Renewed Sense of Optimism at Villa Park

Two weeks ago, a ten-man Aston Villa side fell into the relegation zone of the Premiership for the first time in eight years following a 1-0 home defeat against Sunderland. With morale at rock bottom, reports of bust-ups between players and management and the dwindling support of the fans, things seemed to be on a downward spiral for the side that have finished in the top six of the league for the past three years.


However, there is now a renewed sense of optimism around the club. Gerard Houllier joined the club after the summer transfer window had closed and thus was unable to make any changes to the squad to suit his style of play and management. The day after the Sunderland defeat, Aston Villa announced their first new signing of the window – Kyle Walker on loan from Tottenham. Whilst a decent signing, this merely seemed to confirm the view that funds had dried up at Villa Park. Having to bring in a player on loan from a side we were challenging last season seemed symptomatic of the slump that has befallen the club since Martin O’Neill departed.

However, only nine minutes into his debut, Walker collected the ball just past the halfway line, running past Rob Kozluk and slotting the ball into the corner of the net. The first glimpse of light in what have been dark times at the club in recent months.


At Liverpool, Gerard Houllier was often criticised for his signings, and that is one of the things that slightly worried Aston Villa fans. However, he has made a spectacular start in bringing new players permanently to Villa Park.

His first permanent signing was the Cameroon international midfielder, Jean Il Makoun, from his former club Lyon. Makoun has played regularly at the top level in France with Lille and Lyon, as well as being a proven Champions League quality player with both clubs. Given that Lyon paid almost €15m for him three years ago, he would appear to be a bargain at the reported €5m that Houllier has paid Lyon for him.


The transfer dealings were only just beginning. Reports began to surface that Blackpool captain, Charlie Adam, was a serious target for Houllier. After bids of £2.5m and £3.5m had been rejected by Ian Holloway, the two clubs were set to agreed terms on a deal worth around £4m only two days ago. However, one event was about to change all that.

On Sunday, rumours on an Aston Villa fans forum claimed that Darren Bent was unhappy at Sunderland and that Aston Villa were on the verge of an £18m deal to bring him to the club. It seemed an outlandish suggestion, given the supposed lack of money at the club. However, less than 24 hours later, the breaking sports news was that he was in the Midlands to discuss terms with the club over a deal worth £18m, possibly rising to £24m with add-ons.


This was the moment that the clouds over Villa Park truly parted. It dispelled all the newspaper gossip that there was no money to spend to try and turn around the season. And more than anything, it showed that Villa mean business again.

Darren Bent is one of the most proven Premiership strikers of recent times. In the past five years, only Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney have scored more goals than Bent. Given that he spent a prolonged period of that sitting on the bench at Tottenham, it is a phenomenal record.

Aston Villa have been crying out for a proven goalscorer for over a decade, ever since Dwight Yorke left to join Manchester United. Various players have had the odd decent season – Dion Dublin, Juan Pablo Angel, Gabby Agbonlahor and John Carew amongst others – but Darren Bent is the real deal.

And it is unlikely that Aston Villa’s dealings in the transfer market will end here. However, it will now become more difficult to secure good value deals. Until the Darren Bent deal, clubs were under the impression that money was tight at Villa Park. However, it is now clear that there is funding available to strengthen the squad.

It is believed that the money received from the James Milner deal is still available to spend, and was not used to fund the Darren Bent signing. If this is true, it means there is still another £15m or so still available to Gerard Houllier, plus whatever he can recoup from moving squad players out.


Steve Sidwell has already departed to join Fulham and a number of other players are likely to be following him out the door. John Carew is set to move to West Brom on loan with a view to a permanent move, whilst Curtis Davies and Stephen Ireland are being strongly linked with Celtic. The likes of Habib Beye, Stephen Warnock and Luke Young are decent bets to be leaving Villa Park over the next two weeks.

It is likely that there will be another two or three players coming into Villa over the next couple of weeks. The club are still debating a further bid for Charlie Adam, having been on the verge of agreeing a £5m move before the Bent deal revealed the extent of funding at the club. Blackpool reportedly now are demanding £7m for their captain, which may put off any further offers.

A left-back is almost certain to be joining the club, given the recent demotion of Stephen Warnock to the reserve team. Various names have been mooted in the press – Maynor Figueroa and Taye Taiwo are two popular names – but the favourite currently appears to be Montpellier and Bosnia captain, Emir Spahic. Whilst predominantly a central defender, he can play on the left, and is well-known to Houllier from his French connections. One other outside possibility would be Newcastle’s Jose Enrique, who has been one of the most impressive fullbacks in the league so far this season.


Another central midfielder is also high on the list, with Charlie Adam the favourite. However, the recent bad blood between Holloway and Aston Villa has made Blackpool unwilling to sell him to Villa, and he is likely to move to Everton instead. If he does not join, it is unclear whether there are other targets, although newspaper gossip is suggesting that there is an interest in Japanese star, Keisuke Honda. Whilst this would be an incredible signing, it seems highly unlikely and there would be far bigger clubs in for him if he were available.

As to the third reported signing, there are reports that there is interest in bringing a new keeper to Villa Park. Brad Friedal is beginning to show signs of his age, although remains a very good Premiership keeper. However, he is naturally reaching the end of his career, and Brad Guzan has hardly suggested that he is ready to make the step up to the big time.

The other suggestion is that there may be interest in another striker, although it is likely to be a younger striker who will be slowly brought into the first team picture. Quite who that might be is a mystery, but it remains to be seen.

The recent flurry of transfer activity has launched a new era of renewed optimism at Villa Park that has been missing since the summer and the departures of Martin O’Neill and James Milner. Clearly, the club need to start getting the results on the pitch, but Houllier is building a very strong team at Villa Park, whilst he still retains the crux of the side that recorded consecutive European finishes. If he can restore confidence to the players, Aston Villa should be moving back up the table in the coming months.

Youth Revolution at Aston Villa

There is a saying that every cloud has a silver lining. Sometimes it can be difficult to find, but it is generally always there. As the injury list at Aston Villa continues to mount, fans could be forgiven for worrying about the upcoming fixtures. However, there is a refreshing air of optimism around the club thanks to the emergence of a new generation of stars.


As of this moment, Aston Villa are without 14 players who could realistically be considered for a place in the squad of 18. In the midfield, they are missing club captain, Stiliyan Petrov, who is set to miss at least three months with a knee ligament injury. In addition, vice-captain Nigel Reo-Coker is out for around three weeks, Steve Sidwell has recently undergone surgery on a troublesome achilles tendon, Fabian Delph is still missing after tearing his cruciate ligament last season, as is promising youngster Gary Gardner.

In attack, Emile Heskey and John Carew are both missing, whilst Gabriel Agbonlahor made his return last weekend against Manchester United, but has withdrawn from the England squad through injury. Hopefully this is just a precaution, but it remains to be seen. Finally, Andreas Weimann, who made his Premiership debut in the season-opener against West Ham has been missing since August with ankle ligament damage.

In defence, Carlos Cuellar, Habib Beye, Richard Dunne and Ciaran Clark are all suffering from various injuries, whilst their likely replacement from the reserve team, Nathan Baker, is also struggling from an unknown injury.

Any club would struggle without 14 first team squad players. However, it has forced Gerard Houllier to give some of the younger players an opportunity to shine. And they have impressed. Most recently, they were magnificent against Manchester United and were unfortunate to lose concentration late on and concede two late goals. However, they will learn from this.


Marc Albrighton has been one of the revelations of the season in the Premiership, and has already been tipped as a future England international. Barry Bannan has come into the centre of the midfield and received high praise from all around, culminating in a first international call after only three Premiership starts.

Ciaran Clark, a central defender by trade, has been deployed in a holding midfield role and has not looked out of place. Comfortable on the ball, good in the air and tough in the tackle, he has a promising future. Having captained England at all levels up to U21, he has the potential to continue his impressive rise.

Nathan Delfouneso was given his first Premiership start against Fulham and scored his first goal of the season against Blackpool to give Villa a 2-1 lead. Jonathan Hogg made his Premiership debut against Manchester United and had a solid game in the centre of the midfield. Fullback Eric Lichaj and midfielder Chris Herd have also made their Premiership debuts in recent weeks.


We may see further debutants in the coming game against Blackburn. With the injury to Richard Dunne, we may see young Australian defender Shane Lowry making his Premiership debut after a spell on loan at Leeds last season.

This first team experience can only benefit these young players. So far, they have been some of the outstanding players for Aston Villa this season. Many of them have played together in the very successful youth and reserve sides – a potentially key factor.

A winning mentality is something that cannot be taught. Players and teams that are used to winning have that edge, and tend to continue winning. Players that haven’t experienced winning sometimes lack that extra something.

Virtually all of the young Villa players have tasted repeated success in the past. The reserve team has won the Premier Reserve League South for three straight seasons, winning the overall title in 2009. The year before, the group won the academy title, reached the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup and won the prestigious Ergenzingen Tournament.


Just behind the current graduates are another promising group. They include 18-year-old goalkeeper, Benjamin Siegrist, who won the Golden Glove award as Switzerland won the U17 World Cup last year and Gary Gardner, who has represented England at U16 and U17 level before suffering a serious knee injury last season, and who has already been linked with a move to Inter. Academy captain, Daniel Johnson, has found himself in the 18 for the senior team in the last two games. Two other names to keep an eye on in the coming years are Courtney Cameron and Samir Carruthers, who have impressed for the academy side this season.

Fans love to see their own academy products succeeding in the first team, and it is this pride that it the source of the optimism around Villa Park at the moment. Not only are they holding their own in the best league in the world, they are turning heads throughout the league.

DW

Gerard Houllier - One Month In

Trying to follow in the footsteps of Martin O’Neill has proved a difficult task for Gerard Houllier. O'Neill led Leicester to the top half of the Premiership and into Europe, he won the treble with Celtic, as well as reaching the UEFA Cup final; additionally, he led Aston Villa to three consecutive sixth-place finishes, as well as the Carling Cup final.


It is difficult to argue that O'Neill did not achieve impressive things at his previous clubs, however, when he walked out on Aston Villa, only days before the season started, he left an enormous challenge for his successor, Gerard Houllier.

Before we look at how Houllier has coped, it is interesting to look at previous successors to Martin O’Neill. O’Neill has a gift of being able to get the most out of a certain type of player. However, he often seems unable to motivate players with a different style or mentality than his own.

We have seen this act previously. In the years after he left Celtic, few doubted that he had done a wonderful job, but worries developed that he had left them with an aging squad with big contracts that struggled to perform under a new manager. Leicester had similar problems with players seemingly unable to replicate their form under O’Neill for the new manager.


Even now, we appear to be seeing the same pattern forming at Aston Villa under Gerard Houllier. Certain players, such as Richard Dunne and John Carew, have been poor this season without Martin O’Neill, as such, questions are being raised about their futures. Conversely, Houllier seems to have resurrected the likes of Nigel Reo-Coker and Emile Heskey, who have gone from bench players last season to key players so far this year.

From this evidence, we can see that attempting to follow O’Neill can often be a difficult task.

Thus far, Houllier has had an average start. He has hardly got the team firing on all cylinders, but it is far from a poor start, as he has also been unlucky with injuries. In the short period since he took over there has been a spate of injuries, including Marc Albrighton, Luke Young, Emile Heskey and Gabriel Agbonlahor.

Houllier has also been rocked by the news that captain Stiliyan Petrov will miss at least two months.

However, in this short spell, it is clear that he is trying to change the style of football Aston Villa play. Under Martin O’Neill their game was based around quick counterattacks when possible, and more of a long-ball game in general. It is already noticeable that Houllier is encouraging the side to play with a more measured build-up by utilizing more passing of the ball on the ground.

Whilst the fans like to see this approach, it is difficult to implement it immediately. He still has O’Neill’s squad, and he will still be learning about his players. He did not have a pre-season to work with the players to push his ideas. Therefore, it seems natural to give him some time before judging too much.

Houllier has also had to deal with the loss of last season’s player of the year, James Milner, who has not really been replaced. Stephen Ireland joined as part of the deal, but he is a different type of player, and has barely played in the Premiership for over a year. Virtually any club would be affected by the loss of their top star. Indeed, it is possible to argue that Gareth Barry has not really been replaced, either.


The other worry that is emerging from Villa Park concerns the fitness of the players.

Houllier and his new fitness coach, Robert Duverne, have been running double fitness sessions since the players are apparently not fit enough. It was a question that had been raised over the past few seasons with Villa’s customary late-season slump, and raises questions of whether O’Neill was focusing adequately on this aspect of training.

It would be surprising if some new players were not brought in during the January transfer window. Houllier will have had the opportunity to assess and get to know his squad and build opinions on which areas need strengthening. The obvious position is at striker. John Carew appears to be on a rapid decline—he was inconsistent at the best of times, and his work-rate is simply appalling this season. Further, Emile Heskey has been playing well, but is never going to guarantee many goals. Gabriel Agbonlahor has missed virtually the entire season thus far through injury. Additionally, Nathan Delfouneso and Andreas Weimann are good prospects for the future, but unlikely to make an immediate impact now.

This is hardly a new concern—it was a problem throughout O’Neill’s reign, and even before that. Indeed, no Villa striker has scored 20 goals in all competitions since Juan Pablo Angel in 2003-04, and no striker has scored 20 league goals since the early ‘80s. Villa have regularly been accused of creating chances, but having no natural goal-scorer to convert them.


Next weekend looks set to be a big one for Gerard Houllier. Whilst many fans are happy to be patient for a while until he has a chance to develop his own squad, few would forgive him if Villa were to lose the home derby with Birmingham. After Birmingham went unbeaten for the first six Premiership derbies between the two, bragging rights have been with Villa in recent years after six consecutive wins against the Blues.

Neither side is in particularly great form.

Birmingham secured a much-needed win last weekend against Blackpool, but it was only their second win of the season following six games without one. Aston Villa have only one win in their last six games in the league in the derby with Wolves. However, with home games against Birmingham and Blackpool, and trips to Fulham in their next three games, they hope to start getting some points on the board.


So whilst it has not been a wonderful start for Gerard Houllier, it is far too early to draw firm judgments. He is working with an O’Neill team, having not had a preseason to press his own input onto the team. It appears that this is likely to be a season of transition. It would be surprising not to see a number of transfers, both in and out, in both January and next summer, as Houllier moves out some of the traditionally "O’Neill-type" players and replaces them with his type.

A sixth-place finish this season would be an excellent achievement. An upper mid-table finish is far more likely, hoping to press on again next season. However, Houllier needs to be given time. Many managers in the past have struggled to succeed O’Neill, but any new manager must be judged once he has had an opportunity to build his own team.

Post Mortem of a Crushing Defeat

As a Villa fan, I am clearly devastated about the result on Saturday. Having gone into the day with quite some optimism that we might at least be able to grab a point, the final result was a bitter pill to swallow. Admittedly, a defeat is a defeat, but it was the manner of it that was so embarrassing. As O’Neill admitted, the team seemed to give up after the third, which for a professional football team, is simply unforgivable. However, it is only a single defeat and the overreaction that has been seen on forums and message boards is quite ridiculous. Demands for O’Neill to be sacked, for the entire team to be dropped and fined, or boycotting the cup semi-final will not help anything, and there is a lot to be positive about for Villa fans.

I am not claiming that everything is rosy at Villa Park. A previous article looked at the growing discontent with Martin O’Neill, and this defeat is only going to exacerbate the situation. As a fan, I try to support the management and the players as much as possible, but there is nothing achieved by permanently looking at things through rose-tinted glasses. We have just suffered our worst defeat for a generation, and despite having been unbeaten this calendar year, performances have been poor and we came into this game on the back of consecutive home draws against two relatively mediocre sides. O’Neill has said it is his most devastating defeat in his managerial career, and I suspect a lot of fans are in agreement with him.

The result keeps up Martin O’Neill’s unwanted record of still having never won a Premiership game in March in his 4 years in charge of Villa. Is it merely an unfortunate coincidence or a sign of something systematically wrong at the club? The team relies on playing a high-tempo, high pressing game, which becomes difficult when players become tired. The team is not renowned for playing possession football – indeed, the players do not look after the ball particularly well at all – meaning that there is a lot of chasing, requiring a high work rate. Against Chelsea, five players had fitness tests on the day of the game, with four of them playing. Furthermore, the players have looked tired in recent matches – a point picked up on by Chelsea and John Terry. So, considering the style of play, it only seems right to question the decision to play tired, injured players.

Richard Dunne has been clearly struggling with injury recently, yet O’Neill decided to drop Carlos Cuellar to bring in the fresh Luke Young. James Milner has been taken off in both of the previous two games with injury, yet he played all 90 minutes against Chelsea, despite being out on his feet by the end. He made a change by bringing in Steve Sidwell to replace Stewart Downing, and was rewarded by a good performance. He was excellent in the first half and was one of the only bright points for Villa in the game.

However, this situation is nothing new. We saw a spectacular collapse last season, which was blamed on our European excursions and a small squad. This season, we lost in the qualifying round for the Europa League and invested in a number of squad members over the summer. However, the situation is the same. He has failed to rotate his squad at all over the course of the season thus far, playing the first team players into the ground to the point where they are virtually all exhausted or carrying injuries. Despite regular claims that he intends to rotate, he has used the second lowest number of players in the league this season – players such as Fabien Delph, Habib Beye, Nathan Delfouneso, Nigel Reo-Coker, Mark Albrighton and Curtis Davies have made a grand total of 28 start and 22 substitute appearances between the six of them in all league, cup and European games.

He also seems to have a tendency to play players out of position. We have two quality right backs in Luke Young and Habib Beye, both of whom have impressed when given the opportunity, yet he continues to persist with Carlos Cuellar in that position. Whilst Cuellar hasn’t disgraced himself, he is a central defender by trade and severely limits our attacking ability down that flank. The conversion of James Milner into a central midfielder is not ideal either. Whilst he has impressed against the smaller sides, he has looked out of place against the leading teams and leaves us with a situation of having Stiliyan Petrov and three wingers in midfield. This is exacerbated by the fact that Petrov is an attacking midfielder by trade, but has been converted into a holding midfielder at Villa. Using Milner alongside two other natural central midfielders would work, enabling him to use his creative abilities, but having the cover of two other midfielders.

However, despite all the negatives, it has not been a bad season for Villa. They are in seventh place in the league, having played all of the top 6 twice, with the exception of Manchester City. Realistically, it could be argued that this is position that we belong. The teams above us have all spent a lot more money and have a better squad, so should be above us. There have been victories at Old Trafford, Anfield, and the derby at St Andrews to enjoy, as well as victory over Chelsea at Villa Park. Before the Chelsea game, Villa had the joint best defence in the Premiership with Manchester United and every team but Chelsea has lost more games. One cup final has come and gone, whilst there is the FA Cup semi-final coming up next month.

Hopefully, the 7-1 to Chelsea is simply a freak one-off result and it will act as the kick-in-the-teeth that both Villa and Martin O’Neill need to finish the season well. A victory against Bolton next weekend will provide 3 points from the two games – more than would have been obtained from two draws. If you remember, Everton got hammered on the opening day of the season and have bounced back strongly to have an outside chance of a European place for next season. With games against Bolton, Hull, Portsmouth and Birmingham to come, there is the potential to bounce back and secure the points needed to ensure European football next season. The Champions League may be beyond them, but a top six finish is still a realistic possibility.

A Crucial Two Months for O'Neill

When he was appointed in 2006, over 1,000 fans turned up at Villa Park to greet his arrival. After the O’Leary years of gradual demise and fallings out with the crowd, new optimism surrounded Aston Villa as Martin O’Neill was named as the new manager, ending a 15-month hiatus from football. He took over a side that had just finished 16th in the Premiership, narrowly avoiding relegation, and has led them to serious Champions League contenders within 4 years. However, murmurs of discontent are beginning to be heard around Villa Park and the relationship between manager and fans is beginning to sour.

David O’Leary departed Villa Park by mutual consent following a row over player criticism of the chairman, Doug Ellis, and Martin O’Neill was appointed, shortly before the takeover of the club by American billionaire, Randy Lerner. The previous season, Villa had finished 16th and had a squad full of limited players. O’Neill was unable to bring in too many new faces in his transfer window, but spent almost £20m in the January transfer window, bringing in the likes of Ashley Young and John Carew at the expense of Milan Baros and Peter Whittingham. An 11th placed finish suggested progress. A further £15m was spent in the summer on the likes of Nigel Reo-Coker and Marlon Harewood led to an impressive 6th placed finish in the 2007/08 season and an Intertoto Cup place.

The summer of 2008 saw a large expenditure of over £30m on 8 new players, including Brad Friedal, James Milner and Carlos Cuellar. An excellent start to the season saw Villa being mentioned as possible title challengers in January. A small squad threatened to derail the season, but with reports suggesting there was money to spend to bring in new players to solidify the challenge, optimism was high around Villa Park. However, Emile Heskey was the only new face added to the squad – a decision met with significant disappointed amongst the fans – and despite a debut goal, injuries and a drop in form saw Villa collapse to a 6th placed finish. The decision to send a youth team to Moscow in the UEFA Cup to concentrate on the league backfired, and saw the beginning of the fall in relations between O’Neill and the fans.

The retirement of Martin Laursen and sale of Gareth Barry in the summer of 2009 left O’Neill with a big challenge to maintain the upward progress of his side, but having spent more than £40m over the summer, bringing 6 new faces to the club, suggested the ambition was still there. However, questionable selection decisions in the early part of the season saw an opening day home defeat to Wigan and the club crashing out of Europe in the qualifying round to Rapid Vienna. After the team was booed off against Wigan, he criticised the fans, leading to a backlash against the manager, although a good run of form placated them for a while. However, although there has been an underlying current of discontent around Villa Park for a while, there had been no open criticism or demonstrations of dissatisfaction against the manager until yesterday’s game against Wolves. Ironic jeering of his substitutions and booed off at full-time showed the opinions of a large section of the Villa Park crowd.

His critics argue that he is stuck in the past, mirroring a style of management that he learnt from the great Brian Clough, but which is simply not suited to the modern game. His use of substitutions has been questionable at times, and simply bizarre at others. His team selection has been open to debate – an insistence on playing players out of positions and a dislike for squad rotation has been pinpointed as weaknesses. And his responses to questions about the crowd reactions have hardly improved his relationship with them.

For the first two years of his Villa Park reign, there were no recognised right-backs in the squad, with Olof Mellberg, a centre-back, being regularly used to cover that position. Last season, he brought in Luke Young, who proved himself to be one of the top right-backs in the league and it appeared that position was sorted. The signing of Habib Beye in the summer added competition in that position and fans felt Villa had two good players. However, with only 18 appearances between them this season, Carlos Cuellar has been used as the first choice full-back. A natural centre-back, he copes well against teams with an aerial threat, but against traditional pacy wingers, he does not have the pace or knowledge of the position to cope, as seen against Wolves yesterday.

Whilst all managers have their favourites, O’Neill seems particularly stubborn in retaining those players, regardless of form. Combined with either a lack of imagination or strange supposed master-strokes when it comes to substitutes, this attitude has begun to irritate fans. The introduction of John Carew for Emile Heskey happens around the hour mark, regardless of the situation in the game, and Steve Sidwell has been introduced almost without fail week-in week-out. The £8m signing, Fabian Delph, has only made 3 starts, despite two man-of-the-match performances, and has only been brought on as a substitute 4 times. Youngster Nathan Delfouneso has only made three substitute appearances this season, despite a record of two goals in two starts in the cup this season and three goals in four starts last year. And despite players looking tired in recent games after a hectic schedule, O’Neill still seems reluctant to give any of the squad players an opportunity to shine.

Frustrations are running particularly high this season, since the fans believe that they have the ability to reach the Champions League, but realise that this could be their last major chance for a few years. If the likes of Manchester City or Tottenham snatch that place, they have the attraction and finances to bring in quality players that could push them to the next level. Following the Wolves game, he stated that “maybe they are not happy with a Carling Cup final appearance and FA Cup semi-final appearance and still battling for the Champions League with nine games left.” Obviously the fans are happy, although the advantage of some fairly easy draws (the highest placed team Villa have faced in the cup this year is Blackburn Rovers) has helped, but a team playing some fairly poor quality football and scraping a draw at home against Wolves is not what the fans expect following a net spend of over £100m in 4 years.

Whilst Villa fans do appreciate the job that Martin O’Neill has done at the club, there are a number questioning whether he has the ability to take the club to the next level. His seeming lack of a plan B has led to people debating his tactical knowledge and his inability to take any criticism has soured his relations with the fans, but he still retains the support of the owner. As he continues to emphasise, Villa are still in the hunt for the Champions League, so he will argue that he is doing a good job. However, whether 7th placed should be classed as success is open to debate – John Gregory never finished below 7th and was classed as a relative failure.

The rest of the season could be vital in determining the mood of the fans in the summer. O’Neill decided against spending any money on a striker in January, but if the club go on to secure 4th place, then the discontent is likely to subside. However, should the club finish in 7th, potentially missing out on Europe, then the tide of public opinion is likely to continue to shift. His repeated questioning of the fans has been a gamble, and if he is not able to achieve what he has stated, then he is likely to get little sympathy from a notoriously difficult-to-please set of supporters.