romavillan

The fact there was only realtively serious intent fro one bidder would suggest to me the asking price was too high. we *should* be a good punt for success really the north west has big clubs, london and the north east too. With the population in the west midlands conurbation being comparable to the north west it is a relative football vacuum. We have the famous old name too, good facilities etc. 2 years ago had Lerner been willing to cut his price I would imagine he'd have had an easier time finding a buyer. Now he can not seriously be asking anywhere near that sort of money as once we are in the championship and our best players scarper, we shall be a long way away from the premier league pots of gold.

I think we are probably worth around what he paid for us once we go down. Time for cutting his losses was 2 years ago when he first wanted to sell, he could have easy got a buyer at £120-£150m and got the fudge out of dodge and let us get on with it. The only way he will get decent money for us now is if we go straight back up and finish mid table the year after. The chances of that are slim to fudge all.

Well unless he comes out to say that his targets were unobtainable and absolves the board of any blame I think it's fair to assume that he was promised backing in Jan and this has evaporated into thin air. Poor bloke, if we get anywhere close to safety the board should do all in their power to 1) keep him here 2) back him in the summer.

Leicester's position was not far off to be fair.

Symbolically zog going is huge for me, just awesome news. Problem is though, it's just saving money for the accounts. changes nothing on the pitch or I would imagine in training either.

If he does walk in the summer then we are worse than a shambles.

Surely we are worth less in the Championship than what Lerner paid to Ellis? Surely that would make us a very attractive bargain for some serious investment? I mean we were 10th highest eraners in the country playing absolute garbage football and scoring no points. How hard can it be to improve on that?!

Totally, I find it very hard to believe that at his interview the board outlined the plan of giving him a budget of Randy's piabs and a scab off Hollis' arse to rebuild the squad in Jan.

Happy days.

They must have agreed to big cuts in wages on relegation. I cant help thinking that getting Remi a couple of players to work with might have helped us at least try and close the gap. Surely the sooner we start the Remi rebuild project the better?

Newcastle about to splash more cash it seems too. if they come down with us they'll easily have the best squad in the championship. if they don't come straight back up then they might be pushing the boat out a bit too far. We on the other hand appear to have thrown the towel in, and will need a big summer to shake things up for a promotion push. Be interesting to see which of these polar opposites turns out better long term. short term at least they are giving it a go.

Yes i "think" that too, we would be 4 points better off if we had lined up a goalscorer for Jan 1st.

There's differnet ways we can go down though isn't there? The not investing and backing in our talented manager way which may see the fragile progress he has somehow managed get shot to shit and we lose 12 on the bounce and are a laughing stock. Then there is backing the man this window so he can start his own project and us seeing an upturn on the pitch and we go down fighting and make a fist of it. That's a whole different atmosphere in the sumer right? Which club would you be inclined to join for their promotion push? The laughing stock penny pinchers or the rebuilding fighters? IMO not investing now could directly contribute to staying down in the Championship for a while instead of coming back up sharpish.

I do, he has shown real balls in taking us on in the first place, lately shown actual progress in what is a hopeless task, his reward? Nowt, go with what we have. He must be feeling a bit hung out to dry by the people that hired him.

Granted it's a gamble, but you sign them with relegation clauses don't you? Not strengthening will be far more costly IMO.

The argument that we aren't an attractive proposition is undoubtedly true, but how are we really that much worse than Newcastle, Sunderland, Norwich and Bournemouth? Paying ever so slightly more than them would surely smooth out any possible problems, we just haven't been prepared to spend, I really don't believe that we have been trying to sign players and that money has been available to Remi but the players don't want to come. If that clearing Ashley can get his head around it the fact we can't is pretty embarassing. Yes they've paid over the odds, but being an unattractive proposition forces their hand there, as it does ours.

Yeah a Delph goal at Villa Park would really be taking the piss. If lower division sides can cause upsets in the cup the why can't we? In all likelihood we are going to get played off the park, but we might nick it so we should really give a good go for nothing else but preserving some of the fragile confidence we have put together. A heroic effort and us losing narrowly would still give Garde some scope to beef up the confidence a bit for the next league match.

Crespo and Ilori aren't dead wood though really, they might still come good long term. The actual deadest of the dead wodd is still stealing a kings ransom every week. If Newcastle get Remy too and stay up after their outlay this Jan and we put some sort of form together, get close, but still go down it'll be hrd to swallow the seeming unwillingness to spend anything this window when the club have repeatedly said that the money is there to spend. Admittedly they have paid over the odds, but they are giving it a go. It's risky if they still go down but I'd imagine all the new contracts have relegation clauses anyway to minimise the damage wage wise. We really need 3 or 4 new faces to stand any chance fo building on the great work Garde has done so far which is starting to bear fruit. Keeper, Debuchy, Striker and a defensive midfielder or better left back than Cissokho could spark a little winning run... ...as it stands, the first time we get the wind knocked out of our sails Garde will have to carefully put back the shattered pieces back together again and we'll be relegated in March! Happy days.

The last time I took search advice from a forum it resulted in me seeing something involving 2 girls and 1 cup. I haven't been the same since.

Better shape, better width, better crossing. Benefits from the better shape could include one or two midfielders feeling they can get up the pitch a bit more to help out, or god forbid, run into the opposition box or something.

Delph's fee was £8m IIRC, for a promising youngster.

I'm not so sure, playing possession football is no bad thing and we have the clean sheets to prove that Garde has managed to organise us better. I think a Bent type price paid for someone in Jan would make a big difference to our results. Not enough to save us as we are too far gone, but it would have meant 3 points today. I'd take controlling a game and winning 1-0 over playing open attacking football and getting bummed every week.

Thing is though it's off the back of a draw that could easily have been a win (after we were lucky first half granted) against a Leicester side who are top after spanking the shit out of a good Stoke side, which was after we beat Palace and deservedly so. It's not like we scraped a 0-0 with a poor Pulis side and that's it. The positives have been on display for at least 210 mins out of the last 270. We are still down, no doubt about it, but the positives are that Garde even in this shithouse situation has managed to get a team spirit, a way of playing which isn't just smack it up the park and hope together and some points. It's not much but with respect to the last few months of the most abject miserable rubbish for a long long time it's a breath of (relatively) fresh air.

The fact we can have 60% possession away from home, 15 attempts on goal and keep a clean sheet are all plus points. Garde has them playing for each other and as a team, we are starting to look organised but we lack movement and a cutting edge up front. If we do sign some players maybe we can start putting a run together. With a quality striker we win today no problems. They were usual catenaccio pulis anti football and had we converted or be given the blatant pen then they'd have had to have played football and we might have got another, with more threat up front and the pen we win that 2 or 3 nothing. With a new keeper and some fullbacks plus a good strilker then we might even survive. Garde has to take massive credit IMO, we are starting to look like a football team.