Houllier Steps Down

[Cripps_orig]

Owen Coyle is the name now apparently that keeps coming up

[Injury Time]

Owen Coyle is the name now apparently that keeps coming up

Keeps coming up whom, or this another super injunction?

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

Martinez says no to Villa.

So what now Rors? What happened to Rafa, I thought he was being lined up

I'll let you have 1 guess as to why talks stalled.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

banks balances cower in fear when Rafa is patrolling the waters

[Rors]

Martinez says no to Villa.

So what now Rors? What happened to Rafa, I thought he was being lined up

We're looking close to being complete chumps at the moment. If it wasn't for Dave Whelan's kind words I think we'd be a national laughing stock. All this talk about a 1.30PM deadline, and in the end we didn't even speak to him! This is a big disaster for the Birmingham Evening Mail, who thought/hoped it was such a done deal they gave over all of page 3 to an interview with...yes...a bloke who runs a tapas restaurant in the city centre under the headline "This Should Tempt You Roberto"..

To bring in specifics to NIB's post - Rafa wanted "30million" apparently in transfer funds (which admittedly would worry me a bit ) which you'd think would be there, especially given the Young sale bringing in 20mill. That said I'm dubious as to how serious we were about bringing him in anyway. Moyes is supposedly(and I think, correctly) a non-starter, amazingly Sparky isn't even on the list. Even Schteve looks like heading back to Holland. Not even Diego is available to give us a "come and get me plea"...

[Master Splinter]

I heard Villa were having exploratory talks with Megson.

[Rors]

As annoyed as I am, I remain a realist. The trolls on VillaTalk who accuse Lerner of lacking ambition by not going for Guardiola (yes....) on the other hand...

[Rors]

I still want Rijkard

And so it goes on...

[Rors]

On it goes then:

http://www.teamtalk.co.za/premier-le...f-Villa-gamble

That one actually features a quote! From...er..a SkyBet employee..

[Marc Overmars]

Alex McLeish has emerged as favourite to take charge of Aston Villa after quitting Birmingham City, skysports.com understands.

McLeish has decided to leave the Championship club after they were relegated on the final day of the Premier League season.

The news brings to an end a four-year reign for McLeish after he took charge at St Andrews in 2007 after quitting Scotland.

He guided the Blues to a Carling Cup win over Arsenal, which got them into the Europa League next season, but they could not beat the drop after losing at Spurs on the final day of the season to slip into the bottom three.

McLeish is now ready to cross the city to take charge of their arch-rivals Aston Villa.
Villa have been looking for a replacement for Gerard Houllier, who left the club earlier this month.

And they are now believed to have turned to a man under their noses after Mark Hughes, Steve McClaren, Rafa Benitez and Roberto Martinez were all ruled out.