sharkyvilla

I would welcome Carroll with open arms, as long as we don't pay through the teeth for him. Put him on £40-50k per week max and then we're talking. I think he would be a very good addition to the squad and could work well with Bent, Weimann and Gabby. I can't see it being true though as I'm not quite sure why he would want to join us right now.

As other have mentioned though, we would still need at least one quality winger in...

If we could get him in on loan on those wages with a set transfer fee and pay increase if we chose to keep him at the end of the season then I would settle for that. It gives everyone an incentive to make it work.

Heskey's still available isn't he?

I think Ireland's job would be a lot easier if he had the likes of Dyer and Sinclair playing on each wing with pace and lots of movement so he has other creative options rather than just a throughball to Bent that the centrehalves can telegraph before he's even passed it. I can see why people would think he would do better at Swansea than here. Unless we can bring in a couple of those players then I struggle to see how we can get the best out of Ireland as he doesn't naturally score goals himself.

The enormous posession from the Westham game is a big plus, lets build on that. We need to start the change in style somewhere and it isnt done in just a couple of months. If it doesnt give any results come january maybe we could question the player selection. Until then lets be happy that we are actually playing football and trying to win games, thats refreshing and new...

Wether we set up to play possession football with the idea of attacking or set up defensively and play long ball does it ultimately matter if we don't create chances?

No doubt Lamberts approach is the right thing but i don't think it's all going to click and these current players are going to turn into a great attacking side.

The approach is right, the idea is right but he needs to bring in quality attacking players.

True, that's why I'm hoping Lambert has some quality lined up to come in during the next week or two and he's just laying the founations of a passing game to get the best out of whoever he brings in. It could be one signing that makes all the difference and turns us from being toothless to a potent attacking threat, the problem is working out who that player is and how to get them in.

Isn't that what Ireland is meant to be doing though? Until he can be flogged we can't bring in a replacement......

He's not really got an eye for a goal. If you're playing in the final third then you really need to chip in with goals. The problem is that he can't really play in a central midfield pair either, but if he's on 70K a week you have to at least try and use him. Robbie Keane was more use in his loan spell than Ireland has been in his entire Villa career and we could really do with someone like him at the moment.

I can't believe we had 64% possession yesterday in an away game. When was the last time we did that? The general consensus regarding our play yesterday was that we were playing lots of pretty football, with nothing in the final third. This got me thinking - in yesterday's game who is was our 'final third man'.... Bent. Now, with this style of play that we seem to have taken on, is Bent the right player for us? I only saw the last couple of minutes of the highlights on match choice yesterday so didn't see much action... I must say we didn't really play with much urgency as the match was drawing to a close. The stats showed that we had 13 shots yesterday, yet again I also heard people saying they don't actually think DB had a shot.... So where did all those shots come from? Ireland and Nzog?

Maybe we need to take a look at that and decide what to do because if we do not have the right striker in the team, and with only Gabby and Weimann and maybe Delfouneso (though I think he should go on loan) we could actually be ****.

Also, was it definitely the best decision to leave Hutton and Warnock out? They are dire and I want them to leave but, potentially could have been better than relying on a young Centre Back at Left back?

We played this kind of passing football under Houllier and Bent scored loads. The difference is that we haven't got Young and Downing, Bent will score goals in any team if he gets opportunities, we just need better creators. I agree with you about Warnock.

He is utter barry white. We just aren't the right club for him, if we could somehow shift him out and get Adam Johnson in, even if it's just on loan, I'd be in dreamland

edit: double post

We aren't really linked to anyone, because I think we're all done

None of the players we have brought in this season were linked anywhere before we got them in, at least not until our fans did their detective work for the press. They have had absolutely no idea about our transfer activity and neither do we, we could be either in for 5 players or none and nobody would have a clue. All I do know is that Lambert would have been nuts to come to our club if he had no money to spend because the squad is a bit shit.

If we don't score more goals than last season then we'll be in for a struggle and the only way of doing that is to bring in quality, no matter how much better the passing game is under Lambert. But I still have hopes that Carroll and maybe Johnson could be on their way and they would make a big difference. I'm not getting carried away with this result because I always felt it was a tougher opener than it looked on paper as promoted teams will have the extra bounce in their step as well as massive crowd backing - we also seemed to be having to pick square pegs in round holes a bit because Lambert hasn't been able to get rid of Hutton and Warnock yet. Have a bit of patience because it will be a slow turnaround for the club.

I'm hoping that Lambert will mould a modern football side that won't include a big target man. Maybe a loan deal just for this season for a bit of experience and variety whilst Lambert slowly changes things but I don't see a long-term benefit of signing him. I'd much, much rather have Defoe as he pretty much guarantees goals.

I would take him because he scores lots of goals

All rumours are wrong, surely we must know by now our transfer dealings are tight as a duck's arse when it comes to leaking. Only by some freak accident did we hear about Solksjaer and Vlaar. I find it quite exciting as we may end up with nobody before the end of the window or half a new team.

Talk about his attitude and laziness but the one thing in his favour for me is the runs I've seen him make in the penalty box that only goalscorers like Bent can instinctively do, and you only see their worth when they have a long run in the team. If we sold him I'm pretty sure another club would turn him into a decent goalscorer, despite the ordinary loan spells he's had.

For the (roughly) £60m we got for Downing, Young and Milner I reckon we must have spent at least £50m on transfer fees alone for Bent, Ireland, Given, N'Zogbia, Makoun and Hutton for combined higher wages than the 3 who left, plus had to pay off 3 managers. Let's face it Randy's line of business is prime for punishment from a recession and he isn't really rich enough to donate £30m net spending every summer like he used to, especially with a divorce on the cards. Anyway this is getting a bit off topic again! I'd quite like Carroll at the club, it would be great to have a marquee signing over the next couple of weeks if Randy's pockets are a bit deeper. Either way I can't see Lambert spending money for the sake of it, he'll bring in who he thinks is right for the team.

All we know is that there is a very wealthy man in charge, a new manager to back and we havent spent much so far. Will we spend big? Who knows. Is it possible? Absolutely.

I agree, and IMO it would be unacceptable for Lerner not to back lambert properly this summer. That doesn't mean man city style spending or even the level of spending MoN spent on wages and fees but there should be some significant investment in what is a very average squad.

No one can say either way what will happen this summer but the delay of the Vlaar deal doesn't fill me wth confidence.

Why would it be unacceptable? If the money isn't there then it isn't there. It would only be unacceptable if Lambert signed on the premise that there would be money and Randy lied to him. I'm hoping it's just a case of Lambert wanting to spend his kitty a bit more wisely than previous managers who had felt as they were given a budget they had to spend it all. We just need to be a bit more patient, it seems a lot of clubs are doing their business quite slowly this summer for various reasons.

Houllier let himself and the club down. To be in a relegation fight with only Milner missing from the side that finished top 6 plus over £25m spent in the January window, upsetting almost the entire side and looking completely uninterested, is spectacularly bad. Even Gary McAllister managed to turn the side around in the few weeks he was in charge once Houllier got ill, probably by not treating the players like naughty children. McLeish was a total failure but had a much tougher job to do. O'Leary like O'Neill generally had more success than failure so shouldn't be compared to those two.

What happened at Malaga? I thought they had oil billions behind them?

I've been impressed with the whole summer's work. The key will be how Lambert can improve the players who are already at the club which must be his main priority, with his signings adding quality. Hopefully we can get a quality attacking player in before the window and I will be really happy.

Did it all go wrong though? He's 32 years old, he's played for 3 of the biggest clubs in the world, scored some incredible, memorable goals, represented England in a positive light, and will have an enduring legacy of a world class player...and he made a few shekels along the way. I'd say he's had a very good career, despite his setbacks.

Only the fourth Englishman after Matthews, Charlton and Keegan to win the Ballon D'Or too. There is no way he could have played regularly in the Premiership so the Utd move was the best move for him imo. In his first season for them he still scored the winner in the Manchester derby and got a Champions League hattrick. Quality player ruined by injuries, yet still achieved a lot in that time.

I guess it did end up sounding quite harsh didn't it? But the way players can just run around him is a bit embarassing. Richards has to play at right-back though, I haven't seen a lot of that Dawson who is in the squad but he must be a better bet at centre-half than Tomkins.

I'll never get why Tomkins is rated, he has nothing at all to his game.

Without wishing too sound harsh, he'd probably be the least mobile player in the paralympics team. He really is like a statue. Overall the team is starting to gel quite nicely and the substitutions worked really well. I like the look of Sordell, how did he only play 40 odd minutes for Bolton after signing in January?

A chance now for him to be the owner we thought we were getting.

Consistent, sensible imvestment, a young hungry manager and a long term plan to get us back up there.

I'm ready for Lerner to win me over again. Would love to have the faith in him that i had when he first came.

Good stuff. I suspect that the lack of investment for the last couple of years was more due to wanting to sort the wage issue than Randy not being interested any more. If he has learnt from his mistakes in controlling the wage structure and perhaps has a fair chunk of cash in his pocket then we should all have reason to be optimistic. A new start for the club.

Either way we won't hear or know anything about it through the press, at least not until Carlos Tevez turns up on our doorstep. I'm not expecting earth-shattering investment all of a sudden but it's in his interest to put some money in now we've got rid of a lot of the shite and have a hungry new manager. Starting to get a bit giddy.

im really pleased PL has brought on board a new cb,after watching dunne/collins defend corners last season..great news utv

The only thing I would say is that whatever centre-halves are at the club, the level of coaching and organisation has to be much better than Houllier and McLeish ever achieved. Under O'Neill basically the same defence was probably the best in both boxes in the league so it has to be down to more than them just turning shit all of a sudden. Good luck to Concrete Ron anyway, he must have possibly the greatest nickname of all time.