MON, Randy?
I personally think Randy's managerial appointments are not the reason. I think under GH we picked things up in the latter stages of the season and were playing good football. If he had stayed, the signs are that he would have bought in quality.
AM - he cannot be blamed, he was a 'stop-gap' and was recruited purely for that reason. Awful to watch his teams play, but he did what he 'said on the label'
PL - well we have all been disappointed, as we all thought he was a good signing, and maybe he will get things sorted, i have confidence that he will.
I think the replacements of our top players have not performed. Ireland for Milner, NZogbia for Ash - they show rare glimpses, but are nothing like the players we lost.
I feel sorry for DB, he came to Villa because we had GH, Ash and DJ, and within a few months, all three were gone. DB will surely leave soon, and cannot be blamed for that.
My biggest regret is that MON did not buy DB when he had the chance, instead he bought Heskey. Barry said that he would have stayed if we qualified for CL football. If MON had bought a decent striker instead of wasting money on the likes of Davies, Sidwell et al - It would have been so different....
who do we blame?
posted on 25/10/12
100% agree. MON was spending ridiculous amounts of money on average players. Randy took a decisive decision and MON didnt like it. RL had the best interests of the club in hand. I also agree that Houllier would have taken us back into europe over the course of 2-3 years, who knows. Mcleish's appointment was a disaster, he didn't deserve the personal abuse he got, but he didn't deserve to stay in charge. Football fans have no patience, remember under brian little we lost our first four games and finished in europe! The only word needed is time, lambert needs it and the fans should be prepared to give it him.
Remember we had this problem under oneills first year!
posted on 26/10/12
The MON strategy is one we'd all have backed before it happened - it just didn't work out. Now we're trying a different strategy, let's see where it takes us over the next three years.
I don't want to bad mouth anyone (maybe AMC but that's more down to the quality of entertainment) - it's all a process and I think we're on an upward curve right now, however slight that incline is.
posted on 26/10/12
The MON strategy is one we'd all have backed before it happened - it just didn't work out. Now we're trying a different strategy, let's see where it takes us over the next three years.
----
The championship
posted on 26/10/12
Lerner invested heavily under MON, the problem is he for every good player MON signed he signed three bad ones. He was responsible for signing the sham of a defence we had last season and signing Heskey was just unbelievably poor judgement.
Houllier has been my favourite of the last four managers we've had (and I include MON in that). He came in at a bad time yet by the end of the season we were playing good football combined with an end product. I sincerely believe we would be challenging for Europe now under Houllier. His contacts within the footballing world would have enabled us to bring in gifted footballers at good prices. His health was always going to be a problem though.
Every day I pray for Aston Villa and tomorrow I hope is the day we turn it around. Fail to beat Norwich and I have to say I think we're doomed.
posted on 26/10/12
Agree with the OP. When MON went maybe we could have gone for a manager who would keep us safe, doing enough not to get into the relegation zone, but the fans would have been just as upset as with the bumpy ride under Houllier and the dire stuff under McLeish. What we've ended up with is an ambitious manager, although with a team yet to perform. There's no easy rides in the PL. We have to stick with it, and hope it comes good.
Tomorrow's match is important for psychological reasons, but maybe that's all. It's time we started winning, and Norwich is a team we should look to beat. But every match is unpredictable to some extent. It won't be a total disaster if we lose, but it'll make life a whole lot easier if we win.