Manager speculation and the Chelsea game

Well the poll in the last post I wrote is interesting, isn’t it?
David Moyes is by far the most popular choice with a fraction over 50% of the vote and even though I said I’m not entirely convinced he’d be up for it, it’s perfectly understandable.
To my mind, he’s simply the best we could expect to get in that he’s a proven Premiership manager.
I still have doubts he’ll come to the Villa, but I’d be pretty happy if he did.

Pearson and Dyche are contenders, but what really caught my eye was the fact that more of us wanted Martin O’Neil than Brendan Rodgers!
The truth is I only put MON in for a joke, but it does show that while he’s incredibly divisive in the eyes of Villa fans, there’s many of us hanker for the days when things definitely seemed a lot better. And I’m one of them.
What has to be pretty certain is that the vast majority would take his “backs to the wall”, “no plan B”, “never played half the players” and “wasted money like it was going out of fashion” style of management over what we have now.
The fact that many see him as the cause of our downfall has of course been much discussed and of course, he’ll never get the job while Lerner’s in charge.
Which reminds me.
While I was on my last holiday, I heard a rumour which came from a Wolves fan, of all people.
Apparently, he knew the brief who was due to represent MON at the unfair dismissal case against Lerner and the story is that in the middle of MON and Lerner having a row, Lerner is supposed to have said something along the lines of “You Irish are all the same….”, which of course instantly leads to a charge of racism.
I tried to post all this at the time, but the internet in Goa was so poor, it just didn’t happen.
Oh, the chap who told me was a fireman. Does that make it any more believable?
I’m not convinced and am certainly not stating it as a fact.
But something as daft as that wouldn’t surprise me and we all like a nice juicy rumour don’t we?
You have to laugh.
Until you see the stories that are coming out, that is.

Apparently we’ve put Mick McCarthy on the shortlist for the manager’s role.
I left him out of the poll, but quickly realised that he might be a contender.
While I quite like him and I thought he did an ok job at Wolves, I’ve never been convinced.
He’s a bit too dour for me; he’s too pragmatic and just doesn’t seem to have any “je ne sais quoi” about him.
In other words, I don’t see him as having anything over Lambert or even Mc Spit.
I know his record is not too bad, but I just don’t see it.

And then there’s the story that John Carver has applied for the Villa job.
Let’s just say I don’t see much mileage in that one. But of course, if you don’t apply, you’ll never get the job.
I admire his ambition though, even if it is totally deluded.

And then, amidst all this interesting stuff, we have a game tomorrow against Chelsea.
Ah man, I’ve just realised it’s the early game and watching it will have to involve an even more cunning plan than I’m normally able to execute while I’m at work.
Dam you, BT (in this case).

Not that I expect I’m going to miss much.

Eric Black’s going to be in charge and I’ve expressed my doubts about him already, but here’s his thoughts;

“In the time I’ve been here I’ve never seen any splits in this dressing room. I’ve been in a lot of dressing rooms and have seen splits before.

“We’ve got to try and change something. The atmosphere has been poor in terms of everyone’s been a bit doom and gloom. I can help that process but ultimately I won’t be out on the field.

“We have seven games left, seven important games.

“Firstly I have to thank Rémi for bringing me to the club. I found him an exceptional individual.

“We must move on to Saturday and focus on trying to get a good result against Chelsea.

“We’re running an investigation which is underway. I’ve removed Gabby from the squad on Saturday. My focus is purely on Chelsea.

“I’ve looked at the previous games. I’ve been involved in training. I’ll pick a team I think is capable of competing against Chelsea.”

The good news is that Gabby definitely isn’t going to get a game and it’s about time this was said.
The excuse of not wanting the other players distracted is rubbish though and I’d love for someone to actually come out and say the bloke’s trouble.

As for the split issue, I’m not convinced, but no-one’s going to openly admit to it are they?
I suppose it might be true that there is no split, but I definitely suspect some of the squad are being misled by other players.

Meanwhile, we have Traore and Grealish back in contention, but it’s probably too soon.
Kozak and Amavi are still out.

As for the visitors, Diego Costa is suspended and Eden Hazard is injured

Willian, Oscar and Bertrand Traore will be assessed following international duty. Alexandre Pato could make his debut.

Not that any of this matters.
While I thought that if Remi Garde was still in charge of this game, we’d get a thrashing, I don’t see a fat lot changing under the caretaker, except maybe the final score.
We’ll play pretty much the same team, with maybe the odd change (Grealish straight back in?).
Because that’s pretty much all Black can do, if we look at it logically.
Play our best crap and lose.
Probably to another early goal, where we’ll again struggle because this team doesn’t have enough about them to win a game.
We might show a bit more fight, as a demonstration of how some of the contemptuous players are glad Garde has gone, but it won’t be enough.

My heart says we might scratch a draw.
But I’m going for a 0-2 loss.