A view from a non-Villa fan

[ImTopMan]

Just eight years ago, Aston Villa were top 6 Premier League regulars under Martin O'Neill and playing some decent stuff, however, this wasn't good enough for many Villa fans who unrealistically demanded a top 4 place and some wanted O'Neill out when he didn't deliver this, and they got their way when he went.

Since those heady days of finishing in the top third of the Prem often, Villa have had a stack of different managers and gradually sunk down the Premier League to the eventual relegation that was certainly coming and now reside in the Championship relegation zone.

Villa fans have quickly lost patience with every manager they've had in this time and piled the pressure on the club to remove managers after a sequence of dodgy results, and the club have usually obliged.

Now you want Bruce out after a poor run of results, but Villa supporters probably know more than any supporters in England that handing their manager their p45 is no guarantee that things will improve.

This often ends up with a mish-mash of different players signed by different managers with no pattern whatsoever. Perhaps a bit more patience with your managers is what was required?

While certainly not 100% to blame for the clubs current hapless position, imo Aston Villa fans certainly share some of the blame for the predicament their club finds themselves in right now.

[samhubball]

We need consistency for sure. But he fans aren't to blame. The weak ownership and lack of investment (or removal of investment) under Lerner and then the appointment and dismissal of managers who had no similarities whatsoever caused the demise. Hoe can you go from tiki taka of houllier to mcliesh shows how little Lerner knew about football.

Sherwood wasn't given enough time, lambert was given too much faith in young players called Jordan and RDM was an unknown quantity who loved draws.

Give Bruce 3 years

[stateside]

Lambert was doing well until he lost faith in himself. He had the bad luck of losing Benteke to a serious injury in season 2 and Kozak went down a few games later, plus Helenius getting sick. But he also lost faith in his own signings Joe Bennett and Matt Lowton which meant he was constantly looking to upgrade his defenders as well as his forward line and after bombing out Bent as well as others he had nowhere to turn.

He ended up looking like a moron and his constant changing of styles confused his own players more than the his opponents.

Sherwood somehow went from Swagger to loser in one game where they actually played well, but lost. He lost the plot.

Garde was cheated by the owners who gave him no money to save us. Had he got the three players he wanted maybe there would have been a fight and maybe he would have had first crack at bringing us back.

Houllier was an awful appointment. He spent the whole season kissing Liverpool's arses and the players revolt. He was saved by having major heart issues and allowing McCallister to give us decent run in. Why wasn't he appointed?

Instead we got McLeish. I was happy with the appointment but for every me there was 8-9 fans that were furious. He came in brought in crap players and went on defence every time we had a lead.

RDM spent way too much money for the championship and immediately put them under too much pressure. We got rid of too many players that actually were perfect for this division. We went to Preston and were beaten (we really didn't put up a fight) by two players that were on our books 12 months earlier.

The only thing in Bruce's favour is his statement about us letting decent youth players go and his willingness to play them. But, tactically he's been shocking. Lambert could out coach him. I will be happy to give him a few more games if we see improvement and desire. But, if after 7 games we are on 5 points or less then there'd better be some answers of why he wasn't fired on August 16th.

[bongosdad]

Good points stateside. Scott Sinclair would have been great for us. He's on fire at Celtic right now.

[bbvilla]

Yeah, good summary Statesy. I have always wanted us to go for a young ambitious Euro style coach and maybe Garde was it but he got the poison chalice of the Lerner dregs period. Never saw Bruce as anything but a stopgap and the thought of Allerdyce is horrific but it seems some fans would take a Megson if it got us promoted!

[stateside]

Hull found a really good manager a little too late last season and they don't grow on trees, but I do wish dear Dr. Would have done some research there.

Bongo is right keeping Sinclair should have been a priority as was keeping Bennett, Robinson and Gana. Instead of making digs at Veretout in response to his we should have made some gesture to his complaint that Nantes was not paid bonuses because Lerner wouldn't allow him one more game. Sanchez was one of our better players in our relegation season and it showed when he was injured, he should have been retained to help us get back up and yes, Xia shouldn't have got into the big spat with Gabby.