Who do you want the next Villa manager to be?

[Dave]

Collymore reckoned on Twitter yesterday that QPR had sounded Sherwood out to replace Ramsey.

Good to know that there is still one club out there who are carrying on our tradition of not learning from their previous mistakes when it comes to hiring managers.

[KevinGage]

It will always be one of those what if's, won't it?

What if he'd got his first choice assistant.  What if he'd been able to keep Delph, Benteke and Cleverley, and add a few more of the players he supposedly really wanted (not that many of us would be heartbroken at missing out on Townsend and Adebayor).

I don't feel a huge amount of sympathy for him, that sequence of results from May onwards would have done for most managers.

But I fully expect him to talk about the importance of doing things 'his way' when he takes on his next job, feeding the notion that he was operating with one arm tied behind his back at Villa.

[mr underhill]

then he should never have accepted the job

[ROBBO]

I will defend him to a point, maybe it wasn't fully explained to him when he was appointed that the club were going to buy  a few French players who we may be able to sell for a profit in a year or two, he may have wanted more tried prem players after losing our two best players,again while he was to blame in many repsects our beloved club has been badly mismanaged from the day Lerner bought us, in my eyes they are the biggest culprits.

[Villa in Denmark]

It will always be one of those what if's, won't it?

1What if he'd got his first choice assistant. 
2What if he'd been able to keep Delph, Benteke and Cleverley, and add a few more of the players he supposedly really wanted (not that many of us would be heartbroken at missing out on Townsend and Adebayor).

I don't feel a huge amount of sympathy for him, that sequence of results from May onwards would have done for most managers.

But I fully expect him to talk about the importance of doing things 'his way' when he takes on his next job, feeding the notion that he was operating with one arm tied behind his back at Villa.

1. Given that everything that happened here, was pretty much what a good chunk of people expected, and what a good number of Spurs blogs warned of, where he'd got Ramsey by his side, I don't think things would have been much different.

2. He was never going to keep Benteke or Delph in reality and for the most part it felt like Cleverley was here under duress. Up until the upturn in form which started around the first Stripeys match Cleverley had been a poster boy for the half arsed under performing Lambert team. Cleverley's own upturn in form seemed to last not quite as long as the general upswing for the team (although that might be memory playing tricks on me.)

[Chris Smith]

I think given Delph had signed a new contract and had pledged loyalty to the club I think it is only after the event revisionism that makes it "inevitable" that he was going. Benteke was more wishful thinking I think but we were not inundated with offers due to the asking price and it was probably only Rodgers' desperation that meant anyone stumped up for an injury prone striker.

[Villa in Denmark]

If Delph was so sure of staying, why set such a ridiculously low release clause, when his market price would have probably have been £15-20M. If he was set on staying he could either have not had the clause inserted, or set at something more akin to a market value. Instead we got something that conveniently matched what we paid for him.

Benteke, well maybe, but from early in the summer there were mutterings that "his agent knew what he wanted." If he'd decided that Liverpool was where he wanted to go (regardless of how batshit a decision it looked to some of us) and Rodgers wanted him, there was little point in anyone else getting involved.

[mr underhill]

of course, that being the case, he would have been totally fucked had not Liverpool finally stumped up the asking price. one thing to me is obvious, Benteke didn't want to spend another moment at Villa, and had he been forced to do so through lack of interest/willingness to meet the price, he'd have become the cheerleader for the half arsed brigade.

[brian green]

Spot on Mr U. It would have been the last days of Dwight Yorke revisited.

[cdbearsfan]

Why would Benteke have been half-arsed? He'd have wanted to play for Belgium in the Euros and make himself attractive to the best club possible.

[brian green]

You may be right. I was and remain a great admirer of Christian Benteke. However, when career shaping moves are being considered I think CB, like Dwight Yorke and Milan Baros take their status and standing in the game as a constant and their club excellence is a gift to their employers not an entitlement.

[Villa in Denmark]

of course, that being the case, he would have been totally fucked had not Liverpool finally stumped up the asking price. one thing to me is obvious, Benteke didn't want to spend another moment at Villa, and had he been forced to do so through lack of interest/willingness to meet the price, he'd have become the cheerleader for the half arsed brigade.

But I said there were two sides to the equation. That if that was where he wanted to go AND Rodgers (or the Liverpool transfer committe) wanted him making any other interest futile.

Given the way most transfers seem to be sorted these days, all of that was probably sorted before Liverpool registered their interest and everything else was playing to the galleries trying to shift the release clause.

Obviously if he'd said to his agent it's Liverpool or bust and the only interest was from Spurs then that's a whole different scenario.

[mr underhill]

No, I appreciate that, and always value your perspective V-I-D. I was merely trying to articulate that if no one had met the release clause, I can't help thinking that a monumental sulk would have been the result and euros or not, we would have been carrying a very disaffected player - and he does have form in petulantly trying to engineer moves/and or go on strike. By the way do you have any insight into Emre Mor the young Danish forward who is highly rated by a number of top clubs?

[Villa in Denmark]

No, I appreciate that, and always value your perspective V-I-D. I was merely trying to articulate that if no one had met the release clause, I can't help thinking that a monumental sulk would have been the result and euros or not, we would have been carrying a very disaffected player - and he does have form in petulantly trying to engineer moves/and or go on strike. By the way do you have any insight into Emre Mor the young Danish forward who is highly rated by a number of top clubs?

Fair point. I Just think that if no one had shown an interest he'd have knuckled down. It wouldn't have been as though we were denying him a move.

Emre Mor, doesn't ring any bells, but I've pretty much gone out of my way to avoid Supaligaen this season. The quality is worse than ever. I'll have a quick search to see what I can find from the local media.

[walsall villain]

Moyes sacked today. Until Remi Garde was mentioned he was topping our poll. It will be interesting to see if he can get back to being a decent premier league manager or whether he is in permanent decline?