AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[Dr.Feelgood]

No 'Lap of Honour' this Season...?
Why on earth not ?
Yeah, right...

[KevinGage]

Human nature I suppose.

Bloke takes the trouble to chat with you and maybe even share the occasional pint = you want to believe the best about him.

Personally, I'd like to think If I had just so happened to live near DOL when he was Villa manager and he knew me to speak to, I'd have still come to the conclusion that he was a shit manager.  But each to his own.

[villan from luton]

Was speaking to a Arsenal fan today and he said the performance of Villa today in the league at the Emirates was one of the worst he had seen for some time, had never met him before. I said McLeish was not disliked cos of his previous connections but because of the football his teams play. He said he hadnt even thought about it, but all his teams had played like that/ It is the press who have made it into the Blues ex manager thing

[tomd2103]

There are only three reasons not to sack McLeish this summer:

• He hasn't really had the tools to do what he is supposed to be good at: forming a tight defensive team who scrapes 0-0 draws and nicks 1-0 wins. For that, our midfield has been to weak and our defenders too unreliable.
• The board has proven to be useless at appointing managers. Better than to waste another £x millions in compensation and the like is to stick with the devil we know.
• Changing the manager every year is almost always detrimental to the fortunes of a club.

However, the fact remains that we are averaging about one point a game and one goal a game. That is truly woeful. Even though the squad is weak and expectations were low, he has underperformed massively.

My opinion is that even if McLeish is backed AND spends wisely, both big ifs, the best we can hope for is dull defensive football leading to mid-table safety. The worst is that our score of yet unproven (if talented) youngsters are complemented by hapless Bosmans and further waste of space like Hutton. In that case we'll be lucky if there are three teams as poor as Wolves, QPR and Blackburn again next season. Maybe we'll even descend to that level.

To me, that's a very thin upside and a very grim downside.

The backdrop is that I've never really rated McLeish as a manager: not as a judge of players (how many games did he need to realize that Delph isn't a PL central midfielder yet), not as a tactician (one-trick pony and almost lost if he cannot play that one trick) and not as a coach (how many players have improved greatly under the guidance of Big 'Eck?).

I'd pretty much agree with that.  As far as footballing style goes, I think McLeish is similar to Tony Pulis and that is the type of football he favours.  I accept Stoke have had the distraction of Europe this season, but they have spent quite a bit of money in the past few seasons without ever really troubling the European places and making any real progress.  You have to wonder if that is down to Pulis's approach and if that is all McLeish would ever really achieve.
 

[villadelph]

If Eck can't get goals out of Gabby, Ireland and N'Zogbia.. who would he be able to get goals out of? We can't solely rely on Darren Bent. We have no offensive presence and even though our defense has been god awful at times, we're capable of maintaining very low scoring games.

He can't coordinate on offense, simple as. Goals win you games, not "He's a nice bloke, here's three points." I want to win, not be laughed at.

[hawkeye]

Yep Pulis, Allardyce, MON, Mcleish, Mcarthy and Kean
all come from that school of thought that the only way you can compete is by employing negative anti football systems.

[villan from luton]

Allardyce was one of the first managers who employed verying techniques to keep the players fit to be honest

[Matt C]

Of his many failings I don't think you can acuse MON of 'anti-football'

[villadelph]

Of his many failings I don't think you can acuse MON of 'anti-football'

I agree. Whilst I despise him now, no matter how negative you could say the football was to me it was always had some sort of entertainment value. Now.. not so much.

On another note, I think I'm starting to get nervous for McLeish. He's probably already been told he's gone and he is going to get a proper hounding on Sunday. I guess they won't give up until they see him gone.

[villajk]

Mat Kendrick tweeted 'players lap of (dis) honour planned.

Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish will keep low profile at Villa Park - but players' lap of honour still planned
by Mat Kendrick, Birmingham MailMay


 Alex McLeish
ALEX McLeish will “keep his head down” in the dugout again tomorrow despite insisting returning to Villa Park holds no fear for him.


McLeish stayed on the bench for most of last Saturday’s draw at The Hawthorns and intends to do the same for the home match with Spurs.

It will be the first time he has stepped out at the stadium since he was booed and verbally abused after the defeat to Bolton.

And some fans are planning ‘McLeish Out’ protests at Villa Park tomorrow afternoon.


Asked if he would remain in the dugout or patrol the technical area, McLeish replied: “I’ll probably keep my head down and let the fans concentrate on supporting the players.

“It’s a new day. The last game was snatching a defeat from the jaws of victory so the fans are never going to be happy with that.

“So I accept that night and I take it on the chin. But I’ve no fears of walking back into the arena. I’m passionate about getting the right results at Villa Park.

“We are looking for a siege mentality and getting about Spurs.”

Villa’s players tend to do a lap of honour after their final home game of the season and McLeish would still like the claret and blues to uphold the tradition to show their appreciation to the fans.

“I would like to think the players will thank the fans for their support,” he added. “It should be a given.”





Read More http://www.birminghammail.net/birmingham-sport/aston-villa-fc/aston-villa-news/2012/05/05/aston-villa-boss-alex-mcleish-will-keep-low-profile-at-villa-park-but-players-lap-of-honour-still-planned-97319-30905221/#ixzz1tzUIqIpF

[KevinGage]

 


McLeish stayed on the bench for most of last Saturday’s draw at The Hawthorns and intends to do the same for the home match with Spurs.

It will be the first time he has stepped out at the stadium since he was booed and verbally abused after the defeat to Bolton.

And some fans are planning ‘McLeish Out’ protests at Villa Park tomorrow afternoon.


Asked if he would remain in the dugout or patrol the technical area, McLeish replied: “I’ll probably keep my head down and let the fans concentrate on supporting the players.

“It’s a new day. The last game was snatching a defeat from the jaws of victory so the fans are never going to be happy with that.

I wonder if he genuinely believes the reaction was based on just one match, and had absolutely nothing to do with the 34 before that.

[ozzjim]

The way he speaks he gives the impression it is a passing annoyance. Not sure if it is hope or complete ignorance.

[Eigentor]

The way he speaks he gives the impression it is a passing annoyance. Not sure if it is hope or complete ignorance.

He says what he has to say, doesn't he? He can't say: "Well, the team and I have been serving up shit results and awful football for the whole season, and losing at home against Bolton seemed to have been the final straw."

It has to be along the lines of "We lost against Bolton, so the fans are unhappy", with no mention of previous poor results (allthough if Bolton at home had been a blip, there wouldn't have been any need to mention his desire to get "the right results").

[VinnieChase84]

What annoys me about the whole 'snatching from jaws of victory' is that's it's absolute bollocks. We were winning for about 45seconds!! That's it! Hardly like everyone's comeback against united. I cannot eat till this fool has gone

[Ads]

We should have beat Bolton. You shouldn't lose a game when the opposition only have a minute and a half of the game.