DCJonah

I don't get the excitement over who the new CEO could be. It will make little difference to the club.

Think its a big mistake to start the season without him tied up to a deal. Start giving him a taste and making clubs aware he can handle this level and we could well regret it.

New contract and start him saturday.

Nice to hear grealish looks positive. Give him a **** contract!!

Not just training but two years of training and games. I really expect a good manager to be able to show something working with a group of players for 2 years.

Think he signed up for a charity game organised by Rio Ferdinand for middle of September so he must feel he will be fit soon.

I have a feeling that the tightened wage budget may have been loosened a tiny bit, maybe with Randy thinking it won't be his problem in 12 months time, so it doesn't need to be that strict. Considering where Cissokho has played, I reckon he may be on £35k p/w.

Can't see him thinking that. What would make him think he will be able to sell next summer?

I wonder why he wanted rid of Faulkner from the CEO position?

With Richardson, bacuna and nzogbia we have real threats from freekicks. Can't think of a time we've had 3 excellent direct free kick takers in the squad.

Potentially Gardner as well.

Yeah forgot about him. We should have decent options during a game. I'd expect us to score a few this year because of that.

With Richardson, bacuna and nzogbia we have real threats from freekicks. Can't think of a time we've had 3 excellent direct free kick takers in the squad.

Stronger squad than last season, experienced players throughout, a couple of promising youngsters and a new, high profile assistant manager.

We should be improving on last year.

No point taking Liverpool fans opinions. In a team that expect to challenge for the title he may well look like a weak link. I'd imagine he's a big step up from Luna and Bennett. It will be nice to see a completely different defensive unit this season.

Pleased with this.

The fee or wages, it's still our current owner not allowing funds to be spent bringing in top targets.

Well you said in another thread that Lambert should be showing some improvement but in this thread you're lambasting the owner... so isn't a bit harsh on Lambert at least? If the owner is shit then surely it isn't his fault, or if it is his fault then the owner isn't that bad.... which is it?

Didn't realise I had to pick sides.

I think after a season like last its not crazy to think both the owner and manager have performed poorly in their roles. I also don't think its too much to expect to see some improvement on such a poor season, now that we've added some experience and allowed the bomb squad to come back into the squad.

I think you're right to some extent but only when the CEO is working towards some sort of plan and the whole club is on the same page. That isn't the case with us. We have an owner who wants out and a manager with 12 months left on his contract. A good CEO is going to make little difference for a club like ours in its current situation.

And I can't agree that a CEO is the difference between relegation and surviving.

With vlaars performance in the world cup and the signing of Richardson I assumed we'd be going with a back 3 and wingbacks.

If this guy is poor going forward then I hope he plays in a flat back four. But then where does that leave richardson? Are we playing 4-4-2 with proper wide players? Or will Richardson be part of a front 3?

Will be interesting to see.

A decent CEO will make little difference. What impact could they possibly have when such limitations are in place?

One word money they control how much we make

And how are they meant to increase the money we make with a team that finishes low in the league with decreasing attendences? Like I said, a good CEO will make little difference to the success of this club while we have an owner who wants out and sets such ridiculous limitiations

I don't think there's much chance of a top half finish. There should be improvement on previous two years but I'm not sure Lambert is capable of it.

Don't know much about it. Sounds like he's an improvement on what we have. We're a team trying to survive, so if he helps us do that great.

Still seems like a budget signing which the vast majority of these types so far have turned out to be complete rubbish. Hopefully he's different.

A decent CEO will make little difference. What impact could they possibly have when such limitations are in place?

Left us as he found us then?

We are further away from 4th than ever before, back then we could still compete and had a good team of players. If only we had the likes of Bouma and Mellberg now!

A hell of a lot of that is to do with FFP though - there's no chance of getting into that elusive group without ridiculous investment and ability to swallow massive fines. It is now a truly closed shop and will be until the change the rules to actually make things fair. It's the reason we are seemingly struggling to find a buyer - what's the point of owning us?

And because of Lerner we are effected more by FFP and he's made it much harder for us to be competitive again. You don't blame him for that?

We're in a much worse state than when he got us and with no sale in sight I think that will continue to get worse.

I don't really care if he might not be as bad as Ellis, its irrelevant to the mess he's made of being the owner of Aston Villa and the state we will finally be in once he does leave us.

I think he's caused massive long term issues, we're looking at our fourth consecutive bottom half finish and until he leaves that's exactly where we will continue to be.

Left backs and strikers. Buy loads of them. That will work.

The general consensus amongst fans is that we want him gone but we can't have it both ways by complaining when he tries to put us in the best shape for sale.

I guess it depends on what you think best shape for a sale is.

This time next year we could well be without a manager, lose 3 key players for nothing and once again finish low allowing other teams to gain a financial advantage over us.

If you think that's putting us in a good shape for a sale then I guess you can't complain, I however think he's making it more difficult and making us less of an attractive option the longer this goes on.

Seriously, if no one wants us now why will they want us next summer?