AntrimBlack

You may have made a cross for your own back there, Stephanie.

Because of the daft 4 year contract, and Lerner's apathy, I was convinced that Lambert would not be sacked. I am not so sure now though, things are beginning to look alarming, and I think if results do not improve against the`lesser' teams, Lerner may well panic and pull the trigger.

This or Chelsea depending on the performance/result (i.e a 5-0 thrashing); anything similar to the rubbish served up against Arsenal and fans will turn (rightly so imo) No, will not be the Chelsea game. He will get (another) free pass on that one. After that, though, it will get messy if things do not improve.

I don't get that Si, surely all managers try their best? Even the much despised David O'Leary didn't want to lose games. Liking him as a person doesn't really come into it in my opinion, although for what it's worth, I don't think he's got many likeable qualities. The lies he tells put me right off him. Do you like anyone Risso? No, you're right, my dislike of David O'Leary and Paul Lambert extends to all of humanity. Is this why we're not Facebook friends anymore? I think it's weird to dislike Lambert as a person. He's a bit media shy but he generally comes across as one of the good guys, it can't be easy defending that shite (mostly his own shite) every week either. I know somebody who's opinion I hold dear, at least when we are in bed together, who knew him back in his Celtic days and he is apparently pretty sound. Down to earth, quite level headed and ambitious, with a temper but with very little ego attached to it. To compare him to O'Leary is absurd IMO. But then that is somebody else's opinion ultimately, I'd not like to judge him completely either way without ever having really known the man. I never really hated O'Leary either to tell the truth, just thought him a bit dim witted. Did not realise you and Oneill were so close !

I do not think that he is saying that it is not for sale, Tro, but that it is up for sale if someone comes along - he is just not actively searching for buyers.

I am more worried about relegation at this point than I have been in any of the last 3 seasons. We are in a real tail-spin, and I am not sure that we can get out of it.

Considering Lambert's record-breaking tenure, you could realistically say that all previous sacked Aston Villa managers were sacked for less. I'd say taking us down would be worse than breaking a few records. Although Lambert could do that too. Personally I don't really care that much about many of the records - it's all about points, goals, wins and league position for me, which obviously Lambert isn't doing anywhere near good enough on. Agree absolutely. And you are right that records in themselves are not the important thing, but they are an interesting indication of how well or badly a person or team is doing. And of course the records are reflected in the results, which, as you rightly say, are the really important thing.

Considering Lambert's record-breaking tenure, you could realistically say that all previous sacked Aston Villa managers were sacked for less.

In that case I stand chastened. Not after all a poor decision by Lambert. Hopefully now Robinson can take up where left off, because I think he is a good one.

I think that playing Weimann either with or instead of Benteke up front is our best hope of getting goals. He has the movement, and he does get into the positions for chances, and with Gil and Sinclair supplying, it might give us some hope.

We may not have bought anyone today, but with Delph re-signing, and bringing in Gil, who looks good, and Sinclair, who looked better than I thought he would be in his short appearance, I think it has been a good window. Now we just have to hope we have enough to stay up.

Yeah they proved it against Arsenal???????? The player have to take some of the blame too, with the two new additions plus Delph signing on. I'm sure things will start improve. plus this was an arsenal team who are probably the best in the league at the moment !! To be honest I don't think Aston VIlla should ever lose to 5-0 to anyone. Well, your pal Lambert has overseen a fair number of big losses now. You best have a word with him.

He was not playing Robinson anyway. One good move at least tonight - Robinson back out on loan.

And none are better than two. If it wasn't for P Lambert we couldn't in our wildest dreams even entertain the idea of signing Rickie. Looking at your recent posts, I am assuming that you are on the wind-up?

in that case, someone needs to have a word with Clark before the next training session.

To me ``not a motivated seller'' means he is not actively trying to sell the club, but will consider selling it if someone makes him an offer.

Why did he bring him back then? Stupidity? Malice? Let's not just stick a 'wrong' hat on Lambert and then not ask where we got it. Remembering of course that hindsight is 20/20. Bent was heading off on loan with Derby agreeing to pay a large part of his wages, Benteke was just back after injury, and possibly not fit enough to play every game, in a wait and see sort of scenario. It was considered judicious maybe then that we would sacrifice a few months of Robinson's game time in League 1 in order to maybe have him come in and play back up to Benteke at Villa, in case we needed a striker in his mould. I think we're all sort of getting too bogged down on how important a loan spell like that is to a player's development. Especially a loan to League One. Probably not too much of a difference between League 1 and Reserves. And certainly if there's a chance of him getting a game in PL now and again, it might tilt the balance in favour of him coming back. Which it obviously did. Some players just don't go out on loan before they start in the Premier League and they don't turn out worse players as a result. There's no one saying that Drennan's loan to Portsmouth turned him into a superstar, or that Jack Wilshere would be a better player if he had done a year in Carlisle. And I disagree with you about loans, playing against men instead of boys must be valuable experience. I suppose it depends on the men. There is more than likely a trade off between how much benefit a player is getting from playing in the third tier, versus how much benefit he would get from training with Premier League players every day. All players are different. Robinson was doing well in League 1. Maybe that's all they wanted to see. There might be diminishing returns from sending players to League 1. If they find their feet, great bring them home. If they don't, leave them there until they do. Not, if they find their feet, let's leave them there to get injured and pick up bad habits. Bring them back and let them learn from training every day with Premier League players. It's not a good stick to beat Lambert with. It's an easy one, because recalling a player from loan and then not playing him seems on a macro level to be a mistake, but I think it's FIFA or FM thinking. We will have to disagree. And I am strictly FPS, no FM for me!

Not to mention whoever scouted them.

It will be a very defensive team and display against Chelsea. Lambert will be petrified of another whipping in front of the home fans. Can't say I would blame him for that.

I would be surprised if Benteke is able to achieve much against that Chelsea defence.

This. He seems to link up with Gil well too. The cross he nearly scored from came from Gil, and they did a lovely one touch move on the edge of the box that almost led to a chance. He seems more likely to make runs that Gil can pick out than benteke. Agree with this. Benteke needs to be benched, as I think Weimann is more likely to score at the moment.

We'd be seriously screwed if our top scorer was injured Absolutely, we do not want Weimann injured.

Well, he is correct in that of course, but I, probably like Briny, wondered where the 16th came from.

He had a bad day, it happens, but he is a good player, and is very important for us. His first few games he was terrible, but has since been consistently good.

He sure was.