Let?s have a brief look at history. Doug has not sacked a manager since Big fat Ron. Why? Well you can get rid of managers without sacking them and avoid having to pay hefty compensation.

For example he allegedly told Brian Little that he was bringing in a more experienced manager to help him as we were going through a pretty bad time on the field. Brian being an honest chap who was his own man walked! Doug saves money!

John Gregory allegedly hated Doug and vice versa so when results went sour it would be fair to assume that Doug began to meddle, the Derby job became vacant so Gregory walked. Doug saves more money.

Doug persuades Graham Taylor to take over. Poor results see Doug playing the PLC card to allegedly meddle in team affairs again and put sufficient pressure on Graham to walk. Doug saves more money.

Now let's look at the current situation. Doug doesn't seem to want O'Leary to continue in his role as manager so what does he do? He doesn't want to sack him because it will cost so he tells him there is no money for players in the January window and even sows seeds of doubt about loan signings if they involve a fee.

I think the body language of O'Leary and Aitken at the Man United game said it all really.

Does anyone else see a pattern here or am I just a conspiracy theorist?

This is the first post from Jack, what do you think? Email jack@astonvilla.biz.