Papillon

They are basically stuck with two options. Everyone knows that, especially the ones making the decision in the end. 1) Keep Moyes and probably cross Ferguson and Charlton or 2) Sack Moyes and get the better candidate in. Them not being in the Champions League has very little importance to potential top managers and new recruits, they will sign for the next decade, not the next season. Unlike Con, I am pretty sure United can come back and win the league even next season if the right things are taken care of accordingly. They have no European football next season it seems, they can go the Liverpool-route and play something like 45 games - which means that their best players can virtually play all the games if fit. Imagine Liverpool having 16 games in the Europa League this season, they would never ever been close to the title IMO. If they keep Moyes it's going to be so because of Ferguson and the wish to not be like every other club, but nobility can be damaging. If they sack him and bring someone proven to the club, with the kind of pockets they have - it's going to be very different. They need a lot of players, but that's what the market and money are for. Bring in a defensive midfielder, a stopper and a left-back, and many problems are fixed. That can be done in five days, it can also be difficult - we'll see. Hopefully our club will go through the same progress the summer if we are given some cash! Personally I think Ferguson terrifies the ones in charge, so Moyes is going to get another chance in the summer. I also think he is never going to be a match, because he has done so many mistakes other than just making the team play bad. He says the wrong things all the time, he obviously doesn't know how to attack like other managers and he just lacks the needed charisma to do well in this job. I always knew the next guy was in for trouble, but I don't buy the idea that the squad is too weak. It's not. Sure they are older and a dip in level was expected, but not to this degree.

Lambert came with some promise, but let's not kid ourselves and say that he did extremely well with Norwich. Tons of managers have done OK in the Championship, promoted and then finished decently in the Premier League. He finished 12th, it's not 7th, and Chris Hughton did even better than Lambert in his first season after Lambert left. The easiest jobs are the ones where you are just expected to avoid relegation, where you just set your team out to run a lot and play defensively. Look at Palace and Pulis, they are currently 11th and Stoke are 10th. So in other words, what Lambert did at Norwich was decent but far from spectacular. Look at his defensive record and you suddenly realize he cannot make a team defend for their lives!

If we bring in a better manager and better players, because of said manager, how would that destabilize the club when the alternative is Lambert who doesn't know how to get us out of a relegation fight? He might bring stability just because he has been here two years, but it would also mean that he would bring in his players and frankly I don't want him to do that. We have enough dross in our squad as it is already, the new guy would have to spend lots of time just to get rid of them. A new manager and new, better players would almost guarantee a safe journey next season - unlike Lambert's current squad.

People can say lots of things about Lerner and MON, and hindsight is a bitch, but I have never had so much fan as when MON were here. We played some very nice football, neutrals loved to see us play and we had a few cool players. I am only 28 years old, so I don't remember a whole lot from our 90's era etc. I do remember having Yorke, Milosevic and all those guys, we did really well in the mid-90's at times but that's a long time ago. The last few years have been dire, we have so many crap players it's unreal. We will seriously struggle to get rid of these guys, I mean, who the hell would want to buy Tonev, Luna, Bennett, Sylla et al?

IF there is anything in this, I would presume that the huge process of doing due diligence is well started or maybe even finished to some degree. These guys are smart, and unlike Ellis I think Lerner has a much better idea on how to make this process go swiftly. The new guys would want the summer to get to know Villa and they need to hire a new manager and make sure that new players get their pre-season here or at least right after the World Cup. Not getting my hopes up though, like I have said before, a new owner does not mean a stinking rich owner with lots of cash. Suddenly it's some half-assed millionaire with plans to interfere all he can possibly do. Edit: Also, it's a bit strange that extremely wealthy people would look at Villa and not Newcastle or Everton. Newcastle have a huge fan base and they have a big stadium, they crave some spending and influx of cash. Villa are from a bigger city and I guess there is a lot of potential in there somewhere, but our global fan base is pretty small compared to other candidates.

One beautiful side-effect of this might be that Benteke stays here for several years....

At our current level I think he lacks the tactical nous and the wizardry in the transfer market. Our style of play is very lackluster and we seriously lack consistency in anything we do. Look at Rodgers and Martinez, their teams are very similar every game - they follow the plan and utilize their strengths. We change things around all the time, we never know what to expect. If we are given new owners with more money to spend, it's quite obvious that he will be given the sack. He doesn't have the reputation or charisma to persuade new players to join us and he doesn't have a history with handling bigger players. A bit like Moyes at United, it's quite obvious that players don't look up to him like they do for Mourinho and Klopp.

Sandro was a very good player, indeed one of the best enforcers in the Premier League not long ago. And certainly a much better than Tim Sherwood ever was! What happened to Sandro, I don't know, I understand there were some family issues and so forth. We sometimes forget how problems inflict on form and ability.

Bacuna might be fast and strong, but he lacks the most fundamental ability as a defender; namely knowing how to be a defender. He is just as much a defender as Benteke is. Completely hopeless in terms of positioning himself and knowing when to charge and when to not. If we are taken over and get some cash he will never play for this club again. Might do well for a Championship-side but that's about it

His name is Clark, shouldn't be too difficult to figure out

Ha, Moyes is having the worst of times... He has completely messed up the team and Liverpool are winning the league. Lambert can perform shit results and still keep his job easily... If we are taken over he will never keep his job though, it eill surely go to someone else

I think a certain David Moyes would beg to differ on Villa being the hardest job to figure out!

I for one don't care if the owner is there. He/they would be the investor and financier, not the CEO. Sure the passion is correlated to attendance I'd presume, but if you're a wealthy American you don't have time to see the games live in the UK. Abramovich lives in London, it's different with some guys really. It's all nice with guys like Whelan and Doug Ellis, but they don't have the cash and apparantly other things to do. Perhaps it's why they don't any more cash

Haha I love this. Not because it's a lie, of course it might be, but it's exciting! It's what being a fan is all about in the end. New signings, hope and so on. Preparing for a relegation fight and signing shitty Bulgarian players from Poland is not exciting, it's torment and it ruins the whole experience of being a fan. Good owners are hard to find though. In the beginning Randy Lerner was a very good owner, giving sizable funds for new players and so on. Then you have shitty owners all over the place that interfere with managers and buy players behind their backs. I don't want to exchange Lerner (who above all is a stable person in this game, it's not a human-right to spend 50M on players every season after all) with some lunatic or person that's going to set unrealistic targets and only sign half-assed players before sacking managers after 10 games. I also hope that our organization will be filled with winners if we are taken over. That means sacking people like Faulkner who has no experience, no charisma and no balls for his position. I am sure he is a nice guy and good at everything he does, most people are, but we need a real player in that position - someone who can forge the identity of this club and drive a hard bargain with ingoing and outgoing negotiations. Faulkner was something like an Account Manager at MBMA before taking over the reigns at Villa, it's just not the right position for him. I don't want someone like Charles Krulak either, an aging soldier who still thinks he's an important part of the American army - bringing silly quotes and war cries every time we lose. Semper Fidelis my ass... more like an ostrich sticking his head in the sand. Bring it on!

That will never happen - pathetic attempt from Cardiff to get something out of nothing. It's not like they have bribed an official, some guy has texted the team to another guy. It's not like it had a massive influence on the game, a manager gets to know the other team an hour before kick-off and can easily adapt his team before they go out. As far as I know, you can even change personnel because of "injuries" right before the game starts, to again, what advantage was given to Crystal Palace.

Just like good form, bad form never stays forever. When we expect the worst, something good comes out of nothing. It happens with every team and it will happen to us as well. We don't have to play City, Liverpool or Arsenal in our next games, it's Soton, Swansea and Hull. People mention Fulham like they are the next Real Madrid, they of course aren't going to continue this "streak" - why? Because they are a very poor team, and very poor teams win a few then lose the next even on form. Hull has one loss less than us the last five games, we will likely get a point from them or three. They have 3-2-11 away from home, Swansea have 5-5-7 at home and Soton have 6-4-7 away. The next three teams can beat us on any day, but chances are one or two are going to have off-days and on that day we will be on. It's football, it's statistics, every team grabs points every now and then. It's not like we have a team full of League 1-players, some of them are actually able to put on a good display. From December 8th to December 26th we lost four on the trot against Fulham, Man Utd, Stoke and Palace. See a pattern there? The exact same teams we lost to on the bounce now, but then we got on to draw Swansea and beat Sunderland the next two games. Something like that will probably happen now. We beat Southampton away, we drew Hull away and obviously drew Swansea at home. Points will come, we are not Derby or Watford.

We just have to win one of Soton, Swansea or Hull. It's absolutely doable. We can lose four and win one, and we're perfectly safe. Two draws might also do the trick just fine, it's going to be OK I'm sure. Sure we are crap, but in average we will get points from these three games. Man City drew Sunderland and Everton lost at home to Palace, accidents do happen even for the better teams. In our run-in I predict 1-1-3, which will being us to 38 points and safety for sure. We might win zero games, but then again we might win two or three. The truth probably lies somewhere in between

We have Al Bundy as a reserve manager. I love Al Bundy, should be good.

If Doug Ellis stayed in charge we certainly wouldn't have been top 8. Maybe in the Championship? Saying that, if Lerner had not come in to buy us - another person/group would have during these last few years. As we have seen in the market, what is the probability of someone good taking over the reign? Very slim I would say, just look at most of the clubs. Man City weren't a big club before they were taken over by the Arabs, but they had a brand new stadium and good infrastructure due to their friends at Old Trafford. They basically did their due diligence, no need to build a new stadium and the town is all about football. Much like Liverpool and Everton, I think it's strange that no-one has gotten their hands on Everton, basically the Man City of Liverpool. We could have struck gold with someone else, or we could have gotten someone hopeless like the owners of Cardiff and Fulham. Then you have a lot of guys pretty much in the bracket of Lerner at the moment, which counts for the rest of the league. Lerner is not superrich in the sense we want to, he is not Abramovich or Mansoor, but he isn't any worse than the others down there. So what are we bitching about? It's not a god-given right to be rich, you work with what you got and I have absolutely no problem with that. Take a look at all the other clubs; there is lack of spending and atrocious decisions bandied around all the time. Managers are sacked and owners are interfering, some are not spending money at all and so on.

Wow, still hung up on my "affection" for United I see? Maybe I have to word myself differently the next time, English isn't my first language and so on. As for Rooney/Van Persie, of course it matters when they are injured a lot, but in hindsight I wouldn't see them in top 4 had they both played 35 games this season anyway. The tactics in the games I have seen from them are not very taylor made for certain individuals, something that Rodgers has perfected for Liverpool. I think City would have walked it had Agüero stayed reasonably free of injuries, he is such a good player and not far behind Suarez. When you play for City you are kind of lost between other stars, like Fabregas at Barcelona, but if one of those players starred for Liverpool they would be just as visible as Suarez. Agüero has 1214 minutes on the pitch this season and I think his scoring average is even with Suarez. I am not saying Agüero is behind others in the pecking order of stardom, he is clearly their best player alongside Touré but their squad has so many good players. As for Suarez, he only missed five games at the start of the season. They did do well in beating Man Utd at home with 1-0, but they also "just" beat us and Stoke with 1-0, as well as drawing Swansea 2-2 and losing at home to Southampton 0-1. Not particularly impressive in terms of goals, we almost snatched an equalizer through Benteke and United were also very close with Van Persie/Hernandez if I remember correctly. So five goals in five games, then Suarez came back and they scored 12 goals in the next four games. The rest as they say, is history.

If Chelsea avoid a loss to Liverpool it will all be in the hands of City. I don't mind if one of those two win (Chelsea/City), we can just say it's down to the money and that's that. Man City have very few douchebags in their team, at least in my opinion, so it wouldn't be the end of the world. Seeing Suarez, Agger, Skrtel, Gerrard et al lifting the trophy would be a travesty. Please don't make it so Mourinho...

Sorry, you don't win the league with luck. You win because you are the best team over 38 games. Not saying Liverpool will win the league, just if they do, they deserve it. As will Man City or Chelsea if they do. If u think they haven't been lucky fair enough If Liverpool win it will be down to not playing in Europe. They didn't even have to show up for the Europa League, which is a huge bonus. The same will probably happen with Man Utd this season, if they fail to qualify for the EL then it will be a huge bonus for next season without a doubt. They could field reserves in the Capital One Cup, switch around in the FA Cup and always field a strong team in the league. I totally agree the best team wins over 38 games, but few teams challenge without being in Europe because of the former season. Liverpool are a strange case, they performed woefully last season under the same manager and now they are reaping the benefits from sticking to him so to speak. They always had many good players, so this scenario has been utterly lucky for them. Next season they will play in the Champions League and in no way will they challenge in the league, it would take them at least 100M to even be close. I hope they fail though, I couldn't possibly last the gloating from their fans and the sainthood of Steven Gerrard. The same happened when they won the Champions League ten years ago. They didn't stand a chance in the league, they didn't even reach top 4, thus they could field reserves there and play the best in CL.

It's not over yet! Man City play Sunderland and WBA at home next, surely six points for them, which leaves them at 76 points - 1 behind Liverpool with the same amount of games. If Chelsea beat Liverpool they are above them, and even a draw will make City go past Liverpool and Chelsea. If Chelsea beat Liverpool, Man City will finish in front of Chelsea with Pool in third IMO. The only problem is that Chelsea have Atletico Madrid in the Champions League before and after this game, having the second leg at home only three days after Liverpool. Man City have to play Everton away a week before the seasons ends, other than that they have a pretty easy schedule ahead of them. I hope City sneak it, they do deserve it because they have played awesomely this season and they have gone far in both cups and also had to play Barcelona in the Champions League. Liverpool, for all the great victories they have had this season, have gone out of both cups and didn't even play in the Europa League. It's their luckiest shot, and they don't deserve it. It all boils down to Jose Mourinho and his priorities. If Liverpool win that game they are just a stumble away from winning the league, but a draw or a Chelsea-win will see the title go elsewhere.

I really don't understand the point with this message. We are shit, that we already knew, but we are also one victory from being absolutely safe and there are a few games left. We have lost four on the bounce, but it's not like we didn't knew we were capable of doing so badly. Had we been 19th, four points from safety and so on I could have taken it, but why now? Maybe the guy just wanted to do something, maybe he was bored at the office. The summer is important of course, we need new energy and better players to become better as a team. A few good signings ready to go straight into the team will do us a world of good, that is the difference between us and clubs like Southampton with Lallana, Schneiderlin and so on.

Lambert could stay or he could go, it all depends on what direction the board wants to go. If they are happy with things as long as we stay in this league, then they will probably not sack Lambert. But we are not going forward, not an inch, we are stagnating and the only reason we will play in this league next season is because there are a few woeful teams in this league. We are really, really bad and extremely boring to watch, with very few, if any "stars" in the side except Benteke when he is on form. Next season there will be equally bad teams below us, so Lambert will probably scramble the necessary points to make us stay up. The thing is though, clubs tend to sack managers when things are going like this. We don't have the squad to finish 8th, but we sure as hell have the squad to do better, although I don't really know what to expect anymore. Invigoration is probably the right word, every single fan and person connected to this club has lost the faith in what is happening. So change is always the easiest outcome, even though the new guy might not come with awesome pedigree. If and when Lambert leaves this club, I don't see how he is going to get another job in the Premier League. Crap results, even worse signings and negative football tends to do that to a manager.