brummie

Who did I slate just before they left? I slated Barry on here for at least two entire years, and I never slated Milner at all.

Fairwell Ashley. It is best for both him and the club that he goes, and it is very good money. He has traded on his reputation for at least two years now, so this is his chance to really do it, as he won't be able to hide. We based ourselves far too much on him the last two seasons, this will force us to change.

Craig Gardner is decent if unspectacular. Good shot on him, works hard. No surprise to see him back in the PL. His brother Gary is going to be 10 times the player, though.

Well said, Wullie. I too hope Spurs keep Modric. it is bad enough us losing Milner and then Young, but if it continues to happen to Spurs, who have actually just been in the CL, it makes you wonder why bother trying to get there. Can't get into the CL? Lose your best players. Get into the CL but don't stay there for good? Lose them anyway, as they've had a taste. Someone said the other day that football in this country is largely about four clubs who pretty much monopolise the CL places, then there are six or so more clubs (the likes of Villa, Newcastle, Everton, Spurs) who seem to be on a cycle of challenging for a bit, then fading for a bit, then challenging for a bit, then fading. It's like a hamster wheel of frustration. If it isn't the clubs who are traditionally there, it now includes Man City who have won the lottery, crashed the party and are prepared to pay mental money for players to sit on their arses on their bench "just in case" If you want to see what is wrong with the English game, look at really promising players like Sturridge, who go to Chelsea in the knowledge they'll sit on the fucking bench while a load of expensive foreign show ponies get the big gigs. It is all fucked beyond belief.

Anyway, fuck this shit. Im going to punch the wall really fucking hard, then go to bed. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and it won't be true.

I'd have kept Houllier on, without a question. Despite a season of turmoil, dreadful injuries, and four different managers, we still finished ninth. I was far from convinced with him, but there were signs he was changing the way we played. McLeish is just an O'Neill lite.

I'd love to think that'd happen, but honestly, this has got disaster written over it in letters so large, you could see it from space. I've seen some bewildering stuff happen at Villa over the years, but really, nothing that matches this. It's the disaster we all think it's going to be, or he pulls off moderate success. What would be an acceptable start, mid season position and end? If he's the right end of mid table coming up to xmas and has money to spend, would things ease up on him? It all depends what sort of football he's going to play. That's what people are most worried about. The Blues connection is just a peripheral annoyance. If he starts playing his ten men behind the ball thing at home, he's going to get rightly slaughtered for it.

It seems incredible to say this, but yes, I think it is. He was brilliant till about 18 months ago. In fact, in some ways, he still is. That shit in the press last year about selling club, no money blah blah blah, then we go and spend 25-30 odd million in January blew that away. That's not the problem. The problem is that he's in the US most of the time (although, despite the shite in the press, he attends most games), and his management team over here doesn't include a single person versed in the industry. There's a chap whoi worked with Ellis for about 25 years, Steve Stride, who ran the club day to day before retiring when Lerner took over. He's forgotten more than the current board know about the game. He's on a few UEFA committees now. Knows the industry inside out. The best thing they could do would beg him to come back The worst thing has been the utter farce of appointing a new manager. You'd have thought that, two months ago when Houllier was taken to hospital, we'd have been urgently putting a back up plan into action. But no, we didn't. We did fuck all, then finally, when we'd spent a fortune getting rid of Houllier, started asking around for permission to speak to people, like some outmoded gentleman club. We then got royally shafted by Dave Whelan, who took Lerner for an utter mug, made ourselves look idiots over McLaren, ruled out a host of candidates because they didnt have PL experience, got stroppy over the way Hughes left Fulham, because Lerner didn't like it (despite Hughes having a clause in his contract allowing him to), then realised that it wasn't working, but by that time we'd ruled out or thoroughly annoyed all the remaining candidates, so finally decided to play dirty, but by that time had inexplicably settled on McLeish. We even interviewed Benitez, but amazingly, our fuckwitted CEO, Paul Faulkner, got into an argument with him, and he left after 15 minutes. An argument, FFS. Utter disaster from start to finish.

I thought about it, but to be honest, although it'd give me a kick to tell them to stick it up their arses, I've been going for 35 years now, so I'm mentally welded to them. You can change your car, you can change your job or your wife, but you are stuck with your shit fuking team for life. We know all too well. Ain't that the truth.

I'd love to think that'd happen, but honestly, this has got disaster written over it in letters so large, you could see it from space. I've seen some bewildering stuff happen at Villa over the years, but really, nothing that matches this.

We're appointing Alex McLeish. At this point, Sam Allardyce would have been worth a punt.

I thought about it, but to be honest, although it'd give me a kick to tell them to stick it up their arses, I've been going for 35 years now, so I'm mentally welded to them.

Could have been worse, could have been Strachan. There's not a lot in it, to be honest. Oh, and it is apparently true that Quique Sanchez Flores was touting himself for the job, which just makes it even more gut wrenching than it already was. I renewed my season ticket last week. f***ing great timing. Sounds similar to the summer where Deschamps & Mancini said they'd manage us, and instead we gave Roeder the gig full-time. Did you know Roeder's working for us now? Does a lot of scouting for us. Probably scouting Dirk Kuyt (he says, proudly latching on to an old in-joke).

Downing won't be going anywhere. Even less likely after the shit storm of this week. That defence thing, looking at their record last season, I think they conceded one goal less than our comedy defence did. I'll take Foster, mind.

Could have been worse, could have been Strachan. There's not a lot in it, to be honest. Oh, and it is apparently true that Quique Sanchez Flores was touting himself for the job, which just makes it even more gut wrenching than it already was. I renewed my season ticket last week. Fucking great timing.

That misses the point. He was going anyway, and to be honest, most Villa fans aren't that arsed.

Incidentally, I think Lerner thought: "Hmm, I really like that David Moyes, except he's happy where he is" "I'll ask him again if he wants to come" "He still doesn't fancy it ... I wish I had my own David Moyes .. Oh, hang on a minute! There's another ginger Glaswegian 3 miles away! I know, I'll get him in, I'll make MY OWN David Moyes" First PL manager to leave post. Get on it. It is practically free money.

I'm not reading the stuff above. Although, to be quite honest, if I came home and found the Mrs having sex with Steve Bruce, it wouldn't really register after this week. Have your fun, though, schadenfreude is a wonderful thing, and it's pretty funny too.

Words fail me. We really are the new you. How is it possible that we land a billionaire owner who throws money around like confetti, yet then goes and undoes all the good work by insisting that the new manager must have Premier League experience, so then goes and gets one whose experience in said department consists of getting relegated twice in three years. I don't give a shit he's managed that lot - in fact, had he done brilliantly with them, it'd be a bonus - I care that he's got a record of dire football, ten men behind the ball at home, and getting relegated. An appointment so utterly stupid, it beggars belief. I've genuinely never seen our fans so united on an issue. The daftest thing is that now, McLeish can't win. he's going to have to win his first ten games to even get given the benefit of the doubt. We'll be around the arse end of the table pretty soon, and he'll be gone around Hodgson time. Except with a pay off (incidentally, MON got a whacking pay off last week, as did Houllier) and we'll be back at square one. Great board at providing the money, but utterly clueless as to how this soccerball things works, I'm afraid. I feel sick to the stomach.

I wouldn't be surprised to wake up tomorrow and find he's 1/100 favourite. FWIW, McLeish resigned because he's not being consulted on transfer policy. They signed that utter fucking scutter Marlon King behind his back and have told Dann, Johnson and Foster they can go.

Stage one of the grief is in full swing then. Ha. Tell you what, it's far from boring. I renewed my season ticket this week. Then the next day, I hear we're linked with Martinez, which makes me think "errr..... maybe I shouldn't have bothered", then we get over that saga (in which, I will say, Dave Whelan played an absolute fucking blinder and made us look like total muppets), then today our forums go into meltdown over this. I do think there's a growing body of evidence that Lerner, whilst being very handy with handing over cash for players, is a bit clueless when it comes to running a football club, but if there was one thing he could do which would, in a stroke, plunge him to new levels of dislike amongst the support, it would be this. In fact, he'd be seriously challenging Doug in the unpopularity stakes.

Anyone who thinks there is any truth in this story is off their fucking heads. There's more chance of me being appointed.

He hasn't "turned us down", we haven't even spoken to him, let alone offered him the job. Read this: http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2374417,00.html Of course he turned you down, you made an official approach and he decided to stay at Wigan. He said he wanted to stick to his commitment to Wigan and didn't want to speak to us. Who knows if he'd even have been offered the job? I think you're clutching at straws on this one. You wanted to speak to him about the managers job and he made it clear he wasn't interested. I know. We wrote to Wigan ten days ago for permission. Who knows how many other people we're talking to? You make it sound like we offered him the job, when we didn't. He wants to stay at Wigan, fair play to him. To be honest, it's a bullet dodged in any case, as he should never even have been under consideration.

I still think manager's are being told sell before you buy...and even then it could be a case of being told to sell and not having the whole lot to spend. Seems weird Benitez and now Martinez would turn them down. What makes you think that? We spent the best part of 30m in the January transfer window, having been told by the media that we had no money all season up till that point. The simple fact is, we asked for permission to speak to Martinez, Wigan said ok, Martinez had agreed verbally a new contract with them, and stuck to it. Nobody else has turned us down, beyond that nonsense on SSN about Benitez the other day. That £30m was just the Milner money pretty much plus an extra few million. So even if it was just the Milner money (which was 16m after Ireland) there's another 14m on top of that. Lerner has been superb in providing money. His failings are naivety in trying to be Mr Nice Guy when he's looking for managers. They did this last August, too.

He hasn't "turned us down", we haven't even spoken to him, let alone offered him the job. Read this: http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2374417,00.html Of course he turned you down, you made an official approach and he decided to stay at Wigan. He said he wanted to stick to his commitment to Wigan and didn't want to speak to us. Who knows if he'd even have been offered the job?