Aston Villa fans were right: Alex McLeish and club do not go together | Stuart James

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<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.24.1.1/22842?ns=guardian&pageName=Aston+Villa+fans+were+right%3A+Alex+McLeish+and+club+do+not+go+together+%7C+%3AArticle%3A1736340&ch=Football&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Alex+McLeish+%28football%29%2CAston+Villa+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSport&c5=Premier+League&c6=Stuart+James&c7=12-Apr-25&c8=1736340&c9=Article&c10=Blogpost&c11=Football&c13=&c25=Sport+blog&c30=content&c42=Sport&h2=GU%2FSport%2FFootball%2FAlex+McLeish" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">It must have been sobering and galling for the American owner Randy Lerner to see first-hand evidence of just how far his club Aston Villa have fallen in such a short space of time</p><p>There is no point skirting the issue. Alex McLeish's position has become untenable and it is almost inconceivable to think that he will still be the Aston Villa manager at the start of next season, irrespective of what division the club are in. When "$$$$ Off McLeish, the Villa is ours" and "Sack McLeish, my lord" rang around the stadium in the closing stages of Tuesday night's highly damaging 2-1 home defeat by Bolton Wanderers, it was the majority, not a noisy minority, singing in unison.</p><p>Villa fans never accepted McLeish in the first place and they want him out. Plain and simple. The brutal truth is that it is never going to work with McLeish in charge and anyone that still thinks otherwise is deluded. Randy Lerner, the Villa owner, and Paul Faulkner, the chief executive, must be able to see that now, even if they refused to believe that was the case when they made the extraordinary decision to appoint the Scot in the summer.</p><p>Extraordinary not because McLeish came from Villa's rivals, Birmingham City. Extraordinary because McLeish had just suffered his second relegation with Birmingham in three Premier League seasons. And extraordinary because he is synonymous with a brand of football that, to borrow the former Villa manager Graham Taylor's recent description, "looks [like] you are preparing a side not to lose".</p><p>This season has been abysmal and the statistics make for painful reading. Villa have won only seven league matches all season, the lowest in the division with the exception of already relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers. Only Wigan have scored fewer than the 19 goals Villa have managed in 18 home fixtures. McLeish's side have won only four league games at Villa Park and just one in the last five months, meaning that they are guaranteed to finish the season with the worst home record in the club's history.</p><p>Against that backdrop, it is little wonder that there is so much apathy surrounding the club. There were 10,000 empty seats inside Villa Park for the Bolton game, which has been a common theme this season. Villa's average attendance is 33,755, which is more than 6,000 down on the peak of four years ago and nine per cent down on last season, when Gérard Houllier's side flirted with relegation. Since August, only Blackburn Rovers have lost fans at a quicker rate than Villa. In fact more fans watched Villa in David O'Leary's last season, when the club finished 16th and supporters held up a banner that said: "We're not fickle, we just don't like you."</p><p>Lerner made a rare visit to Villa Park on Tuesday night and it must have been sobering and galling for the American to see first-hand evidence of just how far the club has fallen in such a short space of time. Two years ago today, Villa beat Birmingham City 1-0 to move level on points with fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur with two games of the season remaining. On Saturday, they travel to West Bromwich Albion only three points clear of the relegation zone.</p><p>All of which means that Villa have gone from the verge of the Champions League to the brink of the Championship in the blink of an eye; a journey which must be particularly hard for Lerner to come to terms with when he looks at a balance sheet that shows he has pumped upwards of £200m (including £133m invested in return for shares) into a club that is underperforming on the pitch and haemorrhaging money off it. Villa posted a £54m loss for the year to 31 May 2011.</p><p>Indeed, it is difficult to know what the endgame is for an owner who is in charge of a club with no obvious purpose at the moment, other than to avoid the ignominy of relegation for the first time in 25 years. There are, admittedly, some mitigating circumstances for a woeful run that has seen Villa pick up only one victory from their last 13 league matches, not least the long-term absence of senior and influential players, such as the top scorer Darren Bent, the captain Stilian Petrov and the central defender Richard Dunne. Yet even with those players in the team, Villa were making hard work of things, grinding out the odd victory.</p><p>All of which strikes a chord with McLeish's time at Birmingham. Even in his best league season at St Andrew's, in 2009-10, when Birmingham secured a credible ninth place – their highest top-flight finish since 1959 – it was anything but pretty to watch, with McLeish's side scoring only 38 goals in as many games. Last season Birmingham scored only 37, less than a goal a game. This season Villa have scored 36 in 35 matches. In other words, a pattern is starting to emerge and it is one where entertaining football is absent.</p><p>There are other uncomfortable parallels to be drawn with last season, when Birmingham's campaign followed a broadly similar pattern to Villa's this term, as form fell away badly at a critical stage. Indeed, this time last year, Birmingham were 15th in the table, as is the case with Villa now, but had a four- rather than three-point cushion over the bottom three with three games remaining. Birmingham lost all three matches and went down.</p><p>A repeat of that form on the run-in and the chances are that Villa will suffer the same fate, leaving McLeish with three Premier League relegations on his CV. Lerner would surely be forced to intervene should that happen, although if common sense prevails both parties will agree at the end of the season to go their separate ways whether Villa survive or not. McLeish, after all, is not going to win this battle and Lerner has an investment to protect. As for the supporters, they just want to enjoy going to Villa Park again.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/alex-mcleish">Alex McLeish</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/aston-villa">Aston Villa</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/stuartjames">Stuart James</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" />
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