AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[barrysleftfoot]

  I agree with those sentiments PaulW.The wrong appointment, not his fault.

[Greg N'Ash]

Do we really think there is going to be £30m for the new manager to spend?

aye. whoever comes in will have the same problem - basically a threadbare and shit team. The easy bit was sacking the manager, the hard bit is finding someone who can do much better with the same resources. Haven't read anything from the club saying McLeish refused to spend the 20m they pocketed last season in transfers

[Legion]

I still think he has blagued more time out of the owner and the board.

What is the only real force opposed to him?   It is us, the fans, who want him out.

The owner and the board on the other hand -

Do not want to waste a penny more of managerial compo

They told him to cut the wages bill.   It is cut as of the departure of Tumbling Bear and the rest get ejected from their VP comfort zone.

They said keep us in the Premiership.   He did.

He is the owner's personal choice.   The owner is the billionaire son of a billionaire and has in all certainty had his own way every day of his life.   He has fuck you money and is just as likely to say fuck you to the fans as to any other party.

In the same way that a hawthorn seed cannot germinate until it has been through the gut of a bird the reality of what has happened at Villa Park cannot be appreciated by the owner and the board until it has been consumed and regurgitated by the media.   Thus they believe the bullshit about McLeish's "bad luck" and "having had the Villa fans on his back since day one" and having to put out a team "of youth team players to fight relegation"   They are so naive and devoid of football nous that all they know about the game is what they read in the papers and see on television.

The way things stand as I see it at the moment, in the eyes of the owner and the board McLeish has the white hat and the fans have all the black ones.   He will stay until the media tell them his time is up.

Your thoughts now?

[James]

talksport are about to spend some time talking about Villa now.

Collymore talking sense on Gary Neville, no Villa stuff yet!

[Risso]

I think Collymore likes the sound of his own voice too much.  He's just compared Gary Neville being chosen as an England coach to Graeme Souness. Eh Stan?

[Bad English]

Has McLeish released a statement?

I think he's having it drawn up.

[PaulWinch again]

talksport are about to spend some time talking about Villa now.

I never thought I'd say this, but in fairness to Neville he talked a lot of sense on Sky Sports, a lot more than the other pundits. I think he probably does have clue about football.

Collymore talking sense on Gary Neville, no Villa stuff yet!

[PaulWinch again]

Pat Murphy -

"Alex McLeish's Birmingham City past was irrelevant - his playing style and results did for him at Aston Villa.

"If he had won just five of 17 drawn games in the Premier League, the club would have finished in about 10th place and he would have had more time to prove himself.

"He ought to have banked more points in the first half of the season, when the squad was at full strength, before injuries and illness dogged him in the last three months.

"But losing 22 points from winning positions, coupled with a 9% drop in home attendance and the prospect of poor season ticket sales prompted owner Randy Lerner to don his ruthless businessman's hat and sack the manager he appointed just 11 months ago."

He sums it up nicely for me.

[James]

talksport are about to spend some time talking about Villa now.

I never thought I'd say this, but in fairness to Neville he talked a lot of sense on Sky Sports, a lot more than the other pundits. I think he probably does have clue about football.

Collymore talking sense on Gary Neville, no Villa stuff yet!

That's Collymore's point though, just because he talked sense on Sky doesn't mean he's a good appointment for England. Plus, there's a conflict of interest between coaching and media work in regard to the national team isn't there?

[PeterWithesShin]

What a shock, first caller is a cockney Manure fan.

[Stu]

What a shock, first caller is a cockney Manure fan.

"Alex Ferguson is the best manager is history"

Oh rly?

[Rigadon]

In an industry as ruthless as top level sport, he deserved the sack and got it.   Can't really fault the way it was dealt with and I'd expect him not to come out with any bollocks over the next few weeks about Blues connections etc.  If that happens I'm willing to forgive and forget (the latter being most import).

Lets have some excitement and a few smiles.

[hartman_1982]

What a shock, first caller is a cockney Manure fan.

"Alex Ferguson is the best manager is history"

Oh rly?

Hard to say he isn't atleast one of them.

[Legion]

What a shock, first caller is a cockney Manure fan.

"Alex Ferguson is the best manager is history"

Oh rly?

Is he? Clough. Shankley. Paisley. Saunders. Barton. Ramsey.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

I'd just like to say that now that he's gone, I have no ill will towards him and good luck to him in the future. I think he did genuinely respect our history, but he just wasn't up to the job at all. He should have resigned, but at the same time he probably believed he could turn it round. So from my perspective no hard feelings now that he's gone.

Well said.