Who do you want the next Villa manager to be?

[dave.woodhall]

I would bring in little Evans and Gregory till the end of the season it worked the first time round why not again.
If the tinker man at Leicester can come back to English football after how many years away then why not those three

Because Brian Little has been bombed out of every job he's had since 1998, Gregory is still recovering from heart surgery and Evans has been a driving instructor for the past twelve years.

[bobdylan]

I think Garde like Houllier will suss out Agbonlahor very quickly. With any luck he will go elsewhere on loan.Wolves might take him.

Houllier's idea of sussing him out was thinking he was the 2nd coming of Giggs and playing him left wing.  Up until then he was a striker on an upward curve, scoring more year on year, something like 10, 11, 12, 16 off the top of my head, he's never been the same player since Houllier shoved him out wide.

Ah so the fact that he rarely scores is down to Houllier.

Mmmm I see.

Not entirely of course, it was rather frustrating seeing Houllier play Young through the middle and Gabby out wide though.  Bit like McLeish playing Heskey left wing, M'ON playing centre halves at right back, Lambert/Sherwood's various square pegs in round holes incidents etc.

[Monty]

Young was in attacking midfield, not up front. I remember criticising the move at the time, but it has logic and nothing to do with Gabby - unless you think Gabby should be the playmaker?

[Legion]

I think hiring someone like Remi Garde represents our best chance of staying up. He suits the players we have better, and is more likely to get the best out of them than another jobbing Brit straitjacketing them into a prosaic, physical style.

I'd agree with that.

[Ian.]

I would bring in little Evans and Gregory till the end of the season it worked the first time round why not again.
If the tinker man at Leicester can come back to English football after how many years away then why not those three

Because Brian Little has beeb bombed out of every job he's had since 1998, Gregory is still recovering from heart surgery and Evans has been a driving instructor for the past twelve years.

Ha ha! But hold on, they are all British.

[tomd2103]

I guess that depends on if short term survival is the pre requisite. Of course I want us to stay up, but I think an appointment like Garde only makes sense in the longer term ; i.e. developing a coherent, sustainable footballing ethos and strategy and if that means taking a relegation hit on the way, so be it.

I still think it's early enough in the season where survival is not the overwhelming single focus just yet.  The promoted teams are starting to struggle, so although we currently find ourselves bottom, it is a redeemable situation at this point.  I hope the new manager sees this and instead of immediately adopting survival mode, implements a way of playing that can be built on. 

[go on the dog]

I would bring in little Evans and Gregory till the end of the season it worked the first time round why not again.
If the tinker man at Leicester can come back to English football after how many years away then why not those three

Because Brian Little has beeb bombed out of every job he's had since 1998, Gregory is still recovering from heart surgery and Evans has been a driving instructor for the past twelve years.

Yeah but apart from that?

[aev]

I think if we had been linked with Ranieri when Lambert went the overriding view would have been one of "no thanks".

[bobdylan]

Young was in attacking midfield, not up front. I remember criticising the move at the time, but it has logic and nothing to do with Gabby - unless you think Gabby should be the playmaker?

No, Gabby should have played up top with Carew with Young and Downing wide, it worked more than ok the previous season.

[Monty]

Young was in attacking midfield, not up front. I remember criticising the move at the time, but it has logic and nothing to do with Gabby - unless you think Gabby should be the playmaker?

No, Gabby should have played up top with Carew with Young and Downing wide, it worked more than ok the previous season.

It cost more money than we've ever spent in our history to scrape that style to sixth in the league every year. Name one top four, or even top six side, who play two strikers and use two wingers to lug the ball in to them. Actually never mind top 6 - name any decent side in Europe, in fact, which plays that way.

[Ads]

Gabby has t been the same since he started chucking weights round like an English centre. I couldn't believe how wide he looked on Wednesday. Yellow definitely didn't flatter him.

[brian green]

If Baticle comes and subsequently asks for a year off to write a play and is refused, Fox will send Remi an e mail headed Baticle theatrical sabbatical impractical.

[bobdylan]

Young was in attacking midfield, not up front. I remember criticising the move at the time, but it has logic and nothing to do with Gabby - unless you think Gabby should be the playmaker?

No, Gabby should have played up top with Carew with Young and Downing wide, it worked more than ok the previous season.

It cost more money than we've ever spent in our history to scrape that style to sixth in the league every year. Name one top four, or even top six side, who play two strikers and use two wingers to lug the ball in to them. Actually never mind top 6 - name any decent side in Europe, in fact, which plays that way.

So the World's philosophy on tactics changed entirely in that one pre season when M'ON left?  We didn't scrape 6th, M'ONs insistence on flogging his favourite 13/14 players into the ground by March, and poor use of subs prevented us from finishing higher, which we were quite capable of.  The players lack of experience in such situations compared to say Arsenal's didn't help either, nor that we signed Heskey and they Arshavin.

[Monty]

Young was in attacking midfield, not up front. I remember criticising the move at the time, but it has logic and nothing to do with Gabby - unless you think Gabby should be the playmaker?

No, Gabby should have played up top with Carew with Young and Downing wide, it worked more than ok the previous season.

It cost more money than we've ever spent in our history to scrape that style to sixth in the league every year. Name one top four, or even top six side, who play two strikers and use two wingers to lug the ball in to them. Actually never mind top 6 - name any decent side in Europe, in fact, which plays that way.

So the World's philosophy on tactics changed entirely in that one pre season when M'ON left?  We didn't scrape 6th, M'ONs insistence on flogging his favourite 13/14 players into the ground by March, and poor use of subs prevented us from finishing higher, which we were quite capable of.  The players lack of experience in such situations compared to say Arsenal's didn't help either, nor that we signed Heskey and they Arshavin.

Okay, we 'slumped' to 6th would be more accurate, and looking back we really spent amazing amounts of money getting there MON's way. His tactics got us way too many home draws, often early in the season not just in the annual March collapse. He must be an incredible motivator, because his tactics, signings, use of squad (I'm with you on that one) and everything else stink to high heaven.

Also, doesn't the whole Heskey/Arshavin contrast tell you something about the style problem? Where would Arshavin have played in our system - Left Midfield, whipping in the crosses? Heskey suited the way we played back then a lot more than Arshavin would've, which is all you need to know about the way we played and the problems with it.

[Virgil Caine]

If Baticle comes and subsequently asks for a year off to write a play and is refused, Fox will send Remi an e mail headed Baticle theatrical sabbatical impractical.

Well I liked it Brian