AntrimBlack

I do.

They have some nerve. Trying to take from us the one thing we do best !

Just coz he's an England international means doodly squat these days!!!! It means that he has been recognised by the England manager for his performances for his club team and to actually be selected for the team in an important Euro qualifier means even more. But let me guess, Sanchez being picked for his national team (who I rate more highly than England), doesn't mean much, because we're just overrating him, or he's flavour of the month? So you're saying he is better than Delph? Definitely.

At the moment Lambert and Benteke are both shit. Benteke probably most of us think is capable of better and will improve, Lambert, on the other hand, many of us are not convinced that he can improve.

Has Cleverly's loan deal now expired?

Well I do. I do not think I am particularly sensitive, but to become the butt of jokes - not good.

I honestly believe if we'd offered him a new deal at any point during 2013, he'd have signed. Seems we only opened proper negotiations during summer 2014 which was way too late. 60k dosen't sound too much of an increase either as when MM was on here he was claiming Delph was in the 45-50k bracket already. On a free some club will properly offer him 70k. I think you are probably right there, when he was saying he'd like to finish his career here it would have made sense to just slap a 4 year deal under his nose and see just how true it was. After he's said all that and nothing has happened he's probably got the hump... There is a lot wrong with the club, but not everything can be laid at their door. He has become an England international, he thinks he can do better, and he wants to go. With the exception of Sanchez, none of our present midfielders impress me, and this is an opinion long held, not just since Delph decided to move on. We should sell him now in order to recoup some of the money spent on him. 4 m. Lambert, to be fair, has a good record of buying around that price.

Dave Armitage - who he?

There's a danger that mentioning a player's weaknesses makes it look like I'm denigrating him, when in reality I think he's a good player, but pinning your hopes on a slight young lad from another country is setting too many people up for a fall. I'm trying to add a cautionary note. I don't think anyone would suggest Carles Gil was a failure at Elche, that is definitely not the case, but neither can I remember a game when he was a major influential figure. Partly that was to do with Elche's tactics last season and the position he played - mostly he would have been out on right in a standard 4-2-3-1, the main objective last season being not to concede goals as we had dearth of attacking players. That wouldn't be his natural position, which would be a central attacking midfielder ("media punta" in Spanish). He played there more when we were in the 2nd Division and looked the part, but on the few occasions he had the opportunity last year it wasn't to any great effect. In the games I've seen him in for Valencia this season he seemed again to be used from wide positions - as is common for young players, and especially left-footed ones. What would worry me about him going to England is that he always seemed a little fragile, I seem to remember him often limping off during matches and then not re-appearing for a couple of games. I don't think he has any obvious weakness in his game, he could have scored more goals and got into goalscoring positions more often, but those he did score were good finishes. Elche weren't able to keep the players they actually needed this season (one of which would have been Sanchez), but to be fair he might have been better off in the current side which is better going forward but a pushover defensively. On balance I might have done him a disservice because although his direct replacement has been better than him, he would probably still be playing most weeks if he was still around. Uh-oh. I know another manager who likes that style of play. Don't like the sound of that.

His contract with Valencia didn't expire till summer 2016. I have commented on this thread before as I am an expat Elche season ticket so know this player very will indeed, and don't misunderstand what I might say below because I like him, he has excellent potential. But.... He was surplus to requirements at Valencia, they sold him so they could strengthen their squad in other areas plus they have a similar player to him on loan at Cordoba who, IMV and probably theirs, is better. No way on earth is Carles currently worth more than Villa paid for him. In fact, at this moment he's not worth even that because (again IMHO) you overpaid based on the risk. He's a good, skilfull, classy looking player but even at crisis-hit Elche you won't find many fans who were desperate to keep him. In fact the club's forum has made comparisons all season with his replacement and you would be hard- pressed to find a fan who didn't think his replacement (called Victor Rodriguez) has been better for us. This is not to say he won't make it and be worth a king's ransom in two years, but honestly, as much as I joined this forum to keep tabs on Villa's growing list of our former players (do you need a keeper? You can get Caballero from Man City), you're all getting carried away. Thanks for that, GC, good to get an informed opinion. Does no harm to dampen down expectations a little. We are understandably just so desperate for positivity at the moment. And thanks for Sanchez, by the way, he is possibly our best player at the moment !

Playing with Baker, a different partner, possibly effected him. He will be ok when he is reunited with Clark.

Yes, I had heard that. Surely it will occur to someone, Fox perhaps, to carry out an audit of non-playing staff, to ascertain the reason for this.

The manager should have no problems motivating himself to try to achieve the highest possible league finish and push on from that the next season.If he can't even do that, there's really no point He just needs to sit the players down and give a rousing, spine-tingling speech about jolly-well-finishing-as high-as-possible-up-the-table. Driven by this mouth-watering prospect, the players will be infused with an animal-like fervour, and play each game frothing at the mouth. Is that what you mean? Works for me. But cannot see Lambert as the man to do it.

Surely the manager's job to motivate the players. The supporters buy into a dream not the players. Players play for a living and presumably want to do their best at that job, and as a by-product improve the club's fortunes. But they need direction, and I do not think they are getting that at the moment from the manager.

He's here until the end of the season I think people need to get used to that Unfortunately, I think he will be here until the end of his contract or we are sold, whichever happens first.

I do not see much fight in them. They look rudderless and without belief.

He's bought some decent players, but I don't think he's used his money well at all. He bought Bennett, Luna, Bacuna and Lowton as full backs, none of whom were any good there, so he's had to go back to using a player that was frozen out for two years. Then there are the nothing players like KEA, Tonev, Bowery, Sylla and so on who individually didn't cost much, but when you add it all up we'd have been much better with fewer, more expensive players, As everybody rightly points out though, it's his complete lack of coaching ability that is the main reason he should be sacked. But all of those players probably cost around 10m alltogether. I think the most expensive of the bunch was probably Lowton for about 2m. They were mostly cheap buys in the hopes that they could improve into a decent PL player. You will always get misses when you do that, and even from your list Bacuna, Lowton and KEA were / are ok. They aren't the best but can fill a position in the squad and deputise in the case of injury. If you wanted to be sure that you would fill those positions with proven quality you'd probably be talking about at least 5m per player. He has been good when buying players around the 5m mark, so 2 quality players would surely have been the better option. He went cheap, young and hungry, because of inexperience or naivete, but has now changed tack. That is ok, he is a relatively inexperienced manager, and can be forgiven for wrong decisions. It can be rectified, but I think he does not know how to rectify it. That is his problem at the moment. Lambert's transfer business, though rather hit and miss, has provided us with a squad which should be doing better, but poor management and coaching is holding them back. To me, that places the responsibility firmly with Lambert, in spite of Lerner's mishandling of the club.

Maybe, but same outcome: we don't get him. To be fair, it does depend on the level of the asking price.

Vlaar might sign another deal through lack of interest, but the club might possibly not now offer a deal because of the emergence of the young guys. Do not know about the young lads, but if the club think any have potential, they would be cheap and might be an idea to sign then up and get them loaned out. I would say it might be too soon to get rid of DJ, who has shown he might have potential.

And how much was wasted, considering how many are out on loan/never coming back.

Great to see Fox saying it how it is. It's obvious Lambert has been denied signing his first choice targets and probably has had to resort to signing his 3rd or 4th choice targets. If he was properly backed then I believe we would have a beast team. His hands have been tied throughout his time here and most of his big signings have been crippled with injuries. He is slowly getting a decent team together now, we just need to get Gabby out of the starting 11 and hopefully replace cleverly ASAP. Commercially we have been run very badly according to what was said we have the lowest shirt sponsorship deal in the premier league , simply not acceptable Well that's just pathetic as we must be in the top 8 teams for fanbase numbers and should be easily able to attract decent sponsorship money. I'm glad Fox is on board now as he seems to know what he is on about and we now have him and Lambert who are genuinely looking to improve the club. The sponsorship probably reflects the fact that we are the most boring team in the Premier League that no one wants to watch.

It seems to me that Lambert is going nowhere, so I would love it if he was given decent money, not only because it might help us survive, but also to see if that is really what is holding Lambert back.

Football is a results business. Lambert isn't get results. If Fox and Randy are really not even considering the possibility of a change in management because of some belief that Lambert is doing a good job then this football club really is doomed. how do you know he isnt getting the results that have been set for him and isnt hitting his goals and objectives? You think the goals and objectives they have set are to avoid relegation by a small margin each season?

If you want to believe that Ellis would not have sacked Lambert by this stage, I have to disagree. ?? I said he would have. You had the proviso that I highlighted. Ellis sacked managers for poor performance even when he provided little funds.

I really think we need to have Weimann on with Gil and Benteke. Sanchez and Westwood are both defensive midfielders. Surely that would be enough with one other and the back four. How many defenders does one team need???