AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[N'ZMAV]

fair point.

[TonyD]

Yes it's RL fault he was given the job with budget restrictions but a half decent manager would have done a much better job.  He has been awful.   "Most " fans are far from applauding him.  My god. 

[NeilH]

Yes it's RL fault he was given the job with budget restrictions but a half decent manager would have done a much better job.  He has been awful.   "Most " fans are far from applauding him.  My god. 

Most fans are not the people who inhabit this and indeed any message board and by most I meant press, people in the game and neutrals alike who believe that given the brief he has been given, he’s done a decent enough job.

Do you honestly believe that had we got Martinez, or Lambert or **insert flavour of the month here** we’d be much better off?

[Concrete John]

It's also worth that noting that points wise we aren't a million miles away from what could only be described as a reasonable league position, given the restraints we has been working under.  With safety all but secured, we should be letting him see where he can actually get us to finish and then judging him on a full seasons work.

[andyh]

Yes it's RL fault he was given the job with budget restrictions but a half decent manager would have done a much better job.  He has been awful.   "Most " fans are far from applauding him.  My god. 

Most fans are not the people who inhabit this and indeed any message board and by most I meant press, people in the game and neutrals alike who believe that given the brief he has been given, he’s done a decent enough job.

Do you honestly believe that had we got Martinez, or Lambert or **insert flavour of the month here** we’d be much better off?

well, we'll never know the answer to that will we.
But, what we do know is getting to where we are now has been far more painful than it should have been.
I really struggle to understand why people think that AM will suddenly change into a manger who plays attractive, flowing football; will sign quality players on the cheap and will make us a force in the game a game.

He has absolutely no track record of ever doing it before, so what magic wand has suddenly been flashed that means he will do it from hereonin ?? The win over Fulham ??
   

[Dave Clark Five]

Now that we look to be safe - I cannot see even us losing ground to 11 points.  I think it is the perfect time to get rid of this truly awful manager.  We can put Sid in charge and starting looking for a new manager.  We can take our time and do it properly.   This would be the sensible thing to do.

I believe even Sid would find that ridiculous.

Well Sid or KM.   The point is that we have seen what AM is capabale of over the last 7 months and indeed during his previous roles to know he is NEVER going to be the right manager for us.  So now would be the right time to get rid and start looking.   But football chairmen rarely do the right thing.

Sid and KM are doing the job that McLeish put them in to do; looking after the kids and advising on their capabilities etc. Neither has got  a track record as a first team manager and may prefer to be as they are. Better the devil you know, is my view in this case. I think they are doing a good job between them and will only get better. If it had not been for the young players, we would have been in the shit but I think we would have had money to spend if that had been the case. As it happens, I think we are better off developing those that we have. If we had not played those kids, we would possibly have lost them to someone else. The value of them is immeasurable at this stage but time is on their side and they are ours. We will need to buy in the next transfer window but what a wealth of experience those lads have gained.
In summary - leave things as they are is my recommendation. I am more confident about this now than at any other point of the season.

[Concrete John]

I really struggle to understand why people think that AM will suddenly change into a manger who plays attractive, flowing football; will sign quality players on the cheap and will make us a force in the game a game.

I don't, and never have, expected a free flowing side from him.  But I did expect one that was organised, difficult to beat and picked up a fair few 1-0 wins.  Think George Graham's Arsenal.  That's what his good spell at Blues (9th in the league & cup win) and Scotland sides were like.

As for signings, he picked up little known players for them down the road like Zarate, Dann & Johnson, so I think he'll do Ok in that department.

[NeilH]

And I’ll struggle to understand why anyone believes McLeish is specifically to blame for where we are right now and that his departure would change things considerably for the better.

If you want to find blame, then blame Lerner for allowing MON to run the club like his own personal fiefdom and then blame the spiteful sh** for walking out on us just before a season was due to start, when he was told to rein in the excesses

[andyh]

I really struggle to understand why people think that AM will suddenly change into a manger who plays attractive, flowing football; will sign quality players on the cheap and will make us a force in the game a game.

I don't, and never have, expected a free flowing side from him.  But I did expect one that was organised, difficult to beat and picked up a fair few 1-0 wins.  Think George Graham's Arsenal.  That's what his good spell at Blues (9th in the league & cup win) and Scotland sides were like.

As for signings, he picked up little known players for them down the road like Zarate, Dann & Johnson, so I think he'll do Ok in that department.

John, it seems expectations for our club are getting lower and lower by the day.

[Concrete John]

I really struggle to understand why people think that AM will suddenly change into a manger who plays attractive, flowing football; will sign quality players on the cheap and will make us a force in the game a game.

I don't, and never have, expected a free flowing side from him.  But I did expect one that was organised, difficult to beat and picked up a fair few 1-0 wins.  Think George Graham's Arsenal.  That's what his good spell at Blues (9th in the league & cup win) and Scotland sides were like.

As for signings, he picked up little known players for them down the road like Zarate, Dann & Johnson, so I think he'll do Ok in that department.

John, it seems expectations for our club are getting lower and lower by the day.

Yeah, what was I thinking comparing what I expect of the manager to a title winning outfit!

[NeilH]

I really struggle to understand why people think that AM will suddenly change into a manger who plays attractive, flowing football; will sign quality players on the cheap and will make us a force in the game a game.

I don't, and never have, expected a free flowing side from him.  But I did expect one that was organised, difficult to beat and picked up a fair few 1-0 wins.  Think George Graham's Arsenal.  That's what his good spell at Blues (9th in the league & cup win) and Scotland sides were like.

As for signings, he picked up little known players for them down the road like Zarate, Dann & Johnson, so I think he'll do Ok in that department.

John, it seems expectations for our club are getting lower and lower by the day.

Its a cold hard reality when you are haemorrhaging money and need to stop it fast.

[pauliewalnuts]

I really struggle to understand why people think that AM will suddenly change into a manger who plays attractive, flowing football; will sign quality players on the cheap and will make us a force in the game a game.

I don't, and never have, expected a free flowing side from him.  But I did expect one that was organised, difficult to beat and picked up a fair few 1-0 wins.  Think George Graham's Arsenal.  That's what his good spell at Blues (9th in the league & cup win) and Scotland sides were like.

I can accept a side that loses but tries to play a bit of football. I'll never accept us being sent out like we have under McLeish in a lot of matches this season to go for a draw, then on going a goal down, to keep the score down.

It's true, lots of results this season have been about the players more than the manager, but in a number of matches, tactically we were (to quote the Guardian after the Man U game) an ambiton-free disgrace, and that is the fault of the manager, not the players.

When we got him in as manager, I thought (and wrote in the fanzine at the time) that the worst thing he could do would be to send us out to play negatively and defensively like he did so often with his Blues team, and far too many times this season that's exactly what he has done.

I'm (of course) glad and incredibly relieved we got three points on Saturday, it lifts a great deal of pressure off us and lets us take a breather before we approach the next batch of games, but the real telling thing about McLeish won't be that he beat Fulham or how we gets on against Bolton next week, it'll be about how he sends us out to play against the "big" teams we still have to face.

If he sends us out to be as embarassingly negative as he had before, then he'll piss away the slight upturn in goodwill he has got / may get if we beat Bolton. You'd think he'd be hesitatnt to do that, but that's exactly what he did after we beat Chelsea and had a similar opportunity.

[N'ZMAV]

I wouldn't want KM or Sid to move on from their current roles,  they're doing too good a job.

[Chico Hamilton III]

And I’ll struggle to understand why anyone believes McLeish is specifically to blame for where we are right now and that his departure would change things considerably for the better.

If you want to find blame, then blame Lerner for allowing MON to run the club like his own personal fiefdom and then blame the spiteful sh** for walking out on us just before a season was due to start, when he was told to rein in the excesses

But you can't really blame Lerner for playing Heskey in left midfield and you can't blame him for some truly baffling substitutions. And you can't blame O'Neill for the way the entire team surrendered at, for example, Spurs.

We got a win on Saturday which was great and very very long overdue. Let's not get carried away though.

I agree that Lerner must take a huge amount of blame though for choosing McLeish in the first place. A manager that I'm sure no Villa fan would have actually wanted 

[NeilH]

And I’ll struggle to understand why anyone believes McLeish is specifically to blame for where we are right now and that his departure would change things considerably for the better.

If you want to find blame, then blame Lerner for allowing MON to run the club like his own personal fiefdom and then blame the spiteful sh** for walking out on us just before a season was due to start, when he was told to rein in the excesses

But you can't really blame Lerner for playing Heskey in left midfield and you can't blame him for some truly baffling substitutions. And you can't blame O'Neill for the way the entire team surrendered at, for example, Spurs.

We got a win on Saturday which was great and very very long overdue. Let's not get carried away though.

I agree that Lerner must take a huge amount of blame though for choosing McLeish in the first place. A manager that I'm sure no Villa fan would have actually wanted 

Look, I’m not saying that McLeish is faultless and as John pointed out I too expected more of a George Graham approach to winning games. However, I do believe that some of the vitriol spewed on here of late has totally distracted from the root of the problem and the grim forecast for next season.

If the club is determined to be wage neutral next year and the anticipated fall in attendances comes to fruition then McLeish’s job of working with one hand tied behind his back is just going to get that much more difficult. Even trying to emulate George Graham’s Arsenal may be a step too far and I fail to see how anyone could improve things.