Con

Check the Randy Lerner thread. According to the Express the club has sounded-out Di Matteo's representatives whether he would be interested in managing Villa. Di Matteo would not be my choice but as Champions League winner he may have the high profile internationally to pull-in a big signing... if Lerner was planning to spend.

Yes, could be... but why bother to give him the Bradford game? What does beating a Division Two side prove? I reckon it's win against West Brom or in my office on Monday morning.

Lambert's authority - where is it now?

Franks to whoever posted the link the other day here's a total list of transfubars into and out of Villa and other PL clubs for the last 18 seasons

He has been good for the pitch itself with groundskeeping technology. The pitch is superb. I agree though with you in the other thread... appointing RDM as Lambert's successor would be a very bad move for his popularity. I don't think I'd immediately join a Lerner out campaign, but I'd be thinking it was another fine mess he got us into.

be fair... the choice I was given was Di Matteo or Adkins...

Why can't I reply to a post directed to me? As it happens I've got nothing new to add at the moment on this subject which should please you... for now.

You won't be able to find a quote on here from me when I've said anything different. I've consistently made the point that stats alone don't form an argument. I made the point of saying "if he continues like this until the end of the season". Whilst I understand your point about "sample size" one should not become too fixated on that and ignore the trend. There is always interpretation whatever sample size you have, as players can show poor stats then have great seasons. Leighton Baines is an example of that. I've made this point. You're wrong here. It's not not true. It's not necessarily true. That's an important distinction... It's far more likely to be true that a player with high passing accuracy with high chance creation is a good player than it is likely to be true that a player who is poor on these statistics is a good player. Having good stats doesn't guarantee the player is exceptional but when you make a claim such a player is good the probability this is true is in your favour, not against. Agree. I'd like more in depth stats analysis done and the relevance discussed. Stats don't tell you everything. I said there would be interest at the end of the season if we are relegated yet he continued to be the best crosser in the Premier League.

New manager Pochettino was an Argentine international centre back. Adkins was a goalie from Bangor City. Adkins may have been sacked and Pochettino appointed to ensure the Forren trade goes through. Forren is a CB himself.

Adkins. He has all the motivation in the world. and it's easier to sack Adkins than Di Matteo over the summer if it all goes wrong. If we get Di Matteo we'll be tempted to keep him, and I'm not convinced the Champions League win was him or Lampard in the team. Great man manager, for sure, but that's not necessarily what we need. I'd interview Adkins and ask him whether he thinks he can get Luke Shaw and Lambert in before the transfer window closes. If he can then get him.

This is our opportunity to sack Lambert, hire Adkins (4 month contract, natch), and buy Lambert and Luke Shaw.

Maybe the Southampton board have got wind of a rumour Adkins was going to resign to take over a Villa Park? His first signing could be Lambert. I'm not ITK... this is guessing.

Randy Lerner could be playing a game here. There could be no money for Lambert unless he beats West Brom and Bradford. If we win those two games then Lambert gets trusted with a moderate transfer budget. If we lose to either then he is immediate sacked and his successor gets the money.

Are you reading Randy's mind or is that your opinion? I'd fire him if we lose against West Brom. That would give the new manager or caretaker an opportunity against Bradford. It would be difficult to fire Lambert if we did beat Bradford 3-0 and got to the Carling Cup final. As we know, CC doesn't mean a thing about form in Premier League. It's much more important we win in PL than win the CC.

The crossing accuracy and chance creation statistics show Bannan's lack of assists is not down to the quality of his crossing. This is why I look elsewhere for the answer why he doesn't have many assists. You're right he's a different kind of player to Beckham, the only comparison I am making is set piece delivery. No, he's not Beckham standard at that yet, may never be, but if he only gets even 80% way to Beckham consistency he will still be a world class player.

He'll get a job in Germany.

If Bannan can keep his delivery from set pieces then that is a world class weapon. He can also pick a pass, not something all players can do. So he has more going for him than just his set pieces. What else does Beckham do? He's slow, he doesn't tackle, he doesn't dribble, he doesn't head the ball... but he can whip in a mean cross. Gardner - yes, injury big problem. May never be same player again. Just don't know. I don't know what the negative reviews are for... very young player, has beaten Chelsea and Wolverhampton already. I disagree with the excessive negativity. BTW I am totally for Lerner to spend more on the squad. However good our young players are this is no excuse not to spend or to think we can get away without experience. Totally agree the squad needs a lot of spending on it.

It was the wrong decision and he didn't have to make it. Admittedly good news is he changed his mind fairly quickly on it. I don't think Bent should be first choice. That's controversial. Not putting him on the subs bench? That's bizarre. Yes, he's been injured but there have been the games when he has been fit and not even on the subs bench. He's played 1339 minutes out of 2090 - 64% of the time. That's not enough since he is the best crosser in the Premier League (click link in sig) and our most creative player.. So it has finally come done to this, the ultimate trade off: should the team win games OR should the team continue to 'improve' Bennett? Potentially we could continue to 'improve' Bennett all the way into down to the Conference Premier. Yes, I agree it's a matter of interpretation, but I think Guzan was dropped for the game against Bradford. Second game in a 4 days, Guzan would have wanted to play that game. Semi-final. He wants to play the final. I would have played Guzan. Choice of keeper did not affect the result, it could have though. Yes, if those strikers are suited to wing play. Agbonlahor can do it. Not convinced Weimann's got tricky enough feet. Do we know that? I thought there was a £10m transfer kitty for this window.

Depends how well he plays for the rest of the season. If he is still the best crosser in the league by a mile, and is creating chances at the same rate, but we still go down... if I was Wenger or Ferguson, I'd make a cheeky offer. Half the Villa fanbase will blame the relegation on Bannan even if he was one of our better players of the season. Who would miss him until he comes back to Villa Park playing for the other side?

Lambert has a stubborn personality trait that is leading him to make very bizarre decisions. Can you get away with that at the highest level of management? How often Alex Ferguson, David Moyes come under such scrutiny for bizarre managerial decisions? Lambert's in the big league now and frankly he's still acting like a little league manager.

Yes, sadly he might be, for next to nothing compared to his true value. I'd expect Wigan, Swansea, Arsenal or Man Utd to be interested, but he'd probably only leave us for Arsenal or Man Utd. We'd still have Gary Gardner, if he can regain his form after injury, but if we could keep both Gardner and Bannan I believe we would have two world class players in our team. Under present ownership we can't afford to buy two world class midfielders, so Bannan and Gardner, as potential world class players, are IMO the Villa future.

Moving this quote from another thread - Has he been doing that? Didn't notice. That's another to the list. Bizarre Lambert List 1. Handing Bent the captaincy. Never struck me as the Mr. Motivator kind. Really surprised me. Didn't surprise me when he later removed it. 2. Not playing Bent, leaving him out of the team totally for what seemed like (probably was) months. 3. Not regularly starting Bannan, our best midfielder. 4. Not regularly starting our best side back, Lichaj. This is not a personal opinion. We've not won a game this season without him (he's been in the team for all 9 games we've won). 5. Playing our worst side back Bennett when Stevens was available, even if he didn't want to play Lichaj, without whom we've not won a game, he could have at least picked Stevens. 6. Dropping our best goalie Guzan for 2 games in the row, extending to the Bradford game 7. Playing Weimann, in his words a "natural finisher", in a wide position. 8. Not signing a defensive midfielder over the summer. Lambert was a DM, does he think they're necessary, or not? 9. Not making any signings in time for the Southampton game. To be fair ... things he got right 1. Signing Benteke 2. Signing Westwood 3. Signing Vlaar 4. Playing Bannan for more minutes than Ireland 5. Choosing Guzan over Given 6. Noticing Weimann was worth giving more game time.

Not at the moment.