McGregor1888

I didn't realise that the season has finished? "Year on year": compare where we are now to where we were twelve months ago. There isn't much difference to where we were with Mcleish thought so I'm not sure we have improved any at all under Lambert and let be fair that's a very low yardstick to begin with. I'm pretty sure we have improved since McLeish.

I didn't realise that the season has finished? "Year on year": compare where we are now to where we were twelve months ago.

If you look through the threads posters have been able to quote more than home form to substantiate their debate. Yet no one seems to be able to name a suitable replacement manager. Suitable to whom though? To you? Posters have put several names forward but none seemingly were acceptable to the fraternity although that wasn't surprising since it was mainly those who support Lambert who didn't like the suggestions. Suitable to the club and the way Lerner wants to run the club. I must of missed the suggestions apart from Clarke and McLaren. There have been one or two others put forward foreign and closer to home. Personally I think McClaren would be ideal in that he took himself away after the England debacle and has steadily rebuilt his reputation gaining experience abroad and now getting Derby playing some lovely football. With his experience gained abroad I'm sure he would have build up enough contacts there to have a decent scouting network as well and wouldn't be too bothered about working to a budget if he got the opportunity to manage back in top flight football again. I also feel he would get us playing more progressive football than Lambert but that's only my opinion. However I still think Lambert should be given one more transfer window to get it right with wage outlay now down to a level where we should be bringing more experience quality in but that will come down to budget and Lambert's choice of player, both of which haven't been great so far. McClaren??? - sacked by England, sacked by Wolfsburg, sacked by Twente, sacked by Forest and suddenly Derby has a handful of decent and he's the man for the job? oh dear. It was Steve Bruce you liked for the job, last week I seem to remember. Don't worry folks, if you don't like this suggestiion there will be another one along in a minute As per usual VIllaCas you continue to omit facts to suit your debate. Let's have a look at what you've omitted. McClaren won the League Cup with Middlesbrough in 2004. He then took the same team to the UEFA Cup Final in 2006. With FC Twente he won the club's first Eredivsie Championship in 2009-2010. McClaren was also assistant to Alex Ferguson from 1999-2001 when, if you now remember, Man U won three Premiership titles in a row. Oh and since joining Derby they are climbing the Championship with hast. In comparison Lambert has won two promotions and .........? Martin O'Neill pretty much has a CV similar to McClaren's, let's bring him back! Lambert is the best part of a decade younger than McClaren, at least give him a chance to build something. Another thing to consider is that, despite some awful results as Middlesborough boss, Gibson stuck with McClaren and, in the end, McClaren became their most successful manager ever. The lesson to learn from McClaren's spell at Middlesborough is to be patient and give your young manager time.

It's the same old arguments going round and round in circles. What cannot be disputed is that Lambert has managed to slash the wage bill AND build a team that has year on year improved it's league performance. From where I'm standing he is doing a superb job. True, performances are up and down but I would expect this with such a young squad (remember, we had the youngest first team playing in all the top five leagues of Europe last season). I would hope our target is to finish somewhere between 8th and 13th this season and I would like to think we can achieve this. Next season we will build again. The shit-stirring in the press about Lambert makes me chuckle - the press boys want a crisis club to stick their knives into - thankfully Lerner and Lambert take no notice. I just wish some of our supporters would show some nous and not be so quick to bite.

Good teachers need to be given time by understanding headmasters and parents. You can't turn around a failing school in 18 months.

He appears to have always had a crushing weight on his shoulders ever since coming to Villa - I disagree. Check out his press conferences and he always seems to be pretty relaxed and in control of matters. He never seems down about defeats or too carried away by wins. Its like they are being constricted by some invisible force, they just do not seem happy in what they are doing! - At Villa Park, yes, I agree. This has been the case for the best part of five/six years, though. Maybe longer. Villa simply have a real, ingrained, problem of playing at home due to years of under-investment from owners combined with high expectation levels from fans. I don't think our players have felt comfortable playing at Villa Park since the days of Brian Little and John Gregory (and even then it was hit and miss). Yesterday's result came as no surprise to many as we have seen this type of thing happen loads of times since the days of Big Ron. A half empty Villa Park with a lower league, unfancied, side taking a huge following and treating the day as a cup final always ends up with an uncomfortable, stale performance from Villa. A quick fix would be for our manager to be given a huge transfer kitty so he could build a big squad that would allow him to pick strong teams for every league and cup match, home and away. Confidence for our home games would soon soar and our players would feed off the positivity with the added bonus of being good enough to meet the expectancy levels. it cannot just be Ferguson who was able to do it for God's sake!! - Ferguson spent millions, broke many British record transfer fees AND was given time.

1) Show us all where Lambert says he has no regrets. 2) Re. Laughing stock. By this time next week everyone will have forgotten about the Third Round of this year's FA Cup. This type of result happens, move on.

You're right. Remember current league leaders, Arsenal, being knocked out at home by Blackburn and away to Bradford in last year's cups? The Premier League is way over-rated.

Clearly trying to provoke other people. Why's that? I think benteke is quality and i think he will probably be sold in the summer and show that quality at another team. Is that really such a controversial view? Ah! The get-out clause of "probably". Excellent work.

He's out of form, it happens. He'll be back.

Lambert's the man for the job.

I'm behind the manager 110%.

Spot on.

Fair play to Culverhouse for showing a bit of passion.

I don't quite understand the rave reviews Holtby is getting around here. He scored a nice goal for Spurs the other week but, beyond that, he has struck me as a pretty mediocre player.

8th-13th

All the clubs that have won more trophies than us in the past thirty years have done so through having access to more money than us - nothing more and nothing less. It's nothing to do with the size of "support" etc. but more to do with the size of the owner's pockets. Villa are a huge club which has, alas, been hamstrung by having relatively poor/unambitious chairmen for several decades. If you run a Rolls-Royce on the budget of a Nissan Micra you'll soon find yourself getting into problems.

I remember people around here wanting O'Neill out despite three top six finishes on the spin - hysteria is a funny old thing. While I can see Villa's form isn't good at the moment I back Lambert and the team to pull through. Given the resources Lambert has had to spend and the job he is trying to do with those resources I don't think any manager out there would be doing a better job - I'm behind him and the boys 110%.

He hasn't mentioned anything about some fans being more worthy than others, he's simply defining the meaning of "support". If your team goes a goal down is it better to boo or cheer seems to be the implied question. Is it better to encourage or berate? I agree with Wedge and think booing a team you've gone along to "support" is madness and simply helps the opposition.

OGS and Martinez were invited to be interviewed for the Villa job - neither were offered the job and I'm sure they would have been aware of other candidates being sounded out for the role. You can't be offered the job if you haven't been formally interviewed. The same applies to Martinez and Liverpool: he was asked if he wanted to be formally interviewed for the post and he declined.

No chance.

A bad day in the office - we simply dust ourselves down and move on.

possibly every other manager in the league Yawn.

Yep......they're all below us in the table! Id be willing to bet they wont be by the end of the season. Our pass completion yesterday was 48% and if we keep these kind of stats up I cant see us maintaining anywhere near this form. Southampton midfielder Steven Davis completes more passes (109) than the entire Aston Villa side last night (96). Do you not think these were Villa tactics? Southampton like to press high and get in their opponents' faces and Villa simply played them like a violin. No matter how many times Southampton scored I felt confident that Villa could go up the other end and get a goal. Ask Steven Davis how many goals he scored last night.

We know this Villa side can play fast, exciting football - the tail end of last season saw some lovely stuff . Clearly Lambert has decided to work on getting the team to defend better and to be harder to beat this year. It's all about priorities, I suppose, and it is clear Lambert wants to get as many points on the board this year as possible. Lambert's a shrewd guy and I back his judgement. He's a year and half into a big rebuilding job and knows what he is doing.