AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[Jimbo]

Things are going to have to get very desperate or very hostile for Randy to sack McLeish.

[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?

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.

In hiring him it would have taken the cost cutting objective in consideration. The risk was obviously if he didn't work out outside of the club's criteria for hiring him. I can't imagine that everyone at the club is unified in their thoughts about this heading into the summer. If the rest of the season is utterly bollocks, then it will have to be raised as a genuine question as to whether to keep him or not. Whether to invest in his transfer targets knowing the following could be like this one with all of the dark clouds that come with it. It might be considered financial suicide to keep the status quo.

[bertlambshank]

Down down,deeper on down.

[cheltenhamlion]

He will be here next season. I have no doubt about that.

[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

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

this team at its best is mid-table, probably 10th, so we should be a few points higher. Performance wise has been poor but again how many mid-table teams play great football regulary?

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?

Would have kept Makoun and wouldn't have bought in Jenas, but there's plenty on here who think Makoun wasn't good enough

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

Probably not.the guy is highly overrated in my book, and we got screwed paying anything like what we did. I don't think its a case of not using him properly, more one of him not being very good. But all managers make transfer mistakes, trouble with us if mcleish makes a balls-up we have to play the rubbish he's bought, MON just stuck them in the reserves and hoped we'd forget about them

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

Most of them yes, in terms of attitude and a good few below us. Technically we're probably mid-table as I said earlier. Squad-depth wise we're probably not far off worse in the league

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.

i think we have every right to slag him off for financing if its now affecting the team adversely - no-one on here is asking for him to go on another spending spree, just to provide the basics like a reserve team and a transfer budget where at least we get to spend what we raise even if there's no new money. Yes he put lot of money in but but no-one asked him to buy us. Thats the deal, he gets the prestige of owning a big club, he provides the money to run it as a big club. If thats too much to ask he should sod off

[john e]

He will be here next season. I have no doubt about that.

i have said he will have to go,
 i wouldnt be supprised if he went before next season but certainly in my view before Christmas which i suppose is only 9 months off.
if he does start next season and things carry on in a downward fashion as most fans expect, there is no way he will be able to hang on,

 i still think he'l struggle to see this season out to be honest, but given the manner in which he came and Randy forking out the money to get him it might have given him a bit of leway, but it wont last till the end of the year, something will have to give

[Lowendbehold]

He will be here next season. I have no doubt about that.

You are right I think.

If we get in new players, Bent & Delph are fit, the kids will be a year older and importantly certain old guard players move on and so does N'Zogbia who I think is trouble; we might start winning some games.  If we do, much but not all of what is being said here will go away.

A few ifs there, but not impossible.

[Dave Clark Five]

Until Lerner has the opportunity to let McLeish buy new players, what is the point of harping on about it? We are in the shit and we know it but the staeting eleven will soon pick itself due to availability. We are getting desperate when we blame N'Zogbia's injury for our problems. He had half a season where he was fit and did very little.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

'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?

this team at its best is mid-table, probably 10th, so we should be a few points higher. Performance wise has been poor but again how many mid-table teams play great football regulary?

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?

Would have kept Makoun and wouldn't have bought in Jenas, but there's plenty on here who think Makoun wasn't good enough

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

Probably not.the guy is highly overrated in my book, and we got screwed paying anything like what we did. I don't think its a case of not using him properly, more one of him not being very good. But all managers make transfer mistakes, trouble with us if mcleish makes a balls-up we have to play the rubbish he's bought, MON just stuck them in the reserves and hoped we'd forget about them

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

Most of them yes, in terms of attitude and a good few below us. Technically we're probably mid-table as I said earlier. Squad-depth wise we're probably not far off worse in the league

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.

i think we have every right to slag him off for financing if its now affecting the team adversely - no-one on here is asking for him to go on another spending spree, just to provide the basics like a reserve team and a transfer budget where at least we get to spend what we raise even if there's no new money. Yes he put lot of money in but but no-one asked him to buy us. Thats the deal, he gets the prestige of owning a big club, he provides the money to run it as a big club. If thats too much to ask he should sod off

That's a bold statement.

[Lowendbehold]

He will be here next season. I have no doubt about that.

i have said he will have to go,
 i wouldnt be supprised if he went before next season but certainly in my view before Christmas which i suppose is only 9 months off.
if he does start next season and things carry on in a downward fashion as most fans expect, there is no way he will be able to hang on,

 i still think he'l struggle to see this season out to be honest, but given the manner in which he came and Randy forking out the money to get him it might have given him a bit of leway, but it wont last till the end of the year, something will have to give

If he's here next season and come November we are top 6 he will stay.  If we are bottom 4 or 5 the demand for him to go will be defining and irresistible. It's the bit in-between that's worrying.

[Greg N'Ash]

Its not even money Lerner's spent really. Its all loans he can claim back from the club if he wants to and judging  from the fee's going out thats exactly what he's doing

[Dave Clark Five]

Its not even money Lerner's spent really. Its all loans he can claim back from the club if he wants to and judging  from the fee's going out thats exactly what he's doing

That is one bit that I have never been easy with.

[andrew08]

Its not even money Lerner's spent really. Its all loans he can claim back from the club if he wants to and judging  from the fee's going out thats exactly what he's doing

Thats slightly harsh. Of course it's all loans, yes we'd be in the shite if he wanted it back but he'd be even more so as his investment would be worth jack. Those loans will only ever be repaid if he sells and even then possibly not.

[Greg N'Ash]

Its not even money Lerner's spent really. Its all loans he can claim back from the club if he wants to and judging  from the fee's going out thats exactly what he's doing

Thats slightly harsh. Of course it's all loans, yes we'd be in the shite if he wanted it back but he'd be even more so as his investment would be worth jack. Those loans will only ever be repaid if he sells and even then possibly not.

prety sure they have actual dates they have to be paid back by. its not like ambramovich where its basically a free gift with no repayment date. and if they didn't then why have the club paid some of it back in the accounts?

[Mazrim]

The terms of his trust fund will determine when the loans have to be repaid but then its just how he's chosen to finance Villa. It's unreasonable to expect Villa to be financed without any regard to losses. Not from Lerner anyway. He's rich but not a bottomless pit.

I'm critical of his decisions in terms of appointments and giving MON carte blanche with finances but not his financial commitment. Nor do I think there's anything sinister in wanting Villa to stop bleeding money beyond and semblance of sustainability.