AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[PeterWithesShin]

Even Midlands Today do shit reporting. If the locals can't get it right what chance do we have with the nationals?

Aston Villa fans are calling for manager Alex McLeish to be sacked despite the club being safe from relelgation.

They make it sound like we are ungrateful and should worship the genius that is McLeish who worked a miracle in keeping up little Aston Villa. Tossers.

[ktvillan]

If I had to stick money on it I would lump it on Curbishley, which while being about as unexciting as it gets, would be miles better than Eck

A friend who works for a sports agency in London told me on Saturday that he'd heard Curbishley had been lined up for us next season.  Personally I think if our owner was stupid enough to have recruited a manager with such an appalling record in all respects, then he's stupid enough to keep him on.  And that's what I think will happen, sadly.  Paul e, did it not occur to you that all that talk of Europe and good finishes under AM was just PR guff?  They could hardly say "we've brought him in as the ultimate damage limitation exercise with a brief to just keep us in the PL as cheaply as possible".  I suspect that was closer to the case and seems to tally with what McLeish himself says he bought into.  As such, AM has just about fulfilled his part of the bargain, albeit whilst driving away thousands of fans and pissing off almost every other fan (DC5 apart).  I think he's staying.

[PeterWithe]

It went downhill when Alan Towers retired, I got told off for wagging it by Kay Alexander in town the once.

[paul_e]

If I had to stick money on it I would lump it on Curbishley, which while being about as unexciting as it gets, would be miles better than Eck

A friend who works for a sports agency in London told me on Saturday that he'd heard Curbishley had been lined up for us next season.  Personally I think if our owner was stupid enough to have recruited a manager with such an appalling record in all respects, then he's stupid enough to keep him on.  And that's what I think will happen, sadly.  Paul e, did it not occur to you that all that talk of Europe and good finishes under AM was just PR guff?  They could hardly say "we've brought him in as the ultimate damage limitation exercise with a brief to just keep us in the PL as cheaply as possible".  I suspect that was closer to the case and seems to tally with what McLeish himself says he bought into.  As such, AM has just about fulfilled his part of the bargain, albeit whilst driving away thousands of fans and pissing off almost every other fan (DC5 apart).  I think he's staying.

No it doesn't occur to me that was the case, because if it was it's more monumentally stupid than anything else they've done.  Taking an unpopular manager and talking him up as aiming for europe whilst expecting and planning for a relegation battle could never have achieved anything other than massive unrest from the fans.

Again, I think the board have been incredibly naive, I don't think they're stupid.  They wanted 'mon light' and thought that was what they were getting, hence they gave him a long contract on big money to make sure he didn't walk away.  They wanted someone who would get the team back to playing the way we did in getting to 2 cup finals, McLeish won a cup final playing a similar brand of football.

Looking back it looks stupid, and, as fans, we could see that it was going to turn out this way, but that's exactly what I mean by naive.  They see a team (at blues) that haven't conceded many goals, have tried to score on the counter but without a 24m striker finish the chances.  They clearly thought the addition of Bent to a Blues 'system' would be enough to get us back to a similar place where we'd been with mon, but with a maybe 1 year a few places lower whilst the squad was cleared of non playing high earners and the kids were blooded.

I can see why they made the decision, I think it was wrong, but I can see the thinking behind it.

I'd rather believe this than that they're stupid and took the easy option of the guy from down the road because he had a laugh and a joke with them once, mainly because if the latter is true then the club is fucked and i can't bring myself to believe that just yet.

[Legion]

McLeish has used all his experience to keep us up this season. I'm sure he'll carry on using it to relegate us next season if he's still in charge.

[Californian Villain]

If I had to stick money on it I would lump it on Curbishley, which while being about as unexciting as it gets, would be miles better than Eck

A friend who works for a sports agency in London told me on Saturday that he'd heard Curbishley had been lined up for us next season.  Personally I think if our owner was stupid enough to have recruited a manager with such an appalling record in all respects, then he's stupid enough to keep him on.  And that's what I think will happen, sadly.  Paul e, did it not occur to you that all that talk of Europe and good finishes under AM was just PR guff?  They could hardly say "we've brought him in as the ultimate damage limitation exercise with a brief to just keep us in the PL as cheaply as possible".  I suspect that was closer to the case and seems to tally with what McLeish himself says he bought into.  As such, AM has just about fulfilled his part of the bargain, albeit whilst driving away thousands of fans and pissing off almost every other fan (DC5 apart).  I think he's staying.

Yeah, I think he'll stay too, and I agree that all the guff about getting into Europe was absolutely PR speak. If we'd been relegated, maybe the board would have had a re-think, but as it is we may as well look forward to more of the same next season.

[jonc73]

Personally I think if our owner was stupid enough to have recruited a manager with such an appalling record in all respects, then he's stupid enough to keep him on

I agree with this. I don't understand why so many seem to have faith with Lerner, I think he is the problem.McLeish will start the season

[bertlambshank]

I would take Curbs right now.It would be a step up.

[James]

Our lot need to take a good look at Blackburn and fast forward twelve months from now. I can honestly see us in that position if we don't change the manager now. Kicked off less than a minute ago, owners not present, fans calling for owners and manager to go already! Can't really blame them, but let's not go there ourselves, eh Randy?

[cdward]

I think Randy has enough evidence to be able to make the right decision and replace McLeish before the start of next season.
Those telephone calls to season ticket holders were not by accident, somebody realised a while back that a drop in attendances/revenue will be detrimental to Randy recouping his investment with profit.
Randy was also in attendance at the Bolton game, surely he is not that stubborn to realise you cannot ignore paying customers wishes forever.

[not3bad]

A friend who works for a sports agency in London told me on Saturday that he'd heard Curbishley had been lined up for us next season.

Birminam.  Birminam.  All together now...

[Matt Collins]

I think Randy has enough evidence to be able to make the right decision and replace McLeish before the start of next season.
Those telephone calls to season ticket holders were not by accident, somebody realised a while back that a drop in attendances/revenue will be detrimental to Randy recouping his investment with profit.
Randy was also in attendance at the Bolton game, surely he is not that stubborn to realise you cannot ignore paying customers wishes forever.

Not sure about this. Let's assume we might boost average attendances by 5k (a heroic assumption in my view). If they were all adult season ticket holders that would be 5k x around £500. That's £2.5m. I reckon we'd pay that much in compensation to get rid of mcleish.

[villadelph]

I think McLeish is off, and that he's been told he's off.. and that's why he's so defensive about his job now. He feels that after suffering so much abuse and ensuring another season in the top flight that he's entitled to make his mark on the team.

Although, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the dugout at the start of the season. We all know Randy speaks with his checkbook, and funding a McLeish spending spree doesn't seem like a very bright thing to do right now, seeing how N'Zogbia, Hutton and Jenas have worked out. It's going to take a fair chunk to rebuild the team to a competitive level, but incoming transfers sought after by McLeish and Faulkner scares the hell out of me.

[Walmley_Villa]

A friend who works for a sports agency in London told me on Saturday that he'd heard Curbishley had been lined up for us next season.

Birminam.  Birminam.  All together now...

Apart from that which does irritate the f*ck out of me I do think curbs could do a decent job.

[ozzjim]

He would do a solid job for sure. Not exciting, but would be solid.