Who is to blame?

[Steve R]

Still has to be Lerner in the main for me, only a fuckwit would keep sanctioning big money and big wages on so-so players, or in the case of Heskey, fucking atrocious players.

...

I'm with you to a point there, but is it that clear cut?

Lerner was panned when he finally said to O'Neill enough is enough and the twat went crying off into the blue yonder.

Specifically in the case of Heskey, we were points ahead of Arsenal and seemingly on the cusp of displacing them from the top 4. Would anyone really expect Lerner or whoever to say no?

As we have found to our cost, O'Neill is a snidey little git. He was very adept at putting the club up against the wall with his late transfer dealings.

Lerner could have drawn the line earlier, he certainly exacerbated matters in appointed McLeish but we were fucked long before that appointment.

There was always going to be a lean period after O'Neill left us in the crap with so many long and useless to indifferent contracts to honour.

O'Neill was here for five years, it will probably take as long just to stabilise the club, let alone improve on those wonderful 6th place finishes and Wembley defeats we overpaid for.

It seems strange simply to blame Lerner for backing the manager at the time.

Maybe O'Neill's appointment was a bigger mistake than McLeish's.

[caster troy]

It's Lerner's fault we've got such a shit manager, and it will continue to be his fault while he refuses to sack him. I can't criticise the money he's put into the club, nor his desire to curb the spending after the O'Neill years, however the McLeish reign is killing us and if he refuses to change it at the end of the season I will assume he's either a fool or simply doesn't care anymore.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Am I the only one who thinks Gary Oldman is a ham actor?

Probably.
He's brilliant, and was superb in Leon (above).

[JUAN PABLO]

Lerner .   I cant forgive him for employing McClueless

[JD]

I think O'Neill stitched us up but the buck has to stop with the owner, for unfortunately being too trusting in O'Neills player judgement and paying ridiculous wages for average players.
For then realising we couldn't continue like this (he should have recognised this way before he did) and then O'Neill leaving.
Finally for taking the 'easy' solution and appointing McLeish.

Only the owner can fix this, so it has to be his fault.   

[NeilH]

I think O'Neill stitched us up but the buck has to stop with the owner, for unfortunately being too trusting in O'Neills player judgement and paying ridiculous wages for average players.
For then realising we couldn't continue like this (he should have recognised this way before he did) and then O'Neill leaving.
Finally for taking the 'easy' solution and appointing McLeish.

Only the owner can fix this, so it has to be his fault.   

This is it in a nutshell, but don't expect the sound of a million pennies dropping at once in the vicinity of B6 in the near future.

[supertom]

It's got past the point of being able to blame O Neill. I for one would rather he'd have got Parker in, been able to spend the amount of Milner money he could and then had us finish top 8 comfortably. That said I think he wanted out and wanted any excuse. He knew it could only go downhill and didn't want to damage his fine record.

But our appointments have been woeful. Houllier, though did some good things, was out of touch, past it and just wrong for the club, especially at that time.

McLeish is a whole new level of fuckwitery though. What an awful decision.

Randy must leave. We need fresh impetace and new management throughout. We're in danger of relegation otherwise. Be it next year, or the year after, or hell, if we're not careful, this year.

[olaftab]

Who is to blame? Well not McLeish. Some idiot , who may look like Paul Faulkner, phoned him to say "Alex I know you are disappointed about  City being relegated and I know there is a danger that they may sack you or ask you to take a pay cut from £500,000 to £250,00. How about coming over to us. You can apply the same master formula that you had at City and as we have a slightly better squad there is no way you will not succeed  your ambition of achieving a top 16 position. You will have to do as I and Randy tell you and all you have to do is appear  to be a very nice man when talking to fans/press etc and for all this pain we will pay you £2,500,000."

[Lee]

Still has to be Lerner in the main for me, only a fuckwit would keep sanctioning big money and big wages on so-so players, or in the case of Heskey, fucking atrocious players.

Nobody at board level has the slightest clue on footballing matters, so he was quite happy to keep the till open for O'Neill, he slammed it shut much too late, now we've got to suffer.

The appointment of McLeish was the final steaming turd in the water pipe and defies all rational logic on every level.

This....

[Clampy]

Who's to blame? Whoever's idea it was to even dream up Mcleish's name never mind appoint him.

[ktvillan]

Am I the only one who thinks Gary Oldman is a ham actor?

Probably.
He's brilliant, and was superb in Leon (above).

Nah way over the top in Leon, and especially State of Grace.   Excellent in Prick up your Ears and TTSS though.  I blame Lerner for the former two.

[Simba]

Ship hits the rocks - it's the Captains fault.

Sorry Randy , no doubt good intentions and you played a risky hand of poker to hopefully win our way into the top four. But.... you lost, you bust so we all have. So close but the decisons since MoN have been simply appaling.

I don't blame Faulkner and he has done some good stuff on the commercial side.

The disasterous selection of McLeish  need not be judged in arrogant hindsight, as it made no sense when he was appointed.  As most on here or anyone with any footballing knowledge would have told you. And most did.

No-one needed Tarot cards to tell us where he would/will take us . So fire him and bloody end it now so if we have to gamble we do it with the odds in our favour. That is the correct, managerial decision for Aston Villa.

[Eigentor]

It's the owner. McLeish isn't a good manager, but if he was, he wouldn't have accepted the job.

As pointed out earlier, last summer Lerner had the option of sticking with Gary MacAllister and maybe keeping Houllier in an upstairs role. That didn't sound like an enticing alternative when we thought we could get someone like Benitez, Moyes or even Ancelotti. But I don't think keeping MacAllister as de facto manager would have caused less friction with the fans than appointing McLeish, especially on the back of victories against Arsenal and Liverpool.

Maybe Randy wasn't so keen on funding Houllier's ideas, and that was the reason for his actions this summer, but if we didn't have to pay off Houllier AND McLeish, we would have more to spend on players. Besides, one of the main reasons for our predicament is that the tightening of the belt is happening too fast. If you're overweight, the remedy is to go on a sensible diet and realise that it takes time to get into shape, not stop eating altogether.

[Dante Lavelli]

Great question and one that really requires an essay to answer properly.  In Order I'll go with:

ONeil/Randy/McLeish/Houllier

1. ONeil - He has left us with pretty much zero legacy from his period in charge and also acted vindictively towards the club.   

2.  Randy - Ultimately responsible for the bad decisions made and not controlling MON better (he had previous at Celtic too).  However on the plus side he has invested in the infrastructure of the club (training ground, stadium etc) which is a pretty decent legacy.  Furthermore I think his intentions have always been in he right place.

3.  AMc is the proverbial "tip of the ice berg" for me but his negative tactics makes the club a soul less, funless place.  There is limited hope despite having some of the country's best youngsters coming through, a ground and training complex that are the envy of most clubs.  On the flip side, I think he has handled the youngsters well and ultimately when he is gone we might be grateful to him for blooding the players. 

4.  Hard to fault Houllier in hindsight.  He was probably more right that the fans gave him credit for. 

#sigh#

[Mister E]

Great question and one that really requires an essay to answer properly.  In Order I'll go with:

ONeil/Randy/McLeish/Houllier

1. ONeil - He has left us with pretty much zero legacy from his period in charge and also acted vindictively towards the club.   

2.  Randy - Ultimately responsible for the bad decisions made and not controlling MON better (he had previous at Celtic too).  However on the plus side he has invested in the infrastructure of the club (training ground, stadium etc) which is a pretty decent legacy.  Furthermore I think his intentions have always been in he right place.

3.  AMc is the proverbial "tip of the ice berg" for me but his negative tactics makes the club a soul less, funless place.  There is limited hope despite having some of the country's best youngsters coming through, a ground and training complex that are the envy of most clubs.  On the flip side, I think he has handled the youngsters well and ultimately when he is gone we might be grateful to him for blooding the players. 

4.  Hard to fault Houllier in hindsight.  He was probably more right that the fans gave him credit for. 

#sigh#

So the answer from the Lavelli panel is ....