AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[Dave Clark Five]

Well put John. What time are you getting to the pub Saturday? We will rock up at eleven.

I'm afraid it is one of those occasions when I have to stay sober, owing to working later, so I can only look on with envy. That pub, which shall of course remain nameless, has some excellent quaffing ale.

[cheltenhamlion]

How many? I intend to sample one of each across the course of the day/evening.

Does that mean Pauline will be doing your drinking for you?

[N'ZMAV]

If we don't win at Wigan any remaining belief that McLeish can make this work will go.

[villajk]

How many? I intend to sample one of each across the course of the day/evening.

Does that mean Pauline will be doing your drinking for you?

No it does not!     I don't really like drinking much before a game as I end up missing half the on pitch action spending my time running back and forth to the toilet.   

[Concrete John]

If we don't win at Wigan any remaining belief that McLeish can make this work will go.

No judgements like that should be made based on one game.  As I see it, we have 4 'winnable' ones coming up, so what we might be able to do is see what happens over those 4 and then draw some meaningful conclusions.

I've always been on the opinion we need to give him the season and I stand by that.

[Chico Hamilton III]

No judgements like that should be made based on one game

last 6 games, last 10 games, the season to date. I'd form the same judgement to be honest.

[ktvillan]

Regarding competing with Spurs, one reason we fell away from them was because while Spurs were paying Modric 20k a week, we were throwing double that at Steve Sidwell.. That says it all.

Yes when you read something like that it makes you realise that MON was nowhere near as astute as some would have us believe, and what a massive opportunity he wasted by refusing to sign good players from abroad.  I don't believe for a second he was genuinely interested in trying to get Sneijder in either.

I can't comment on the Sneijder thing, but the difference is that when in a strong position Spurs were able to go up a level in transfer dealings with players like Modric and VDV.  We still couldn't get anything better then we already had, such as Downing.

I do think the London thing had a bearing, but most of the fault must lie with MON.  Maybe not for not going for these players, but because we couldn't as finances being tight due to funds being effectively wasted on squad players that weren't featuring.

John I think the London thing affects some established, very top level players,  but is generally a bit of a myth.  We never had problems attracting decent, if not world beating,  foreign players before.  O'Leary, for all his faults, persuaded Laursen to move from Milan, and brought Bouma in from regular CL football at PSV.  Baros was still a fairly big name when we signed him as well, although he came from within the UK.  Carew was also happy to come, but we probably only got him because O'Neill wanted shot of Baros.  Modric was not the finished article when Spurs signed him, and I reckon could have been picked up by the likes of us. VDV I'm less sure, he's a bit of a playboy by all accounts, and may be a bright lights boy.  Fellaini went to Everton, so why not us, isntead of,say, Sidwell? Odemwingie went to WBA, and while not amazing, surely a better investment than Harewood or Heskey?  Wigan managed to unearth Palacios and Valencia.   I don't see why O'Neill could not have signed similar calibre players from abroad - or at least tried.  If he had money to try and sign MgGeady for 10m as was rumoured, why not a player from abroad, probably on half the wages?

[Concrete John]

No judgements like that should be made based on one game

last 6 games, last 10 games, the season to date. I'd form the same judgement to be honest.

Yes, but would a thumping 6 nil win change your mind about him?

That's why I think any declaration of 'make or break' games are ridiculous.

[cheltenhamlion]

Pauline, with the way we have played at times this year, a pre match beverage or six is about the only way I can get through the torture!

[Chico Hamilton III]

Yes, but would a thumping 6 nil win change your mind about him?

Not really. My opinion that he should be sacked wasn't formed on the basis of a single result and my opinion won't be reversed by a single result.

I think he should go, simple as that.

He may very well be a nice bloke but they said that about Graham Turner

[pauliewalnuts]

Yes, but would a thumping 6 nil win change your mind about him?

Not really. My opinion that he should be sacked wasn't formed on the basis of a single result and my opinion won't be reversed by a single result.

I think he should go, simple as that.

He may very well be a nice bloke but they said that about Graham Turner

That's the thing, innit, even if you ignore subjective things like the style of football, the perceived negativity etc etc, and look purely at our record this season, you see this: P25 W6 D10 L9, and we're in 15th place.

That's nothing like good enough.

When he was appointed, those of us who were convinced this was a bad idea were frequently told that it was purely because of him coming from Blues.

Some of us pointed out that we were most worried about his record for piss poor performance in the Premier League, and lo and behold, what have we seen? Piss poor results.

Then you could look at the subjective thing, many of us also pointed out that he had a proven record for playing terrible negative football. Lo and behold, we've also seen plenty of that as well.

Not good enough on either count, I'm afraid.

Oh, and yes, you could look at this time last season and suggest we weren't much better then - the difference is, we've not had the worst run of injuries in living memory like we did last season, and this time around we've had a £24m international striker for the whole season.

We don't have Young or Downing either, but we've replaced at least one of them - or tried to - and that's not looking too convincing, either.

[andyh]

Good post paulie.
And, remember, he inherted a much,much better squad here than he left there and he still can't get the results ! 

[N'ZMAV]

Yes, but would a thumping 6 nil win change your mind about him?

Not really. My opinion that he should be sacked wasn't formed on the basis of a single result and my opinion won't be reversed by a single result.

I think he should go, simple as that.

He may very well be a nice bloke but they said that about Graham Turner

It wouldn't be a single result, it would be the straw that broke the camel's back against probably the worst side in the league...

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Yes, but would a thumping 6 nil win change your mind about him?

Not really. My opinion that he should be sacked wasn't formed on the basis of a single result and my opinion won't be reversed by a single result.

I think he should go, simple as that.

He may very well be a nice bloke but they said that about Graham Turner

That's the thing, innit, even if you ignore subjective things like the style of football, the perceived negativity etc etc, and look purely at our record this season, you see this: P25 W6 D10 L9, and we're in 15th place.

That's nothing like good enough.

When he was appointed, those of us who were convinced this was a bad idea were frequently told that it was purely because of him coming from Blues.

Some of us pointed out that we were most worried about his record for piss poor performance in the Premier League, and lo and behold, what have we seen? Piss poor results.

Then you could look at the subjective thing, many of us also pointed out that he had a proven record for playing terrible negative football. Lo and behold, we've also seen plenty of that as well.

Not good enough on either count, I'm afraid.

Oh, and yes, you could look at this time last season and suggest we weren't much better then - the difference is, we've not had the worst run of injuries in living memory like we did last season, and this time around we've had a £24m international striker for the whole season.

We don't have Young or Downing either, but we've replaced at least one of them - or tried to - and that's not looking too convincing, either.

Nah.
You don't like him because he managed the Dog shit.

(Leaps behind sofa)

[Dave Clark Five]

If things carry on the way they have been the last couple of days, the percentage voting against will sneak above 40%.