The right-hand man of Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner has criticised fans of the club who have been campaigning against Alex McLeish being given the job. General Charles Krulak has taken issue with fans who don't want the ex-Birmingham City boss in the Villa Park hot-seat. According to the Express and Star, the non-executive director took his battle online by posting a defence of the club's pursuit of McLeish on on Villa message boards and forums, before later deleting his comments. Krulak said: âI will say that the uproar over McLeish is absolutely uncalled for. âHe certainly has proved he can manage in the big league, and just imagine what he could do if he was with an owner who supported him. âThose fans who donât want him because he managed our biggest rival just seem to miss the point. âIf a single man can cause all the fans to abandon ship, that is a sad state of affairs.â McLeish quit city rivals Birmingham on Sunday and many Villa supporters have made it clear they would not want an ex-Blues boss in charge.
Forget McLeish, David O'Leary is the man to sort Villa out ! DOL was given very little money, yet he was able to buy Bouma-3.5m, Laursen- 2.5m, McCann-1.5m, Hughes-1m Sorro-1m, Kevin Phillips 1m, Berger-free, Brought Ridgewell, Agbonglahor, Gardner, Cahill, Davis, through, brought Baros for 6.5m, His only flop was Baros who has won the golden boot in Europe and just scored against England.but he was still worth what we got him for, oh and Djemx2 and you can't blame him for that, he saw something in him just like SAF saw something in him and it was only 1.75m after SAF paid a lot more. All together not bad having to work under Doug Ellis, he got us Milner on loan and we nearly signed him, DOL had to basically field a squad full of players from our youth squad, I mean i counted 9 players involved in one game from the youth team, this isn't good and that is why his last two seasons were terrible. If DOL had the money MON had I'm sure we would have seen a lot more class signings and we would be up there for the Champions League now. MON arrogantly said he answered only to Randy Lerner, what an insult to the paying fans. Look at his treatment of Barry, yet he expected him to play his heart out. Issuing club press releases that directly contradict each other devalued the credibility and respect Villa used to be given under David O'Leary, it simply would never happen. The respect O'Leary's name evoked in English football prior to his involvement with Ridsdale and Ellis cannot be overstated. He spent 20 years at Highbury, making an extraordinary 722 first-team appearances and winning a great raft of trophies, without ever allowing his name slip into even the same postal code as controversy. O'Leary, quite simply, was statesman-like. A true gentleman footballer. The final chapter of his 1988 book -- tagged 'The Future' -- deals with O'Leary's thoughts on managers and the qualities that distinguish the good from the bad. Essentially, his opinions can be distilled into a dislike of two things. (1) Dodgy characters. (2) Wafflers. There has been much disinformation and waffle written about O'Leary by dodgy characters but mark my words, O'Leary will one day be the manager who takes a team to the top in Europe. Opinions are like Arsenils everyone's got one and thats mine, I could be wrong but i just cannot shake that gut feeling I am absolutely right. 10) DOL is diplomatic with other clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal. He does not get personal and cause bad blood with their managers. like MON did over Barry and Liverpool. MON was in Randy's black book because he cost him 10 miilion pounds with the Barry saga. Randy was not happy, as he is financially responsible. Confidential sources warned of O'Neill's departure long before he left. Look at the team he is left behind ! Look at the legacy ! Tell me again did Leicester go into Liquidation or administration after O'Neill left last time ? O'Leary at this late stage of the season is the only one who nows the club sufficiently well to pick up the pieces like he did after Graham Taylor 16th place finish and save Villa's season David O'Leary can get Dunne motivated properly.With no money for any new players in his last season at Villa, his bruief was to simply keep Villa up, which he did besides doing the double over the Blues.simply statesman-like.After David left, so did Melberg, Barry, Milner, Davis, Cahill, Ridgewell, Whittingham, Gardner. These were far better layers than Villa Have currently despite up to 200 million having been spent since. O'Leary was a true gentleman footballer and the manager to save their season, he did it before and he can do it again.Will Aston Villa be the team he takes to the top of Europe or will it be some other astute chairperson and club with genuine ambition ?
Hope the fans win in the end as who in their right mind would want to be managed by a man who was managing your most bitterest rivals.
