Sunny*Nunny

Agree total bullocks. Some people must be feeling sheepish now if they believed it.

http://www.indianexpresssports.com/article/sports/football/aston-villa-hari-and-shyam-bhartia-set-to-buy-aston-villa/jnknskfnk.html

Where's Kwan? Are we disregarding what he posted?

That's the thing. What makes spending £20M a year OK, yet spending £100M a year is wrong?

Nice idea Stan, but money talks unfortunately............

Has Stan forgot some poor chap is on the phone?

As I've seen written elsewhere, if your lamp doesn't work with three different bulbs it's the lamp that's the problem, not the bulbs. Maybe the batch of bulbs are faulty and not the lamp! You are right though about expectations however I don't think anyone expected miracles, just get the basics right. Which hasn't been delivered. And lets be fair you dont need messi, ronaldo etc to get the basics right do you. I think people expected us to finish higher than 15th, but to be quite frank, do we have even the 15th best squad in the league? Not without Benteke and Okore IMO. Us our squad better even than Fulhams, who finished bottom? Not sure.Who built the squad.How much did the squad cost? What are the wages for the squad? We can talk about issues with tactics and substitutions but assembling a squad on the cheap and then dealing with significant injuries isn't really something PL can take so much blame for. How much did the squad at Palace cost? Did Poyet utilise the high earners at Sunderland or did he alienate them? How much do you think Agbonlahor, Delph, Weimann and Benteke are on and hasn't our wage outlay increased. Did Lerner purchase the players or did Lambert and look at my sig which highlights a comment from Lambert. I get your point but we're all guessing about who dictated that certain players had to be bombed out. For me it comes back to whether we think the club and manager have been sufficiently backed and I think most of us would say no. (sorry can't see your sig, on mobile site)

As I've seen written elsewhere, if your lamp doesn't work with three different bulbs it's the lamp that's the problem, not the bulbs. Maybe the batch of bulbs are faulty and not the lamp! You are right though about expectations however I don't think anyone expected miracles, just get the basics right. Which hasn't been delivered. And lets be fair you dont need messi, ronaldo etc to get the basics right do you. I think people expected us to finish higher than 15th, but to be quite frank, do we have even the 15th best squad in the league? Not without Benteke and Okore IMO. Us our squad better even than Fulhams, who finished bottom? Not sure.Who built the squad. How much did the squad cost? What are the wages for the squad? We can talk about issues with tactics and substitutions but assembling a squad on the cheap and then dealing with significant injuries isn't really something PL can take so much blame for.

I recall that when Hairy Hands explained 'the plan' most people (I think) tended to accept it as being realistic and sensible under the circumstances. Seasons 1 and 2 were going to be difficult due to limited funds being spread thin in order to rebuild nearly a full squad. Season 3 was about having a bigger pot of money to inject quality into the squad which would take us forward. That's where we are now, better players needed. The plan would not have been to scrape through a relegation scrap, but projects rarely go to plan especially when things like injuries to key players have such a big impact on the squad. It was up to Lerner to support the project by adjusting the budget to accommodate the risk, but he said no. I feel next season was the year to see a real improvement but it's going to be cut short as soon as the bulk of the hard work has been done.

I think most people would agree that he needs more money more so than time. The time needed is proportionate to the money provided for transfers and wages. .

Without the good luck we had before Xmas we'd have been relegated for sure. When the luck ran out we sank like a stone. It works both ways. Yes I agree, I think we're lucky to have survived based on us picking up points against Man City and Southampton that we should have lost based on our performances. That was when it became even more glaringly obvious that we needed to inject some quality in January and PL practically said that the money wasn't there.

Without terrible luck with injuries we would almost have certainly done better to the point that 'progress' has been made, on a shoestring. Yes, all clubs have to deal with injuries but this season has been especially damaging for us. Lambert has also made mistakes, but he's human and will have learned from them. I think it's a shame PL won't be given the opportunity to build on the current squad for a third season with a bigger budget. He's been shafted by Lerner by not releasing funds when needed.

I admit the thought crossed my mind!

Nearly had em there.

Because we're going to win 3-4.........!

Apparently GT mentioned a "very trusted source" told him

Who's been forced to do that? The idea that he's got a Championship budget (when in reality it's more mid mid-table PL) makes no sense to me. If Lambert had to sign an entire squad, that's one thing. Yet despite our injuries, we still have Lambert signings who can't even make the 18! No Benteke, No Kozak, off form strikers and his man Helenius is nowhere to be seen. If he hadn't wasted so much money on the past 2 years on players that don't even play much anymore, then maybe he could've bought in another player with some decent quality. The thing is, these players would have been expected to be good enough but some ended up falling short. When you have little money to spend this is the risk you take. IMO whoever pushed through the idea of the bomb squad is should take the blame as this was the reason for spreading the budget across too many players. Considering the wages the club have continued to pay I imagine we wouldn't be any worse financially if we had taken a more slow and steady approach to phasing out these players. We'd probably have sold them easier too had they continued to play. I think it's pure fantasy that any member of the bomb squad would have improved us at all. We're are talking about Hutton, bent and Ireland. Come on! I'm not saying that the bomb squad players would have improved us, but bringing in less but better quality players over the last 2 seasons would have us in better shape by now.

Who's been forced to do that? The idea that he's got a Championship budget (when in reality it's more mid mid-table PL) makes no sense to me. If Lambert had to sign an entire squad, that's one thing. Yet despite our injuries, we still have Lambert signings who can't even make the 18! No Benteke, No Kozak, off form strikers and his man Helenius is nowhere to be seen. If he hadn't wasted so much money on the past 2 years on players that don't even play much anymore, then maybe he could've bought in another player with some decent quality. The thing is, these players would have been expected to be good enough but some ended up falling short. When you have little money to spend this is the risk you take. IMO whoever pushed through the idea of the bomb squad is should take the blame as this was the reason for spreading the budget across too many players. Considering the wages the club have continued to pay I imagine we wouldn't be any worse financially if we had taken a more slow and steady approach to phasing out these players. We'd probably have sold them easier too had they continued to play.

(stolen from twitter)

Sorry if this has been covered already, but how much could we spend in the summer before breaching FFP rules?

INCOGNITO AVFC ‏@INCOGNITOAVFC 4m To reveal too much before then would appear futile & counterproductive.#avfc Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More INCOGNITO AVFC ‏@INCOGNITOAVFC 4m Please be patient Villa fans. You'll have a clearer picture on what the future holds moving forward at the end of season. #avfc

Sounds silly, but it might just be a good old fashioned respect thing. Let the players, the manager and the opposition go and do their thing on Sunday, and then when the game is over, you talk about what's happening next Not silly - so long as something is happening. - If he is waiting until Monday to say business as usual - then he will anger many. And he'll announce a new 10 year contract has been awarded to Lambert and proceed to reveal a tattoo of him on his arse. Meltdown

What sort of things should be left well alone, the decor at the Holte Pub maybe? The name Aston Villa and the name / location of Villa Park mainly.

I'd forgot about Dre? Beat me!