AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'll have 20 quid with you he's here for the start of next season if you fancy, Mark?

You do realise how crap you are at betting, don't you?

It's a money where mouth is gesture.

He'll be our manager next season.

[brian green]

No brainer really.   Lerner and Faulkner will not act while the fans are so crushed and down.      They will act when the fans' anger boils over which I estimate will be in or around November of this year.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I'll have 20 quid with you he's here for the start of next season if you fancy, Mark?

You do realise how crap you are at betting, don't you?

It's a money where mouth is gesture.

He'll be our manager next season.

Well, if you insist. I'll donate my winnings to my beer fund next time I'm over.

I'm with Brian on this one, the board will react only when the fans get angry, the only difference is I don't think the patience will last the until the end of the season. Add to that the poor uptake on season ticket sales, it really is a no brainer.

[Greg N'Ash]

He'll stay unless we look like going down. He was brought in to keep us up while they finish rationalisation/asset stripping. Going down would wreck those plans so i think Lerner would pull the plug - i just can't see it happening while we're in the sort of league postion we are currently. One of the reasons why mcliesh probably keeps mentioning about not competing with elite clubs etc., is he has a fuller picture of what budget he has to work with this summer and knows its gonna get a lot worse

[paul_e]

I'll have 20 quid with you he's here for the start of next season if you fancy, Mark?

You do realise how crap you are at betting, don't you?

It's a money where mouth is gesture.

He'll be our manager next season.

Well, if you insist. I'll donate my winnings to my beer fund next time I'm over.

I'm with Brian on this one, the board will react only when the fans get angry, the only difference is I don't think the patience will last the until the end of the season. Add to that the poor uptake on season ticket sales, it really is a no brainer.

Agreed, I just can't see Faulkner and Lerner being naive enough to carry on with things if it carries on as is.  I genuinely think that we need another win in the next 2-3 games for him to make it to the end of the season.  I just can't accept the board being so stupid as to think it's a good idea to carry on with things if there's no improvement from here.

[London Villan]

Our managerial movements over the past 18months have cost the club the best part of £15m... there is no way we can afford to sack him and his team...

[Des Little]

Eck will be here next season, no matter what happens (said with a heavy heart).

[Greg N'Ash]

15m is a drop in the ocean to what they're looking to save. all that bollocks about the salaries was just a smokescreen. The likes of heskey, Petrov and co will bugger off in the summer and they won't be replaced by any more than low or free transfer players. The only chance of someone coming in on a decent fee will be if Bent is sold which i reckon is odds on. Just look at the team numbers. Can you EVER remember a time in the last 25 years where our total experienced reserves were a keeper,  a centre half, and a striker? Utter madness.

[TheSandman]

Please god not Curbishley. His football's no better and he makes Mcleish look charismatic. Everytime he used to be interviewed he looked like he hated being a football manager. Guaranteed to suck the little remaining enthusiasm out of the fans that guy.

Agreed. Despise him. He was apparently firmly in the frame when we appointed Houllier. *Shudder*

If we sack McLeish, as bad as he has been, I'd prefer us not to cling onto the first doomed lifeboat off the ship. Rather, I want us to appoint the right man for Aston Villa.

[Dave Clark Five]

'Difficult job' is how Gary Neville describes what McLeish has to deal with.

[cheltenhamlion]

How much, Mark? I will take some action on Paulie's bet.

[Greg N'Ash]

'Difficult job' is how Gary Neville describes what McLeish has to deal with.

a talent for understatment that man. Its a hell of a job for anyone i reckon. If we were 6 points higher the knives would still be out because the decline has been too rapid and it doesn't seem that long ago we were half decent, but really that team there's nothing left of it... just the old men, the mistakes and the kids

[paul_e]

'Difficult job' is how Gary Neville describes what McLeish has to deal with.

a talent for understatment that man. Its a hell of a job for anyone i reckon. If we were 6 points higher the knives would still be out because the decline has been too rapid and it doesn't seem that long ago we were half decent, but really that team there's nothing left of it... just the old men, the mistakes and the kids

So do you think he's got the best out the players we have then?

Do you think relying on a loanee with a terrible injury record as our main man in midfield and loaning out a guy who'd played 8 games was sensible management?

Do you think blowing his entire budget on a winger and then having no idea how to use him was good management?

Do you think every side above us in the league has a better team/squad than we have?

If you can honestly say yes to all of those then I'll accept that's he's infallible and has had a really difficult job, if not then it's all a smoke screen to cover poor performance, mostly to allow you to focus the blame squarely on the owner for not being rich enough to carry on putting money in after the £200m that has already been spent.

Slagging Lerner for making mistakes in judgement is fine, slagging him over financing is uncalled for in my opinion.

[Toronto Villa]

I'm with Paulie on this one. To sack him flies in the face of the bigger objective of cost stabilisation. Unless of course the alternative is that keeping him would cost the club more. That is an interesting question. Does the current negative feeling cost more than the overall plan, and in essence does it derail it?

[villadelph]

I'm with Paulie on this one. To sack him flies in the face of the bigger objective of cost stabilisation. Unless of course the alternative is that keeping him would cost the club more. That is an interesting question. Does the current negative feeling cost more than the overall plan, and in essence does it derail it?

You mention our cost-cutting objective but don't mention that we paid for this guy. In adopting a new economical strategy we completely disregarded it for arguably the most important position in the club.