I read this earlier today, ok, the board have said their bit and have rightfully told everyone the truth, but this is turning into a spitefull departue of the board and their ex employee.
We need to draw a line under the whole thing and move forward now. Anymore remarks or reports should be ignored in the future, we need the club to busy themselves with getting us a team to take
on the promotion challenge we hope to mount next season.

Enough already !!

just taity,
Although the board say they do not interfere, there were a fair few names put forward.

The names were, for the better part, attack minded players.

Banjo has actively bought to our attention how McJudas wrecked many a players chances, especially those prepared to cross the half way line. Except Jerome who was the sole exception.

It only serves to show the "must not lose" mentality that McJudas had adopted.

I'm not saying we would have done any better with the players mentioned, no-one has crystal ball, but I doubt we could have done any worse.

As you say Taity, draw a line under it and I wholeheartedly agree but unfortunately there is plenty of mileage left in this particular saga yet.

KRO

Pikey, totally agree.
This saga isn't over and there is every chance it will turn much more nasty than anyone wants or needs.
Ironically, it is more likely down to the Viler's Board to pull McJudas to one side and tell him to 'zip it' whilst they probably try and do a deal with the Blues ie a couple of million.
I do not think we have any chance of getting 5+ million but Lerner must be gauging the reaction from the fans and probably wants to avoid prolonging the bad publicity.

The saga is going to affect the day to day operations at the Vile rather than at Blues. McJudas has tied this mill stone around his own neck and it is likely to drown him in due course. CH will be getting on with the rebuilding process at Blues leaving the board to look after the legal issues, where on the other hand it will continually be on Mc's mind.
It's certainly keeping the focus on the Midlands for the moment. As a point of contention maybe Pannu should also be turning his attention to some of these reporters who are stirring up the sheite.

Why didnt McJudas sign the form for Odemwingie??? we would have finished in the top half of the prem if he had.... assuming of course he was given playing time

I don't agree xpat.

At the baggies Odemwingie was getting at least three decent chances every game so he was bound to score a decent amount of goals. With us he would have one maybe two chances a game so he would have not been as affective. I honestly beleive even if we had someone like Darren Bent upfront for us last season he would have struggled to score more then 10 goals. We just wernt creating enough chances.

Odemwingie was a name passed by to McLeish but the boards main player was Gyan he was reconmended to McLeish but Eck prefered Mphela who had as good record as Odemwingie but as cheaper.

McLeish waited to see how players did in the World Cup and while Mphela never stood out, Gyan did but then his price was then touted at £15M

I dont mind owners and staff who reconmend players to the Manager as long as the Manager gets the final decision.

McLeish comes across as a very sturbborn man, hence his reluctancy to make changes. And so i feel he is the kind of Manager who would want to use his own targets and will not be willing to use players signed who he never wanted.

If Hleb and Bentley are such players that maybe McLeish never really wanted, maybe that explains why they never got used, and also why apart from not being good that Bent, Quincy, Costly etc never got used.

Then again Michel was chassed by McLeish for a while and when we got him, how often was he used Sinclair and Bouazza was players McLeish wanted and again how often was they use.

All evidence points to another common denominator, and thats McLeish does not like using players who will not defend much, he would rather have someone who will drop back to the halfway line and defend than not defend and keep forwards, even if that means no players who can attack the final 3rd.

Maybe also coinsidence that McLeish is trying to get Reo-Coker to resign and looking at 2 CDM players, one of which is one of the 4 Targets the board was getting for McLeish while he was away (King, Burke and Gomis signed) the other target we was looking at was CDM Wanyama who funny enough is one of the first targets under McLeish.

So i think McLeish will look at players he targeted while at Blues including some we missed out on.

The KiD

http://www.wigan.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=245380

This is with regards to Villa bidding for N'Zogbia, McLeish after him again after all the messing about the player did with Blues.

Check this part out!

"It is the second time in a year that McLeish has made a move to sign the France international, last August Birmingham City had a £9 million bid accepted by the Latics but Charlie decided that he wanted to stay at the DW Stadium and turned the move down"

Nope N'Zogbia got greedy and we told him to sling his hook

Chances are he never wanted to come anyway and only saw us as a ticket out of Wigan.

Wonder if he signs for Villa how long before Eck drops him or how long before N'Zogbia decides he is bigger than Villa and starts to engineer his next move.

Good player, but a Greedy so and so.

The KiD

Does that include Giovanny Espinoza?

He's available and would suit the McVilers relegation campaign. :

Yeah the one who Sully signed behind McLeish's back so as to help Benitez settle. Again proves if a player is signed that McLeish never wanted he would not play them at all.

Did Espinoza even get a chance, we dont know how bad or good he could have been.

We could have say loaned Babel with a option to buy and had it been a player McLeish never wanted i recon McLeish would rather let them rot on the bench than get games even though they could be better than who we have (Jerome).

Thats just one reason why McLeish was a plum for us

What if Hleb, Bentley, Derbyshire was not really who McLeish wanted but had to put up with because we could not get McLeish's targets (some who would not come, others who we could not afford).

If Eck is so stubborn that he wont play players who was not 100% his choice even if they could be better than we have proved how bad he was as a Manager with us.

My 4,5,1 i recon would have kept us up as that meant more games for Bentley, Beausejour etc and others and see McLeish's favorites dropped (Fahey, maybe Jerome/Bowyer) or dropped from their positions i.e Larsson to RCM instead of RM.

Thank god that clown as now joined the Villa circus

The KiD

Have to say I'm looking forward to watching Villas campaign just as much as ours... will be interesting to see whether McJudas has learnt from his mistakes.

At Villa, he has a lot more attacking options, and with Young gone, I would expect him to be after a replacement. But no, he's in the market for defensive midfielders, if that doesn't show what kind of manager is, I don't know what does

I think with Hughton in charge, our football will gradually change, we have decent attacking players in Burke, Beausejour, Jerome, Gardner (for the time being)... and I hope we could get Routledge, very good in this league, quick feet, fast, something that Judas despises.

As Banjo said, good riddance to the man I once had respect for

Well we had attacking options.

Before the start of last season which list would you put as attacking more.

Jerome, Fahey, Bowyer, Larsson

or

Zigic, Martins, Derbyshire, Hleb, Bentley and Beausejour

Because you see those 6 players could not get many games because McLeish would not drop those 4 players above them.

I agree Ferguson and Gardner needed to stay in midfield, and that the fully fit back four and keeper deserves their places.

But of the other 4 places up for grabs, (yet alone use of Subs bench) can we say McLeish picked the best options.

Only thing those 4 places filled by McLeish gave us was the 4 players who would work hard, defend, lissen to Ecks tactics without making a fuss.

Sadly totally at the expense of creating chances, winning corners/freekicks or even spending any good amount of time in the final 3rd.

Hence our poor goal tally, hence Relegation.

Yet many in the media, and fans from other clubs i speak to seem to think McLeish did a great job, and our owners never spent any money.

Well thats the case as far as how much last seasons starting 11 cost, because all the signings from last season just gathered dust on the bench.

Wasting money and thats why McLeish's scout got the sack, had Yeung had a lot of cash or if we just about stayed up (i.e draw with Spurs, Wolves lose 3-1) then i recon Yeung would have sacked McLeish.

The KiD

RZA, let me put it this way, if Odemwingie had been playing instead of Jerome, he would have scored enough goals to keep us up

I felt Babel would had been a great signing for us if used right.

He went for about £7M in the end, same as Jones for £8M

We should have gone for one of those the 2nd time round, thats if they would have come.

Pitty they would cost £11M/£14M when we went for them, but i guess thats thanks to Yeung saying McLeish had a £80M Warchest over 2 seasons.

Not a wise move, even if thats inc wages, the selling clubs would not see that

The KiD

I'm looking forward to the VIler's season and how McJudas copes.
He has no excuses now and even if he does play attacking football he is also going to come into some stick as to why he didn't do the same at Stans when he had players capable of providing an attack.
Whatever way he goes, bar winning the league i think he is in for a massive uphill battle one that he ultimately will not win.

Agreed.

I would love to know what was going through McJudas' head as he lay face down on a towel by the pool in Corsica and toyed with the idea of ...

"Shall I try and win the league (CC) with Blues or shall I try it with Vile in the Prem"

Erm...ermm...och aye....erm...

"Blues could do it, Vile wont"

Erm....Erm....

"Blues might be skint......are Vile in a much better position?"

Erm....erm.....(tot of whiskey).....erm..

"I know, I'll go to Vile. Sell the attacking midfield. Bring some defenders. Hmm. yesss"

(removes umbrella from iced whiskey)

"I'll e-mail that Pannu, cant be ar s ed to talk to him"

(turns over and looks at Mr Learner) "Randy, when you've finished kissing my backside will you rub cream between the shoulder blades please mate, I always burn there."

KRO

Only just seen reply.
Would be great to find out what actually went on in Corsica.

Oh another thing about Babel or Odemwingie eevn if we signed them how do we know they would have been used right, how do we know if they would not make any difference, it would depend on how the Manager played them and if he would play them often, especially if they was not 100% players he was over keen on.

I mean look at Derbyshire, Zigic, Hleb and Bentley i would imagine all those would have done quite well, well certainly better than at Blues had they played for WBA

The KiD

If the general consensus is that no player joined unless 'rubber stamped' by McJudas, then why were these players at the club?

If he agrees to the player and his signature, then its his choice. End of. No constructive dismissal.

If he is 'told' he must approve the signing, (consequently refusing to play them) then is there interference from the board. McJudas has a case for constructive dismissal.

The plot thickens.

KRO

I would like to see the contract McJudas had at Blues.

I dont subscribe to the scenario that if your boss tells you to do something it is grounds for constructive dismissal.

If so, then most of us could claim CD on a regular basis.

xpat
Nor do I but this is the road he is running down.

It could beg the question if McJudas quit of his own accord, as he would have us believe (no tap-up)

Why are we persuing Vile for compensation?

Surely we should sue Eck-in-'ell.

Just a thought

KRO

Well in your case Pikey i cant see how its constructive dismissal.if players was signed who he never wanted and he never played them.

Can understand if he was forced to play them.

McLeish never had the bottle, he knew he would fail to get us Promoted and took the easy route out, he cant blame us for sacking his scout it should have been him not only for Relegation but the sheer money wasted on players who hardly kicked a ball and i dont mean this season i mean since he ever became Manager.

And sadly most clubs who get relegated have to make cuts, especially those who had been in the Prem for a while as they would have higher wage players than clubs who only just got promoted or clubs like Wolves/WBA who maintained teams that never had massive wage bills.

Maybe some players should sue McLeish for constructive distruction of their attacking careers

The KiD

Maybe some players should sue McLeish for constructive distruction of their attacking careers

TBH, I hope we squeeze every last penny from Vile or Eck-in-'ell, or both.

But not on bad publicity 'my dads bigger than your dad' being slung back and forth,

I would settle for £4.2M. Thats halfway between the £5.4M and the £3M from 1st July.

Compromise.

KRO