Vancvillan

I would imagine Fox was talking to a few people (managers, agents, members of other club's boards, other industry professionals), and probably for some time. Think about any other business you've been involved with where a deal is potential up for grabs in the future, or a project is in the works. Just through business contacts and social circles a lot of informal talks happen. Even if Randy was yet to give the nod, he (Fox) would have had a fairly solid idea of who was available and interested - so the speed doesn't surprise me, and "interest" doesn't necessarily mean someone faxed their CV over with a nice cover letter. Like in any other business, I'd guess it's not all done with official telegrams bearing the Aston Villa coat of arms.

Sanchez definitely didn't get the ball there. He's been a bit of a liability to be fair.

I have this nasty habit of checking other teams forums before and after a match. Sometime they are way off base (imho). Hull nailed it. Top article: Aston Villa are **** awful

In my humble opinion Benteke lacks confidence and is coming off the back of a serious injury. Sometimes it takes a few matches, other times it takes a few months. I think he has the speed, strength, technique and footballing brain to turn it around and re-capture the form we've seen before. Though I think this is more suited to another thread (Benteke, not Lambert if that's where you're going with this). Bent is an ageing one-dimensional footballer who doesn't fit any system that requires him to do more than find space 5 yards. So he doesn't fit anyone's system in the Prem. Good luck to him in the Championship, MLS or A-League.

Yeah, because there is no way a fan could be slimmer and fitter than a football player.. Impossible! Have you seen the rogues gallery in OT? I always think this is an unfair comparison - DB is a highly paid professional athlete who chose that career path. I think it's ok to be critical in that context. Put it this way, if you're on a plane coming into Heathrow and the pilot forgets to put the landing gear down, as you slide down the runway are you going to be thinking "fair play, I couldn't have done any better"? Back on topic, the issue isn't that he's fat; it's that he's a one-dimensional footballer who doesn't fit out system. That's not a slight on him or us - it's just a bad combo.

But has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

You've clearly never attended the Randy Learner school of business.

Being objective (and putting my tin hat on) Aston villa currently have a manager who is around the level they deserve. A club without huge crowds, who aren't fashionable, and who aren't seeing significant support from the ownership - both financially or otherwise. In a word, uninspiring. Let's be clear - there's no ambition from the owner to take a gamble, and replacing Lambert would be that. Could we get someone a bit better (maybe finish top ten instead of expecting 12-16th)? Probably yes. But is it worth it (in Learner's eyes) when the downside is a possible busted flush and relegation? Clearly not (again, in Lerner's eyes). We're not going to see Wenger or Fergie here. We're also not going to see Dowie or Shearer. We're in the Pulis / foreign young manager bracket. Uninspiring or unknown. So the question becomes, would you want to risk rocking the boat (and I'm not saying it's a good boat) for the potential upside of a few league places? Or is Lambert destined to take us down at some point so we should replace him now? Personally I don't enjoy Lambert - I want him to succeed purely because I think we're stuck with him until Lerner sells. Any talk of a replacement is, in my opinion, complete fantasy.

There is, sad to say, more awesomeness in that one season of Sisto than at least half of Gabby's career.

At least tell me you know the difference (please, god) between one of these: Gwaelod y Garth must have an absolute pair of curtains in goal. And Joe Bennett at left back.

If you remember playing under 12's you probably remember that one team in the league who were shit but had a kid who went through puberty before he could walk. Eleven years old, six feet tall and with a beard like Gandalf. He'd stroll around knocking you off the ball and scoring goals for fun while the rest of his team ran around like headless chickens. I'm getting flashbacks watching this.

I think those two and a half years are the meat of the issue, so if we fast forward we're missing a whole lot. You could say the same about Berbatov at Man Utd (worth 30 million but Fergie is awful and ruined him), but you'd be taking a complex set of events and boiling it down to one conclusion. As a side bar, I'm not a Lambert fan - there are plenty of sticks to beat PL with, but in my opinion this isn't one of them.

Darren Bent is a natural finisher. Which makes him the answer to a question that we're not asking at the moment.

He really wasn't. He was twice as bad. I bet there's someone somewhere with a stack of heat maps that suggest otherwise.

That's because most people just tend to look at the last few games. It's why Phil McNulty (who has a massive hard-on for Man United, hence why he has them finishing 3rd) thinks we'll finish 17th but Sunderland, who were absolutely terrible for pretty much the entirety of last season barring those last couple of months, will finish 10th. It's not just the pundits - Bloomberg just released a simulation with Opta (running each game 100,000 times) for next season. More info on how they got their numbers on their site. Not pretty reading...

Honestly I think we're in the bottom 6 lottery. If injuries / form returning from injuries go well, we'll stay up quite comfortably. If it all goes tits up we'll be bottom. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle, and I think it's a coin toss between 19th and 16th. Looking at it objectively as I can, we're the new Wigan.

Lock it up!

Not on my planet. And I'm glad that's where we live. But we've all seen them given.

That was a pen.

Holt for KEA - bold move.

I want the fat kid from Moneyball.

Even that's debatable.

Palace deserve the lead and the match officials have done well. Which makes us the third best team on the pitch.

Personally I'm willing to give him another season. I won't shed a tear if he goes, but I could stand another season to see who he brings in and if lessons have been learnt from this season. That's not backed by stats or analysis, just gut feeling that season three is make or break (so tear that to shreds if you want since its just opinion). If a new manager came in, I'd expect a season free of relegation worries (mid table all season), and top 10 would be a good achievement. If it's Lambert again, I'd want to see top ten no matter what.

I think im the only one not totally sold on Lukaku. I think Benteke offers a team more. If he was playing for a top team he would be unstoppable. Also i have a bet with a mate that he will start first game of World Cup instead of Lukaka and i cant afford to loose Hopefully that bet has a get out clause for injury... Bad day for everyone.