VILLAMARV

my car passed its MOT today

All blame aside, we are where we are. having been benched all season the "BIG STARS" are obviously being paid to do not alot on the pitch. have Dunne, Bent, Ireland and Nzogbia all been injured this year, yes. have they performed when they've been on the pitch? (with the exception of Nzogbia trying a bit harder but still being a bit greedy on the ball) HELL NO. In fairness to Bent on tuesday he tried a bit and had a few lay offs that sped our play up a bit, unfortunately I dont remember any of them going to a villa player and the moves broke down on the rare occasion he was fed a pass. Benteke's first touch was heavy (and thats being kind) and also lost possession. hence the ONLY chance we created was Nzogbia getting it keeping it and hitting a shot that was unlucky not to go in. I'm not a coach or a manger or any of that but I was watching and I've been watching most of the season. theres a reason Benteke, Gabby and Weimann are getting a game ahead of Bent. It doesnt really matter how we got here with these individuals now. What matters is are they going to give 100% effort if they get on the pitch. If the answer is no with any of them then it doesnt matter how good their feet are if their hearts and minds arent in it.

nice

This, very this!!!! At least bennett and stevens want to be in the shirt. Whatever happened, whether he should have played or not he's one of the most expensive mistakes in recent years. 2 Villa related things to smile about in the same day! obviously not matchday then! but I'll take anything at the mo I really wont miss you stephen

found any stats on Sylla yet con? I saw someone beat you to the heat maps

anyone know where this morning's chat about Warnock having a midday deadline to sign for leeds came from? still paying him £40k a week (allegedly) until it's confirmed he's gone. If whatever % we saved on Hutton's wages by sending him on loan is being spent paying Sylla's wages I can't see us bringing anyone in however unspectacular it may be. Still dreaming there's a club out there that wants Bent &/or Ireland - but in all seriousness it's far too late to go finding replacements or reinforcements even if they go now. Never say never though........ I did and we signed Sylla !!

to be fair we don't know what list of players he left behind.

No business? or no incoming players........please tell me Warnock's gone........ yeah he got to me about 5 pages ago! EDIT: well 1.14pm to be precise!

my club been down with have I. Third division been in have we. Much feeling I sense in you. Powerful the dark side is. Don't give in to the dark side. Much truth you speak, But angers the Jedi when forgotten history is.

lol ok, I'll chill But I will remember to try and kick him if he's ever down

Sylla's passed his medical, just formalities to sign apparently. on another note who the hell is Chris Bevan (the guy writing the BBC deadline day feed)? anyone else getting wound up by the sneering sarcasm every time he mentions us?

From the bbc website: 1239: ASTON VILLA SIGN A PLAYER No, I'm not making this up. anyone still need proof we're being laughed at? UTV

i dont really want to get involved but i do remember watching MANY games where we lumped it up to collymores head and played it in to dublins feet and got nowhere fast. Your point is sound, just memories are sometimes clouded

and I thought I was going mad! FFS he should go down molineux and then end up at the saddlers......

Luciano Becchio - Leeds to Norwich - Steve Morison - Norwich to Leeds - hopefully the cash Leeds just got from Norwich will mean they confirm taking warnock off us. His photo has been gone from the villa OS for a couple of days but still no confirmation?

who knows? but if i cant get excited about nothing on transfer deadline day when can i?

Just a bit of perspective on this mad day - just caught this on the BBC website and it reminded me it could be worse! "If Celtic's Gary Hooper moves to the Premier League today, the sell-on clause might just keep my club Scunthorpe in business." anyway then I saw this and thought I'd fan the flames on the idea that we might see the back of bent today. Apparently the stoke dressing room is all excited Stoke striker Michael Owen on Twitter: "Never known there to be such a buzz around deadline day. Everyone talking about it in the dressing room."

Personally I'm writing off Everton, Arsenal and Man U away - and Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea at home. so in my head we have 8 games left 4 at home (W.Ham, QPR, Fulham and Sunderland) and 4 away (Reading, Stoke, Norwich and Wigan) The worst thing for me is Wigan are so our bogey team and we have them away last day. But if we cant beat W.Ham, Reading and QPR in the next 6 games we're gone.

Switters speaks the truth IMO - and lets face it he's already our best defensive midfielder even though we haven't seen him yet

I only logged in coz i heard on the radio we were actually gonna sign someone and a DMC too I was so happy, my missus said it was great to see me smile for the first time since xmas, maybe its not so bad after all, maybe lerner and lambert have a plan after all, maybe - just maybe we wont end up in the championship - didnt last long though eh!! Cheer up mate, we're gonna turn them wheels, fight like hell, not lie down (always an advantage in football methinks), give it a right good go and then we'll be fine. YAY Happy to admit I was wrong in thinking we wouldnt sign anyone in the window. they've gone and made me look a bit sylla now

only thing i can find on us so far was in the daily mail 24th jan - "Everton, Aston Villa, Fulham and Sunderland are currently ranked 26th to 29th with revenues of between £80.5m to £78m respectively." so official revenue seems to have dropped by £12 - 14m in that time (from £92m) yes. but as snowychap and others have pointed out its based on turnover. suggests we have the 9th highest turnover in the premier league last year Ok, everyone's always entitled to their opinion obviously. Sorry if the fact that I copied and pasted a term you're not familiar with upset you in some way. Ive not suggested I have the accounts - but we can piece together a good picture from the freely available information at our disposal. Operating cashflow figures for 2010/11 was +£4m. yes deals for players may involve staggered payments. but also our signings may also have been paid in this fashion. All I suggested in the first place was since those last accounts where we made a £53m loss, between McCleish and Lambert they've spent on transfer fees alone the same amount as we've received since A Young and Downing left. add to that the £12 - 14m drop in income in one year i mentioned above, the money being paid in interest repayments to the loan from Randy, the payments to McCleish, Grant and Norwich, agents fees, wages and all the day to day costs incurred running the club. do you think it was nonsense to think that the players wages we lost in that time aren't going to cover these losses? I said the cupboards are bare. Is that the bit you call nonsense? I'm interested though, because if you're going to point out I'm wrong and that we're in great financial shape, with a huge transfer kitty at our disposal and no need for help from Lerner RIGHT NOW believe me I'm all ears coz we're all looking for something good to cling onto at the moment.

Aston Villa: detailed income statement (£000s) ASTON VILLA 2011 figures first / 2010 Turnover 92028 / 90866 Loan fees received 000 / 113 Wages -83395 / -79974 Other costs -24725 / -25179 Depreciation and amortisation -38503 / -36560 Exceptional costs -12036 / 0 Operating loss (before exceptionals) -66631 / -50734 Amortisation, depreciation, disposal of assets etc 38503 / 36560 Working Capital movements 32179 / -3359 Operating cash flow 4051 / -17533 Interest paid -665 / -830 Net capital expenditure -1795 / -7007 Player trading -18295 / -18877 Net cash outflow (before financing, inc exceptionals) -28740 / -44247 from the telegraph 10 May 2012, 2010/11 figures. came with this little write up: Aston Villa The Aston Villa crest tattooed on Randy Lerner's ankle has become a ball and chain. Villa spent £73m more than they earned in the two-season period ending last May. Although the sales of Gareth Barry and James Milner to Manchester City raised tens of millions, they spent net £37.2m on transfers over the period. They have become solvent, covering costs from cash income. But there is little resource for squad investment without Lerner's support. Compensation was costly: £12.4m after Martin O'Neill and Gerard Houllier left. It may weigh heavily when Lerner ponders whether to sack Alex McLeish.... this was from the 9th May last year also the Telegraph. Premier League solvency index 2011 TEAM INDEX (£M) Manchester United 70.332 Tottenham 66.388 Arsenal 35.922 Chelsea 29.035 Wolves 17.888 Newcastle United 14.923 Liverpool 11.540 Blackpool 9.859 Wigan 7.028 Stoke City 6.837 Aston Villa 3.386 Sunderland 3.251 Fulham 2.996 West Ham United 2.914 Everton -2.216 West Bromwich Albion -2.944 Bolton Wanderers -3.912 Blackburn Rovers -4.577 Manchester City -22.026 • Solvency index for 2010-11 is compiled using operating cashflow minus interest paid/plus received Cant find much of this years figures yet (released 2013 for 2011/12) apart from this line from the mail - "Everton, Aston Villa, Fulham and Sunderland are currently ranked 26th to 29th with revenues of between £80.5m to £78m respectively." So however much we've saved on wages in that time is likely to be offset by a £12 - 14m drop in income on the previous year and the fees paid to Grant, McCleish & Norwich (more for the "exceptional costs" column). * It's probably worth noting that the 2010/11 season was the first season Uefa are monitoring under the new FFP rules. the figures we're waiting for the second. as it is the first 3 year peroid (2010/11 - 11/12 - 12/13) wages from contracts agreed before 01/06/2010 were not included in the calculations until 12/13 (i.e now). These caveats no longer apply for the 12/13 - 14/15 period and onwards. where running a loss of more than 30m euros over a 3 year period could see us ultimately banned from European competition. Not applicable to our current plight i know but are these bans offset until the next time you do qualify? Its a lot of jargon but i found a great site here that explains what Uefa are tracking - http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/financial-fair-play-explained.php I know the added revenue from the new TV deal will mean Premier League clubs should have little to worry about from next year onwards. but surely this all backs up the idea that randy should be magicing up a little more investment RIGHT NOW to try and guarantee we dont end up in the championship losing more and more revenue with a premier league wage bill. The firesale that would accompany relegation could be alot more drastic than some people "hoping we go down" would care to imagine. Of course, thats just my opinion Oh and it seems the premier league clubs vote next month on implementing its own FFP regulations. We are one of the 4 clubs "strongly opposed" apparently.

Yeah, Its kinda all lost its relevance to the original point though now. We were just trying to point out that if Lerner stopped putting cash in in 2010/11. Then its entirely feasable to suggest that the generated income since those accounts has now all been spent and the cupboard is bare. due to the transfers, wages, manager payoffs, interest repayments yadda yadda yadda. Absolutely. Nail on the head. When though?? we all know the TEAM desperately needs it. Makes me wonder if McCleish went and messed up their plans last year by staying up tbh. Without basically Bent, Ireland and Given off the books with no replacements I dont see how we're going to be solvent in the premiership. Going down (and getting what? 40m a year less due to parachute payments) and an everything must go sale will reign. nope. Milner left in 2010. young and downing in 2011 the season before that 09/10 was when we bought downing, delph, dunne, collins, beye + warnock. sold barry, gardner and Knight and spent nearly £20m more than we got back All basically money we still owe Lerner and are paying back at nearly £6m a year

Just saying the +/- figure for transfer fees for the listed transfers shows we took £20m more than we spent. - which in turn was spent by Lambert pre season. depends on the context of the conversation really. If we add up all the in and subtract all the out fees since Lerner walked in the door we show a loss of -£97m. (a sizeable chunk of the reported £133m owed to him by the club) maybe i should refer to it as the same figure we received some time before from the sale of Stewart Downing I'll find a way of linking the sale of stewart downing to Lamberts transfer kitty if it kills me Club will probably release a statement march / april / may time for 2011/2012. Does anyone know when the EUFA financial fair play rules are supposed to come in effect? I know we are opposing it along with Chelsea, Fulham and WBA. I'm not sure how much this has forced the clubs arm in dropping the wage bill. Im too cynical so i think if we aint turning a profit we cant make the loan repayments to the holding company! we carry the 4th highest debt of all the clubs after Man Utd obviously thanks to the Glaziers, Fulham and Newcastle. Ashley and Al Fayed have smaller interest repayments than randy though. at 90% of turnover our percentage of turnover spent on wages was the second highest in the league behind Man City unsurprisingly as they were the only club to show a defecit (114%) In contrast Man Utd (ok their turnover is HUGE) showed 46% of their turnover spent on wages. Not surprisingly 4 of the 5 clubs with the biggest turnovers back the new proposals (Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs)

thanks for that P3te. I shall spend my time more wisely at Villa Park and stop looking for a box of money to tell me whether the transfer kitty cupboard is bare or not. Should save me hours. The point was about whether Lerner had "handed" Lambert a kitty of £20m and whether that was from him or not. Following the last published accounts from 2010/11 It was announced that we were on a costcutting exercise. we know the starting position (£54m loss in the previous year. turnover at £92m wages at £83m) Lerner we know put £25m in (effectively financing the Bent + Makoun initial payments) he may have put in more in the form of loans through the holding company we dont know for sure. We know since may 2011 we had to fork out for Mccleish both in and out and Lambert coming in. Overall wages have surely fallen with the departures of Downing, A Young, L Young, Makoun (loan), Lowry, Carew, Salifou, NRC, Hogg, Osbourne, Friedel, Pires, Forrester, Bradley (loan return), Beye, Collins, Cuellar, Heskey and then Makoun [out again!], Delfouneso, Warnock, Hutton, Johnson (all loan) since those figures were released although the savings are slightly offset by the arrivals of NZogbia, Hutton, Given, Jenas (loan), Benteke, Vlaar, Lowton, Bennett, KEA, Westwood, Bowery, Holman, Makoun (loan return) I can only guess Lambert and McMuppet are/were on less then Houllier too With attendances down you would assume that the commercial wing have also seen a downturn in profits so with wages at 90% of turnover in 2010/2011 we may well have seen overall spend drop but who knows what percentage of the wage bill the turnover is covering last season and this? we will probably have to wait until march/april/may time to find out the cost of mccleish's reign. The exodus following Houlliers brief stint: Departures Stewart Downing Liverpool 20.064.000 £ Ashley Young Man Utd 15.840.000 £ Jean II Makoun (loan fee) Olympiacos 1.364.000 £ Luke Young QPR 990.000 £ Shane Lowry Millwall 237.600 £ The influx: Arrivals Charles N'Zogbia Wigan 9.504.000 £ Alan Hutton Spurs 3.960.000 £ Shay Given Man City 3.300.000 £ Jermaine Jenas (loan)Spurs 880.000 £ Enda Stevens Shamrock Rovers 250.800 £ So 2011/12 Transfer balance sheet +20.600.800 £ (The ONLY time under Lerner we've received more than we spent) I have said before round here I'm glad McMuppet never got his hands on the other £20m!! Whether thats because Man Utd and Liverpool's payments were staggered over time or whether the club decided to spread the money it took over 2 years to get to the new TV deal who knows? but since the last publicly acknowleged cash injection from Randy the money we've spent on transfers can clearly be traced back imo. culminating in having to sell Collins to free up the cash and wages for Vlaar. so for me to paraphrase that all as "effectively the downing money" I think seems pretty fair myself