No to McLeish
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
, Posted in
So after all the rumour and speculation Aston Villa have declared that they are to interview Alex McLeish "imminently in order to make a decision regarding his candidacy to become Villa manager", which is exactly what Villa fans did not want to hear.
While it was just being reported by TalkSPORT and Sky Sports News many fans felt they could just ignore it, as the media are evil people who tell lies and make things up just to upset the fans apparently, or so they've been told about a million times over the past few weeks, but the club statement makes the appointment of McLeish a very real possibility.
So why are so many fans incensed at the thought of McLeish crossing the city? Is it purely because he managed our arch-rivals? He never played for Blues, he has no real ties to Blues, he was just a man doing a job. The point is though, that he did it badly. If someone like Ancelotti, for example, was traversing the Villa-Blues divide would anyone be that bothered that he had previously been our nemesis?
My problems with McLeish start with the fact that his team were relegated twice in four years, largely down to the negative defensive football he favours so much. I do not want to see that at Villa Park. Has Randy not being reading my blog?! I said "I want to see us playing attractive attacking football...I just want to be excited about what the future holds for Aston Villa" - McLeish fails miserably on both counts. He may have won Blues a cup, but it was at the expense of Premier League survival - which I don't even want to contemplate.
But football and rivalry aside, what is Randy thinking? Surely the appointment of McLeish would go down as one of the worst business decisions a chairman of an English football club has made. Fans are already planning protests just at the prospect of him being interviewed and there is a growing number so angry at the thought of McLeish in charge that they say they're not going to renew their season tickets or go to games. Surely Randy is smarter than to risk losing ticket sales and merchandising revenue, programme sales, refreshment sales and everything else that goes along with it, all over a manager whose recent form is poor to say the least. Not to mention the legal wrangle that is likely to ensue and the compensation we would likely have to pay Birmingham City, after we've just forked out compensation for O'Neill and Houllier.
The club have stated that they "are determined, still, not to allow that three-and-a-half year post to disqualify him should he be the best candidate for the role of Aston Villa manager", and quite rightly so, but I am baffled as to how anyone could believe he is the best candidate for the job.
And he really does not wear a suit well...
Spot on.