brummie

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?

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.

It's been eight whole days since Houllier went.

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

It won't be Martinez. Lerner's jet is in Madrid today. Martinez is in the UK at the moment.

Nee stink without shite mate. It's been McLaren nailed on, Rafa nailed on, Martinez nailed on today. Tomorrow it'll be three more randomly chosen names.

I find that impossible to believe. It had better be bollocks.

That's somewhat presumptuous. SSN have told us it is definitely McLaren, then Benitez, then definitely not Benitez. In one day.

I fucking loved watching us under BFR, especially in the early days. He bought some really good players and we played with a bit of a swagger. Unfortunately, he then spent the entire 1994 world cup summer commentating, and came back with John Fucking Fashanu.

If McLaren gets the job, I'll eat my hat. Actually, I'll eat my hat, then I'll shoot myself in the face with a fucking big gun. Farewell, cruel world.

If McLaren gets the job, I'll eat my hat.

That's the thing a lot of our fans are talking about. It was bad enough with Houllier when we went up there. My mate went, said it was -10 that night, we were shite, and Houllier spent the night waving at the Kop and walked off without a glance at our lot (after we'd been slaughtered). When I told him the next morning that Houllier had said "if i have to lose, I prefer it to be to Liverpool, as I like Liverpool" and had tapped the This is Anfield sign when going down the tunnel, I had to restrain him from heading to the training ground to lynch him. So, yes, it is something he's going to have to be a bit sensitive about.

Contract expires August 2012, when he'll be two months from his 35th birthday. Another of the "realise you despereately need a player and it's getting late, sign someone uninspiring, decide you don't like him, throw your toys out the pram when the chairman points at him and suggests 2m a year is a bit of a waste of money" brigade. I pray MON gets the Fulham job. Can't wait to see him try that shit with Al Fayed.

That's the kind of deal Martin O'Fucking Neill did for us. Habib Beye, 40k a week till 35, Emile Heskey 60k a week till 35.

Why? He was saying recently he'd consider a Championship post. To be fair, I thought he was joking / being gently patronising with that West Ham comment. I doubt he'd come, but if you don't ask, you don't get. Oddly, part of me thinks that Ancelotti would maybe act like we owed him something for coming (I have no idea what kind of person he is, so that might be unkind) and would be liable to get big job offers elsewhere all the time, whereas Benitez is looking like he has something to prove.

What do you think of this Brummie. Would you be happy with him? I think it'd be a good appointment. If we got the Valencia / early Liverpol Benitez, certainly. If we got the late era Liverpool, quivering wreck Benitez, less so. Theres still speculation (some in the Daily Mail tmrw) about it being Ancelotti, and others are saying Jol, but to be honest, I'm just happy the field of candidates mentioned includes such decent names. Moyes (who won't come, but hey ho), Jol, Benitez, Ancelotti - I'd be more than happy with any of those. How about Avram Grant? Yeah man, he'd be absolutely swooney!!!111!!!