Albrighton Going to Leicester

[LTA]

There's been a common trend under Houllier, McLeish and Lambert.  1 or 2 rare bright spots mixed with large dollop of craps.

As far as I'm concerned, everyone involved with the 1st team since August 2010 has blood on its hands and owes us a collective apology for the shambolic way club has been run.

[kippaxvilla2]

Whilst on the Houllier-era (which clearly divides opinions) the one that really baffled me was Michael Bradley. I had really high hopes when he came-in but I don;t think I can recall a VIall player being moved-on without being given a decent chance in the manner that he was.

Paul Mortimer

Michael Boulding.

[kippaxvilla2]

http://www.11v11.com/matches/aston-villa-v-bradford-city-11-november-1987-290943/

Lowest we have ever been part 34

[paul_e]

They don't owe us anything, the entitlement that suggests is just silly.  We've had a bad time of things for a number of reasons but I don't think it's fair to suggest that many people who've been at the club in that time haven't been trying to do more.  If you want apologies look at the likes of Dunne/Collins/Warnock who were, by all reports, a poison in the dressing room for Houllier, or look at Stephen Ireland who regularly played like he'd rather be anywhere but playing football for Aston Villa.

I don't want apologies, I want them to do better.

[Toronto Villa]

They don't owe us anything, the entitlement that suggests is just silly.  We've had a bad time of things for a number of reasons but I don't think it's fair to suggest that many people who've been at the club in that time haven't been trying to do more.  If you want apologies look at the likes of Dunne/Collins/Warnock who were, by all reports, a poison in the dressing room for Houllier, or look at Stephen Ireland who regularly played like he'd rather be anywhere but playing football for Aston Villa.

I don't want apologies, I want them to do better.

precisely. This whole apology thing, the Moscow dinner nonsense, not for me. Football is one part of my life where I just accept I will routinely take a kick in the nuts and then line up with everyone else for the next one.

[silhillvilla]

The Moscow dinner wasn't even an apology. MON would not stoop so low as to say sorry to us.
Just going back to TSM, he must have been averaging a much higher amount before the Wigan away game.

[silhillvilla]

It's 1 point per game.

Even if you take west ham as the last game of his reign (which is nonsense in my opinion), he was in charge for 28 games, garnering 33 points, which is 1.18 points per game.

Just checked the records. Eck had an average of 1.12 ppg before he lost bent at Wigan .
So a difference of 0.06ppg between the two. So in effect no difference .

[cheltenhamlion]

Hang on. You are also making that judgement on Houllier's full tenure. You can't do with Bent for one and not the other.

[Ger Regan]

It's 1 point per game.

Even if you take west ham as the last game of his reign (which is nonsense in my opinion), he was in charge for 28 games, garnering 33 points, which is 1.18 points per game.

Just checked the records. Eck had an average of 1.12 ppg before he lost bent at Wigan .
So a difference of 0.06ppg between the two. So in effect no difference .

Your inability to admit you're wrong is highly amusing.

[ozzjim]

It's 1 point per game.

Even if you take west ham as the last game of his reign (which is nonsense in my opinion), he was in charge for 28 games, garnering 33 points, which is 1.18 points per game.

Just checked the records. Eck had an average of 1.12 ppg before he lost bent at Wigan .
So a difference of 0.06ppg between the two. So in effect no difference .

How can you take out the results after Bent got the injury for Eck, but not then take out the pre Bent Houllier results. Quite ridiculously woeful form of arguing, as you know the gap would actually widen hugely. Houllier is a multi cup winning manager in England, Eck is a befuddling negative manager that won some tin pots against an MON team in Scotland. To even compare them is incredible.

Biggest mistake we made was not moving Houllier upstairs and giving it to McAllister after that run in we had. They both had an idea of the direction they wanted to go and we would have been a much better side than we are now IMO.

[silhillvilla]

I wasn't saying GED had a worse career than Eck , just that they were both pretty inept as villa managers . I don't think moving GED upstairs was an option with his constant putting down of the club , his weird distant love affair for everything Liverpool and his general demeanour which was very much - you lot you are so lucky to have me.

[Toronto Villa]

I must have missed the bit where he constantly put down the club.

[silhillvilla]

"Aston Villa is not a club on the same level as Liverpool, let's be objective and honest,"

"It's a club that according to me has belonged between seventh and 12th place in the Premier League."


Gerard Houllier admitted yesterday that Aston Villa are not good enough to beat Manchester City – a confession the club’s spin doctors immediately tried to have struck from the record.

[kippaxvilla2]

"Aston Villa is not a club on the same level as Liverpool, let's be objective and honest,"

"It's a club that according to me has belonged between seventh and 12th place in the Premier League."


Gerard Houllier admitted yesterday that Aston Villa are not good enough to beat Manchester City – a confession the club’s spin doctors immediately tried to have struck from the record.

So he massively overrated our ambition then.

[KevinGage]

Houllier clearly has some nous when it comes to spotting players (and convincing them to sign).  We were close to getting Wanyama too, in 2011.

But he was just as likely to ostracise the players he'd signed as well as the ones he inherited. Even the French ones. So there is no guarantee that Cabaye, Makoun and so on wouldn't have fallen foul of his mood swings.  He has pursued petty, personal vendettas throughout his career.   

Although more modern in outlook than McLeish and prob even Lambert, he was still old school in the sense that the managers rule was law and the manager must have absolute control to do what he wants. Even if it means signing a whole stack of players and not playing them/ eventually letting them go at a substantial loss. That's why I don't think a bit part role such as Technical Director/ DoF would have appealed to him. He may have done that for his country, but that is different. With us, he was essentially a gun for hire.  I'm sure I read somewhere that he was offered a DoF position at the club after his health scare, but he refused. 

The point about Lerner being scared of his plans that summer is an interesting one, and one I had not really considered before.  Health issues may well have been a big concern (and they should have been from the kick off, in all honesty)  but the players we were linked with at that time wouldn't have come cheap. For a club already making huge losses, it was perhaps beyond the pale.