DCJonah

That is true of every signing everywhere. Why would you not take your best offer? You wouldn't. The point is the best offer for these players are a club up for sale, no future plan and a limited amount of money to spend. The fact a club in our current state is their best option shows the level of players we are signing.

He's got potential to be a very important player for us. I'd love him to be given the chance again this year.

I don't think our ambition is just to stay up. If you take into account the squad rebuilding that has happened and the reduction in wages for playing staff over the past 2 seasons, I'd say the ambition now is to build on what we've got and start climbing back up the league. Our ambition is more likely to finish mid table, away from a relegation battle. However, due to Lerner wanting out of the club, we're in an uncertain situation. The owner wants out, the manager has 12 months left on his contract. There's no ambition to build. The point is, he could have taken the easy money and pissed off to the retirement league. He's 32 years old, he's had Premier League football for his whole career. Richardson had offers from three other Premier League clubs, all of whom I would bet are offering better money than we are. So your assertion that players coming to us have no better options is just untrue (well, probably true in Senderos's case). To me that says these guys have a point to prove here. They come here knowing our future is uncertain, knowing that we've struggled the last few years and likely will again, knowing that our funds are limited and that they won't make a lot of money, and knowing that Roy Keane's not going to let them get away with just half-assing it on the training pitch, it's worth adding. Most professional footballers would look at where our club is right now and say "No thanks. That's too hard. I can make more money and have an easier time of it somewhere else." While I agree with a lot of that I still don't think any of them had better offers.

Ummm, Bertrand was on Loan, Richardson is not. Whether that's weaker on the field or not is debatable. But it's not weaker from a business perspective. If nothing else, Richardson can play against Fulham....Is that what we're cheering now? Signings from a business perspective? From a quality perspective Richardson is worse than Bertrand. If you disagree I'd like to read why. Experience? Richardson goals scored for national team? Richardson goals scored in PL? Richardson Premier League championship trophies? Richardson goals per game as professional? Richardson Highest transfer fee paid? Richardons Ability to play against all opposition because he's not on loan? Richardson Ability to play mid-field role if needed? Richardson Experience playing in mid-field role? Richardson I just don't agree with the feeding frenzy of some posters. the mentality seems to be that we are a doomed group of losers so anyone who joins us must also be a loser. I have seen some very neat play and good goals from Richardson. Looking forward to seeing some more while he's wearing the right I doubt any manager in the league rates Richardson above Bertrand. In fact I doubt our manager does. I agree with the mentality regarding the players who are joining us. These are players with no better options, leaving average clubs that no longer need or want them. Or in the case of richardson, a player who like I said has no better options than a club up for sale who can't be sold. No actual decent players will want to join us because no one knows what the future of Aston villa is going to be. Lambert has no choice but to sign these types of players because they're the only ones who would consider joining a team like ours. Its where we are as a club right now. Richardson is not an awful player who will lead to our relegation but at the same time he's just another average player wearing the shirt. Unfortunately something we've seen a lot of over the last few years. I think we're in real trouble this year, if I saw another team finish as poorly as we did and sign these players i'd be thinking they're in for a tough season. DC, you just restated what I said. You're so negative about the club that everyone we sign is painted with the crap brush because you assume that only crap would join this crap-laden club. That's our fundamental disagreement. I hope the first few games change your perception of the club and some of our playing staff. Or else maybe that you get laid. Otherwise I fear you may hurt yourself. I'll be OK thanks. I don't need to try and convince myself the club is in a good state to be happy.

I think Joe Cole wants to play in the premiership so I think we're the better offer for him.

Is the mls better than the premiership?

I'd be pretty happy with young. He's not the player he was but he would improve us and it would be nice from a nostalgic point as well.

I can't imagine any of our signings had better offers.

That's a good post. Its horrible and depressing but this is basically it. Its similar to the point I made in the Richardson thread. We won't be able to attract decent players because decent players don't want to join a club where the aim is to survive and get sold

I just don't think he's good enough at this level. And I think he probably knows that as well.

I think its a very safe bet to say we will finish bottom half. I agree. But that particular deed is done now, we can't reverse time. What we can do is work hard this season to finish as high up the table as possible. Half way is pretty arbitrary though. Finishing a solid, safe 12th next season would give a massive boost to the club. Basically, it's not always what you do, occasionally it's more how you do it. Yes very true. The hope is we can have a steady season and be sold next summer.

So does the attitude towards the manager change this year? Has the failed sale of the club taken the blame away from him? I have to say I'm not a huge fan of Lambert but this year it's hard to really blame him if we struggle. I don't think he did great the previous two but the situation we're in now means I've got a lot more patience with him if we have a tough season. Do people think villa park will have changed their attitude towards him as well?

Ummm, Bertrand was on Loan, Richardson is not. Whether that's weaker on the field or not is debatable. But it's not weaker from a business perspective. If nothing else, Richardson can play against Fulham.... Is that what we're cheering now? Signings from a business perspective? From a quality perspective Richardson is worse than Bertrand. If you disagree I'd like to read why. Experience? Richardson goals scored for national team? Richardson goals scored in PL? Richardson Premier League championship trophies? Richardson goals per game as professional? Richardson Highest transfer fee paid? Richardons Ability to play against all opposition because he's not on loan? Richardson Ability to play mid-field role if needed? Richardson Experience playing in mid-field role? Richardson I just don't agree with the feeding frenzy of some posters. the mentality seems to be that we are a doomed group of losers so anyone who joins us must also be a loser. I have seen some very neat play and good goals from Richardson. Looking forward to seeing some more while he's wearing the right I doubt any manager in the league rates Richardson above Bertrand. In fact I doubt our manager does. I agree with the mentality regarding the players who are joining us. These are players with no better options, leaving average clubs that no longer need or want them. Or in the case of richardson, a player who like I said has no better options than a club up for sale who can't be sold. No actual decent players will want to join us because no one knows what the future of Aston villa is going to be. Lambert has no choice but to sign these types of players because they're the only ones who would consider joining a team like ours. Its where we are as a club right now. Richardson is not an awful player who will lead to our relegation but at the same time he's just another average player wearing the shirt. Unfortunately something we've seen a lot of over the last few years. I think we're in real trouble this year, if I saw another team finish as poorly as we did and sign these players i'd be thinking they're in for a tough season.

Ummm, Bertrand was on Loan, Richardson is not. Whether that's weaker on the field or not is debatable. But it's not weaker from a business perspective. If nothing else, Richardson can play against Fulham.... Is that what we're cheering now? Signings from a business perspective? From a quality perspective Richardson is worse than Bertrand. If you disagree I'd like to read why.

I'd say on the whole fans haven't complained to much about Richardson and Keane, or even Cole for that matter. Senderos is awful and even then most fans accept he is probably slightly better than Clark and Baker Maybe not so much complained ..although there's a fair few negatives on here, and against Keane and Cole, but more a general mood of despair !...which I think is unwarranted ...if pl does his bit the signings together with the return of the injured bodes fair rather than awful in my view I can't say how you think it's unwarranted. We had a shocking season finishing on a awful run of form. The owner wants to sell but can't, the CEO has resigned, a lot of fans have turned against the manager. Our two goal scoring threats aren't fit, two of our best players are heading into their final 12 months and we're signing experienced players not wanted or needed by very average teams. I like the idea of trying to stay positive but that would ignore a lot.

Agreed he wasn't as good as I thought he'd be but he's a better lb than Richardson.

In terms of an improvement, he's not better than Bertrand so in that sense we're weaker than how we finished last season..

Decent business for the new wigan of the league.

Why would vlaar commit his future to a club that doesn't even know what its future will be in a few months time? It would be a good boost for him to sign but if he had any sense he won't.

He's 18 years of age with limited experience, there's plenty of time... Incidentally how many other 18 year olds are playing regularly in the PL? He's also got 12 months remaining on his contract. I don't think sending him out on loan will encourage him to sign a new deal.

Would like ki. If its the same guy I'm thinking of he was excellent for Sunderland against us last year.

Give him a chance. As a season ticket holder he's one of the free things I'm looking forward to this season.

Lambert can't do anything really now. He's in a difficult situation and my concern was more with the owner than the manager. Lambert needs to do what ever he can to keep us in the league. Some seem to express sympathy towards Lerner with this dammed if you do, dammed if you don't. IMO it's his poor decision making and failure to sell the club that's resulted in this. So yes maybe he is dammed either way but he's the man who lead us to the current shambolic state we find ourselves in.

In what way does that make us a sack of shit? Who are the 8 players?Selling to buy again that is shite penny pinching all the time we are a total car crash Isn't that just common sense after what we've been through the last few years? Somebody complained yesterday about us signing more dud players for the new owners to have to move on. Dammed if they do, etc etc. Disclaimer - generally I am not pleased with where we are as a club. I think that was me and it wasn't a complaint. I acknowledged that we needed to bring players in but expressed a concern that we were just creating problems for whoever comes in next.

The article doesn't say that. Its another article defending Paul Lambert. Read it all. 'So I think Lerner has to actually invest again now to protect his investment and his legacy and from what I have heard within the club, the 'penny' is finally dropping on that front.' Apologies I missed that bit. If a takeover isn't happening you would hope our spending will increase to ensure we survive.