McLeish confident of avoiding the drop

[Tom Sawyer]

You only have to look at Newcastle to see how success can come through austerity. There was a good article in the DM yesterday about them. Trouble is Villa dont seem to have the cunning or the nous to operate in such a climate.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Latest bollocks from McLeish

sportinglife.com

McLEISH BACKS YOUNGSTERS TO SURVIVE

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish is aware of the financial implications of relegation, but is confident his crop of young players will ensure that scenario is avoided.

Villa go into Sunday's Barclays Premier League match at Liverpool only five points above the relegation zone and with a squad decimated by injury and illness.

The club suffered an increased loss of £54million for the financial year ending May 2011 and going down to the Championship would add significantly to their financial concerns.

McLeish said: "Has Randy Lerner (club owner) mentioned relegation to you? I think we could all do without it. It doesn't bear thinking about financially so that's why I believe that we'll stay up.

"We've got big challenges in the next eight games but I believe we have enough in us to get points.

"We'll try to win as many as we can. Would I take 15th spot now? Probably, absolutely."

McLeish concedes he always expected this season to be an uphill battle, but has no regrets about making the controversial switch from local rivals Birmingham.

He said: "It's not been easy and I knew it wouldn't be. I thought it would be tough, especially when you look at the comparison with the two squads from this year to last year.

"Last year's squad was a little bit stronger, so I knew it would be tough. But it doesn't mean to say that we can't finish another three or four places up the table.

"But I've never wished I didn't make the move. I never, ever look back and regret anything.

"You always wonder what you might be doing now if you didn't do it, but I have always vowed never to regret anything."

McLeish will be without eight senior players through illness or injury for the trip to Anfield, but has faith in the crop of academy products who are receiving their opportunity.

He said: "It is probably the youngest squad I've ever had to work with. At Rangers we dabbled in a lot of free transfers, guys at the end of the careers, to try to augment the squad.

"But we're going to go with the youngsters here. It can make or break players but a lot of them have got so much confidence.

"This is a learning curve for them in all aspects, life as well, in terms of the importance of the situation also.

"But a lot of them will be concentrating and focusing on enhancing their careers, getting into the first team and staying in the first team.

"They can emerge as men after this. I would definitely back a few of them to do that.

"They have to grow up as quickly as possible in one of the toughest leagues in the world."

[JUAN PABLO]

expect Heskey to start then and Hutton at RB

[JUAN PABLO]

Latest bollocks from McLeish


"But I've never wished I didn't make the move. I never, ever look back and regret anything.

No , two million pound a year does help .

[Dave Clark Five]

Which parts of that McLeish statement are bollocks?

[Clampy]

The statement is not bollocks, it's just not very inspiring. Rambling on about free transfers at Rangers is not going to help us stop up.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Which parts of that McLeish statement are bollocks?

This for starters.

'McLeish concedes he always expected this season to be an uphill battle, but has no regrets about making the controversial switch from local rivals Birmingham.'

There's a difference between 'uphill battle' and 'staring relegation in the face.'

[tarzansbrother]

Which parts of that McLeish statement are bollocks?

'Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish'.

[Rigadon]

Wasn't that long ago that we were two good players off Europe, now we are two good players off relegation.

Indeed.

Those advocating Zola and Poyet, I don't understand?  Didn't Zola get the boot from West Ham for nearly getting them relegated?  What has Poyet done to warrant a crack at what is still regarded as one of the top jobs in the league (outside the 'ELITE' of course)?  Appointing either of those two now would be mental.  Sorry to say, but what we need now is a motivator along the lines of.... Martin O' Neill.  There I said it.

Anyway, he's going nowhere til the end of the season.  I'm glad he's confident of avoiding the drop, I'm not and won't be until we get a couple of positive results.  As for taking 15th now, that says it all I'm afraid.  Teams are a reflection of their managers and that's what our team looks like at it's worst - happy to get through without the worst happening, but not confident of it.

[paul_e]

Which parts of that McLeish statement are bollocks?

Let's wait for the teamsheet if Hutton starts ahead of Lichaj then he's a fool and his actions won't be in line with the statement.

Aside from that, comparing this years squad to last years is bollocks and is him trying his hardest to blame all of our troubles on the differences in the squad.  The reality is there are only 2 players who weren't replaced and as Warnock and Ireland had efectively been removed from the squad last year even that is debatable.  If the quality isn't as high he has to be held responsible (to a large extent at least) for that.  Yes we didn't give him all the money from sales but he did get nearly all of the money we'd spent on those players originally.

Making a profit from trading isn't some kind of guarantee you're going to be in the shit like a few people on here are determined to suggest.  Forget how much money came in this summer, he had a decent amount to spend and failed to spend correctly.

Having thrown a lot of his budget at nzogbia and then completely failing to utilise him correctly is nothing to do with Lerner cutting costs or MoN overpaying for average players.

He chose to not look for a midfielder on loan in January when it was clear we were short in that area, particularly given that he decided to loan out Delph and Gardner.  Again, this isn't the fault of anyone but McLeish.

The reality is we're in danger of being drawn right into the relegation fight in the next few days and I have 0 confidence in his ability to get us back out of it.  If we get the results we need today and Monday then we'll be safe but we really shouldn't have been going into the easter weekend with a large portion of the fans scared that we're in real danger of relegation.

[Monty]

All that guff about how much he loves 'experienced players' (ie old, shit, obedient and uninspired) just makes you wonder what part of his interview gave the board the impression that he was the man to develop our young players. He's only playing the kids now, when he's forced to, throwing them in at the deep-end of a season made shit by under-performing seniors who retained their places no matter how arse they were. The time to play the kids and 'make them men' (but not better players, it seems) would have been in games when, for instance, Lichaj could have come in for the out-of-sorts Hutton, when Baker could have stepped in for the shite Collins, when Heskey (nuff said) was preferred in midfield to Bannan and Gardner. It's a bloody shambles, he's fucked it up big time, and what the board were thinking is absolutely fucking beyond me.

[Hoppo]

Excellent post Monty..

[JUAN PABLO]

All that guff about how much he loves 'experienced players' (ie old, shit, obedient and uninspired) just makes you wonder what part of his interview gave the board the impression that he was the man to develop our young players. He's only playing the kids now, when he's forced to, throwing them in at the deep-end of a season made shit by under-performing seniors who retained their places no matter how arse they were. The time to play the kids and 'make them men' (but not better players, it seems) would have been in games when, for instance, Lichaj could have come in for the out-of-sorts Hutton, when Baker could have stepped in for the shite Collins, when Heskey (nuff said) was preferred in midfield to Bannan and Gardner. It's a bloody shambles, he's fucked it up big time, and what the board were thinking is absolutely fucking beyond me.

ABSOLUTELY

[VinnieChase84]

I just hate the man. It comes to something when match days are depressing even before kick off.
"what's that beer!? Yes I WILL come and drink you"

[Damo70]

You only have to look at Newcastle to see how success can come through austerity. There was a good article in the DM yesterday about them. Trouble is Villa dont seem to have the cunning or the nous to operate in such a climate.

To be fair, who could guess that the blueprint to that success would be having Alan Pardew as manager and Alan Carr's ex Northampton manager dad as head scout?