McLeish to become Villa manager

[stony]

I never wanted O'Neill out, but he pissed me off. There's this myth that he's the perfect man manager. That's why he treated Luke Young like shit when his brother died, that's why he spunked millions on players then never played them, that's why he had a fight with Reo Coker on the training ground, Reo Coker was one of our hardest working committed players. I was glad to see the back of him.

I think McLeish is a decent appointment as I feel the board have changed their ambitions.

Instead of fighting for the magic of 4th place, I think the board now want to cruise along between 6th - 12th. Kind of how Sunderland, Everton & Fulham do. Whilst signing players then making profits on them to places like Man City, United & Liverpool.

McLeish is a solid bet to do that. He'll make us stronger at the back & the players will have a more committed & professional attitude to what I've seen the past 2 seasons.

That's a pretty big shift in ambition for the club. I think they realise that they can't realistically compete with the six clubs vying for the top 4 places. One aspect of City and Spurs challenging for champs league is that the fight for Europa has more or less become redundant.
In the past there would be clubs like Villa and Everton in the mix for this, but now 5th and 6th are likely to go to the teams who narrowly fail to qualify for champs league.
You could argue and I think most Villa fans will, that it's a defeatist attitude by Lerner, but it's also a sensible one when you consider the financial clout of the teams fighting for European places.
It will be interesting to see if your fans accept it without kicking up a stink.

 

[peoffrey]

Reo Coker was one of our hardest working committed players. I was glad to see the back of him.

He had a clean slate under Houllier but was still released at the end of the season. It'll be interesting to see where he does end up.