Villa – Give O’Leary A Chance

If I make a mistake at work the first thing I want to do is make up for it and not let someone else have to get me out the s***.

Surely David O’Leary knows that this season has not been good at all and will want the chance to put it right next season? After all it is his doing this season so he should be the one who gets us back on track and turn us around.

Why should it be left for Alan Curbishley or Martin O’Neill or whoever to have to pick up the pieces of the current mess?

For me, and I know I will take stick for this, I reckon we give DOL another season to put things right.

As I say I believe that he has only had one bad season out of three and within those three he had a very good season to start off with. Given the injuries we had, last season was a success for me even though it didn’t feel like it at the time (I’d certainly swap it for this season that’s for sure).

So out of three seasons he has given us our best finish for four4 years, an average season of midtable and the worst finish in our Premiership history in the process offloading around 20 players and bringing in a similar amount at a cost of around 1.5m per player.

He has also had to rely on kids to get us out of the mire something no other premiership club has had to rely on save for Boro who have also brought in a hell of a lot of other players on bigger money and bigger wages that we pay.

I’m with DOL on this. Whoever is in charge nothing will change and we will be stuck with the same problems due to a lack of funds and ambition/forward thinking.

By WH Taylor

Some of the answers on the message board to this post included:

Was BFR JNR Lets face it we are not a bottom six side, and for that DOL should go. But we are not top 6 either, so for that Doug should go. But as soon as 5pm comes on Sunday i expect a lot of changes at the club, if not we are doomed.

Arrono7 Like I said yesterday if for no other reason than to raise fans spirits and hopes then he has to go this summer. I can see what your saying, even if I don’t agree with it all, but there is such depression and despair with everything Villa at the moment that even a short term fix of booting DOL out is going to give the fans a shot in the arm and a chance for us to raise ourselves a little. With little hope of HDE departing anytime soon enough I cant see any other way of such a quick fix as a new manager and fresh hope.

OoahPaulMcgrath I agree with you about the managerial merry-go-round but DOL is not the person to stay. If we can get Martin O’ Neill or someone who is actually good at management then it would be a good idea to back them for the longer term. However, DOL is not good at management so we should sack him.

Fletch I would like to see the back of David O`Leary if we could make sure the next manager IS better. Lets face it that won`t be too hard. Newcastle, Fulham, Middlesbrough, Everton ?Villa ? and Charlton from the Premiership might be involved in the managers merry go round. Add in a few new foreign newcomers and it should boost early season ticket sales………Not. Martin O`Neil is my current choice, but you never know who might become available, soon ?

WH Countered: That’s the thing isn’t it, you only keep a manager long term if he achieves something in his 1st couple of seasons as your prepared to give him a chance then yet if he fails in the 1st 2 years you want him out and could never think of it being long term. Well what is to say that DOL couldn’t reproduce his 1st season next season and make us all happy again? Everyone expects us to get worse and repeat this season but there is nothing stopping us from pulling our bloody finger out and putting in a season like the one we had 2 seasons back. I suppose I’m desperately looking for arguments to keep some stability and see what happens rather than do what we always do and sack the manager which hasn’t exactly been beneficial over the years. Yes we have had a crap season but does that automatically mean the manager has to go? I say give him till Xmas, see what he does in the summer and the 1st half to the season and then decide. If we had a good start to the season then people would quickly forget about the poor season just had. After all its a results business and had DOL said these things when we were winning nobody would have give a monkies but as he has said them when results are poor people jump on him no matter what he does and everything is his fault.

The Fear Applaud a great deal – mostly everything in fact – that you say. The sticking point for me – and it is the only sticking point (nothing to do with the poor football etc) is the fact he has lied to the fans and press PLUS he had a go at the fans and has argued with some behind him throughout this season. I find that hard to stomach. THEN you get him twice saluting to Doug after local derby victories. This is the man who is holding back DOL, the fans, the club etc. SO what is that puerile gesture all about? Especially when he tells the press etc how difficult it is to work for the man. I think he has played the politics impossibly badly. If he is here for the start of the season, I hope fans settle back and give him a chance again, but how likely is that if we go on a bad run? Can’t remember another manager becoming so unpopular so quickly and deflecting so much blame from the chairman. Mess from top to bottom really isn’t it?