OnlyOne

I can't believe this has over 20 pages. We won't get him. We'll sell Downing though no doubt. The board will probably buy a GK and that's it. McLeish will have to make do with the current squad and he'll happily obey seeing as he is Randy's dog. All they care about is recouping the money MON lost. It'll come to no surprise if they're discussing about the ticket sales (yet again) instead of discussing the transfers.

He hasn't done anything right or wrong at the moment. Words mean nothing. It's action which is important. I've seen nothing of that at the moment.

Can someone tell me how the **** are we trimming down the wage bill if we're willing to pay that much for a GK?

Managers needs alot of attributes nowadays, but MON hardly had any. He was good at man management, but his transfer dealings, use of the squad and legacy were all awful. His tactics were very good defensively (despite the odd one where we were exposed through tiredness), but extremely weak in attack thanks to him relying on big men who were shit at scoring. There's also the fact it was rather old and predictable. I'd say MON is one of the worst modern managers around. He was a much better manager around in the 90's when he didn't have to spend so much to compete and could do it the old fashion way better back then, but now he's out of his depth. I'd also say Randy is partly the blame for MON wasting money as well. He gave him too much power and should have realised it was getting out of control in 2008, but he didn't do anything until 2010 where we were shafted.

Selling Downing would be a bad move regardless. No quality player would want to come to us. Selling two of our best players in the same pre-season, a manager who has two relegations in his C.V and he won't be able to attract anywhere near quality of Downing and Downing is rather subpar at the best of times. Says alot really. But even if we kept Downing, all we would have is the Young money to spend and it won't be enough to fill the void of players who have left already.

You can't picture Downing in a Liverpool shirt? Very strange seeing as he wore red when he was at Boro.

You seem to be forgetting the fair play rules will kick in soon and this will be our final opportunity to spend big and compete. It's not sensible at all because our club will suffer in the long run. It'll suit Randy though.

Yet I bet you would be fine with Ireland, Warnock and Beye on the pitch despite the fact they care even less. That's what's gonna happen under McLeish, the signs are there yet again.

See i would be saying this........ if the season started this afternoon! Your acting as if nothing will be done, at least give them a chance to do nothing. I'm seeing exactly the same comments from you when we was looking for a new manager. You thought there was no way we we would appoint McLeish and look what happened...You became rather confused and frightened that the board alienated you. But here you are back to defending them thinking that something is being done behind the scenes like they've got everything planned. It does look like we have to use the kids and Randy is pocketing the money for himself. Randy has spent absolutely nothing of his money since the beginning of 2009. I'll allow you to work that one out. But if you wanna bury your head in the sand and think everything is alright then carry on...

What ever? Villa fans are ridiculous, we deserve all this no future malarkey. Could you stop sucking off the board for once? You would think after the McLeish appointment you would stop doing it. But no! Here you are still happily slagging off fans when all they expect are better things for the club, not a downwards slope. The season hasnt started yet, How can you say its a donwards slope?? Easy. Look how many players we've lost already. The players who mainly played a part of keeping us up last season. If Downing leaves, we are ****. We've seen how isolated Bent is without any decent service. I doubt McLeish will spend money (that's if he gets a decent amount) on filling the void of quite a few spots (GK, RB, Midfield, Wings) with his name and the fact we're a least attractive option than we were. The kids aren't good enough to keep us up as we saw last season. McLeish isn't even that good of a manager in general, so that alone is a backwards step.

What ever? Villa fans are ridiculous, we deserve all this no future malarkey. Could you stop sucking off the board for once? You would think after the McLeish appointment you would stop doing it. But no! Here you are still happily slagging off fans when all they expect are better things for the club, not a downwards slope.

Downing wants to leave because we're a sinking ship with no hope of any decent future. The money we'll get from him won't even help either. McLeish won't attract any quality to fill the void of Young, Downing and Milner so Randy is trying to recoup his loses before he departs. That won't stop the fans on here still thinking he's God's gift after the laughable mickey mouse manager search, the lies they've been fed to and actually being shit on in general. No hope for them.

Did they/were they to what sorry?? Seems like you fully understood what I meant as you had a whole load of 'analysis' to back up your claim. There's any number of ways in disagreeing with your similarities but they're all likely to have you putting forward nonsense in support of your next/future claim. Suffice to say that I think that your repeated 'but look at spurs' is nonsense diverting attention from actually looking at Villa. We're not Spurs. Spurs is a different club. Man U is a different club. No, don't ignore what one may glean from other clubs but that's as far as it ought to go. Okay. It's my belief that we coud re-invest the money from the sales of Ashley Young and Downing and still improve as a football club by spending money on the right players. Unfortunately (to answer your post OnlyOne) I don't really see McLeish doing that because I can't see us improving under him generally but I don't believe selling means you're automatically going backwards. Selling and not spending does though. So...If McLeish doesn't buy a player who's on par (or better) than Young, you're saying we still wouldn't be going backwards? :|

PrideofBrum, what makes you believe McLeish will be good at filling the void? What's so marvellous about his transfer record? The kids won't do it for us. They're overrated to the extreme. Just face the reality, Spurs are miles ahead of us right now. Not just in terms of quality or attractiveness, but the fact they have a lower wage bill as well. It took years of hard work. I doubt McLeish will do anything close for obvious reasons.

Every club bar 1/2 is a selling club, it's what you do money. If you simply spend less than all of the Downing money if he were to be sold, it'd say to me we are pretty content with not even improving, but spending all the Downing money and money on top, shows we still want to push forward. Again obvious example is Tottenham, lost Berbatov, Keane, Carrick all within 2 years. 2 years after that, they were top 4. No chance of us doing that IMO because of how competitive league has become but I think it's been shown, losing players is part of the game, it's how you then re-invest the money what matters. We've sold Barry, Milner and Young within 2 years. We've also lost Friedel. Tottenham were happy to sell Berbatov for 30m, they want rid of Keane and I doubt they'll miss Carrick much seeing as they've got Modric who still hasn't been sold yet despite the fact he is miles better than all the players we've sold. Even with all those Spurs players missing, they've still got a rather solid squad that's miles better than ours and they're on lower wages. Please tell me how McLeish will fill our void? It's not like his transfer record is anything to brag about and the fact we've told the whole world we're settling as a midtable team by appointing McLeish making us a less attractive option. Honestly, I know we're fans and all that, but honestly can some of you think outside the box for once? Selling Downing would be a massive blow seeing as McLeish isn't any good in the transfer market so the money will either be wasted or Randy will pocket it himself for making up losses that was down to him due to being out of his depth finanically in terms of football.

Downing could easily wear a Liverpool jacket infront of Faulkner and nothing would happen. The club doesn't care on what he does and they especially don't care on what the fans have to say. But yet again I'm seeing fans boo-hoo to the general. When will you ever learn.

I don't get where the guy has ever been smug. We belted them 5-1, and he commented that we were on a different level. We beat them 1-0 with (they claimed) a dodgy penalty, and he didn't make a big fuss. They knocked us out of last season's League Cup and he didn't gloat or crow in any way. The fact that people don't want him to be our manager, I get. What I don't get is the vitriol and abuse that is aimed towards somebody who appears to be an absolute gentleman both in and out of the game. I appeal to all of the dissenters to accept what has happened, grudgingly if necessary, and give this gentleman a chance to take us forward in a positive way. Can I back up what TT has said. I've been speaking to a stockbroker who had dealings with McCleish when he was at Hibs. He said that he always came across as being honest. A rare quality in football! I think I also read somewhere that leaving SHA is the first time that McCleish has walked away from a club. You're ignoring the fact that he ditched his home international side for a club like sha. It doesn't get any lower than that.

Does the board even give a crap about losing Downing? One of our best players in the squad currently? I mean it's bad enough losing Young, but it looks like we're gonna lose Downing as well. We're going backwards big time.

I'm not being biased or anything but I think this has got to be the worst appointment ever in the history of football. Even Messiah Shearer made sense in some way.

There is no evidence to support any of this nonsense. Calm down dear. :bonk: Dude what the ****. Honestly, this is what I can't stand. It's the fact fans still say stuff like 'nonsense' when the **** board hired McLeish with no logical explanation whatsoever. We were on our knees when everything looked dark under Houllier. We were in the bottom 3 at winter. Instead of sacking him, Randy decided to spend over 20m on a player who scores goals to help us get out of this mess. They'll probably do the same with McLeish as another panic buy, but who is he gonna pick? The other Bent?

I have a horrible thought. If McLeish does struggle, like let's say 3 points out of 10 games, I bet you the board would still back him all the way. Even if it we meant we were clear relegation favourites. They would be so gutless to say they made the wrong choice and will never sack him no matter how bad it gets. Then when we're relegated, Randy will no doubt sell up and leave us in the shit.

Another thing that's bad with the whole McLeish scenario is that one of the reasons why the board think he's good for the job is because Ferguson gave him credit. But wait a minute.... Firstly, Ferguson doesn't always tell the truth. Secondly, are you telling me they turned down McClaren who played a huge part in Ferguson's treble? Lastly, that's a rubbish reason.

It still makes no sense why they would go from Houllier to McLeish. It's a complete U-turn.

You honestly think Downing would want to stick around now? McLeish has a bad reputation of using the wingers not well enough. Bent probably won't leave due to no choice considering his lengthly contract, but I won't expect him to stay around that long and he'll probably lose interest.

At least we know the board are frauds as fans now.