MessiWillSignForVilla

It may be dull, but it's exactly how you should play against teams who just keep the ball. Stay solid in defence, let them pass it in front of you and don't let them in the box, close down too much and you begin to leave gaps for them to exploit. Only teams like Man City and Barca who have those special attacking players can break down a well organised defence who do that, and even they can struggle against it.

So the first time all season we've put back to back good performances together and now no one can express a concerned opinion? Your entitled to express concern, but some people aren't just expressing concern, they're hugely over reacting and completely writing us off before a ball has been kicked in anger and seeing how we actually set up.

There's nothing like getting behind your own team eh?

Maybe Clark is playing at the back of the diamond? That's what I'd do.

Could have something to do with our main tactic in that game being injured. Like for like replacement - Bacuna further forward or Albrighton out wide. Sorry, there isn't anyone in our squad who would be a like for like replacement for Gabby, he's pretty much our only pacey forward player that would give defenders a hard time. Everton will play keep ball and try build it up slowly. Their central midfield is too good to expect us to play it through the middle, and without Gabby, we don't have someone who can hurt them on the break up front. Our best chance of winning is hitting it up to Benteke/Holt and waiting for our quicker players (Weimann, Delph, Bacuna and Bertrand) to flood forward on the counter. It won't be pretty, but it's pretty much the only way we'll win this game.

As for no recognised striker, though he's utilised as a winger Mirallas is a striker, or at least can play there. Also how was Lambert supposed to know when he picked his team that Everton wouldn't start Vellios for example.

Could have something to do with our main tactic in that game being injured.

Initially disappointed to see Holt start, but in all honesty, who else would play there? Gabby is injured, Helenius and Bowery not ready/good enough and Weimann is better "in the hole" than Bacuna, and I currently have more confidence in Bacuna than Lowton at RB. Not a bad team, think we will do well if we stay disciplined in defence.

I never understand peoples problem with PR, every football club, no every business, in the world does it, why is it such a big problem that our club is trying to do it? Because we're not doing as well as people may want us to be? Arsenal for example have their annual season ticket drive when they suddenly get linked with a £30m player out of the blue who they never get. What would you rather the club say? "Don't bother getting excited and feeling good about coming to the games, we're not buying anyone and we couldn't give a shit what you all think, just keep turning up and giving us your money", I'm sure that would really encourage people to turn up to game days. Or even say nothing? I guarantee that Lambert and the board would be lambasted and bemoaned at for not saying anything. Of course the club are going to try sell itself in whatever way it can and make out everything is rosy, they want people to attend the games, not only to generate cash, but to get behind and support the team. Yeah, the best PR for a football club is doing it on the pitch, but having the club try generate ticket sales through a bit of PR doesn't harm anyone. Just don't get strung along and believe any transfer talk until it's a confirmed signing.

2-2, Benteke and Weimann again. Everton may have lost 4-0 in the week, but was a derby game, and we know from our own mid week game that anything can happen in derbies, Everton are still a very good side. We're away though and in good form ourselves, I think we'll give it a good go, but some poor defending from Baker/Clark/Lowton will allow Everton to score at a point when we've got the upper hand and will cause us to shut up shop. Barry will score for them, and Aiden McGeady will have the best game of his career, before shortly fading away into a mediocre stint at Everton.

Just taking a look at our season so far, and I have to say, apart from some shit performances November/December time, we've been doing much better than people make out on here, especially considering our current circumstances. Made 9 signings (permanent and loan) and had 7 players leave (permanent and loan) for a net spend of ~£16m Hugely reduced the wage bill based on which players have left Only just survived last season Only been lower than 14th once, we dropped to 17th after 4 games but bounced up to 13th a game later, otherwise we've been bobbing between 10th and 13th mostly A much better GD from last season, though still not great 7 Clean sheets already, we had 6 for the entirety of last season Had some very good performances and huge results (last two games, Citeh, Arsenal etc.) Benteke, Gabby and Vlaar have all been injured or out of form for the majority of this period, our three most important outfield players Weimann, Lowton and Westwood not been performing as well as we know they can Okore been missing all season, looked as if he could have been extremely good with Vlaar Bertrand looks to be a fantastic signing already I'd say we have shown some improvement this year with an injury hit and out of form squad that's had little time to gel. Just imagine how well we'd do if we had a fully fit, gelled and in-form squad. Hopefully Lambert will be backed this summer, whether it be by Lerner or some other owner, if we finish mid-table this season (which it looks like we will) I reckon we could definitely challenge for European spots next season.

The fees I left out were the ones which had actual values on the wiki pages (ie Milner[in]=£12m), which were just the pages for the last 8 seasons, and the fees I included were my estimates at the undisclosed fees. I think they are mostly accurate, or are what was indicated at the time. Although the net spend has gone up from the average, our player turnovers (total transfers in & out) have been 17 [2012-13] and 14 [2013-14] for those two seasons, which is more than the rough average of 10/11 from previous seasons, signalling Lambert has had shuffle the squad a bit more on those budgets. Also, take in to consideration that the main thing that brings down the average spend was a season when we made upwards of £35m in player sales, the amount of money that has been made available to Lambert to make these player turnovers hasn't been enough. If you take 11-12 as an anomaly you get an average of ~£18m per season, so Lambert has been given roughly the same amount to make 3-6 extra signings/sales per season, whilst also reducing the wage bill, a ridiculous task when you consider the minimum expectations were to also stay up. If Lerner doesn't sell up or loosen the purse strings, I can see Lambert walking and don't think many managers would want to replace him.

I completely agree, in fact I'd say it's both, look at some of those fees, but this is nothing to do with what our problem is/was financially. suttonpaul asked what our net spend each season under Lerner was, and that's what I've put, just bare, simple facts (ish).

What doesn't?

Working backwards (Using figures from Wikipedia, not including loans and guesstimatting at undisclosed fees) 13-14: ~£15.8m (assuming Luna=£2m, Kozak=£6m, Bannan+Makoun=£2m) 12-13: ~£19.5m (Wiki says £22m out, £2.5m in) 11-12: ~(-)£21.75m (assuming L.Young+Hogg=£1m) 10-11: ~£4m (assuming Bent=£18m, Ireland=£8m, Milner=£26m, Makoun=£6m) 09-10: ~£23m (assuming Delph=£6m, Beye=£3m, Warnock=£8m, Knight=£2m) 08-09: ~£44.9m (assuming Davies=£10m, Friedel=£2m, Shorey=£2m, Maloney=£1m, Routledge=£1m) 07-08: ~£4.25m (assuming Harewood=£3m, Salifou=£1m, Davis=£4m, Cahill=£5m, Youngsters=negligible) 06-07: ~£15.6m (assuming Berson=£500k) Overall: ~£105.3m.

Personally think that our dealings have been OK this window. Holt, uninspiring, not great, but understandable and seems to marshall players about well when on the pitch. Bertrand, A great signing, really helped improve our team in the last 2 games IMO, hopefully we can get him in the summer. Disappointing not to get anyone today and to not get a creative midfielder. Comparing to other teams, I still don't think it's that bad. We've gotten in more players than 9 other clubs, and the teams who have gotten more players are either super rich (Chelsea) or seem to be panic buying a little (Palace, Fulham, West Ham, Sunderland, etc.). As it has already been said, January is a shit time to buy players, I don't think any of the teams near the bottom have gotten value for money on their signings and I can't see anyone who we could have realistically got who I'd have been happy for us to get, Ince maybe? Not good, not bad, just OK. We won't go down, we aren't gonna push for Europe, why buy players at inflated prices?

I don't think people have no problems with him not being backed, just being realistic and understanding we can't have done much else this window if he's not been backed.

I still can't believe we signed a guy with a broken leg to cover an injured striker

They should do away with the January window. Signings are usually shite and short sighted, players get unsettled mid season and everyone gets in a hissy if we don't have a "good enough" window, which totally sucks out any positive attitude that the club may be experiencing, especially recently whilst we've had good form.

I imagine the problem with that would be that Ukrainians in the South/East would identify as being Russian and would want to be part of Russia, whereas Ukraine probably wouldn't want to give over half of their country to Russia, and the US probably wouldn't be too happy with it either. I completely guessing here though, so could be hugely wide of the mark.

I'd be so happy, my username wouldn't just be something stupid I came up with when thinking about what to have

The people who get suckered in by "ITK"'s who then get hugely pissed off when it doesn't happen and proceed to fill the main forum with absolute drivel and having a go at anyone they can. Oh, and another for Deadline Day, don't understand why people get so worked up about it. EDIT: Whilst I'm at it, The Jump, what shit idea for a TV show, watching washed up celebrities jump 7m down a ramp, the most tedious thing I've ever watched on TV, including whenever Villa play on Sky/BT.

According to that guy we had a bid of £6.5m accepted for Aspas earlier in the wondow too... Would love it to be true though, think he'd add a lot to the team.

Just loaded up my Villa save after not playing on FM for a while, and beat WBA 3-0 to go top (albeit after 5 games) But then got reminded I'm playing at the Ricoh Arena as VP is being expanded

???? Intriguing.