Papillon

It took Moyes time to build Everton into a competitive team under financial restrictions, it will take Lambert the same amount of time to make us competitive. 

For a very good manager it would have taken time to establish us where we want to be. You are talking like Lambert will do this if he is given the time, that it is inevitable. It isn't, with him in charge we have established ourselves below the middle and it almost looks like he accepts it. I don't think Lambert will ever take us anywhere, not even with more money available. People can speak all day about our financial restrictions, but the manager doesn't seem to employ the right tactics and his acquisitions are questionable at best. Take away Benteke and it looks very, very poor. The biggest myth is of course that we don't spend any money - because we do. He has had a sufficient amount of cash to buy his new players, and most of them have been extremely poor.

Mignolet 9M

Johnson 18M

Skrtel 9M

Sakho 17M

Coutinho 9M

Henderson 16M

Sturridge 13M

Suarez 23M

Allen 17M

Let's not pretend that Liverpool are built on youth players and sound values. They have purchased a lot of expensive players the last years and many of them have been failures, such as Carroll and Aquillani. I don't want them to win the league at all, but if they do they deserve it. They have attacking momentum in every single game, but I think Chelsea will give them a huge test in two weeks. Lucky for Liverpool, again and again, Chelsea have to concentrate on the Champions League and they don't. As usual. Today Suarez should have had a red card for diving in the second half but he didn't get one, Skrtel was clearly pulling a shirt quite heavily on a corner in the end and then he punches the ball away like a goalkeeper. No penalty given, it's a travesty for Man City to be honest. Clear penalty, although a lot of players were in the area. No excuse though, the referee is not doing his job when he doesn't see that.

"We go again", it's like he wants people to ridicule him. Stop saying that stupid phrase brother, it's like you want to tell us that everything is OK no matter what, because we have a new game next week. Doesn't work like that. Be crap for too long and we relegate, easy as that.

We're still one place above where we finished last season. It's progress, everyone can see it! LOLz

International buddies always talk well about each other. It's about what you are expecting as a unit, Scotland are a pretty crap International side just like my nation Norway. For some strange reason Scotland are doing well in the rankings, but like Norway they seldom participate in any major tournaments and who pays attention to the UEFA ranking anyway. I always heard rave reviews from Hangeland/Riise/Carew for crap Norwegian players in the media, doesn't mean much other than trying to give them some confidence before a match against Belarus.

You can compare any era you want, but you of course don't have any value when you do so. People evolve, standards improve etc. Maradona wouldn't last five minutes in the Championship these days, but what does that tell you? If Maradona the kid was born in 1992 he would of course hold the level anywhere, and the same goes for all the stars of the early PL-era. If Bannan went back in time and played in 1994 right now, he would MAYBE do well, but it sure as hell ain't certain. If he was born in 1970 he would be raised up with the systems at the time, and he would sit on the bench for Swindon or Oldham. Comparing eras is silly, and I think you already know that very well. Just look at track records and every other sports, when time passes people learn new techniques and they have much better physiques.

We are obviously holding on to a manager for a longer period of time than any other club would do. That is noble, it's probably smart, because I hate short-term decisions and sometimes those decisions are just way out of order. Sacking managers like Hughton, though,  is completely in order IMO, because he is not a good manager and I have never believed in him. I have believed in Lambert before, right now I am in the middle of things leaning towards the other side to be honest. I just don't see how he will take us further; I don't trust his ability in the market for one minute and I think his tactics in general are mediocre at best when compared to other managers. Still there is something romantic about keeping the manager and clutching on to the hope that he one day makes us all blush because we wanted him to resign.

I also remember my first long relationship when I was about 15-16 years old, I remember how my girlfriend and I would tell each other that our relationship was better than everyone else's. When I was 18 I dumped that bitch and a couple of years later I got a much hotter one.

Hilarious. So when a private plane arrives at BHX it's automatically rich sheiks acquiring Aston Villa?

Birmingham isn't the metropole of the world, but it does have 1 million people living there - stuff happens in this town, it's not just AVFC.

One rich Saudi could be visiting his son at the Uni, as banal as that.

Mourinho won the league with Real Madrid and kept a 72% win percentage in his time there. Not beating Barcelona each season is impossible, they were possibly the best team in history in that era. He has also lost two home games in his entire career as a manager. I think he knows how to build a team, and I think he is entitled to put whomever he wants on the bench.

Thinking about having N'Zogbia back in the team next year is pretty exciting actually, and that says a lot about our current team! I have always been a fan of CNZ and I was glad when we got him, but since it has panned out so badly I had kind of written him off before this season. Not anymore though, watching us play at times is the worst.

3:1 Bayern win in the second leg. 4-2 over both legs.

 

Lucky for Man Utd Bayern off form and have players out injured and out through suspension. The thrashing never looked like happening.

 

Still must go down as a convincing win. Man Utd won't be back in the Champions League for at least 18 months or so. Maybe longer as this team needs a lot of rebuilding.

Football is a funny old game of course, and next season everything will be blanked out and we start over again.

Liverpool will be in the Champions League, this year they didn't play in Europe and they have obviously benefited a whole lot with their small squad. They have basically played the same team every single week, barring a few injuries here and there, but I think I saw a table showing them to make the fewest switches in average alongside one or two clubs.

You have predicted that United will struggle to get a single good player, but this is of course something you don't have any knowledge to back up. They still hold a big name and have lots of cash, that's probably enough to persuade a few players.

Very few predicted Liverpool challenging for the title this season, but it just goes to show that the league is hard to predict. I don't recall my predictions, I tried to find them, but I think I had 1. Chelsea, 2. Man City, 3. Arsenal, 4. Man Utd, 5. Tottenham, 6. Liverpool and 7. Everton (pretty much the same as everyone else). I also had Villa from 15th to 12th I think, which seems about right.

As I see things now, the only ones sure to finish in the top 4 next season are Man City and Chelsea. Tottenham look a bit lost and I think they will struggle next season as well, they have lost so much since Bale left and they will change things around again in the summer. Everton will also struggle to keep up the good level, basically because they will lose Lukaku and struggle to buy replacements. They will still be up there, of course, but if there ever was a glass ceiling they've found it. Liverpool will play lots of games and they don't have the cash to invest in players costing 40M+. Arsenal are always up there, next season they will probably field a new striker or else they will do exactly the same as this season. I don't know what the exact rules are for qualifying for the Europa League, but if United don't participate and only get to play the Premier League - I would have them as strong favorites for the 4th position in front of Liverpool.

Could have worked fine with Guzan and Benteke, maybe Vlaar and Gabby and so on. But Bennett? Come on, how stupid is that? It's like Man Utd letting Fellaini doing it and letting fans of other clubs joining in.

Neil Adams our new manager knows our club inside out,  he's a superb coach and mostly we feel we have a better chance of staying up with him than with Hughton.

 

The national media will be grovelling soon after hammering us this week.

Yeah buddy, heard that one before. The difference from being a coach on the training pitch and being a manager is huge, like we have seen with numerous others taking the step forward. They are usually gone within a few months - even though all of them knew the club "inside out". Superb coach you say; has he ever been your coach? Didn't think so, I would guess most fans would say that about their staff. Norwich are five points above relegation, with a better GD than Fulham and Cardiff - but it's pretty safe to say that your faith will be sealed against Fulham on Saturday. Lose, and you are pretty much gone with the program that's left. It's never going to be about the change of management, it's going to be about what the other teams manage to fork up. Win that game and you are safe, in fact that game became pretty interesting for the neutral viewer. I really don't care if Norwich stays up, it's a club that belongs in the Championship, but I would argue the same thing for all the other clubs down there.

I think Lambert is decent, but he is far from being even remotely great. He is of course better than people like Di Canio, basically because he holds his temper and he seems like a fair enough guy. Sure he has thrown a few players out of the squad, but there were never a ruckus or players talking behind his back to get him out. In terms of tactics and transfers, he is below par and there are numerous candidates out there with the same ability as him in those departments. So if we are to continue to buy players on the cheap from around the world, we would probably be better off with someone who has a better call on the market. Most of Lambert's transfers have been very poor and some of our best players must shake their heads on the training ground. Buying players like Vlaar and Bertrand (loan) is something most of us could have done, they are known quantities. The real trick is of course to buy 1M players that no-one has ever heard of, and six months later they are good enough. That hasn't happened a lot with Lambert to put it mildly. The players I would give a thumbs up, like Westwood and Bacuna, are still very average players, or even below that even for their price. Benteke was a huge success of course, but it doesn't really help much when players like Luna, Sylla, Tonev, Holt, Kozak, El Ahmadi, Bowery, Lowton and Bennett are standing next to him.

I think Lambert will be given a new season, it will be his third and that seems to be the average for managers that neither excel or relegate a team. If he buys a new Benteke, if Okore turns out to be all we wish he is and if we avoid a new Sylla - he will be OK. However, and the odds are more in favor of the next one, if we buy new duds like Tonev and Bowery he is royally screwed. All you need are a few good players to do well, like Southampton have shown this season, so spend the money wisely Mr. Lambert or you will never get a job in this league again.

We have been through a heavy shift in strategy, ridding some players and lowering the wage structure. However, the goal cannot be to lower it forever and just buy prospects on 5k a week. That doesn't make any sense to me, because in the long-run we will lose out on buying a few really good players and it would essentially mean relegation. Lerner and the guys running the finances knows that there is a huge correlation between transfers/wages and where you finish in the table. The higher you finish - more money will be received at the end. Not necessarily of course, a few guys will mention QPR and Leeds immediately, but I am not saying we should spend above our weight. We did pay 7M for Benteke, we paid almost the same for Kozak - so there is money to spend on a few players that will make us better.

I wouldn't be overly surprised if we spent some money in the summer, we are definitely at a crossroad, we cannot continue this cycle and expect anything other than a scrap below middle or a relegation dogfight, and where is the fun in that for the owner? The books are balanced to some degree, at least compared to the other clubs I would expect, so we have to invest to perform better and thus earn more money.

not from tonight but still...

 

 

impossible not to like that man

Imagine him managing United/City/Arsenal/Chelsea and doing that after scoring against us in the 95th minute, I don't think you would have said the same I hated Mourinho at Chelsea, I loved him at Real Madrid (at times), but now I hate him again. Klopp is a much nicer person of course... no contest

In any other job you would be sacked for this though. It's called professionalism. If I called a McDonalds worker a word removed for example, and s/he responded with such a tirade they would lose their job. Fact.

Working at McDonald's isn't just a lousy job, it's an insult when someone uses the sentence against you. To work at McDonald's you have to be able to breathe, punch a register and put hamburgers in a bag. Not rocket science, if you manage to do the things I mentioned you are performing excellently. Let's not compare this to being a football coach where 40.000 people tell you their opinion every game, it's a bit different and it's difficult to get there. And no, telling a fan to **** off isn't a sackable offense in isolation. Especially in the UK btw, I lived in London for one year and I haven't heard as much swearing in my entire life. Double standards and such.

For how long is Darren Bent contracted to us? To put it mildly, after this season he hasn't exactly made his stock rise a whole lot. Taking him back and also loaning Ba makes little sense, at least for our accountants. Also, what happened to Bent was that he lost confidence and motivation and basically became a different player when Lambert froze him out. The same must have happened with Ba, he was a poacher for a team set around him but since then he has like five goals in 18 months. I would stay away from him to be honest. Darren Bent will still "only" be 30 years when he returns next season, Demba Ba will be 29 in May. Let's not forget Demba Ba never went close to scoring as many goals as Bent in his most prolific season for Newcastle. When players like these don't play you seldom return to your former self, it happens with a lot of good players.

One thing is for certain, trends break with sub-par teams like Crystal Palace and Aston Villa. Palace have two wins on the trot and we have three losses in a row.

How many times have they won three times in a row this season - and how many times have we lost four in a row? In average we lose every other game, so we'll probably see a win or draw in this one. That's how it is when both teams virtually have no players that holds a pretty level every game except for the goalkeepers. To illustrate; on Fantasy Premier League both teams' keepers are the highest scoring players for each team.

Puncheon is their most creative player, no-one has earned more than two assists this season. We are talking about a pretty crap team, so it's not like we should go out and fear Crystal Palace.

You play the other teams, there are new teams in the league, suddenly quite a few invest in much better players and so on. You always play the others, one tally of points doesn't matter at all when the next season comes along. 50 points might be 10th one season and the next it might be 13th, and the first season is obviously better. You haven't been playing the same, you have done worse as the average has has been better. Last season we got 41 points and this season we are headed for something like the same, although we are averaging slightly below it.

I am not saying points don't matter, of course they do and they give a very strong indication. As for progress, I haven't seen any at all. We are just about the same, and we might finish anywhere from 12th to 16th. Sure we might finish one or two places above 15th as was our last finish, but again, it will all be down to a few results, motivation and circumstances. Give or take a few points and I see stagnation at the level we are at, but if we suddenly go on to finish with 53 points next year it would be clear progress. Obviously. To make a discussion wether +2 points and 1-2 positions is progress is not worthwhile in my opinion, that's just being positive for the sake of it. Let's say we slip down from 15th to 16th on the last day as Tottenham score an equalizer in the 95th on a penalty that never should have been given. Like I said, similar to last season no matter where we end up. Should we win all of our remaining games it would not be like that, but we sure as hell won't 

Good, cheating little word removed could have relegated us last year with his blatant dive to win a penalty against us, he wasn't even touched.

Reads the news. Writes that.  You're obviously a good person

**** crap!

This just goes to show how fragile a team can be, imagine if this happened in gameweek 33 of last season!

Injuries suck, especially this one as I have suffered the exact same one and I never recovered. I haven't had a good jog since 2011 even though I have had five operations. He will be fine though, the medical team and doctors helping him will be a bit better than the ones I visited to put it mildly. The achilles is a treacherous tendon, each case is very different and many athletes struggle to return to their former level and eventually retire. I don't know what happened to the big guy, but it was probably just a simple run or sprint that lead to a huge "snap" before he fell over in agony. Doesn't hurt that much to be honest, but the sound and feeling is the worst I have ever experienced. I can only speak for myself, although I have read many others say the same thing, that you always go around and fear that it will snap again and you become hesitant. Truth be told, a healed achilles after an injury is still weaker than one that has never been torn.

Good luck to him with his recovery, I really hope he heals up and return to his former beast. What is certain is that he will not leave this summer, and to be a real dick about it (so that you don't have to tell me I am for writing this), isn't this very good for us in the long-run? Benteke just turned 23, he has 10 years left of his career and he will still achieve greatness - and potentially play the World Cup in 2018 and 2022.

Oh this is probably going to be devastating for United and Moyes. The thing is, Bayern are always experts at attacking in the Champions League when everyone are pumped up and ready to go, they won't ever have an off-day, and even though United are crap this season - teams will still respect them because of the aura that surrounds Old Trafford on a big day like this, when the dark is surrounding the lights. Everything can happen in football, I wouldn't be extremely surprised if this ended with a 1-1, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended with 0-5 either.

On top of everything else, United might have to play Büttner, Ferdinand and/or Smalling at the back, and that's never going to work out. Ferdinand struggles so much with pace these days and Büttner is far from being at the same level as Evra, who above all is very experienced at this level.

You'll earn a 42% interest if Bayern scores at least two goals, that's an offer I'm going to take!

 

Cech hasn't been the same since his head injury IMO, he's pretty overrated. 

 

off topic but I think if anything Cech is lazy, if Chelsea were playing Bayern or Barcelona he would bring his best performances but if was playing a mid table team like Stoke or West Ham he doesn't seem to put same effort in

 

Petr Cech was pretty much the best keeper in the league last season, alongside De Gea. So overrated and lacks focus for lesser games? Not in my book!

 

True. But you also described the climate for every single club in the division! Swansea, Newcastle, Palace, West Ham - you name it.

 

Not at all, we are doing things differently at Aston Villa. We are investing in young players and planning for the future, we will only get better IMO. 

 

That is your view. I don't buy the notion that it's a certainty that young "talents" get better over time, year by year and end up like superstars when they're 26. Some players are just not good enough now, and they will never be good enough in the future.

We are investing in kids because we can't afford the grown-ups. Not many of the kids are going to become stars in this league, because they aren't good enough. Our scouting department is lightyears behind the biggest clubs (again, because they can afford to have eyes everywhere and we cannot) and they will snatch the biggest talents before we even know who they are. Planning for the future? Not trying to be Piers Morgan here, but come on, that is a ridiculous statement. Every club is planning for the future in that regard. Squads are constantly being changed around to plan for tomorrow, not for a certain point in time which is at least five years ahead of us. It's about being the best you can be right now and next season, not to dream the fantasy of us being up there in the future. How many 5-year plans are we supposed to follow? If we're 15th in five years, will there be a new time-horizon? I better call General Krulak to find out, oh that's right, he bounced when his empty, hollow American gibberish came back to bite him in the ass.

We got lucky with Benteke and he is probably the only bargain chip for the current strategy. We will sell him and make a great profit no doubt, but it's not like we can buy 10 players and make a 200M profit and then know we have the cash to constantly sustain a challenge. He'll leave, we'll have money to spend but odds are we are going to struggle to find someone even remotely close to his ability and we'll struggle to score goals the following season. Let's say we finish 12th or 13th this season, which we probably will, it's not like we can expect to finish on a linear basis and jump up 2-3 places every season for the next five seasons when we lose Benteke. The league is filled with poor teams and some performing under their true ability, it will mix and sort itself out next season and we might as well finish 15th again - who knows?

With our noble strategy we get players like Lowton, Sylla, Luna, Tonev, Kozak, Helenius, Bennett, El Ahmadi, Westwood, Bacuna and Holt. Then we get to loan good players like Bertrand and we get dibs on known quantities like Vlaar every once in a while, which is very nice indeed, but almost every club down there get their hands on a few known players I would have liked to buy as well. Seeing that crop of players I don't think it's unreasonable to expect anything other than mid-table at best, every single season. Benteke was a great buy, Okore might be decent - nobody really knows yet, but we're talking about a few players out of 15 that barely manages to perform to the level of mediocrity. Take away Guzan, Gabby, Delph and Weimann and we really would have struggled to stay afloat. Many teams have tried to buy cheaply and develop from there, most if not all teams fail - and I don't see a single evidence of us being in contention to be on the good side of that statistic.

Didn't we sign a highly rated player who looked awesome in the Polish top division? Oh yes, what was his name... Aleksandar Tonev was it?