thefeet1980

Good signing.

Reminds me of when MON signed Sutton, which proved a waste of time. Happy to give him the benefit of the doubt and not overly concerned given the need for short term cover. Still hoping (probably in vain) that we'll sign someone to give everyone a lift.

Nice to see a lot of Spurs fans on their forums saying good luck to us and fair play. Shame the Spurs fans on here haven't done the same, although I guess it takes a particular type of fan to sign up to another team's forum and gloat before even completing a deal...

As for being fickle - most of the ill feeling towards Benteke was based on the assumption he would leave after one season...now that he'll be here for two all is forgiven. I look forward to an Aston Villa player being top scorer at the World Cup next year and then I'll be happy for him to sign for a genuinely big club.

I'm not posting the all-time Premier League table below to settle any arguments about whether I might be delusional for thinking that certain teams are not really that much bigger than us (if at all).  Instead, I'm posting it in order to suggest that, if Benteke were to move, he'd probably want to go to one of London's big clubs - Chelsea or Arsenal - rather than a club that has never finished as high as Aston Villa in the Premier League and only enjoys a marginally higher average points per season than us.   In fact, my money is on him going to a club that can afford him, like Arsenal - the club he supports. 

Someone will stump up £25m.

I think if a deal is struck it will suite both clubs, but perhaps neither set of fans. Those dealing with the transfer are going to be much more reasonable and objective than fans. Spurs fans (and Liverpool, Arsenal etc) think he is worth around £15 million, whilst you guys want £25 million+. The reality will be a deal that is much fairer for all parties involved. So it will probably be £15 - £18 million and then additional payments will be made according the Benteke's success that could total another £10 million+. That way if Benteke really is the player you think he will be, then you get the money (£25 mill +) for him. If he isn't and fails at Spurs (or wherever he goes) then you've still more than doubled your money and we haven't been stung quite so badly. 

 

As I said, it's not the deal either set of fans would like, but it's what will most likely happen. There is no way we are going to stump up £25 million+ for him and there is no way you'll accept £15 million. A compromise is far more likely than no resolution at all, despite what fans might think.

I like to think a compromise is more likely in a year's time.

Can't see the club giving it to anyone for at least a few years. No need for a public retirement though.

Get in!

I think Papillon's post is pretty much spot on - ever the optimist though I think that Westwood could, given time, prove to be an important player for us. Unfortunately, during the course of this season, with the lack of quality/performances throughout the team, we've not been able to give him the benefit of time.

I think he's suffered as a result of not having decent defensive midfielders behind him. That said, it's impossible to know what's happening behind the scenes... Whilst its frustrating that Ireland is yet another recent player that has only shown glimpses of his full potential, i always thought that would be a risk when he signed.

Watched the video, I was hoping to see him make some solid tackles and generally putting himself about, but the 5 minute highlights were never going to be enough to judge...I'll give him the benefit of the doubt but its going to be a big step up...

At least we haven't conceded from a corner....

4:23am here in the Philippines and i'm up watching this shite...

See Liverpool have signed Coutinho - oh well.

All this ITK stuff is highly amusing. Can we increase the stakes by suggesting that ITK's make pledges to villatalk on the basis of their faith in their information? I really ought to coff up some money for the running of the site so I'm going to give £10 to villatalk if we don't sign anyone and £20 if we do. I actually think it's more likely we will sign someone now but I'll be so pleased if/when we do (particularly if its the DM we need) that I'll pay more... However, if it's Reo-Coker or Eric Bakke all bets are off.

Conceding early in the second half was the problem - it knocked confidence and caused us to play too deep. This is why we need a big personality in midfield to protect the back 4 and, more importantly, to stop heads going down.

Top man Brian Little.

Changed my vote.

Makes no difference for me whether he stays or goes...

we cant afford players valued above 6M when we are in our biggiest relagtion fight for years, with tv rewards worth more than ever next year...it's very sad times to be a Villa fan!!

We won't know that definitively until January 31st. It's possible that Lambert's comments are an attempt to drive down the price of transfer targets. It's also possible that the board will reasses if we lose today / are unable to offload any of the deadwood. I'm going to try and avoid getting concerned until the end of the month - fortunately I'm not detoxing during January, so that takes the edge off it.

I am not going over Dempsey with you as we have been there and done that and **** going round and round in circles until page 283 of this thread with you about it.

I would say that is a fair opinion that your entitled to but i disagree.

We have learned that PL makes his list and hands it to the board who then go on to make the signings!

now in this list he might have 2 goalkeepers 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 5 strikers he wants. Each position on his list ranges from good european quality as his top picks in each position down to promising lower league prospects for the future being the tail end of each position in terms of value and wages etc..

Now if the board are only allowing him a budget of 20m for arguments sake then after the signings of Benteke and Vlaar what else could be done? The people negociating and signing these players must have only decided well.. we have spent 11m already on 2 players... and then take it upon themselfs to realise he still needs 6 more players over these positioned areas and then decide to sign the players at the bottom end of the list instead!

If the case as it looks to be then PL has been shafted and dealt a poor hand that is not really any fault of his.

I have a gut feeling that if he was told this was how it was going to be once he got here after 6 months he would have told us to **** right off.

All in my opinion mind..

.

I'm with Morpheus on this. Irrespective of the mistakes that the Board has clearly made, I still give them more credit than to operate a transfer policy in this way. There is no reason to believe that the memebrs of the Board consider themselves to have the requisite footballing knowledge to make decisions in the way you suggest. It's likely that Lambert did hand a list of players to the Board but to assume that as signings are made the Board "take it upon themselves" to decide the implications for the remaining targets seems pretty far-fetched. Anything other than a frequent dialogue between Lambert and Faulkner etc would be very odd indeed.

I'm pretty sure that Lambert was consulted on all signings over the summer and anticipated that the players he signed would be good enough to see us through to January when he could then reassess. He couldn't have anticpated the injury problems or the performances of some of the more senior players (whether he could have done more about the poor performances is for another debate). Hairyhands suggested that Lambert wanted to sign (at least) two players this Januaray but the Board won't sanction their purchase. He suggested Lambert will not be able to sign players that cost £5m. It is plausable that after the summer the Board made it clear to Lambert that no more players could be signed unless more of the higher earners (Hutton, Warnock, Dunne, Bent, Ireland, Gabby, Makoun) are sold. In which case, he must have been hoping that the desperate league situation might encourage the club to reconsider this policy. If hairyhands is right, then it begs a number of questions:

1) Why isn't more being done to shift the higher earners? Where does the responsibility lie - with Lambert of the Board?

It's understandable why it would be difficult to ship out Hutton and Warnock - Lambert's taken the decision not to put them in the shop window (presumably for team moral / because they're shit) - and also Dunne (injured). It's perhaps more questionable why he played (and cup-tied) Bent in the FA Cup, but perhaps being cup-tied for the FA Cup isn't a massive deal for potential buyers - alternatively there is also Julie's theory... Maybe he wants to hold on to Ireland and Gabby (and Makoun is on loan anyway). I just hope the Board are doing everything possible to get players off the books.

2) Just how much more does the wage budget need to be trimmed?

I can't be bothered to go over the 'ins' and 'outs' from the club, but surely after Beye, Cueller, Collins, Heskey etc left the wage bill is looking a lot healthier? You would have thought we can afford to bring in a few more players - particularaly with the anticipation of Warnock's contract expiring and so on...but I'm not privy to the books or to what Lerner considers to be a balanced set of books.

3) Would the Board really be willing to risk our premiership survival by refusing to sanction players that are desperately needed?

No, I don't think so. Having thought through this, I think that the most likely scenario is that Hairyhands' information is half correct. Lambert has quite possibly lined up a couple of £5m players (and maybe a couple more beyond this) but the club are waiting to see if they can shift some of the players that are surpluss to requirements (in particular Bent, Hutton, Warnock and Ireland) before they bring them in. Without shifting players the Board faces the risk that Lambert brings players in and we still get relegated - this would make the financial implications of relegation even greater. It's a much easier decision to maintain the status quo with a 'one in, one out' policy than have to take the decision to increase the wage bill with the threat of relegation still looming. They've probably gambled that they could get through the League Cup semi's and the Southampton game without making any signings - although the first-leg result is making this gamble look all the more risky - and one would hope they are doing whatever they can behind the scenes to shift players. If they're not able to shift players going in to the last week of January, they can then take the decision on whether they sanction more signings.

this is the best post I have ever read on this site

It's not a bad post. But it doesn't address the points that were being discussed in posts that immediately preceded it - except to confirm there is reason to trust Hairy hands' information. There was no debate as to Lambert's ability. For what it's worth, I've personally not stopped backing him. Nor am I blind to the precarious financial position that the club is currently in (I continue to primarily blame MON). The issue that was being discussed was whether Lerner was refusing to 'back' Lambert during this transfer window. Hairy hands has suggested that Lambert had identified two players that he felt were required, but neither have been sanctioned by the club. This raises a number of questions: why is Lambert not clear about the parameters under which he is working? How wildly over-expensive were the players he identified? Hairy hands suggested that Lambert will not be able to sign £5m players - if the two players would have cost the club £10m it doesn't seem a huge amount to pay to avoid the far greater financial implication of relegation - particularly given the increased TV revenues. I will continue to support Lambert irrespective of how this month pans out, but without the couple of players we are crying out there's a good chance we'll go down'

No need to apologise. I'm not going to explain where my info is coming from but I've proven my information to the administrators.....one of which is TrentVilla....who can confirm I have an insight. I'm not being negitive so please don't think that. If anything, the opposite. I think the club is trying to go down a different road, a very risky one all the same, and that if anyone can pull it off Lambert will but fans also have to appreciate he is doing it without the funding they think he has. That's all. Things might change....the owner might decide to spend but right now it doesn't appear so.

Fair enough. If you're right (or your source is) then it certainly is a risky strategy - so risky that, for the first time, I think it's more likely we'll go down than stay up.d

There you have it then.....that's where you are it........maybe time people stop blaming a manager who took a team from League 1 to 12th in the Premier League only to find himself banging his head off a brick wall at Villa .......big-time players earning mega money who no-one else wants to sign which then prevents him from signing the players he does want to sign!

Apologies if I've missed it, but I've not seen you provide any explanation as to why you may have an insight into what's going on behind the scenes at the club. The tone of every post I've seen of yours suggests you want everyone to believe that you have acces to privileged information. Unless you can provide a reason for me to believe you, I'll continue to assume your posts are just a negative brand of wild speculation.

There were things to be encouraged about - KEA looks like a clever player, Delph showed flashes of why we signed him, Vlaar could be the new Ronald Koeman, and in Lowton we have a full back with pace.

Now we need a left back, a second good striker and an incisive winger/attacking midfielder. We don't look too far off being a reasonable side. Only budget will determine just how far it really is.

I think we'll see quite a different starting XI come September, and even more so after January.

I said before that I wouldn't have been surprised with any result today. There were positives and there were negatives, but perhaps the most encouraging thing is that we have a manager that will analyse that performance and address the issues.

Let's not forget that this was Paul Lambert's first competitive game in charge against real opposition. I'm sure the transfer window stays open beyond the start of the season as it allows the managers to cement their thoughts in pre season when buying players, after seeing the squad in play in the league.

If Lambert wanted a few million quid to spend and hope for mid table year on year, he would've stayed at Naaaarwich. I'm sure we weren't his only suitor either, so he must have had a reason to come to Villa as I'm sure other clubs could've matched his new salary.

It's clear what we need in the squad and I'm sure Lambert will be backed in order to get them.

Roll on the next game and UTV!

This

The Twilight Zone.