument could be applied to Houllier 12 months ago, when results were actually worse and we had to improve to get to 9th.  Yet rather than sack him for fear of relegation, Randy backed him in the market to buy Darren Bent.

But the difference is Houllier had no pre-season, had no summer window, was lumbered with alot of injuries, strikers were goal shy and had a good record in the Premier League. The board were right to back and stick with him and give him the money for Bent.

They can't do the same with McLeish. He has had a pre-season, had a summer window where he has already spent 17m (if I was Randy I'll be proper pissed off my 9.5m went down the drain), no where near the amount of injuries and isn't good enough for relegation battles.

If Randy sticks with AM all the way we're finished as an established PL club. I hope just this once, I'm actually clinging on the hope here, that Randy will use one of his brain cells and do what is right for the sake of this club.

[Concrete John]

precisely. no chairman is going to cut us to the bone like Lerner has over the past 18months and then watch all the savings thrown away by a relegation

That same argument could be applied to Houllier 12 months ago, when results were actually worse and we had to improve to get to 9th.  Yet rather than sack him for fear of relegation, Randy backed him in the market to buy Darren Bent.

True but Mcleish had a preseason to try and get his side in order, Houllier came in much later. Whilst Mcleish has a weaker squad, you'd expect him to have a much better handle on things by now.

To me that pretty much evens things out - Houllier had less time, but better players, AM has had more time with lesser players.

And from a results perspective AM is doing better than Gezza around the same time.

[Dante Lavelli]

Houllier, like McLeish's reign was pretty much all horrible.  One thing I will say for the bloke was he appeared brave enough to try and change things both in our style of play and getting rid of a few of the more awkward characters*.  For that reason the longer Houllier was around the better I think it would have become, under McLeish I just cannot see it.

Randy really has appointed two shite managers. 


* I have a hunch that Collins and Dunne do exactly as they please rather than obey any instructions from the manager.

[Greg N'Ash]

Dunno. he's still got to January as far as i'm concerned, then events may overtake him anyway. The Manc game hasn't helped my opinion of him, probably more so than spurs really. I can just about take  the aim for a draw mentality, the hoofing, and the hospital tackles because at least they are tactics of sorts, but against the mancs the players genuinely didn't seem to know what they were doing. Very much like the turner/McNeil era and that's more worrying.

[Reformation]

precisely. no chairman is going to cut us to the bone like Lerner has over the past 18months and then watch all the savings thrown away by a relegation

That same argument could be applied to Houllier 12 months ago, when results were actually worse and we had to improve to get to 9th.  Yet rather than sack him for fear of relegation, Randy backed him in the market to buy Darren Bent.

True but Mcleish had a preseason to try and get his side in order, Houllier came in much later. Whilst Mcleish has a weaker squad, you'd expect him to have a much better handle on things by now.

To me that pretty much evens things out - Houllier had less time, but better players, AM has had more time with lesser players.

And from a results perspective AM is doing better than Gezza around the same time.

Whilst it evens things out in theory, you've forgot to factor in the worse injury crisis imaginable.

[Compass]

Houllier, like McLeish's reign was pretty much all horrible.  One thing I will say for the bloke was he appeared brave enough to try and change things both in our style of play and getting rid of a few of the more awkward characters*.  For that reason the longer Houllier was around the better I think it would have become, under McLeish I just cannot see it.

Randy really has appointed two shite managers. 


* I have a hunch that Collins and Dunne do exactly as they please rather than obey any instructions from the manager.

I don't think Houllier's reign was near as bad. The two biggest mistakes he made was the Liverpool incident (I wasn't too bothered about that though) and throwing away the FA Cup (that was stupid).

But there was excitement spells, especially when we bought Bent. And that win against Man City was amazing (my favourite match last season) because the whole atmosphere was rocking and every player was defending like their life depended on it.

With AM though there's just nothing. Nothing at all. You can't see what his long term plan (whatever that is) and all we can do is now look over our shoulders. The man is a bullshitter as well. He said he won't play us like Blues because he has better tools to work with, but that's exactly what he is doing. Actually, it's worse. Shambolic appointment throughout.