AVFCAM

I agree with Big John, Lambo has spent money...it's just not been spent very well...in the short term at least...Bowery, Bennett etc may prove to be our future, but right now it hasn't helped us. I think Bertrand is a prime example d what is wrong with football in the premier league...RB is a very decent, young English player that would play week in, week out for most PL teams...but, because of Chelsea's spending power, they buy them as kids, then loan them out to everyone, making their own future team stronger...it works sometimes, you get players who go on to become excellent players, but you also get players who don't make the progress they would've made with regular playing time...Scott Sinclair is a prime example of this...a year on after signing for Cit£h, he was no further in his development after spending a season on the bench. Yet it's 'foreign players' ruining the England squad apparently...not the big clubs buying up talent so others can't (Wilfried Zaha also included)... Greedy clubs, Greedy agents, bad advice for players. Anyway, I'm off topic. Great signing Bertrand. Still not happy about Lambert,

And before anyone says "not experienced?! He's played 50 times for Chelsea" just remember, Clark and Baker have played more than that for us. Westwood can't be far from that number either, yet they're considered "kids"

As I typed, we've signed Bertrand on loan...he's not what you call an experienced head, but a very good player to have got hold of. If he can continue like this, I will be happy to climb down from my position and admit I was wrong about part of my thinking.

Ok, so the defence is better than last year...but they are still terrible without Vlaar...it's like watching a circus act. Being hit in the face with a fist is better than being hit in the face with an iron bar...both are unpleasant. I'd have expected Lambert to have had things agreed by now, with the board, so if his plan A was singable, he had a plan, b, c or d...whether the clubs would sell or not does come into it, but from our lack of any kind of movement, it is plain to see he is either unprepared, or unprepared to challenge the board. We need a 'number 10', we've ended one for a long time...I'm surprised he hasn't made more effort to get one. Defend him if you want, but for me, he looks woefully out of his depth. In our current state, I see us relegated. We have 3 freak results that have kept us off the bottom of the table, without them, we'd be seriously struggling.

My concern with Lambert is that he doesn't seem to be in any rush to sort out the glaring deficiencies in our squad, all of which have been plain to see for months. I'd have hoped that by Jan 1st, Lambert would have approached PF and RL with his scouted players and was poised ready to make some bids.... Instead, we're midway through the window and we've only signed 1 player, a player who was unwanted by a Championship team, who he used to work with, who hasn't scored many goals, in a position we didn't really need a replacement that badly. The fact that his only answer to our issues seems to be Wes Hoolahan concerns me as well. Granted, I think he would be a decent signing if we got him cheap, he has Premier League experience, is still performing well, in a position we need. What concerns me is that Lambert has pinned his hopes on a player that we are unlikely to get, as Norwich will undoubtedly not sell to us, especially now we are relegation rivals. The fact that Lambert is letting games pass us by, Sheffield United, Arsenal, Liverpool...possible The Boggies, concerns me too...we need points and yet we hanging about bringing in reinforcements. If we sign someone next week, we have missed out on a cup run and 6 points due to this hanging around. You can't really say 'we'd have lost to Liverpool and Arsenal anyway' because we beat Arsenal this year and Liverpool last year, so for him to almost accept defeat, is quite disappointing. I'm still yet to see anything that convinces me that Lambert is the man to take us forward. Last seasons improvement seems irrelevant now, as he has been unable to manage the talents to make them consistent. Unless his 'young and hungry' players have become egos after a simple play rise. Don't get me started on the defence.

The next 2 games are giveaways, however, a decent performance in both, losing, but losing while playing well would be a positive. Lose the 3 game though and Lambert has to go... If he didn't already. I honestly think Lambert will relegate us

Excellent analogy.

Have to hold my hands up, Vlaar as Benteke both start. Hopefully the rest of my prediction is wrong!

4-1 Sunderland We'll get the first and concede within minutes. All of their goals will come from us giving the ball away under no pressure, except the 4th that will be from a penalty after Baker have hacked down a player after losing him to easily. Guzan will keep the score down, Delph will toil and Gabby will work hard. KEA will play and do nothing, Westwood will give the ball away and Wiemann will continue to look a shadow of the player he looked last year. Bowery will feature toward the end as we will be chasing goals, he's our go to man for goals, I'm not sure why, maybe I've missed something... Benteke and Vlaar won't play. Lambert made a similar claim last season about Dunne. During our abysmal December run, our defence were comical and Lambert claimed Dunne was 'close to a return'...positivity ensued (which showed how bad things had gotten) and no signings were made to strengthen the defence (as Dunne would be like a 'new signing'). January came and went, Dunne never played for us again. It was rumoured that Dunne had been nowhere near to fitness. I'm quite surprised people are so sure they'll play, they only started training a few days ago, Vlaar wasn't even training with the squad. I'm sorry to be negative, but the way things are currently going, being negative just feels like I'm being realistic. 0 points from the next 9 but we'll play well against Liverpool and Arsenal, before playing badly again in the next game...

People keep piling the blame onto Randy Lerner for his tightening of thee purse strings, but honestly, what do people think he should have done. As a club we have been losing the thick end of £50m a year for a while now...even with a lot of our high earners gone we were losing tens of millions a year. No businessman in the right mind would continue would to pour tens/hundreds of millions into a club/business year after year when they know that it is losing money hand over fist. Sure, had we made the jump to CL under MON we would have made a lot in revenue, but that would've gone on players and wages to ensure we could compete in the Champions League, and who's to say we would have been in it for more than a season, just look at Spurs...and Spurs have a larger fan base than we do (as well as being able to charge higher prices due to being in London). Lerner isn't the owner you want at the club because he isn't throwing his money down the drain for us. Lerner is not a bad owner for wanting the club to stand on its own 2 feet and not to lose horrendous amounts of money every year. In my opinion.

I can imagine that would have been a loss had they had Dyer fit and Michu in form. Granted, if we had Benteke on form it would be better...but Swansea were still alright without 2 of their best...without 1 player we looked atrocious...Vlaar is better than what we have but don't be fooled that he would make as much difference as is being made out. We beat Sunderland, things look ok, but we then have 2 games/6 points that we probably won't get...so everything looks crap again. The run of games on December was out 'easy' period (bar Man Yoo)...to have taken 1 point is nothing short of a disgrace. For me, this isn't working, it hasn't worked at all to be honest, not for more than a handful of games in 18 months, it's Lambert Out for me.

So much wrong with your post I don't know where to begin. I made a mistake regarding N'Zogbia and his injury, the rest is opinion, an opinion that is currently shared by a lot of people. You can't be really be 'wrong' with an opinion...disagree with my opinion by all means, Lambert isn't cutting the mustard (opinion), most of his players (in my opinion) are poor. I don't see him turning this around (that's another opinion)... But let's just sit and argue because we are all annoyed that we are terrible.

Lambert has spent money though, it's not like he's had nothing. I was concerned about Lambert right from the off, we were losing games with his new kids, even though we had experienced players in the squad. I understood that they didn't fit in with his philosophy and also within his targets of cutting the wage bill, so wanted them out, but surely he should have made use of them while he had them? Even just to put them in the shop window. Of course the decision to swap Given for Guzan was the right one. N'Zogbia has been poor for us, but come on, he is a decent player on his day, so why can't he get near the squad?! Don't give me the attitude line, every football player these days has an attitude. Redknapp dealt with lots of them at Spurs. We dumped Collins and Dunne (both of whom were capable of dropping many, many bollucks) who were decent, experienced defenders, to rely on Clark and Baker to play with Vlaar. He then replaced them both a season later by bringing in Okore. Problem is with making a poor starter your backup, is that one day, you will have to rely on that back up to play...as 1 defender, Clark mixed with Baker would excellent, Baker's strength with Clarks defensive thought...as 2 separate players they are awful. Ostracising players never works out well, especially when you don't have players good enough to deputise. He has to go, I'm certain we can't bear Swansea...even if we do, it will paper over the cracks.

Are you mad? If we charged London prices we would be getting barely 25,000 in at Villa. Which we might get next season if we carry on playing this shit. You've kind of missed my point. My point being that we can't compete with the revenues these other clubs bring in.

Protecting the investment is not throwing hundreds of millions at it, committing to a large outlay week on week. If we get relegated with a low wage bill, we don't take as much of a hit when the loss of money from being out the league. We 'might' start winning so revenues go up from increased ticket sales. The investment is protected. It may not be what the fans want, but when you are rich enough to own a football club, you have the right to run it as a business, as you are the one who is putting the money into it. If the fans put enough money into the club, then it means you don't have to put your money in, so then you can let the club spend it's own money as they want. Is Lerner as good an owner (fans wise) as the Sheikhs at City? No. Does Lerner have the same amount of money as them?! Not even close.

People keep saying that Lerner needs to spend more and offer more wages...but the fact is simple, as a club, we cannot afford to. We've lost tens of millions of pounds every year for about 5 years. Crowd levels are still lower than the MON era, shirts sales were down last year, possibly not as high as the NIKE days either even now. If we want to start competing with some of te London clubs, we need to start charging the same for tickets and shirts etc. We can spend £100m in transfers fees and offer £50k a week in wages for players, but we will just constantly be having money pumped into us to keep us afloat. Why should Lerner do that? Te only owners that do are the Middle Eastern Sheikhs who have bottomless oil riches. Lerner is a business man, not an idiot. I love Villa, but I'm struggling to justify spending money on tickets with the current rubbish, I can't imagine wanting to throw my millions at it consistently to keep it afloat. I think we'll go down on current form, we've been awful for a while now, good results have just papered over the cracks. #Lambertout

One redeeming factor is that if Benteke wasn't going through his poor form and Wiemann hadn't become useless over the summer, I do think we would be talking about this differently. Last season, we were awful, BUT, Benteke and Wiemann scored goals. This season, the 1 goal losses could have been draws and the draws could've been wins. Even with an extra 3 points it makes thing look a little rosier. The fact that it's nearly 3 months since either of them has played well, or that we haven't got anyone who can step up, does land at Lambert's door...he is the manager, it's his job to get the best out of his players.

My main concern is that without the wins we flunked against Cit£h and Arsenal, we'd be on 13 points...in a relegation battle after 50% of the season (-1 game)... With this is mind, we would finish on 32 points as you couldn't count on the Arsenal and Cit£h points again... Of course it's all if and maybes but if we have our heads above water due to 2 freak results (3 if you count Southampton) how are going to cope in the 2ndhalf of the season. My faith in Lambert is wearing very thin, we look bloody awful. At least with Eck we were solid at the back, we just couldn't (did play to) score. Under Lambert we can't score, our midfield (Delph aside) are crap and the defence is like watching a circus act. If we lose to Palace and Swansea, we need to change manager or personnel. I still don't blame Lerner, we're still losing millions, how could he sanction more spending?!

Sorry, did I just read that someone suggested Bowery?! We are officially clutching at straws!

I not bothered about the result, it's the complete lack of effort, the self destructive mistakes, the lack of progression and learning from mistakes...

I'm sick of our constant giving away of the ball, 2 goals conceded from just giving the ball away. Inexperience is not the problem, most of that team had at least 30 Premier League starts under their belts, or at least top flight starts. For me, we are not better this than last, we've just had some freak results (Arsenal, Citeh and Southampton) that have kept our head s above the water. In my mind, Lambert should get until the beginning of January, with the brief of cutting out the schoolboy rubbish, giving the ball away, switching off (the cause of the first goal), bad decision making...he's had 18 months to do it. If by the beginning of Jan (another 3/4 games) we haven't progressed, I'd consider twisting...especially when you consider our next few games...we should seriously be looking to be pushing 25 points at the halfway stage. I'm just totally bored with our predictable collapse after we have handed them (a poor Man Yoo) the opening... Albrighton was good, although his poor crossing started to show towards the end. Gabby chases everything, the positive these days is that when he goes through his dry spell, he influences in other ways. I didn't notice that Benteke and Kozak switched, I'm not sure who that looks worse for...Benteke's form is awful, its like his legs were made of rubber... Baker is full of mistakes, as is Clark. Lambert out?! Not sure id go that far yet, but I, certainly done with watching this dross every week...7 points from 24 at home is disgraceful...

Lambert said 'we didn't do enough to win the game...but I can't fault the lads for effort' From where I was sitting, there was very little effort being put in...if what we saw today was effort, then we have real problems as it was dross

Without sounding knee jerk, I'm sat here watching the Arsenal Everton game wondering what might have been had we got Martinez...

Gabby, Delph, Herd, Guzan were ok. Herd put himself about, not his best position. Gabby worked hard, Guzan saved us a few times, Delph as per usual this year. The rest were pretty horrendous. Wiemann was anonymous. Benteke is off in January, he's been pathetic since his injury. Bacuna is not a fullback. To lose like that, to a team as poor as Fulham, is nothing short of a disgrace. All of these wins we've picked up against people we should lose to are irrelevant, as we drop points in the games we should win. We could've lost that by 4 or 5. It was a terrible performance...again

I agree with Isa, away form is good, but our home form is atrocious. We are 2 goals away from being winless at home this year. If we were half as good at home as we 'seem' to be away, we wouldn't be having this discussion.