Who do you want as the next manager? New poll option.

[ozzjim]

Yet his side plus Alonso won the Champions league the next season, and he won several trophies while there. He identified most of what is wrong with our side, and wanted to fix it in the summer. Were he still here I reckon we would be comfortably in the top 10 at the moment.

[curiousorange]

I do wonder what they asked at the interviews for the Villa job. Presumably McLeish put forward a plan for what he wanted to which is why Lerner and Faulkner decided to go against every howl of protest and appoint him.

I'd like to think this time, having been more watchful in the recruitment process, we can appoint a manager who knows what it's like to build a squad around a core of talented players, that has a good approach to discipline and most important of all, has a plan B in regards to tactics and scouting. Where he comes from, I don't care. Where he takes us, I do.

[Greg N'Ash]

2 of our most succesfull periods have followed relegation but the situation has changed now. For every Newcastle there is a Sheff Wednesday, Forest and a whole bunch of YOYO clubs

well yes but what do you do? Say they bring in curbishley who's shite but mebbe less shite than Mcleish. He's not gonna turn this team into world beaters especially if the purse strings are kept shut. Plus he's got the charisma of a wet weekend. I'd give it till Christmas before the knives are out because too many of our fans are in laa laa land re the team's ability

The problem with keeping him until Christmas is that he will have spent  whatever money RL has made available. Our 2 worst outfield players are Hutton and Nzogbia so not a lot of reason to give him more cash. The Villa fans I speak to have pretty moderate expectations, they just dont believe we should be relegation candidates and I agree, we shouldnt.

not sure i agree. If we're keeping that defence again and are living on free transfers I can't see much more than a very modest improvement unless the proverbial miracle worker came in. Lower mid-table if we're lucky with injuries. I'm not sure that would be enough to keep the fans off a manager's back

[Dante Lavelli]

As NBTs go, Lambert, Martinez and Rodgers should all have a “worldview” due to where they’ve played, who they’ve worked under etc.  Certainly Lambert seems to describe his period in germany as the epiphany that changed his outlook on football.  He also said how much Sammer (as the Head of Development for Germany) had helped the youngsters in German football so he may even consider foreign help higher up within the club too.

Personally I’d be delighted if we copied the post 2006 German style of football.  I think it’s the best to watch.

[curiousorange]

2 of our most succesfull periods have followed relegation but the situation has changed now. For every Newcastle there is a Sheff Wednesday, Forest and a whole bunch of YOYO clubs

well yes but what do you do? Say they bring in curbishley who's shite but mebbe less shite than Mcleish. He's not gonna turn this team into world beaters especially if the purse strings are kept shut. Plus he's got the charisma of a wet weekend. I'd give it till Christmas before the knives are out because too many of our fans are in laa laa land re the team's ability

The problem with keeping him until Christmas is that he will have spent  whatever money RL has made available. Our 2 worst outfield players are Hutton and Nzogbia so not a lot of reason to give him more cash. The Villa fans I speak to have pretty moderate expectations, they just dont believe we should be relegation candidates and I agree, we shouldnt.

not sure i agree. If we're keeping that defence again and are living on free transfers I can't see much more than a very modest improvement unless the proverbial miracle worker came in. Lower mid-table if we're lucky with injuries. I'm not sure that would be enough to keep the fans off a manager's back

I don't see that a new Villa boss necessarily has to be resigned to modest improvement. Time and again it has been demonstrated in football that it's not necessarily who you're using to play the game, but how they play together. Yes, we're hardly going to set the league alight but an astute manager and a clean slate could see us at the top of a very mediocre pack. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a new manager to have that ambition.

[Martyn Smith]

Why is Alex McLeish still at VP? We're safe now...the Norwich game is meaningless. At this same stage of the season 25 years ago when we had another useless Scottish ginger tosser whose surname started with Mc (or Mac, maybe, can't recall) he was sacked once our fate was confirmed...

...as to his replacement...how about Rainieri or Capello...both have said they want to manage in the Prem and who bigger than Villa is looking at changing their manager right now...why aren't we thinking *big*?...

[Dante Lavelli]

...as to his replacement...how about Rainieri or Capello...both have said they want to manage in the Prem and who bigger than Villa is looking at changing their manager right now...why aren't we thinking *big*?...

Chelsea, they’re looking.

[rob_bridge]

Lets all hope and pray he is right

Lambert, Martinez, Poyet, Rogers. Any of them would be great. Young, ambitious and done it with players far less fancied than ours.

I'm really, really wary of Next Big Thing managers. I can't remember the last one to do well on the back of moving to a better job after promotion and staying up.

Promotion to top league or just promotion?

Top league.

Well DiMatteo is doing OK I suppose. Brian Little did OK albeit with someone else. BFR did ok - bit of a cheat on my part. Appy Arry at Portsmouth Mk II/Tottenham. Owen Coyle has done ok. Bruce did well to keep Wigan up and send that lot down. I'll settle for OK compared to relegation fodder crap we have currently. 

[curiousorange]

...as to his replacement...how about Rainieri or Capello...both have said they want to manage in the Prem and who bigger than Villa is looking at changing their manager right now...why aren't we thinking *big*?...

Chelsea, they’re looking.

Not that bothered about Ranieri, and Capello stopped being interested in Villa Park once James Milner moved to Manchester.

[curiousorange]

Lets all hope and pray he is right

Lambert, Martinez, Poyet, Rogers. Any of them would be great. Young, ambitious and done it with players far less fancied than ours.

I'm really, really wary of Next Big Thing managers. I can't remember the last one to do well on the back of moving to a better job after promotion and staying up.

Promotion to top league or just promotion?

Top league.

Owen Coyle has done ok. Bruce did well to keep Wigan up and send that lot down. I'll settle for OK compared to relegation fodder crap we have currently. 

It's all relative, but I'd hesitate to use the words 'ok' and 'well' in relation to either of those managers.

[hawkeye]

2 of our most succesfull periods have followed relegation but the situation has changed now. For every Newcastle there is a Sheff Wednesday, Forest and a whole bunch of YOYO clubs

well yes but what do you do? Say they bring in curbishley who's shite but mebbe less shite than Mcleish. He's not gonna turn this team into world beaters especially if the purse strings are kept shut. Plus he's got the charisma of a wet weekend. I'd give it till Christmas before the knives are out because too many of our fans are in laa laa land re the team's ability

The problem with keeping him until Christmas is that he will have spent  whatever money RL has made available. Our 2 worst outfield players are Hutton and Nzogbia so not a lot of reason to give him more cash. The Villa fans I speak to have pretty moderate expectations, they just dont believe we should be relegation candidates and I agree, we shouldnt.

not sure i agree. If we're keeping that defence again and are living on free transfers I can't see much more than a very modest improvement unless the proverbial miracle worker came in. Lower mid-table if we're lucky with injuries. I'm not sure that would be enough to keep the fans off a manager's back

If it is that defence and free transfers then we are in for a very tough season again, and if that is the case I cant see any decent Manager wanting the job.

[rob_bridge]

I seem to recall Curbishly leaving West Ham when the board started selling players he wanted to keep.

Didin't he win some sort of constructive dismissal case against them?

If our own experience in that area is anything to go by we can probably assume that it was nothing more than a club that could be arsed to waste time and money in court pandering to a shyster's litigiousness.

And your experience and evidence for that is what exactly?

[KevinGage]

Wigan finishing above us (if they do) may be a blessing in disguise when Randy and Paul sit down to look at the final table.

That's why I wasn't really bothered if Wigan won tonight because it just reinforces how wrong the board were over the course last summer and how they went about the selection of the new manager process. They will stamp their feet wishing they really did go for Martinez and not get played by Dave Whelan. As you said I hope when they see the league table they will realize how appointing McLeish was utter madness and letting the guy they wanted get away and then finish above us the following season was a big fuck up on their behalf.

People who didn't want Martinez will now realize after going through a horror season with McLeish that Martinez in hindsight would of been the better choice of manager and we should if got him when we could.

I was one of those who was quite open to the idea when Whelan first let it slip we'd approached them last season.

Whether the club just wanted the chance to speak to him in person with a view to maybe keeping him in mind for the future, or whether he was a definite candidate for the vacancy last summer we'll never know.

But it would have been a move with a fair amount of risk attached to it, so I could understand  why many thought we should aim higher.  McLeish making a complete pigs ear of the thing doesn't invalidate that initial viewpoint.  I'm sure those same fans would say they wanted better than Martinez and McLeish. 

As recently as February you wouldn't have had many Villa fans on here saying 'if only we'd been able to persuade Martinez to ditch Wigan' either.  He was apparently on very shaky ground there, not a million miles away from the tin tack.

[Dave]

I seem to recall Curbishly leaving West Ham when the board started selling players he wanted to keep.

Didin't he win some sort of constructive dismissal case against them?

If our own experience in that area is anything to go by we can probably assume that it was nothing more than a club that could be arsed to waste time and money in court pandering to a shyster's litigiousness.

And your experience and evidence for that is what exactly?

From what we know of the last manager to get a few quid out of a constructive dismissal case.

*I'm being a bit facetious here and not actually suggesting that Curbishley is a conniving shyster.

[Greg N'Ash]

2 of our most succesfull periods have followed relegation but the situation has changed now. For every Newcastle there is a Sheff Wednesday, Forest and a whole bunch of YOYO clubs

well yes but what do you do? Say they bring in curbishley who's shite but mebbe less shite than Mcleish. He's not gonna turn this team into world beaters especially if the purse strings are kept shut. Plus he's got the charisma of a wet weekend. I'd give it till Christmas before the knives are out because too many of our fans are in laa laa land re the team's ability

The problem with keeping him until Christmas is that he will have spent  whatever money RL has made available. Our 2 worst outfield players are Hutton and Nzogbia so not a lot of reason to give him more cash. The Villa fans I speak to have pretty moderate expectations, they just dont believe we should be relegation candidates and I agree, we shouldnt.

not sure i agree. If we're keeping that defence again and are living on free transfers I can't see much more than a very modest improvement unless the proverbial miracle worker came in. Lower mid-table if we're lucky with injuries. I'm not sure that would be enough to keep the fans off a manager's back

I don't see that a new Villa boss necessarily has to be resigned to modest improvement. Time and again it has been demonstrated in football that it's not necessarily who you're using to play the game, but how they play together. Yes, we're hardly going to set the league alight but an astute manager and a clean slate could see us at the top of a very mediocre pack. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a new manager to have that ambition.

best of the mediocre pack would be everton on 53 points. if you know a manager who get this team with no re-inforcements up there then by all means bring him on, but realistically  we're nowhere near them quality wise or indeed liverpool below them