AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[PaulWinch again]

I just think his situation is completely untenable, he will never ever have the support of the fans and unless the club want to drive away those fans and their money they have to act.

[David_Nab]

Say we dont win against Norwich ,would that be 16 games with just one win?  Is that really what you want to take into a new season ?

[paul_e]

Say we dont win against Norwich ,would that be 16 games with just one win?  Is that really what you want to take into a new season ?

His win ratio 18.9% I doubt there are many mangers  in the history of league football in england with a worse record who have also completed a full season at the club.  There are literally no statistics you can produce that suggest any cause for optimism whilst he's still here.

[Risso]

Say we dont win against Norwich ,would that be 16 games with just one win?  Is that really what you want to take into a new season ?

His win ratio 18.9% I doubt there are many mangers  in the history of league football in england with a worse record who have also completed a full season at the club.  There are literally no statistics you can produce that suggest any cause for optimism whilst he's still here.

Ditto when you look at his Blues record.

[Jon Crofts]

An email from the pages of F365 I was pointed at today by a colleague, written by a 17 year old, apologies if it's been posted elsewhere.......

Aston Villa have become the equivalent of a drunk lad's vomit after a night on the p*ss. Sorry. No club wants to pitied or patronised but feared and revered. Sadly, it's all so predictable, blah blah blah. We all knew the upshot of McLeish in the hot seat would be Villa's head bobbing slightly above water with prosy and irksome football. Going nowhere. Seeing nothing.

I would take this season as a paltry warning for things to come. Don't 'forget' it; do not just write it off. That's too dangerously safe. Use and dwell on it and let it envelop you. It is a message of what will become, in fact no, what IS becoming of your fine club. Let it fill your every pore with drive. Nuts and bolts were tightened by Lerner but the decision to hire McLeish was just absurd. No, not because he came from Brum as many think; but because his football is like watching two chairs mate, his methods archaic and his motivational skills just bland. 'Forgetting' this season is dangerous; too safe. Victims do not forget until justice is served. Because that is exactly what Villa are; victims of plain stupidity and disinterest from their board. Do not forget; that lets this insult of a term off the hook and invites complacency when Villa are better than that. Once you accept these things you become as bad as the problem.

This will sound cheesy, but football clubs are like a family home. You need and desire warmth; the assurance that the club you love is full of people who share your same dedication. If Villa are the family home, Big 'Eck is the burglar and Lerner the inside man. Melodramatic or not, he's rooting around Villa's drawers. He's tearing up the kid's bedrooms and hoofing his muddy boots on the carpet. In fact, with Randy Lerner eternally ignoring the consequences of his mistake, the burglar is putting his feet up on Aston Villa's prized coffee table. This isn't a season to forget. It is a warning of just how desperate things will become and how far you have already fallen in just one season. And Villa must use that warning - as they have been doing - to keep with the fight no matter how helpless they may seem or how ignored their cries are.

[andrew08]

I'm not sure that Randy Lerner deserves that kind of article yet.

[Rioch is King]

I'm sure the kid means well but he's misunderstood Lerners intentions I reckon. Lots of people who don't follow the Villa as closely as we do get the wrong end of the stick, see the many comments people make about the MON saga

[David_Nab]

I think someone has convinced Randy that winning the league in Scotland is as hard as the Prem League because on his English Prem League record I don't think any Prem League would have taken him ,so lord only knows why we did.

[Mr Diggles]

I'm sure it was mentioned in another thread, buts its interesting to listen to the current Guardian Weekly podcast. Villa get a serious mauling, where the team is described as an abomination, appaling and everybody's least favourite Premier league club. And the finger is firmly pointed at McLeish and not the City connection.

It's good to note that we aren't losing our collective mind and engaging in internalised victim-mentality and have a completely different view of what's going on. However, it comes to something when Barry Glendenning gets it more than Shearer does.

[Mazrim]

I think maybe Randy was impressed with his league cup win and possibly thought he'd do much better with a supposedly superior Villa squad.

If that's true it's incredible naivety and another reason why they have to get high calibre football people on the board.

[andrew08]

I think Randy took McLeish on because he thought he would genuinely work hard for our club. He would put in a proper working week on the training ground and in scouting matches. He wouldn't employ a vast staff to do the day to day stuff and just turn up on Fridays to tell which over paid squad member was not on the bench this week.

Now its obvious that it hasn't worked out but what we as fans have to decide is,

Is this because he's just not up to the job ?

or

is it because he didn't get sufficient funds after the decimation of the squad from the season before to do the job properly?

Oh and for those who watch MOTD or read the Tabloids

Is it because he managed the b-lose?

[Tony Boucher]

From OPTA:

7 - If Aston Villa fail to win on Sunday they will equal their all-time record of only 7 wins in a season (set in 1890 & 1891). Nadir.

And that was when we used to play 22 games in a season!  Don't know if anyone else has flagged this up, but thought it was worth repeating

[Concrete John]

I think maybe Randy was impressed with his league cup win and possibly thought he'd do much better with a supposedly superior Villa squad.

He was largely unblamed for the first relegation when he came in mid season and had no money to spend.  After that he got them up, had their highest ever PL position and won a trophy.  I think it's that record Randy was paying most attention to.

All well and good and if we had got him then things may have been different.  But a few months later they go down again, which brings the first relegation back to mind and raises a serious question.  Randy either didn't ask himself this question, or did and decided there were mitigating circumstances and felt he was actually the promotion/9th place/Cup win manager.

If so, he was wrong.

[Concrete John]

Now its obvious that it hasn't worked out but what we as fans have to decide is,

Is this because he's just not up to the job ?

or

is it because he didn't get sufficient funds after the decimation of the squad from the season before to do the job properly?

Oh and for those who watch MOTD or read the Tabloids

Is it because he managed the b-lose?

Mainly the first with little of the second thrown in.

[Risso]

I think maybe Randy was impressed with his league cup win and possibly thought he'd do much better with a supposedly superior Villa squad.

If that's true it's incredible naivety and another reason why they have to get high calibre football people on the board.

You can only beat who is put in front of you of course, but struggling past Brentford, MK Dons and Rochdale, before beating two relegation rivals in West Ham and Villa and then fluking it against Arsenal is by no means a sign of quality when compared with his relegations and general shit approach to football.