Guest Blog: Wolves fan on What the Eck is going on at Villa

This morning saw the appointment of Alex McLeish as Aston Villa manager. The team I support and love. Some thoughts from Villa fans have frustrated me; the graffiti, the protesting, quotes of a “dark day” for Villa and so on seem extreme. It’s clear that fans of the claret and blue will either feel OK about the hiring – I’m in this bracket – or feel worse and worse still. This led me to get the opinion of someone not attached to the club, but connected through geography. Here’s how @simonlansley sees it.

Wolves fan on What the Eck is going on at Villa

There was a brief moment of Black Country solidarity this week when a West Brom fan told me that he (and by inference, me) was “loving mocking the Villa fans” via Twitter.

The mighty Villa, the undisputed kings of West Midlands football for the last three decades, were on the brink of appointing the manager who had just got their most hated rivals relegated, and the Brummies were revolting. In style.

Except I hadn’t been mocking the Villa fans…. In fact I genuinely think the mob mentality has overridden some basic facts.

Is Alex McLeish a good manager? Fairly subjective question – he enjoyed great success with Motherwell (runners-up in the SPL, which is no mean feat), Hibs (Cup runners-up), Rangers (easy, say Villa fans) and went on to manage Scotland (doesn’t count, say England fans – despite his side beating France in Paris and only failing to reach the 2010 World Cup after being beaten in a decider by Italy, who qualified). Then we come to his Blues period.

Birmingham were relegated from the Premier League at the end of McLeish’s first six months at St Andrews, despite a defiant 4-1 win over Blackburn on the final day of the season. The first blot on McLeish’s managerial copybook perhaps – although within 12 months they were back in the top flight at the first time asking.

So the jury was out – was McLeish a good manager? Well surely his first full Premier League season in charge answered that. Buoyed by some inspired signings (notably Championship defenders Scott Dann and Roger Johnson), the Blues quickly took to life in the top flight and the Scot was named manager of the month for December 2009. There was a measure of good fortune too with McLeish setting a Premier League record by naming the same starting XI for nine successive games  on the way to finishing ninth, the club’s best achievement for over half a century. (If that sounds vaguely familiar to the acne-ridden members of the mob on the steps of Villa Park, it’s because your fine club won the League title using just 14 players – YES, FOURTEEN – in 1981…. See what a decent manager can do if his team stays injury free?)

Note at this point: Alex McLeish, it’s roundly agreed, is a VERY GOOD MANAGER. Blues finish the season only three places behind Villa and club is on an upward trajectory. The Scot is rewarded with a new three-year contract and it appears all is well.

Even throughout the early stages of last season, there isn’t too much to get worried about – there’s draws against Liverpool and Manchester City, narrow defeat to Arsenal but victory over Chelsea. Champions elected Manchester United are held 1-1 in a pulsating game at St Andrew’s in late December, and shortly afterwards Villa are put to the sword as Blues dare to reach the Carling Cup final.

On that day at the end of February, all Bluenoses are in dreamland. We local rivals can’t even sing ‘You’ve never won **** all’ to their fans anymore (excuse the double negative but it scans) as Arsenal are beaten in a glorious day for team spirit and camaraderie at Wembley.

But had McLeish achieved too much too soon? Days after that Cup final success, a leggy City side made West Brom look like Brazil as the Baggies won 3-1 at St Andrew’s. 5-0 defeats at Manchester United and Liverpool had exposed a tired and weary team, but still Blues kept right on and looked a safe bet to stay up.

Sadly for them, this was the most closely-fought relegation battle for many years and McLeish’s squad had not been thinking enough about the trapdoor opening up underneath them. His fault? Possibly, but also surely the ramifications of reaching too high, too soon.

I was a gibbering wreck at Molineux on the final day of the season. With Wolves 3-0 down at half-time against Blackburn, I was so angry – I felt we deserved to go down, and frankly that Birmingham deserved to stay up. They had been above us all season. Replay the manic celebrations in the away end at Spurs when Craig Gardner’s thumping drive put Blues back above the dotted line – this was a club happy with its manager and looking to build on that rare trophy triumph…. if it could just survive this last-day hell.

Of course one goal swung it. Not Pavlyuchenko’s but Hunt’s for Wolves. That sent Birmingham down and I, along with all the other Yam Yams, was more relieved than happy. There were some pretty touching scenes as the Blues fans and players clapped each other off the pitch at White Hart Lane.

But with West Ham leaderless (at least until Allardyce’s appointment), I still felt McLeish was the man to help Blues bounce back next season. Two very good seasons for a club I do not easily associate with success and trophies, had gone pear-shaped right at the death.

Managers prove their mettle over years, not months. So I’ll say it again – is Alex McLeish a good manager? Well, yes I think  he’s pretty good for all the medals he can put on the table. Does he deserve to step up a level? That’s debatable – but one thing is for sure, if Roberto Martinez has looked at the Villa vacancy and said ‘no thanks’, then Randy Lerner is not spoiled for choice.

Who knows how the conversations have gone with Mark Hughes and others? (Presuming there have been conversations). If Martinez doesn’t fancy it, then I expect there’s good reason why the likes of Owen Coyle aren’t in the running. Breaking news for the Villa fans: you’ve fallen down the pecking order and demonstrating against the club outside the stadium is hardly likely to endear you, as a group of fans, to any other potential managers – never mind your own rich American owner, who must feel like another Hicks/Gillett/Glazer right now.

We all live for those joyous moments in football, the likes of which McLeish gave to Blues fans at Wembley at the end of February. However in general, our beloved game is incredibly frustrating and the definition of ‘supporting’ is being able to deal with disappointment and trying to fight back in a positive manner.

Furthermore I’m convinced the highs are higher if they’re less frequent – that’s why I support Wolves, not Manchester United. The Villa fans I know all know this, and were squirming as the scenes unfolded on Sky Sports News this week. They’re not overly enamoured with McLeish but they also know Villans can’t be choosers right now; that the Scot had been on an upward trajectory until fairly recently, and they don’t want to make things worse for the club by protesting in public.

They also know if he turns out to be a successful Villa manager, they got him from Blues.

Thanks to @simonlansley for a great guest blog. Let us know what you think below.

George – Editor-in-Chief – Villa Fan – @gwoffer

Guest Blog: Who says close season is boring?

Close season a bad time to start a football blog? Never. Although the summer hasn’t yet brought the signings that I, as a Gooner, am desperately hoping for, the close season’s managerial comings and goings have delivered more than a little excitement for football-starved fans – and it’s only mid-June.  

The season hadn’t even come to an end when West Ham decided enough was enough, and bid farewell to Avram Grant, who had led the club to relegation after a torrid season of bleak underperformance. Carlo Ancelloti, whose second place finish with Chelsea was deemed simply not good enough by impatient Roman Abramovich, was next to go, not long after the dust had settled on the final day of the season.  West Ham acted quickly, appointing Sam Allardyce a couple of weeks after Grant’s departure, and with the signing of Kevin Nolan revealed yesterday, things seem to be looking up for the Hammers – although it’s hard to see how they could have got much worse. The manager’s berth at Chelsea remains empty, although the smart money is on Guus Hiddink to fill the role, with Chelsea fans clamouring for his arrival and the Turkey national team resigned to his departure.

But things hadn’t even got interesting yet. On 1^st June, Gerard Houllier announced that his ongoing health problems meant he was stepping down from his role as Aston Villa manager. And the very next day, Mark Hughes left Fulham. To join Villa, surely? The Football Water Cooler’s George certainly hoped so. And yet, whilst Fulham quickly replaced Hughes with Martin Jol, securing the man whose services they had wanted a year ago, the Villa job remains open. Steve McClaren was ruled out of the role, with Villa owner Randy Lerner nervous about his club being the first to bring McClaren back to English football. No such compunction for Nottingham Forest, who, after Billy Davies’ departure a few days ago, swooped to secure the services of the man who just might be getting close to shedding the ‘wally with the brolly’ tag that has haunted him since his days with the national team. On the same day that Davies left Forest, McLeish was out the door at Birmingham, whose future, with the Championship looming amid an uncertain financial backdrop, is looking somewhat bleak.

All eyes now then, are on the manager’s role at Villa. With Roberto Martinez having decided against the job in favour of staying at Wigan, who he kept in the Premiership on the last day of the season, it looks today that a deal is going to be done to bring McLeish to Villa Park. Fans yesterday held protests against the appointment of the former Blues boss, and yet it looks today that the move is going to happen. Not only are at least a vocal minority of the fans deeply unhappy at the idea of appointing the former boss of their most deadly rivals, who just got them relegated to boot, but the fallout from a potential deal looks set to be severe, with Birmingham accusing Villa of “tapping up” McLeish.

So, whilst my initial idea for this blog post was to list the clubs with managerial vacancies, and assess who they wanted and who I thought they’d get, things have moved so quickly that Birmingham is the only high-profile club around whose managerial vacancy there is a little bit of uncertainty, with a host of young managers such as Chris Hughton, Billy Davies, Roberto Di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola all possibilities. In fairness though, Chelsea haven’t yet appointed Hiddink, and I’m sure that any breakdown in talks between the two parties will generate a frenzy of speculation, with Hughes’ name back in the frame no doubt and names such as Redknapp touted about. Could Redknapp follow Modric to Chelsea? Yes Chelsea’s apparent bid for the Croatian playmaker hasn’t been accepted, and indeed Hiddink remains the bookies’ firm favourite for Chelsea manager. And yet spurious gossip is the name of the game over the long summer, and there has been more than enough material to fuel this so far. And that’s just the managers – with several big name players leaving clubs this summer, and with many teams looking to strengthen in key areas (a tall and strong centre half for us, thank you very much), who ever said close season was boring?

Jess – Head of Content – Gooner – @jessicaenoch