AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[paul_e]

What actually needs to happen is for us to look for a director who can put in place a football 'strategy' (about getting kids with the right skills and attitude, training them and playing them in the right way so as they progress through they're groomed for the first team, who play the same way) between now and the summer.  We can then spend the summer and next season shifting around staff and players until we have a club style.  Once this is established you're management recruitment can focus around promoting from within as all levels will have the same structure and the same remit.  Our purchasing strategy can then focus on making sure all the squads have the same strengths.

A big problem currently is the huge disparity in our play between youth/reserves and the first team.  This makes the transition from reserves to the first team a lot tougher than it should be.  A club with sustained success at youth and reserve level like us should be comfortable with promoting the kids for a few games here and there, but clearly this isn't the case as we've let the squad get wafer thin before throwing them in and are paying for it.

Once we have a club way of playing and this is sold to the fans and media as 'the villa way' (which won't happen quickly) getting the right people becomes easier.

[woody4866]

No.

Ask me in 4 games time and it may be a different answer.

sorry PWS but in 4 games time it will be too late
not enough points against them and we shall be on the slippery slope to Championship footy
Every season some team goes on a run like ours where one of the bottom 3 gets out of it
we need to change this farce now
Wilkins for me with Sid as No 2

[Clampy]

Brian Little. A returning hero might be enough to secure enough points. He did it once before and has the respect of the fans. It would give the place such a lift.

I would be ecstatic if this somehow happened.

He'd have the respect of the fans alright, but i'm not sure he'd get it from the dressing room. Lovely idea, even if it's never going to happen.

[brian green]

As we discussed at the match at half time the depth of the problem is that McLeish is not specifically the manager or the coach of the team.   Because of the manner and circumstances of his appointment he is really an extension of the board of directors.   The role he was offered by Lerner personally and which he was more than glad to take was wage bill shrinker and Premiership membership securer.   All the rest - the quality of the football, the entertainment value, the satisfaction of the fans, the best use of players, the best nurturing of academy players, talking to the media - all of it is only the window dressing.   They sat in McLeish's house in Corsica and agreed what was required.   What we are seeing and today was as typical as any game since McLeish took over are those principles put into practice.

My bet is that that they will not even sack him if we get relegated because he will have pulled the shrunken wage bill rabbit out of the hat.

The football virgins who run our club will think a few free flags and a couple of hundred cheap tee shirts chucked to the first four rows of the Holte End is all it will take to fill VP for games against Ipswich and Peterborough.

[TaxDodger]

No. Unless we get relegated he deserves another season.

[Legion]

We won't get relegated.

[Holtemeister]

No !!!

Don't know right now what sacking him would do.....

Who would we get in to replace him and whoever we did go for would have to be ok'd by our "bad apples"

I never wanted McLeish, thought he was the wrong man for us based on his record, and this has nothing to do with his former employer.

He isn't the man either to take our club forward.

That said I'm not jumping on the sack him bandwagon here's why ....

He's got and had a really shitty hand to play with, he has senior players who are indisciplined and some that have other "issues". 

He has a weak squad bolstered by a number of fragile young lads who unfortunately are not good enough for premiership football. 

We don't like him and have not nor will not ever take to him.. and for that reason I presume he doesnt really like us but...

On the other hand he isnt helping himself.... continually playing Hutton and Warnock surely two of the worst fullbacks ever to have graced a villa shirt, playing Heskey who until today has struggled to look like a footballer, he worked really hard today for the team fair play to the guy. 

He has also caught the recent disease of insisting on playing players out of position - square pegs in round holes and whilst he isnt as defensive as some make out we clearly do not have  plan A never mind a plan B.

If anyone offered to invest in the club by providing money for transfers, I would dread to think what sort of player would be earmarked. 

I wouldn't trust him with a transfer kitty as far as I could throw him.

There have been bad apples in our squad now for far too long ...I feel that GH was a good decent man, one who would in time have changed our club for the better.  However he was being undermined by these "bad apples" The same bad apples exist and are responsible for some comical defending reminiscent of the Chuckle Bros but we seem unable to ship em out. 

We cant keep shipping managers and keeping player who are a disruptive influence and those that are clearly not good enough.

We need to start backing the manager ...nothing is going to change between now and the end of the season and even then very unlikely that Randy will get shot in the summer only to have to go through the process once more.

In all a very depressing situation

[mr woo]

The sad thing is McLeish does actually make the right noises in his interviews. He'll say he wants to play free-flowing attacking football, he'll promise not to play people out of position and he'll say those that don't perform will be dropped.

So what's so baffling is his constant determination to do the exact bloody opposite of that which he knows to be incorrect. Leading me to believe he is either:

A) a liar

B) incompetent


Either way it's not good enough. And the people in charge know it and should take action accordingly before it's too late. But they won't. Because:

A) it'll be throwing good money after bad
and
B) it would be like admitting we were right and they were wrong all along.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Brian Little. A returning hero might be enough to secure enough points. He did it once before and has the respect of the fans. It would give the place such a lift.

I would be ecstatic if this somehow happened.

He'd have the respect of the fans alright, but i'm not sure he'd get it from the dressing room. Lovely idea, even if it's never going to happen.

With the greatest respect to Sir Brian, the very suggestion is making me think of Alan Shearer on the pitch at Villa Park a couple of years ago in front of 3,000 crying Geordies.

[theleftside]

he should never have been appointed.

BUT - if people let it be for five minutes he may then have the confidence to have a go against the better teams instead of being shit scared of losing badly.

today was a case in point he is to scared to have a go at man city in my view because he is worried about the crowd reaction if we are 2 down after 20 minutes....i would rather see a villa team let rip at the likes of man c, man u, spurs etc then just bloody turn up.

[The Left Side]

I voted YES, please let him go and let us bring in someone like Lambert or Rodgers who knows how to play the game on the deck!

[Rip Van We Go Again]

he should never have been appointed.

BUT - if people let it be for five minutes he may then have the confidence to have a go against the better teams instead of being shit scared of losing badly.

today was a case in point he is to scared to have a go at man city in my view because he is worried about the crowd reaction if we are 2 down after 20 minutes....i would rather see a villa team let rip at the likes of man c, man u, spurs etc then just bloody turn up.

IF this Manager is basing decisions around not wanting to upset the supporters, then I don't want that sort of Manager here.

[Clampy]

Brian Little. A returning hero might be enough to secure enough points. He did it once before and has the respect of the fans. It would give the place such a lift.

I would be ecstatic if this somehow happened.

He'd have the respect of the fans alright, but i'm not sure he'd get it from the dressing room. Lovely idea, even if it's never going to happen.

With the greatest respect to Sir Brian, the very suggestion is making me think of Alan Shearer on the pitch at Villa Park a couple of years ago in front of 3,000 crying Geordies.

Absolutley, it won't happen and nor should it but the next appointment needs to be one that the majority of the fans are united on.

[AvFc4eVeR]

We won't get relegated.

We have less points than blose did at this point last season...

[myf]

We won't get relegated.

We have less points than blose did at this point last season...

I'm getting bored of hearing this.  It was tougher at the bottom last year and they got a bit distracted with a cup win.