AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[VILLA MOLE]

He'll go after the Norwich game. We'll win tomorrow and stay up with ease.

In a few months time we'll look back on these times and laugh.

No we won't.

yes we will, from the asylum

[Tom Sawyer]

He'll go after the Norwich game. We'll win tomorrow and stay up with ease.

In a few months time we'll look back on these times and laugh.

No we won't.

yes we will, from the asylum

We don't laugh about DOL. We just shiver.

[Brian Taylor]

Oh dear..Time to go and put a big bet on Spuds to win, I think!!  I never win!!

[Monty]

Listening to that Nursey saying he'll go as he 'never got goodwill from the Villa fans, obviously coming from Birmingham'. He even went so far as to say that 'any other manager would have got more patience from the fans' given the injury situation and the selling of Ash and Downing.

Firstly, what absolute, utter, unadulterated horse vomit. I would actually say that he's got more time than other managers because of fans determined to show that, in fact, we don't give a shit about the Blues connection. Plus, he is a decent guy, and it's never nice to see a decent guy fail, so we gave him more than a fair shake.

Secondly, it's time to address the issues of injuries and the loss of Ash and Downing. Yes, he's had injuries, but not for a great deal of the season - and when he had his full squad of seniors the football was, if anything, slightly worse. The youngsters have at least showed a lot of cajones, even if they're essentially being misled by poor tactics. They also have a manager constantly telling the press that they're not good enough and that the senior players will be straight back in when fit. That's not confidence building.

As for Downing and Young: sure, losing Ash was a blow, one we knew was coming but a blow nonetheless. However, we're all agreed that last season was not his best, and Ireland has proved himself better in the 'hole' than Ash ever was, even considering the scraps Ireland has lived off this season. I'd still rather have Ash on the wing than Ireland in the hole, but Ireland's rejuvenation this season should have been enough to counter it adequately, even if not completely - but he's had too little to go on due to our defensiveness

Downing last season essentially had his first good season in 6 years and has now reverted to anonymous type. Don't get me wrong, losing him on last season's form was unwelcome, but in terms of form over the last 2 years, N'Zogbia is, individually at least, replacing like-for-like, but better. However, for some reasons which the manager must take some responsibility for at least, he hasn't ever reached those heights here. The loss of those two players is not much of an excuse.

[Rigadon]

Well said Monty.   He's been given a decent crack of the whip by all but a minority of idiots.   Decent bloke though he is, it's been a shocker of a season and he should resign when the season is over. 

[Clampy]

Losing Ash and Downing was a blow but enough to be 3 points off relegation?

[Apyadg]

Losing Ash and Downing was a blow but enough to be 3 points off relegation?

Maybe.

Last year Downing scored 8 goals and 10 assists, Young got 10 and 15.

Albrighton, N'Zogbia and Ireland have 6 goals and 9 assists between them. All 3 of them don't even match up with Downing, never mind Young.

Of course, part of that is the negative tactics we use under McLeish, but the fact that we sold our best players, again, the season after we sold Milner, 2 years after we sold Barry...certainly didn't help.

There are managers who would do better than McLeish, and certainly many that are far less defeatist and irritating, but noone is going to get this club much higher than 10th with Lerner's current spending philosophy.

McLeish has to go, but it's not going to solve all of our problems.

[JJ-AV]

A win today and him to be gone by Tuesday evening would be ideal.

[IRISHPHIL]

losing ash and downing was a blow, but remeber we lost 24million pound striker , international defender and club captain
all adds up to why we have struggled.
however mcleish did not help himself at start of season because he said the defenders where there to defend set piece play and if they did not do their job he would drop them. they did not defend the set piece play and unfortunatley he did not follow up his promise to drop them

[Monty]

losing ash and downing was a blow, but remeber we lost 24million pound striker , international defender and club captain
all adds up to why we have struggled.
however mcleish did not help himself at start of season because he said the defenders where there to defend set piece play and if they did not do their job he would drop them. they did not defend the set piece play and unfortunatley he did not follow up his promise to drop them

He has no excuse for the football he played when they were fit though.

You are completely right about the set-pieces though. We've conceded more from set-pieces than anyone else this season and his first choice defence will still be Hutton-Collins-Dunne-Warnock - as it was at the start of the season.

[PaulWinch again]

A win today and him to be gone by Tuesday evening would be ideal.

Yes that'd be perfect.

[paul_e]

The problem with the 'sold young and downing so what do they expect' comment that we're hearing regularly now (mainly because they've realised the shit about being ex-blues has worn thin) is that yes we lost 2 good players but more importantly the player McLeish chose to replace their threat from wide has been a complete failure.  If nzogbia had 10 goals and assists no one would be talking about downing having gone.

In my opinion you need to score 25+ from midfield for a 451 formation to work - we've had 11 (in the league).  For the whole midfield to collectively fail to deliver suggests the problem isn't with the players, particularly given at least 2 of them have had double figures in the premier league in the recent past.

I'd also say that 10+ from the defence should be the target, I'm actually impressed they've managed 5 given the lack of a single goal from a corner.

I think the squad we have is capable of hitting those targets, if Bent then pushes close to 20 and gabby/heskey/weimann add another 10-15 we should be looking at 60-70 for the season.  The  problem is, our defenders will never get their target whilst we struggle to score from corners and our midfield will always fall short in a 'safety first, hold your position' system like we've seen.

Looking at the league this season there really is no excuse for not being top half, ninth and tenth are Fulham and West Brom, our squad is definitely as good as either of those so that's where we should be aiming.  To me that means we've dropped about 10 points because of the manager.

[Dave]

Looking at the league this season there really is no excuse for not being top half, ninth and tenth are Fulham and West Brom, our squad is definitely as good as either of those so that's where we should be aiming.  To me that means we've dropped about 10 points because of the manager.

I'd probably swap squads with Fulham right now.

[eastie]

Looking at the league this season there really is no excuse for not being top half, ninth and tenth are Fulham and West Brom, our squad is definitely as good as either of those so that's where we should be aiming.  To me that means we've dropped about 10 points because of the manager.

I'd probably swap squads with Fulham right now.

Our squad is poor-the jewels have gone and we are left with a couple of quality players and a lot of very average players at best-this squad needs a total overhaul whoever is in charge!

[ozzjim]

On paper we are still pretty decent if you look at the cold facts.

We look so disjointed though, and that is down to the boss. Our biggest issue has been in central midfield, but again, the manager carries the can for that with me, he had ample opportunity to spend 20 million quid, and chose Hutton when we had 2 options at right back, Jenas on loan and jettisoned Makoun, 10 on NZogbia which made sense but he has no clue how to use him, and Given for 5 million on a massive contact.