AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[ozzjim]

McLeish had practically the whole summer and pre-season, and had the chance to get his own players in.

That time doesn't help too much when he had no money to spend.

He managed to spend £18m, John. That's not a massive amount, and he lost two players in the summer, but it's still money.

The no money argument doesn't really stack up too well, anyway, when you consider how little he's getting out of the players he does have.

He had a £20m striker up front yesterday, who must have touched the ball about three times all afternoon.

We are just so ambitionless. Yesterday I was cringeing watching that nonsense.

It is a valid point. And the 18 million he spent - did he spread it well? I am not so sure, especially with the lack of central midfield options and the letting go of Makoun.

[David_Nab]

I have no faith in him at all.The tatics and team selection yesterday was a shambles.I am so sick of seeing Heskey played wide so we can lump balls to him to flick on they inveriably lose us the ball ..time and time again.

His record is pretty much indentical to Blose last year so HE is the problem.

Ireland and Nzog are far from perfect but we are a better attacking team with them.Instead he plays and instructs Albrighton and Heskey to cover the fullback and neither of them were an attacking threat.The strikers were isolated till the last 5 mins.We played for a draw and got what we deserved.

[eastie]

mcleish had only £18m to spend is the defence of some people - exactly how much did Norwich and Swansea spend? They both have ambitious young managers who play entertaining and attractive football with hungry players and squads costing vastly less than our overpaid bunch of wasters- lambert or rogers would be a great improvement on mcleish.

[ktvillan]

Before yesterday I would have said no. I was slowly coming round to him and thought he'd put those surrender  performances behind him.  However he reverted to type,  and it looks as if his true colours will always come to the fore in times of pressure.  That ultra-cautious, ambitonless, gutless, defeatist, self-defeating, anti-football type is not worthy of being in charge of a venerable and respected institution like Aston Villa FC.

[Merv]

No, no, no... it's not about the money he's spent, or the money he hasn't had to spend! Aside from the small fact, of course, that he paid £10m for a player who seems to be the first guy he drops, and a player he has consistently failed to get anywhere near the best from. But I'm digressing.

McLeish just doesn't have it. He's working with restrictions, sure, but that was part of the deal - his whole approach to the game is flawed, as we've seen with some of his selections this season. He wanted to stifle and contain City yesterday; I actually don't have a huge problem with that, but to think the best way to do that was to put Cuellar (who coped okay, but then generally does put in a steady performance wherever he's asked to play) at LB, and Heskey right-midfield (left-midfield v Spurs, anyone?) - forcing Albrighton to a weaker role wide on the left, just beggars belief. There were several other ways we could have set up yesterday that would have been preferable, IMO, and given us a better chance of competing.

To even begin to think that a player of Heskey's type can thrive in that role is ridiculous; we should only be using him as a centre-forward, off the bench. There's nothing at all in his career to date to suggest he can play that role. I think AM put him there because 'he's big, and could maybe block a bit'. Dreadful.

He then claimed, in the infamous post-match interview, that the game plan had been 'excellent'. Really? He's had a week to work on preparation (I'll concede Clark getting injured forced a change but the fundamentals of his strategy would have remained the same) and that's the best he can put together?

There's a mantra going round that AM deserves time to get better. The flipside is, he doesn't get better. I don't think he will. I'm not entirely sure he should be judged after 38 games - who makes up that rule? Some managers have far less time, if it's obvious things aren't riight. Is he going to radically change his football philosophy in 13 games? I doubt it. He'll retreat further into his bewildered shell ('we just need to win a game....') with no real idea of how to move forward.

I'm raging. Not a knee jerk reaction to a defeat, but I cannot believe the ineptitude of some his decisions this time. Well, I can: I saw it coming. And that makes it worse.

[Rick_avfc]

Can I change my answer to NO now that McCarthy has been sacked?  Im worried that our stupid board could sack Eck and then appoint MM! 

[Simba]

Losing to Man City by one goal is not a crime.

Playing for a draw at home, playing so deep that we were under constant pressure, playing players out of position, consistantly starving two great forwards, utilising Heskey as defence for the defenders, applying tactics out of cowardice - when the team has proven to be pretty good when unshackled -  that is a crime.

After being patient I now find him guilty as charged and am taking his previous convictions into account as he is clearly not rehabilitated. Charge:  cowardice in the face of the enemy.

Pass me the black hoody thing.

[itbrvilla]

Dread to think who they would bring in to replace him!!

[PaulWinch again]

I think he should go, but we need more of a change than just that. We need a person who has knowledge of football to help the board hire the correct person who can move us forward. We need to be a progressive team and take the approach of Swansea or Norwich rather than play stoneage football.

[Eigentor]

I agree with PaulWinch. The road to success isn't for the board to sack McLeish and appoint a random replacement.

What we need is Randy Lerner to stop surrounding himself exclusively with cronies and people who he regards as great conversationalists and get someone with football knowledge to run the club. That someone could then spend the time from now until the summer to assess whether we have a structure for success at the club (including the right manager).

[bilsim]

Dread to think who they would bring in to replace him!!

this is probably why people need to think before calling for his head

[ozzjim]

If he went now we would end up with someone like Curbishley I would imagine. Who I would take over McLeish.

[KRS]

I havent read all of this thread, but if AM is sacked then who would replace him? There arent many suitable candidates available at the moment other than Guus Hiddink. Is he available and is Guus Hiddink a realistic target?

[Compass]

I just hope the takeover rumours are true. I don't trust Randy bringing us forward. He has a poor track record at making appointments (both here and NFL Browns) and has wasted alot of money over the years here without thinking the contracts through. He also paid compenstation to McLeish. How many Villa season ticket funds would automatically be directed to SHA by that prospect?

Randy Lerner is an incredibly stupid man and if we're relegated then I won't have any sympathy for him because he's gonna be affected the most. All those millions down the drain.

[NeilH]

Is he available and is Guus Hiddink a realistic target?

He is, as is Van Gaal who has lost his battle with Crujiff for control at Ajax.
Neither of them would touch us with a hundred foot bargepole though and I suspect that Hiddink will be at Chelsea performing a salvage job before the season is done.