Alex McLeish was, from day one, an absolute disaster of a manager for Aston Villa. His credentials were pathetic, his style abysmal and he had absolutely no chance of being accepted by Villa fans because of his tenure as Birmingham City manager. Bizarrely, the media seem to be focusing on the last part when covering Villa fans' displeasure in their (now mercifully former) manager, claiming that the main reason for the vitriol spewed in his direction is because of his status as a former 'Bluenose'.
This is nonsense, as Kirsten Schlewitz, proprietess of SB Nation's Aston Villa blog, 7500 to Holte, writes. Villa fans hated - presumably still do hate - McLeish because he was a very, very bad manager:
There's still a buzz about that the reason we hate Alex McLeish is because of his connection to Birmingham City. Wrong. Sure, no one liked the fact that he came over from the Bluenose side, but the fact is, he got our rivals relegated. Then he showed up at Aston with nothing but negative football. He pandered to the old guard, the ones that are tired and creaky and need to be sent away. His tactics were the same, match after match. He played Alan Hutton and Stephen Warnock in midfield. He bought Alan Hutton, for goodness sake. He refused to play the youth unless he was desperate. Villa finished with a point less than Birmingham did last season. All in all, it's been the most depressing season most of us have faced. There was no joy to be had from football this year.
Sounds about right.
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