Malcolm listened to Houllier earlier today on Radio 5 and has his own thoughts on it.
Seems Randy could have kept Houllier if he’d been willing to wait until Xmas of 2011 for his recovery to be complete, allowing McAllister to remain in charge.
He decided not to and Houllier understands his viewpoint and they remain friends, if well paid off friends.
What I could never understand was why it took so long for the deed to be accomplished. The Board must have known within days what the long term prognosis was, so why wait.
Or did they, could it be true McLeish was always Randy’s first choice, oft heard were the rumours even back last Feb, that they got on well.
I doubt we will ever know, and because of his short tenure I doubt anyone can safely conclude whether he was a good or bad choice.
The same can’t be said about Mac of course, many have made up their minds already and although I’m told he has his first singing made, I can’t see him bringing in anyone of a high enough merit to settle fans nerves as the season approaches. For one thing its not his style, he’s more the ‘whole is greater then the individual’ style of manager, the sort who rarely buy big names.
Still we’ll soon see
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We have made our bed, we now gotta lie in it however uncomfortable it maybe. GH was a massive cock up and AM is an atrocious decision which may well cost RL his empire.
The season is a month away and the club are still spiralling to a massive free fall situation.
We need some class acts in about 8 of em and with austerity the order of the day them 8 aint coming
Oh and Houllier was never gonna stay….thank god for that
Aitken mate, i totally agree with you, we are in deep shit, big trouble, and there are some fans who dont seem to realise what is going on, some even think we only need 2 signings, Given and N Zogbia, madness, i am very worried as things stand for next season
We need 4-5 signings
Given
Shawcross
Naughton (loan)
N zogbia
Parker
Fingers crossed this is a big week!
Ian are you goin to post anything about transfer stories tonight?
Don’t like how we got here, but going to wait and see the players we bring in before passing judgement. Given, NZog, Parker + Clark, Albrighton, Bannan, Delph, Fonzi,Gardener all sound good to me.
In any event, got season ticket for next season because I love Villa. Simple as that.
Houllier is such a nice person but he nearly ruined us. He froze out players if they played bad, rather than coach them in a different way and give them a second chance, he just said “You’ve played poorly today, now go away on loan or rot in the reserves, your choice.” That attitude with so many players who are known to be International level players (and players that have played well for us previously) really upset the camp & took away some key players for us.
We all said when Houllier arrived that we needed somebody to “steady the ship” when MON did his worse to wreck our season leaving as he did, but we actually got someone who turned the ship upside-down.
I’m sad he left the way he did and I’m sad that he left before the summer transfer window (because I think he would have signed some great players!) but for his coaching ability, his lack of knowledge in the Premiership today and lack of passion from the touchline, I’m glad he’s gone. I just hope Alex McLeish can bring more to this club than Houllier did, which shouldn’t be too hard. Take away Makoun, Bent and a win over Man City at home, we didn’t gain an awful lot from Houllier apart from morale trouble throughout the squad, arguments, fights, bad PR due to his coaching style, awful defending and a relegation scrap.
On the whole, I’m glad he’s gone looking back, but I know Houllier is a very nice man & only had the best intentions for Aston Villa. Keeping him on with McAllister starting the first few months would have been foolish of Randy. Letting an unexperienced man take charge of what most believe to be the 6th best club in English football and lead us into a Premiership campaign would have been an almighty risk! Although I’m not thrilled with McLeish’s appointment as manager, it is a better option than the GH & Gary Mac route.
Houllier was a disaster, a complete tosser hopelessly out of his depth.
McLeish doesnt stand a change, he needs all the downing and young money plus another 20m to make any impact and that is not going to happen
Houllier wasn’t a disaster and he definately wasn’t out of his depth…I’d rather not speculate whether or not he’s a ‘tosser’…
If what Harry Redknapp said is true about Scott Parker costing approximately 30million in transfer,sign on fee an wages,we can forget that for somebody who is 30. Shame as he is the type of Midfielder that we need. Leta hope targets other than Nzogbia and Given are being sounded out.
Who knows if it’s true or not. I don’t believe a word that comes out that twittering fools mouth and could all be a ploy to get his price dropped and put off other potential suitors!
I thought we started to play well towards the end of last season and the football was becoming more attractive to watch even if we weren’t as creative as we’d have liked. I thought Houllier and Mac’s style was starting to work and I was actuall looking forward to seeing what Gerrard could have done in the summer transfer window. I think he would have overhauled the squad rather than giving players like Warnock and Ireland a second chance. I still fear we’ll become very defensive under Mcleish and his record in the transfer marktet at both Rangers and Brum is pretty ropey in my opinion. The more i hear about him the more i worry for the future of our club.
Villaman42 that is the biggest load of toss i have ever read. Make your mind up for god sake
i hear we’ve give n’zog an ultimatum , either take £50k or not, as he thinks he can get more from a bigger club, bit arrogant really!!
I have a feeling that these words could come back to haunt me but I really dont believe that the appointment of Alex McLeish is as bad as everyone thinks.
Totally agree, far to many doom mungers on this and other forums. Give the man a chance!
AM has an opportunity to bring a fortress mentality to AV, given that he does not have the track record, the skill or money in the transfer market to achieve much else. If he can do this then the negativity shown by many towards his appointment could be turned to our advantage and average players could raise their game. Long term though money talks and AM as shown his colours if offered better so he will treat us like small heath if he has a sniff of success (and leave claiming constructive dismissal for a club spending money) IMO.
Mcleish will be another Fergusson
I have seen the future, its bright and its Ginger
The doctors may well be saying Houllier is well enough to return to management now, but I doubt they were saying that in May. And at any rate, I completely understood Lerner’s decision, it was in the best interests of Gerard Houllier as well as the club.
Houllier’s passion for the game is unquestionable, but it nearly cost him his life again. He needs to take a less hands-on approach.
As for McLeish, will people stop laying into him and get behind him! What’s done is done – he is the manager of Aston Villa and it’s our job to fully support both him and the team, something I fully intend to do.
As for those criticising his ability in the transfer market – Shay Given, £3.5m, willing to take a sizeable pay-cut to play football – a fantastic piece of business in my opinion! If N’Zogbia joins, yet another sound signing, and he was one of the prime targets for many clubs heading into the summer. And if we get Parker (and the £30m Redknapp was talking about pretty much applies to every player any club signs) then I’d be pleased with that too. I’m looking forward to seeing who else he brings in.
This could be a great season for Villa. We could finally find our first stable footing since O’Neill left and maybe return to the top half of the table where we belong and even challenge for the top six!
AM spent 26 million at small Heath, and bought such greats as Michel & Zigic only 4 of his 10 signings made the regular starting 11. At rangers he bought such luminaries as Emerson, Nuno, Capucho and Egil Ostenstad and 05/06 a later to be repeated pattern occurred when Rangers league form collapsed (while concentrating on Europe) and they finishing outside the top 2 for the first time since 1988.
I believe they were saying Dec 2013 at the earliest.
we aint getting zog but we are getting mgeady
god help us
I don’t think we can rule out a move for N’Zogbia just yet. There isn’t much differences in the two clubs positions.7
I have my doubts about McGeady. He has plenty of talent, but sometimes he tends to overcomplicate things. If he concebtrated on keeping thing simple he would be a good man to have around.
Gerard Houllier would of relegated Aston Villa
I think the majority of our clubs fand had lost faith. I beieve the club made the right decision in letting him go.
Gerard Houllier would have qualified us for Champions League.
We can do this forever – it’s all about opinions.
Pointless post to be fair, because the man is no longer our manager; let’s move forward eh?
If we don’t see signings this week and I mean good signings then we are just being fools! Sooner or later bent is guna want out! I’m sick of this! This is depressing. Can’t we just see good players comming in? Is it that diificult?
Off the subject I know…but The Fonz is talking a good game on the OS…I’ve been bigging him up for the last two years – hope he proves me right!
COME ON THE FONZ!
You take time to learn your lessons don’t you
Delfounso is shit. Darren byfield showed more potential than that moron
With those two statements, you have proved once and for all how little you know about football.
Delfouneso is definitely NOT shit. He is 20 years of age with plenty of natural talent and appears to have his head screwed on – so not a moron either.
Like I said, I hope he proves me right…
Jury is still out on the Fonz, I saw/still hope that I see potential in him but this is the season that he HAS to start delivering.
We have seen a lot of strikers come through the ranks recently, showing promise and have flattered to decieve.
Vassell, the Moores (Luke really, never saw anything in Stefan), Byfield, Gabby and now the Fonz.
When the Fonz first came through he looked as though he would become the real deal, a natural finisher and certainly promised more than any of the above, even Gabby. (and lets face it he’d be nowhere without that one unteachable asset) So far he has done nothing to show that he will ever have anything more than that initial potential and it is vital, for him, that he has a good pre season and finally comes good and makes something of it. If not, Walsall will be knocking!!
Surpirsed that he was given a 3 year extension, thought a shorter contract with an option for further years would have been more of an incentive for him to deliver
Depends how you look at it psychologically – if you give him a shorter contract you imply that you’re not sure about him, damaging his confidence.
By giving him three years they’re saying – we believe in you and it’s time to push on.
Some players need that – don’t forget he’s only 20!
Personally I think he’s better than all of the names you mentioned, even Gabby…time will tell…
As I said, I believe that he has more potential than any of them that I have seen but I have things I don’t like.
Using Gabby as a great example (and I do think he is a great example for any youngster wanting to go from having potential to holding down a first team place) he came in as a kid with nothing but electric pace, extremely raw and very headless. I beleive that he knew he would never be the best technically so he worked very hard on improving the parts of his game that he could control and also at the dirty jobs a striker needs to perform.
He worked very hard one summer, bulked up and toughened up, improved in the air and with his back to goal. He is still fairly headless, isn’t the best infront of goal and will never be the most technically gifted but he saw all these other kids come and go and decided I will work my bollocks off to ensure that will not happen to him………..and fair play to him, if only more kids would do the same.
He looked very tired and unfit last year, partly due to how much he was played under MON in my opinion, but if he comes back fit this year I still think that he and Bent have the potential to work together.
I haven’t seen that desire from Fonz yet, he gets kicked then he hides and in this league that is a bit of a worry, he really needs to toughen up a bit and learn to take it.
I believe the Fonz is better than Luke Moore but having said that I thought Luke Moore would be better than Gabby too.
I hope he does make it and I think he can but as time goes on I do worry about him more and more