Dr T has pulled the trigger

[brian green]

The alternative is to keep a crap manager and enjoy the ride down the leagues.  Doing nothing is not an option.  As for being a laughing stock the 17 point season guaranteed that not the search for a competent manager.

[LeeS]

And if they don't get it right this time. Do it again until we get a good, winning manager and KEEP him.

yeah, i'm sure all the top managers are dying to take a job with a shelf-life of 4 months. We'll be fighting them off with a shovel

I hope they'll all be looking at it and thinking we have a good squad, a supportive chairman and a ridiculously good pedigree. It wont take much of a footballing genius to get this current crop of players purring. RDM was just not up to it. We've also got the advantage that we're first to pull the trigger. If vacancies at Sunderland, West Ham, Swansea, Stoke and the like come up we might find the pool of available talent diminishes.

[sickbeggar]

And if they don't get it right this time. Do it again until we get a good, winning manager and KEEP him.

yeah, i'm sure all the top managers are dying to take a job with a shelf-life of 4 months. We'll be fighting them off with a shovel

Or, they might be thinking that this is a decent squad and I will be backed with money in January.  We may not get promoted this season but any new bloke coming in can't really fail now as his job will be to stave off any doubts about dropping to an even lower division and trying to get us as close to the play-off's as possible. He knows that he will be back in the summer too.  This is not the same club as it was under Lerner.

Unfrotuntely for Dr T, I think he's about to be lumped in with all the other mental foreign owners. That may be unfair, but if you're a manager with something to lose reputation wise, you're gonna think twice about jumping into a club like ours especially as spending a fortune is no guarantee you'll be given any time. RDM had 10 games to repair and rebuild the biggest mess at Villa park for a generation at least. Whether you think he's crap or not, that doesn't say long term planning to me or i  daresay any potential new manager.

[Hairbandinho]

He had to go. But the realistic alternatives do not inspire much confidence.

I suppose Bruce is the best option

[aj2k77]

And if they don't get it right this time. Do it again until we get a good, winning manager and KEEP him.

yeah, i'm sure all the top managers are dying to take a job with a shelf-life of 4 months. We'll be fighting them off with a shovel

Not defending us as this year has been a comedy of errors but if you look at the shelf life of 99% of managers now it's very poor. In the top two divisions only 8 managers have held their job for longer than 2 years currently.  Overall 52 of the leagues managers have had their jobs less than a year. Football has changed.

[Bestmate]

This is a period requiring stability and no risks or gambles. I'd have Roy Hodgson right now. Bruce is good but the fans could turn on him in an instant and that would be a worry.. At this level Hodgson could just stabalise the ship and get this squad organised.

[Chico Hamilton III]

And if they don't get it right this time. Do it again until we get a good, winning manager and KEEP him.

yeah, i'm sure all the top managers are dying to take a job with a shelf-life of 4 months. We'll be fighting them off with a shovel

Not defending us as this year has been a comedy of errors but if you look at the shelf life of 99% of managers now it's very poor. In the top two divisions only 8 managers have held their job for longer than 2 years currently.  Overall 52 of the leagues managers have had their jobs less than a year. Football has changed.

Chelsea have had 11 manager under Roman. Sacking managers isn't always a sign of madness. In fact, keeping a clearly failing managers is far more stupid

[brian green]

Respect Bestmate but £50 million buys you more than a steady ship.  It buys you one that goes where you want it to go when you want it to.

[aj2k77]

In this division it should buy you a ship with a big fuck off cannon on the side that blows the other ships out of the water as long as the Captain isn't blind and knows how to light it.

[Bestmate]

Respect Bestmate but £50 million buys you more than a steady ship.  It buys you one that goes where you want it to go when you want it to.

Agreed. I was thinking more of three months to move away from the relegation area and create stability to the end of Jan with maybe one or two further buys in the january window for the new manager. Then hopefully from Feb to May, a push for the play offs with a settled and talented squad. I have not given up hope of promotion this season yet!

[joe_c]

I don't know if RDM was in and of himself an underwhelming appointment or whether the last few years have just crushed any semblance of enthusiasm out of me but the only opinion I can muster on his tenure from start to finish is basically this:



What is worrying though is that since O'Neill's departure (who I still hold responsible for all the club's ills by the way), whatever route we have taken with the new manager, whether it's a known quantity with a track record At This Level like di Matteo, or punt from left field like Houllier/Garde or it's whoever was immediately available like Sherwood or an up and coming talent who has yet to fail like Lambert or it's Alex Bloody McLeish, sooner or later, somehow or other, it's gone tits up.

[olaftab]

And if they don't get it right this time. Do it again until we get a good, winning manager and KEEP him.

yeah, i'm sure all the top managers are dying to take a job with a shelf-life of 4 months. We'll be fighting them off with a shovel

Managers will. Two reasons the pay is good and contracts are normally minimun 3 years and secondly they will take on the job to do better than winning 1 in 11 and if they don't they....

[MalcolmP]

This is a period requiring stability and no risks or gambles. I'd have Roy Hodgson right now. Bruce is good but the fans could turn on him in an instant and that would be a worry.. At this level Hodgson could just stabalise the ship and get this squad organised.

Interview should go something like this.

Tony - will you play Westwood?
Interviewee (Put whatever name you want) No
Tony - you got the job

[joe_c]

In this division it should buy you a ship with a big fuck off cannon on the side that blows the other ships out of the water as long as the Captain isn't blind and knows how to light it.

I think the cannons we've acquired are fine. It's the emaciated galley slaves powering the ship that are the problem.

[Small Rodent]

Deadly Doug
Reluctant Randy
Tony the Trigger