AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[Concrete John]

Well, I might be alone in the view, and certainly don't agree with his beliefs, but the Eileen Drewry thing wasn't why he lost his job with England - the disabled/past life stuff was.  If you look at some of the religous threads in the Off Topic section, people can get offended by the idea of someone praying for them.  If an England manager said he would be remembering (easy example as it's recent) Petrov in his prayers, should he lose his job over it?

I think not, as we can't say we live in a society with religous freedom and then say someone should lose their job over what they believe.   

[Chico Hamilton III]

sorry, not sure what happened there

[Dante Lavelli]

I would get rid of the traditional manager role completely.  Appoint Southgate to continue his England role but with Villa (also to work alongside the board) and appoint a coach to run the first team.  All parties should  have a shared vision of how football should be played and the club should be structured in a way to facilitate that vision.

Sounds daft but you could even get Cruff in as a consultant like that Mexican team have done (or Klinnsman in Canada?).  They could easily advise someone like Southgate on how the lower levels of the club should be structured.  Whereas at the moment he'd be talking to Faulkner (not a football man) or McLeish who'd see it as a threat to his job.

[Risso]

Well, I might be alone in the view, and certainly don't agree with his beliefs, but the Eileen Drewry thing wasn't why he lost his job with England - the disabled/past life stuff was.  If you look at some of the religous threads in the Off Topic section, people can get offended by the idea of someone praying for them.  If an England manager said he would be remembering (easy example as it's recent) Petrov in his prayers, should he lose his job over it?

I think not, as we can't say we live in a society with religous freedom and then say someone should lose their job over what they believe.   

You're missing the point.  He's free to believe what he likes, but when it tips over into being offensive about disabled people then he can expect to lose his job.  Just like we have freedom of speech, but Suarez was banned for making racist comments.  It's not that hard a concept is it?

[villadelph]

If the Board don't put pressure on him his motivation to succeed will never rise. Put his head on the chopping block an force this square to get results. This lackadaisical approach, and blaming hard luck is nonsense. You couldn't see off a League 1 side, Alex. Get it together, you've had thirty games and no where within this span has this club showed any signs of improvement.

You don't know how to win, simple as.

[JUAN PABLO]

The who will we get instead argument drives me mad.

It's a worldwide sport with thousands of professional coaches and managers, finding one who will get us playing decent football for less wages and with links to bring in a few decent players really isn't that hard.

Look top half of the league in holland, sweden, norway, france, belgium - you'll find 10-15 good managers in amongst that lot, most earning less than a quarter of what McLeish is on.  We need to get away from the premier league experience restriction, but as UK based fans of course we, the fans, are going to look at UK based managers and see very few decent options, the club should be much more capable of conducting a thorough search.

Great post.
One that should be quoted out everytime someone spouts, 'but we can't get rid of him because there is no-one to replace him with'. 

+1

[VillaBobby]

I also think it's unfair to judge his football credentials on his religous views, however strange we may find them. 

I don't.  I wouldn't give the job to somebody who came out with racist views, so why should somebody who makes offensive remarks about disabled people get away with it.  The logical extension of Hoddle's comments is that anybody with an illness or disability is paying for their deeds in a previous life, so that includes people like our very own Petrov.  I'm not a fan of McLeish as you may have gathered, but at least he's just a shit football manager.  Hoddle for me is as offensive as KKKenny.

You may not agree with his views but you cannot prove if they were correct or not, nor can he.

His views may seem incredibly difficult to comprehend but so is all religion.

I don't agree with Christianity but I wouldn't deny the club an opportunity of employing a good manager because of my personal beliefs, or not as the case may be.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I'd rather not have him here upsetting the Raspberries and sprinkling crystals on the pitch.

I also don't think our players would take too kindly to his methods.

'Ah Richard Dunne, I can see from your aura that you eat cake.'

[Legion]

Ah, he has a degree in stating the bleeding obvious!

[VillaBobby]

I'd rather not have him here upsetting the Raspberries and sprinkling crystals on the pitch.

I also don't think our players would take too kindly to his methods.

'Ah Richard Dunne, I can see from your aura that you eat cake.'

Richard I can see into your spirit, unfortunately it comes in 25ml measures and is accompanied by a pint of lager and precedes a kebab.

[john e]

i think he may have had a change of heart with his beliefs, you dont hear him sounding of anymore,
think it may have been just a funny phaze he was going through

[VillaBobby]

i think he may have had a change of heart with his beliefs, you dont hear him sounding of anymore,
think it may have been just a funny phaze he was going through

Maybe he was paying the price for his errors in a former life?

[john e]

i think he may have had a change of heart with his beliefs, you dont hear him sounding of anymore,
think it may have been just a funny phaze he was going through

Maybe he was paying the price for his errors in a former life?

you mean the 'Mullet'

[The Man With A Stick]

The problem with Hoddle is that all those players in the mid '90s really respected him because they grew up watching him.  The kids playing now just remember him as that nutter who did OK at France '98 and then went batshit crazy.

[Greg N'Ash]

well if the handicapped are being punished for sins in a previous life then what the hell did we do? mebbe the entire Villa support are reborn SS Stormtroopers....