Would We Have Gone Down Under Gerrard?

[edgysatsuma89]

I know people say Beale was the brains but weren't we a bit shit in his last few months as well?

[Skerra]

I think he would have taken us down. We had such a soft set of fixtures at the start of the season that we squandered. If we needed the points to stay up at the end of season, I doubt we have have got anything out of our last 4 matches. So next season, instead of us playing the mights of FC Nobody in Europe, we would have playing hopefully for a mid table finish in the championship.

[algy]

I must say I kind of turned after Bournemouth. Can't say I totally gave up, but it was so astonishingly poor that I just could not honestly see how it could get better, what there was to build on.

And I'd managed to convince myself to be hopeful before that too! Just goes to show, sometimes your first impression is the right one.

Yep, same with me. Was willing to give him a full preseason, but it was clear after that game that the problem wasn't around Gerard not being able to communicate his ideas, or get the right people in place.

For what it's worth, I don't know if we'd have gone down or not if we stuck with Gerrard, but it was very possible and that alone should be a sackable offence for a Villa manager ever since the season Deano very nearly got us back in to the top half.

[Paul.S]

Yes. The team were lost, he hadn’t got a clue how to change things and it was obvious the squad had lost all confidence in him.
He should go abroad and learn something new as he will never be a coach of any relevance in this country unless he changes. People say Emery is a workaholic but he just works hard and gets the rewards.

[The Man With A Stick]

That West Ham game in August nearly put me off football for life.

[Percy McCarthy]

I know people say Beale was the brains but weren't we a bit shit in his last few months as well?

Yes. Which is why the ‘it’s only one game’ merchants annoyed me a bit after Bournemouth.

He kept going on about breaks in the fixtures that he could use to get his ideas across, but every time there was any kind of break, we came back worse. God only knows how bad we’d have been after the World Cup.

[Ian.]

Gerrard was useless and no better under Beale. Like others have said that business with Mings was what really got me, no need for it. Mings has never been anything other than a model pro on and off the pitch. Then when the performances didn’t materialise he had to go.

[BC Villain]

The big difference between Gerrard and Emery is that the latter has actually worked and coached the players, while the former just rubbished them.  Had he been left in charge at the turn of the year, we would have been in huge trouble.

[BC Villain]

I don't really get the concept of paying someone millions to be a figurehead masquerading as a leader. Obviously that's the structure at the BBC, but why would Villa feel a need to do that?

And it seems ITV as well.. l.   

[KevinGage]

I know people say Beale was the brains but weren't we a bit shit in his last few months as well?

Yes. Which is why the ‘it’s only one game’ merchants annoyed me a bit after Bournemouth.

He kept going on about breaks in the fixtures that he could use to get his ideas across, but every time there was any kind of break, we came back worse. God only knows how bad we’d have been after the World Cup.

Indeed.

[Flamingo Lane]

The simple answer to the question is no, since he would never have been in post until the end of the season had the downward spiral continued, which in all likelihood it would have done, meaning that had we been relegated it would have been with someone else in charge.

[rob_bridge]

Gerrard was useless and no better under Beale. Like others have said that business with Mings was what really got me, no need for it. Mings has never been anything other than a model pro on and off the pitch. Then when the performances didn’t materialise he had to go.

For stupidity it was up there with Gullit dropping Shearer
 

[Des Little]

I’d be amazed if Gerrard ever got a top flight job in this country again. Or Lampard for that matter, both utterly inept.

[edgysatsuma89]

I’d be amazed if Gerrard ever got a top flight job in this country again. Or Lampard for that matter, both utterly inept.

I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised by the actions of desperate teams in the bottom 5 come Christmas. I always think Bruce has had his last job and then he pops up again.

[enigma]

The failures of Gerrard and Lampard highlight the fact that the old cliché about great players being poor managers has never been truer. Of all the decent prem managers currently, only Guardiola was a top notch footballer, I think.

Peoploe often say that but it's a bit of a myth to be honest. Plenty of top players go on to become top managers. Guardiola, Ancelotti, Cruyff, Simeone, Dalglish, Deschamps and so on.

As for the topic, I don't think we'd have gone down but we would have been in the mix down there. Would have been a hell of a slog of a season.