MON's gone.

[HangTheDJ]

Nope, and towards the end of last season Ciaran Clarke was on the bench ahead of him alot.

[TF S4DK]

Having had some time to reflect on Martin leaving, I can say that our most immediate focus is supporting Kevin MacDonald and resolving the situation with Manchester City and James Milner.

As for explaining why Martin left, I can say only that we no longer shared a common view as to how to move forward.

To deal in greater detail would do little but cause additional distraction for the club as it faces imminent games and the clear priority of hiring a permanent manager.

Finally, there have been no changes in our approach to building the club, aiming always to be as competitive as possible given our size and resources.

Chairman Randy Lerner

[Eskay Jones]

I hope this doesnt spur Spurs to sign Ashley Young. if redknapp buys a midfielder this season I will f*ckin fume.

[LS]

Yeah, the usual talk of Ashley coming to spurs has started again..

Now MON has left, we can't give them our left overs man(Keane Jenas etc)

[HangTheDJ]

Ashley won't go, not now anyway. He's the boards poster boy and has said repeatedly he doesn't want to go. That may have changed now MON's gone though.

Maybe January/next Summer depending on the appointment. The General said there's no truth in the Spurs links (or Friedel to Fulham talk either).

Then again the board are hopeful to have a manager in place by the Newcastle game, so there'll still be 10 days or so for Ash to get out if he's not happy with the appointment.

Ireland is still going to sign so he must be happy with the shortlist.

I'm hopeful that we'll get a relatively big name in at the very minimum to lift the gloom for a season. Even if we can't get the long term appointment until next Summer.

[Eskay Jones]

Reports are saying he DOES want to go though? Does he want to come back to London or not?

As good as he is Young has no purpose at spurs.

At LW. - Bale, Modric, Krank, GDS at RW - Lennon, Bentley, CM - Jenas, Huddle, Pala, Sandro the f*ckin list is endless

i'd rather see Gabby at spurs.

[HangTheDJ]

No one knows. He's said in the last week or so he's happy to stay and he 'owes Villa'. The board said yesterday there's no truth in the rumours and he won't be sold.

Things can change very quickly and everything is very up in the air at the moment. I'd be suprised if he went though.

I think the London link is lazy journalism tbh.

I wouldn't trust goal.com though lol

[HangTheDJ]

The Sven for a season rumours are picking up. I'm not entirely sure what to make of them so I'm not gonna get too dissapointed/excited about anything just yet.

Considering the circumstances it could be a hell of a lot worse and atleast he'd bring a different approach.

[Black.]

Young will be playing for spurs this season

Villa are some any guy team, he wants to play ball not that counter attack rubbish

[HangTheDJ]

You wanna bet?

No money ('cos I've not got any ), account ghosting?

[HangTheDJ]

Clearly, bait he sent the champagne bottles text out. So has he not played since & still stuck on 58 appearances?

Cuellar and Collins are out for Saturday. Looks like Davies will play if he's fit. He's getting his deal.

[TF S4DK]

Definitely sent the text out...

[HangTheDJ]

I don't like Marcotti but I find myself agreeing with most of this (if anyone can be arsed to read) -

Point 5 and 6 I C/S totally.

Ten thoughts on Martin O'Neill and Aston Villa

Gabriele Marcotti

1. As far as I can tell, by resigning, he's not getting a fat pay-off. Whatever else you think of him, it's an honorable thing to do. He could have sat there, counted his millions and done nothing.

2. There is a lot that we don't know about what assurances Aston Villa gave O'Neill and vice versa. General Charles Krulak, Randy Lerner's advisor, implied the dispute was over money and wages in Matt Hughes's article in today's Times. That said, if O'Neill was told that he could continue increasing the wage bill and running a big transfer deficit year on year in his pursuit of a top-four spot, then you can see why he would leave if the tap was suddenly turned off. On the other hand, if Lerner had clearly told him that he would have plenty of funds available to sign lots of good young players in his first few seasons but then, once Villa was consolidated as a top six club, he would have to operate with a more rational budget and work on developing the youngsters he signed, then it doesn't look too good for O'Neill. Fact is, there are two versions to what happened - presumably we'll hear O'Neill's at some point - and it comes down to who you choose to believe.

3. I wrote my assessment of O'Neill's work at Villa a few months ago and it has not really changed. I think he achieved pretty much what you would expect of him given the funds available. Lest we forget, in terms of net spend, from the day he was appointed to the present, he spent more money than any other club, with the exception of Manchester City.

4. The obvious defence is that O'Neill had to spend money because he inherited a pretty poor squad which needed to be rebuilt. And that's why he was given the money to rebuild it. But now the squad is built. It's there. Now is the time you look for forward progress. Evidently O'Neill did not feel that he could improve the players who were there (the vast majority of whom were his signings) enough to take Villa forward. As I see it, that's something of a self-indictment.

5. The reported imminent sale of James Milner and Ashley Young obviously had a lot to do with it. But this is where you have to be smart. If you're being offered £26 million for Milner, you pull the trigger. It's a no-brainer. You let him go, take the money and figure out how you can use it to improve your squad. Jose Mourinho lost Zlatan Ibrahimovic, his star player, fourteen months ago. What did he do? The money raised allowed him to pick up Samuel Eto'o, Wesley Sneijder, Diego Milito and Thiago Motta and, with those players, he won the Champions' League. Young is a similar issue. There's a price at which it would be stupid not to sell. Clubs turn over players, it's a fact of life.

6. If it did come down to money, O'Neill's inability to exploit foreign markets did him no favours whatsoever. Over nine transfer windows he bought a total of three playes from outside Britain: John Carew (from Lyon), Moustapha Salifou (from Wil) and Bradley Guzan (from Chivas). Carew was a great piece of business, the latter two started a total of zero Premier League games in a combined five seasons. And given that Salifou is 27 and Guzan 25, it's not as if these are youngsters being groomed for the future. It's a simple fact that you pay a premium for British players. Resources are scarce, you have to maximize them. And if you can't effectively balance out your domestic buying with purchases from abroad, you're in trouble.

7. O'Neill's lack of squad rotation has also been cited. Failure to rotate your squad is not a problem per se, it's just another approach to management which may or may not work. But what is worrying in his case is the number of players he signed (often at considerable fees or with sizeable wages) who he rarely used: Steve Sidwell, Habib Beye, Nicky Shorey, Curtis Davies, Marlon Harewood, Emile Heskey, Luke Young, Nigel Reo-Coker. Most of these guys were given the kind contracts you would expect to give starters. They did not work out as starters, which is fine, but at that point, you expect to move them on and get them off the wage bill. O'Neill was unable to do that, possibly because Villa's money men made it difficult for him, possibly because he simply couldn't do it. We just don't know who's to blame, just that it became a problem.

8. So if you're Villa, what do you do next? The single most important thing is finding somebody who can work within whatever financial restrictions are in place and who pledges to take the current crop of players and simply make them better. There is another level that the likes of Stewart Downing, Ashley Young, James Milner (if he stays), Fabian Delph, James Collins and Nathan Delfouneso can go to. These are talented players who can perform better. And. in fact, people like Beye, Sidwell, Davies and Reo-Coker can also perform better than they did under O'Neill. Being convinced that the new boss first and foremost has a plan for the current crop should be Villa's priority. Any knucklehead can go out and spend lots of money to sign England Under 21 internationals. It takes a real manager to make existing players better.

9. It would also be nice if Villa showed a modicum of imagination in their appointment. Back in the day, managers used to start at the bottom of the pyramid and work their way up. Why not look to the Football League for the next boss? Why not consider somebody like Sean O'Driscoll or Simon Grayson? Not only would they be cheaper options, they would bring an enthusiasm and a different approach. If memory serves, apart from Roberto Martinez and Paul Ince, the last manager of a lower division club appointed to a Premier League job in the off-season was David Moyes. And that was a long time ago.

10. There are two counter-arguments to the point above. Let me pre-emptively destroy them. The first is that Villa's players would not respect them, because they are supposedly "lesser names". I haven't played professional football, but I've spent the last 15 years talking to footballers. And I have yet to meet one worth his salt who would look down upon a manager because he hadn't heard of him or because he comes from the lower echelons of football. Yes, if you have a Jose Mourinho or a Marcello Lippi or somebody like that with a huge reputation you're more likely to listen initially. But those guys are out of Villa's reach anyway. And, in fact, respect is something managers earn - or lose - on the training ground. O'Neill came in with a big reputation but you can be sure he would have lost respect very quickly if he hadn't said and done the right things. It's the same with the likes of Alan Curbishley, Martin Jol, Sven-Goran Eriksson and the other folks on the bookies' short-list for the job. If they don't perform in their relationship with the squad, the players won't listen to them. Equally, a Grayson or an O'Driscoll might come in needing to prove themselves but they can build the respect simply by doing their job, day after day.

The other counter-argument is that it would be "too risky" to appoint an inexperienced manager. Risky is giving somebody £3 million a year for three years and letting them spend oodles of money on transfers and wages. A Grayson or an O'Driscoll would not be risky ... if you give them a budget to work with and a two-year deal. If it doesn't work out, you regroup in mid-season, get an interim guy in and work for 2011-12. The downside is limited: after all it's not as if Villa are going to get relegated. Look at Blackburn: they went for Ince, it didn't work out and they still had a comfortable season. If you're going to roll the dice, now is the time.

I agree with the sentiment of now being a time to gamble in the last point, but Grayson hasn't done enough to warrant a big move and O'Driscoll is a 52 year old who's never managed higher than the bottom half of the second tier.

I think he's being a bit of a deluded romantic with that point. Bilic is the man to take a chance on, if anyone.

[Seth Rollins]

Funny thing about that is Moyes is actually one of the best managers in our league.

[TF S4DK]

Yeah but point 5 seems to be the issue.

O'Neill was prepared to sell Milner to get 3 in, it seems he wanted to tie up his 3 pretty much at the same time as concluding the Milner deal, which makes perfect sense, cos once thats confirmed your targets prices naturally would go up.

But it sounds like Lerner said okay but you still need to dump these fringe players first & if you aint then you cant have the Milner money... So O'Neill probbaly thought f*ck it then nobody leaves...

[HangTheDJ]

Yep.

£120million in 3.5 Summers.

£70million in wages.

Wages at 90% of our revenue. Needs to be at around 60%. There's no way we could add Keane, McGeady and Ireland on 60, 40, and 70 grand a week each without shipping out Heskey, Sidwell and Beye.

The money is still there. Just for someone who doesn't abuse it.

[TF S4DK]

But what I dont get is why Lerner just didnt have an executive who would then go out & sell those players for the club.

[HangTheDJ]

It didn't work like that at first, Martin was given total control. If he'd have started selling players under his nose MON would have walked.

Recently Faulkner was instructed to work with Martin in bringing the wage bill down. In January we only managed to shift Gardner.

We've got two good right backs at the club, earning 43k a week each. Both have 2 years left on their deal and are over 30. They're both behind Cuellar in the pecking order.

What are Naughton and Walker on at Spurs? That's why our wage bill is so high. Stocking up on big earners as reserve players.

[TF S4DK]

Nah not under his nose but obviously it wouldnt take a genius to look at games played, wages paid, and draw up a list of potential departures, work out how much needs to be cut, and tell O'Neill to pick how he gets that sum down... TBH its a day long meeting, after which you inform the players agent & they will have no problems finding a move.

[TF S4DK]

Your stadium is bigger than Spurs tho right? and i know you dont put out DVDs for draws but your fans must be better spenders than their lot.

[HangTheDJ]

Nah. We're brummies, we're miserable and unemployed. We don't do paying. Especially not for finishing in a position 3 seasons in a row lower than our average over the last 20 years.

Plus we cap season tickets at 29,000. They're down to 27k this year apparently.

[Mame Biram Diouf]

Ireland > Tottenham ?

[LS]

Your stadium is bigger than Spurs tho right? and i know you dont put out DVDs for draws but your fans must be better spenders than their lot.

Better spenders than our lot? How did you work that out, we are one of the richest clubs in Europe and this is our first time in the champions league

Our tickets against Young Boys are going from 50 +

[HangTheDJ]

Was never an O'Neil Fan and some of the points Marcotti mentions

ive been saying on here for a few years now

Villa Could Easily finish outside the top half this season

Think the gap is too big between the top 8 and the rest of the league. 10th at the worst.

Ireland > Tottenham ?

SSN have been saying Ireland's in Birmingham so I dunno where that's come from.