"First time in my life I'm not happy playing football."

Charles N'Zogbia.


"I've said it before, that Twitter and the social networks is not a world familiar to me. Years ago, players would have hammered down the manager's door when they were frustrated rather than letting their feelings known on the internet.

"But it amounts to the same thing in that you just can't tell people you are frustrated, you have to do something about it by consistently playing well. If Charles is not enjoying his football, then he needs to do something about it on the pitch – and that applies to everyone and not just Charles N'Zogbia.

"It is not a coincidence the best moment Charles has had in a Villa shirt have come when he has been working hard – and that's when you get the best rewards in anything."

Alex McLeish on Charles N'Zogbia.


"I didn't think it would be a cakewalk.

”When you look at the points, we are two or three off Stoke and Everton, so we're all much of a muchness. If everybody thinks we're a rotten team, then I'm sure they must be saying the same things about Everton and Stoke.

"I expected a rollercoaster and I knew I'd have to have thicker skin than usual but I believe I've got the bottle to handle the downsides because I've experienced it in my managerial career. It would be great for everybody to walk in and get countless millions to spend but I knew the parameters and I'm with Randy [Lerner, the club's owner] all the way on his vision for Villa.

"It's out of my control. It's a modern day fashion.

"There was talk of a protest against Arsène Wenger a couple of weeks ago, so I'm in pretty good company. It's not something that I'm going to say I enjoy because we all like to be popular. But the one thing I can control is the team and what effort they put in to get the best out of them. And I know that I'm pretty good at that."

Alex McLeish.



"I told him: 'You've got to endear yourself to the Villa fans by showing that you can go and make tackles. I'm not telling you to go and be a destroyer, I'm not asking you to be a Roy Keane and be the complete midfielder. But go and press and close down and do it with a bit of urgency.' And I didn't feel Stevie did that at Newcastle and I told him that. If players fall below the standards we expect, I'll tell them."

Alex McLeish on Stephen Ireland.



"Our manager will get it right.

"We believe in him and we will keep fighting.

“Managers will always be under pressure when you don't get results even if you play well.

“Ours is doing well and he's strong and positive but unfortunately we can't get a result.

"He's a strong character, though. He'll never give up. He'll keep fighting and driving us forward. We are behind him. It's just that we can't get results at the moment. We've been creating chances but we just can't keep a clean sheet. We've been working really hard but it has not been paying off.

“The margins between winning and losing are very small in the Premier League.

"If you are not careful things can turn against you so I hope we can start getting some points and climbing the table. That's important for us now but we know we have enough quality to pull out of this. We know we will score goals and there will come a time when we will defend better. We will get it right."

Stiliyan Petrov on Alex McLeish.



"They [the players] shouldn't be doing that [not acknowledging the fans at the final whistle].

”Even if they go over and get abused they should still do it. They need to show a touch of humility. I will have a word with them."

Alex McLeish.