Friday fun: Who winds you up the most?

[Lambert and Payne]

Such a tough one to decide!
O'dreary was the 1st person to make me feel "meh" about the Villa, it used to be dull gutless and uninspiring. I remember my mum coming to a game with us and asking why everyone looked so bored and didn't really bad eyelids at conceding. When 3 people around us told her thats just how it is these days made me feel sick as I'd only just realised how bad it was

TSM and O'neill - One ruined the club financially, one ruined it visibly

Houllier - I thought he inherited a difficult squad to work with and at least tried to get us playing football, the banners our fans made embarrassed me and the atmospheres such as the one at Wolves was poisonous. I felt he was going to build something for Gary Mac to take over with

So in that, all of them but Houllier, not sure who I'll pick!

[N'ZMAV]

Excellent topic.

We seem to be particularly good at appointing arseholes.

Despite his foot in mouth moments, I liked Houllier. IT probably makes a difference that I always liked the Pink Panther films. To be fair to him, a lot of what PL is doing now is what he was trying to do without the luxury of a summer transfer window to give him a head start.

McLeish should never have had the job, but should still have done a lot better than he did. He had his spineless sleazebag moments and that letter marks him down a lot. But for sheer bareface c*ntishness he is not in the same league as O'Leary and  O'Neill.

O'Neill for me. He did far more harm to the club.

At least with O'Leary  I could comfort myself with the thought that he was a dead man walking, although looking across at the smug twat from the Rossington End at Doncaster took a lot of getting past.

O'Neill shades it. He had the best working conditions of any Villa manager I can remember. He  pissed it out of the window on an ego trip then dropped us in the mire by leaving at the time he did. Vindictive. Then he had the nerve to come back and sue for unfair dismissal. I wish he'd get the job at Anfield or OT. Sunderland have never done anything bad enough to deserve him.

If I were to meet O'Leary I could at least amuse myself by asking him how things are going nowadays. With O'Neill I'd have to resist the temptation to spit in his face.

perfect

[Chipsticks]

What bothers me the most is how O'Leary managed to get his own video game.

[PeterWithesShin]

O'Leary by miles. That fickle comment is still used against us by other fans and especially the media, despite us being no better or worse than any other set of fans.

Most of all for Doncaster. Our reserves shouldn't have lost 3-0 at Doncaster. Insipid gutless performance that still makes me angry.

[not3bad]

MON's fixation at playing players out of position (Carlos, Sidwell, Delph, NRC, Petrov) used to grate me. Sidwell, Delph, Petrov and maybe to a lesser extent NRC were all known for weighing in with goals from midfield but he turned them all into midfielder cloggers and it did'nt work. You look back at Stan's debut down at West Ham and you wonder why he was'nt encouraged to do it again. He deserved all the flak he took for walking out when he did but it went on too long for me.

Another thing that wound me up about MON was the way he'd say one thing and do another.  Particularly when we had injuries/suspensions and he'd say "we'll have to use the squad now".  Then he'd find a way not to use the squad.  He's recently said ""I'm going to use Carlos Cuellor as a centre back".  I wonder what the odds are that Carlos ends up as a right back again?

[Pete3206]

For that night at Doncaster, I nominate Mr Sugarbags.

[Villafirst]

Still, to this day, I cannot believe that Lerner and Faulkner actually appointed him. FFS. What was they thinking. They should win the wind up award for that!

Agree, Lerner still has a lot to answer for, particularly the last two seasons. I also hate his non-communication with the lifeblood of the club - the fans!

[villanic]

Not got a problem with Houllier, MON is a massive prick for the way he walked out and TSM should never have got the job in the first place.

O'Leary on the other hand is a complete c*nt. I actually stopped going to villa matches during his time at the club and it took me a long time to get my passion about villa back.

[not3bad]

Still, to this day, I cannot believe that Lerner and Faulkner actually appointed him. FFS. What was they thinking. They should win the wind up award for that!

Agree, Lerner still has a lot to answer for, particularly the last two seasons. I also hate his non-communication with the lifeblood of the club - the fans!

So your vote is for Mcleish?

[joe_c]

O'Neill for me. Two years on and I'm still furious about the final 12 months of his tenure. From the opening day surrender at home to Wigan to his vindictive and spineless departure on the eve of the 10/11 season it was clear in my mind that this was as good as things were ever going to get under him even allowing for the cup runs which were more than balanced out by some utter dross.

What on earth were they thinking? I still can not believe they actually did it.

This however is another matter. I can't sum my reaction to the appointment and stewardship of TSM any more succinctly than this. Until the day I die I won't ever be able to make sense of it. I wonder if we'll ever learn?

[not3bad]

O'Leary on the other hand is a complete c*nt. I actually stopped going to villa matches during his time at the club and it took me a long time to get my passion about villa back.

The good thing about O'Leary and Mcleish is the way things looked a whole lot better once they'd gone.  I recovered instantly on both occasions.

[N'ZMAV]

What bothers me the most is how O'Leary managed to get his own video game.

I want to play that.

[not3bad]

O'Neill for me. Two years on and I'm still furious about the final 12 months of his tenure. From the opening day surrender at home to Wigan to his vindictive and spineless departure on the eve of the 10/11 season it was clear in my mind that this was as good as things were ever going to get under him even allowing for the cup runs which were more than balanced out by some utter dross.

What on earth were they thinking? I still can not believe they actually did it.

This however is another matter. I can't sum my reaction to the appointment and stewardship of TSM any more succinctly than this. Until the day I die I won't ever be able to make sense of it. I wonder if we'll ever learn?

Someone linked to the "New Manager" speculation thread at the time and even now it bewidering to read the disbelief and horror as it became more and more apparent that the Ginger One was going to take over.  That message in Facebook from the General that I initially dismissed as a fake - and then it appeared it was genuine.

[Ian.]

Although last season was probably the most severe sub standard of football we have witnessed for some time and all the love of Villa was disapearing it was an appointment which should not have been made. It was like some kind of wind up.

So DOL for me.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think Houllier and McLeish were both in large parts their own worst enemy.

When Houllier was appointed - in fact, before, in and after his press conference - he spent a worrying amount of time talking about Liverpool. That was going to get people annoyed from the off.

From then on, he frequently put his foot in it (the Anfield nastiness, for example, is far from the only time he did this), which meant that what little support he did have from those who could at least see what he was trying to do (unsuccessfull) got fucked off with the tactless stuff he'd spout, and gave up on him. Just when he needed all the support he could get, there wasn't any left, he'd annoyed so many people.  Obviously, his health problems ended it, but I suspect he'd have been binned anway.

McLeish's appointment staggered everyone. Look at this board in that period, before his appointment. Nobody saw it coming and pretty much nobody liked it.

However, there were actually an awful lot of us who didn't give a shit he came from Blues, and were prepared to give him a chance. For a lot of this group, the absolute worst thing he could do to make this support dwindle away was start having us play the way he did so often in his last job - so long as he didn't do that, we'd have given him the chance.

However, that is precisely what he *did* do. Even on the rare occasion we got a decent result and put in a decent performance, he'd pretty much always resort to type straight after - like Houllier, he really was his own worst enemy.