Villa Fan Says Thanks To Kevin MacDonald

Just like to say this about Kevin MacDonald. For the past decade I have known Kevin MacDonald as Villas reserve manager. A reserve team which has won many many titles in the last decade with him in charge. He has helped along the process of bringing through talent like Gabriel Agbonlahor, Gary Cahill, Liam Ridgewell, Steven Davis, Gareth Barry, Mark Delaney etc etc. He has been highly successful and all of the young lads and now established stars can't speak any more highly of him.

Now when MON left, he left us high and dry at a really poor time. 5 days before the start of a season, we had brought in no players, this James Milner transfer saga was rumbling on but Kev stepped into the breach that was vacated by a very selfish Martin O'Neill. He took over and we outplayed West Ham. Played some delightful football and many were calling for him to be given the full time job. We then suffered unfortunate defeats to Newcastle United and Rapid Vienna in the Europa League while Milner's move to Manchester City finally went through. But after the disappointment of Vienna, we fought back and beat Everton at Villa Park. He was interviewed for the job along with Houllier, Eriksson and Curbishley and when it was finally revealed that Gerard Houllier was the new man for Villa he was bound to be disappointed. Then, we have this unexpected delay and Kev, even though he didn't get the job is asked to carry on preparing the side he wasn't deemed good enough to manage, at least for the next two games.

And his press conference today pleased me. He spoke about what a good man Gerard Houllier is. There is no resentment from Kev. There is disappointment yes but he is doing nothing but praising Gerard. He spoke today of how he didn't want to be assistant as he felt it was only fair that Houllier brought his own back room team in, which once again was very admirable. He will have prepared the side for tomorrows game and will pick the team for one final time. Everyone at Villa Park has massive respect for him. From the board to the players to the staff and all the supporters. He is one of us. He is Mr Aston Villa. He has been here for 17 years and done a bloody good job.

Whatever the outcome tomorrow, I think Kevin has done a very admirable job these past five weeks and cam come out of it with his head held high. I reckon he is good enough for a managers job, perhaps further down the divisions but hope he remains at Villa Park because losing him would be a bigger blow than losing O'Neill.

Thanks for stepping into the breach Kev and cheers for doing an admirable job. This one's for you!

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