McLeish and his tiny arm
So as Andres Villas-Boas draws close to his £13.2m appointment as manager of Chelsea, another manager has recently moved for a fee slightly less mega. Still, if Birmingham get the £5m they’re demanding then all he needs is two more appointments before he can be considered almost as valuable a manager.
McLeish’s appointment has been pored over enough by the mainstream press (that’s media with readers, to the uninitiated) recently, and we’ve been too slow on the uptake to say anything you haven’t already read. That’s no-one’s fault. It’s my fault. But it would be wrong of me not to at least attempt a blog on what has been the story of the summer so far, in my opinion.
I said in a recent post that McLeish would be a poor appointment for Aston Villa and I’ll stick with that for now. I don’t think his Birmingham record makes for particularly impressive reading. He had plenty of time to prevent them from being relegated when he took over but he couldn’t; he got them back up, finished 8th, won a cup and got relegated again. It’s not even as impressive a CV as, say, Steve McClaren, who got Middlesbrough promoted, won a cup, reached a European final with them and then won the Eredivisie title with FC Twente. In fact, there’s a point, where’s McClaren now? Maybe Villa should give him a chance…
Except, of course, they had the opportunity and opted not to due to overwhelming supporter pressure. In the wake of McLeish’s appointment, I bet Villa fans are wishing they’d been a little more taciturn about the ex-England manager.
Having so obviously bowed to the will of the fans the first time, the move to appoint McLeish in the face of such obvious disgust is a very bold move, but it could also prove a very stupid one. A manager needs to have the support of his fans, or he needs very thick skin and a skill for convincing his players his appointment is a long-term thing. Not easy to do if thousands in the stadium want you sacked from the outset. McLeish has cost enough to appoint in the first place; if he doesn’t hit the ground running then Randy Lerner could find himself having to act to avoid disaster, and that could be even more expensive.
McLeish himself acknowledges he faces an uphill battle, pleading “Let me prove myself and I will win the fans over. I’m the man for this job.
“Am I fazed by it? No. Have I had it before? Yes. I’ve got thick skin and I’m ready for the challenge.”
Mr Lerner has so far enjoyed almost unequivocal support since he liberated the club from the cold, miserly clutches of Doug Ellis in 2006. If he wants to maintain that level of popularity then he needs his new manager to surprise a few people, myself included.
