AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[KevinGage]

Any creativity or skill Makoun had, would have been wrung out of him by Mcpieceofshit.

I think Makoun has had a lucky escape.

In more positive moments I try to think ahead to next season, and what a decent manager might get out of a midfield containing the likes of Delph, Bannan, Albrighton, Clark, Ireland, Gardner, N'Zog and Makoun.   We could probably do with a genuine CM, true.  Particularly with Stan's illness.  But there is already plenty to work with there.

However, when I think of McLeish still being here -as looks likely- that positivity plummets at a rate of knotts.

[KevinGage]

Serious thought... Do you think McLeish is actually trying to get himself the sack? Surely he knows he's making a right pigs ear of the job and he'll know how the comments went down last year when Houllier had his Liverpool love in, he'll get nothing for walking out on his £2m a year contract but if he's sacked he'll get a pay off.

I did wonder that after the Arsenal game.

He knows how much stick he'd have taken for starting with Heskey.   Maybe he knows it's doomed to failure here and just wants the hammer to come down as soon as possible. With a big pay off in his skyrocket, naturally.

[andyh]

"The young lions have come to the Theatre of Dreams, the champions, a world-class club side playing against people like Scholes thinking can we get close to them, can we stop them playing?


He really is the reincarnate of DOL.  I've never heard a Manager use the terms 'Theatre of Dreams' before and I hope I never do again.   

If he has a future at VP then we have no future in the PL.

Haha. That's a good one. For a moment there i thought that was a genuine quote! You were joking right?

He did stop short of calling him Scholsey....he does have SOME respect.

[Irish villain]

Dixon just said mcleish is doing a good job. That's reassured me I'm of to sleep well tonight.

That's why I've watched MOTD about three times this season.

We really are a long suffering group of supporters. Up steps Dixon to add insult to injury.

[Pete3206]

I sincerely hope that the future of Alex McCleish sees him bringing his next club to Villa Park for an absolute tonking, because I would relish any fixture with a club managed by this absolute disaster of a man.

[Stu]

"The young lions have come to the Theatre of Dreams, the champions, a world-class club side playing against people like Scholes thinking can we get close to them, can we stop them playing?

Did he really say that?

[Stu]

Unfortunately not.

We're there to make up the numbers then. Cannon fodder for the richer clubs.

[not3bad]

Dixon just said mcleish is doing a good job. That's reassured me I'm of to sleep well tonight.

That's why I've watched MOTD about three times this season.

We really are a long suffering group of supporters. Up steps Dixon to add insult to injury.

Just to humour me, what arguments did Dixon use to back up this assertion?

[caster troy]

I felt sick when he was appointed and the feeling has only gotten worse. I simply cannot wait till he's gone, it'll be a moment of pure joy when I read it on Twitter.*

* Invariably this is how 'big' news reaches me these days.

[AV82EC]

It feels to me like banner time.

We're not fickle, we think you're boring.

We're not fickle, we're mind numbingly bored to tears.

Suck the life out of someone else's club.

Randy.....Randy.......where are you?

[James]

Guys rather than going round in circles all agreeing on how shit Eck is,  we need to start coming up with ways we can help get rid of him. Lerner has to take alot of blame for all this but we can't do anything to get rid of him so we have unite to force action. I don't know how , that's one for the ideas people but we have to do something. Our football team has become a laughing stock and it hurts seeing this happen to our club!

The best way is to simply not go, not renew your season tickets, then Lerner and Co. will take note, but judging at the speed some on here have been renewing season tickets with at least one section of the ground sold out already, that seems to be a bit of a long shot! Their choice of course, not questioning them, but if people are happy parting with their money to watch what's on offer why will Lerner care?

[Dave Cooper please]

The best way is to simply not go, not renew your season tickets, then Lerner and Co. will take note, but judging at the speed some on here have been renewing season tickets with at least one section of the ground sold out already, that seems to be a bit of a long shot! Their choice of course, not questioning them, but if people are happy parting with their money to watch what's on offer why will Lerner care?

Some people are just fans though. They know it's awful but that's not the point.
Why do people go to watch teams like Portsmouth or Bradford or Plymouth or Luton or Darlington? They have all had times much worse than us recently and in some cases it's still going downhill, but they turn up, they watch and they support because they are fans.
I sometimes think we have been a bit spoiled by our continuous membership of the Premier League since football began, as soon as it looks like it's going a bit pear-shaped we all start looking for the cyanide pills!

[tomd2103]

Any creativity or skill Makoun had, would have been wrung out of him by Mcpieceofshit.

I think Makoun has had a lucky escape.

In more positive moments I try to think ahead to next season, and what a decent manager might get out of a midfield containing the likes of Delph, Bannan, Albrighton, Clark, Ireland, Gardner, N'Zog and Makoun.   We could probably do with a genuine CM, true.  Particularly with Stan's illness.  But there is already plenty to work with there.

However, when I think of McLeish still being here -as looks likely- that positivity plummets at a rate of knotts.

Don't share your enthusiasm about our midfield options I'm afraid.  The midfield has been a real weakness this season and is the part of the team that needs the most additions in my opinion.  Although he wasn't the greatest player to ever wear the Claret and Blue, I think not offering Reo-Coker another deal last summer was a mistake.  I thought he was one of our best players last season and we have missed his tenacity i the midfield this season.  I think Makoun and Ireland will move on in the summer (Ireland's showed what he can do in patches this season, but is he worth the reported £80,000 a week he is being paid?) which leaves a group of young players who might not even make the grade in the Premiership.   I hope N'Zogbia can come good, but I think we are going to need at least two new central midfielders and one new right midfielder.

[N'Zimidy]

Don't share your enthusiasm about our midfield options I'm afraid.  The midfield has been a real weakness this season and is the part of the team that needs the most additions in my opinion.  Although he wasn't the greatest player to ever wear the Claret and Blue, I think not offering Reo-Coker another deal last summer was a mistake.  I thought he was one of our best players last season and we have missed his tenacity i the midfield this season.  I think Makoun and Ireland will move on in the summer (Ireland's showed what he can do in patches this season, but is he worth the reported £80,000 a week he is being paid?) which leaves a group of young players who might not even make the grade in the Premiership.   I hope N'Zogbia can come good, but I think we are going to need at least two new central midfielders and one new right midfielder.

I would say that the problem in our midfield this season comes down to Alex McLeish. He has completely drilled any movement our players have out of them. Watching the game today, players like Gardner would pick the ball up in midfield, have about three midfielders around him who are man-marked and because they're static, he just hoofs it up towards poor Gabby. It's also why more often than not we see Bannan on the wing, he cuts inside, looks completely lost, then either hit it 40 yards forward or get tackled while he's looking around for someone to pass to.

The thing that impressed me about Makoun was that he was always available to players. Whenever our midfielders or centre-backs didn't have any options open, they would ship it to Makoun and he would take one or two touches to send it to an open man. He had that bit of movement that makes himself available, that clearly none of our midfielders have at the moment.

I wouldn't say that Reo-Coker is too much of a loss this season, Herd and to a lesser extent Clark has fulfilled that role well. I would be loathe to buy more central midfielders, we have a lot at the club and we might as well play them ahead of cloggers like Jenas. Get in a new manager that actually can coach a bit of 8 year old football of pass and move and our midfield will be much more capable.

[Dante Lavelli]

The lack of realism pundits have with fans is incredible, and they go out of their way to protect each other. I would love to know what he thinks Eck is doing a good job at!

I also think it is also one of the perils of appointing ex-players as pundits and journalists.  They’re too close to the professionals and do not want to upset old mates etc.  For every "piece of behind scenes” insight (the secret footballer being a good example) there must be 100 occasions where their lack of journalistic nous has meant they have not asked the correct probing question, failed to do their research or not analysed the game properly.