AntrimBlack

Valencia are a top 4 club in Spain. It's like saying 'if he's not good enough for Arsenal, then he's not good enough for us' Madness. They also have one of the best academies in Spain - the fact that Valencia would've preferred him to stay shows me that he must be up there with their top prospects, as it must be difficult to break through with such an array of talent. This young kid is being put so high up on a pedestal so early is ridiculous, hopefully he fits into our system and dose well, but he is coming from a very different footballing culture and will therefore need time to settle in, of course teams like Valencia will say we didn't want to let him go, he is a product of there youth system which they will always try to hype and also with the re-buy clause in his contract they want him to think he is loved within the club in case they just might want him back Give him chance to adjust If he adjust quick great Of course he'll need time to adjust, my point is that you can't write him off because he "isn't good enough for Valencia" I take your point, guys, but I am not writing him off, and if you read my post, Stefan, you will see that I am not saying he is not good enough for us. I just think people are expecting an awful lot of him.

Quite a few have been going in and he has been nowhere near them or else has missed the target.

You guys do a great job, one I could not do, and I can appreciate how you must feel, but it really is not close to being the same thing.

If he was a really good player, he would already be a regular for Valencia, and they would be busting a gut to keep him. I am not expecting a wonderful player, but only a decent one who will do well for us, and we should not be expecting too much.

And the majority of the players will have no idea who you are singing about! They already look confused on the pitch, no need to make it worse!

Far too messy!

I would prefer it if we forgot about this one. Stalling over salary? Got too high an opinion of himself.

Not sure it is a good idea to play Gil from the start at the weekend. Far too much expectation being placed on this guy, by Lambert as well as the fans. He may well be decent, but I suspect he will take time to settle. For example see Sanchez, coming from the same league, took time to get to grips with this league, and he is older, more experienced, bigger and stronger than Gil. Patience will be required.

Given the circumstances then I think very few wanted us to sell him then. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing. Correct. I wonder how selling Bony will benefit Swansea. Are their fans in uproar btw? I have no idea what the general consensus is. Agree with these. Quite a gamble to sell your best players at their peak.

It seems to be purely based on goals scored. Not that I'd disagree, but that's their only remit for being "boring". I think another media outlet, perhaps American?, had a article saying the same, but based on the overall performance, not just on goal-scoring. I tend to agree, I am utterly bored watching them.

I have doubts on him being our best midfielder at present. Knew I should have put an IMO in there Not better than Sanchez - IMO.

I can think of one of our Irish defenders was anything but backward.....more appropriately highly intelligent in footballing terms. Mind you Oscar Wilde was a bit of numpty too.lol Nope i take it back, us Irish are backward. This young guy was on the main news tonight i kid you not. http://youtu.be/2I_MIoooXn0 No, no, no. Please do not let anyone else see this.

It seems obvious to me that he is saying we expect to be comfortably mid table cus of our history and after the few years we had under Mon but the reality is that we spend like a championship team so realistically it's an achievement to be still in the league. We just need super timmy sherwood on board and everything will be fine ye? I do not like his comment one little bit! Most fans have very low expectations now because of Lambert's performance. And, by the way, I believe we have outspent many of the teams in the Premier League, so that is not an excuse. He blames the owner, the strikers, the defence, the budget, and now the fans. What about his responsibility? He is on course for yet another record - the manager who takes us down to the championship.

Add to that, 3 points off the relegation zone with 3 difficult games coming up - posters have said ` we are not going down no need to get worried' - I think it is very possible for us to sink into the bottom 3 quite soon, and there seems to be an air of complacency among fans that we cannot go down, but I am not convinced that we can pull away this time unless something changes dramatically.

Spot on VO. He abandoned the `young cheap and hungry' approach, he abandoned the `bomb squad' approach, now he has abandoned the `hoofball/counter attack' approach. Each change brutally sudden, with no transition from one to the other. And the players are slavishly following his edict to play it out from the back and getting themselves in trouble, instead of mixing it up and hitting long as well. Leicester were getting in their faces at the back and causing havoc. Okore, Clark and Sanchez are good on the ball, but Guzan's short distribution is terrible and makes the whole thing look embarrassing inept. I think Lambert has lost his way completely, and is now thrashing around, hoping he will accidentally hit on a solution.

What on earth were they thinking of to give him a new four year contract. Could they not just have waited. It is not like another club was going to jump in to grab him. Absolutely crazy! Lerner really has made some stupid decisions during his tenure.

Well, I must say that people hyped him up so much, and he played so well at reserve level, that I expected more, so you could say that I fell somewhat for the hype, not knowing any better. Having seen him play for the first team on his limited appearances, he really has shown absolutely nothing, and has not been impressive on loan. I think the two year extension was a mistake. Johnson seems to be a better player.

I thank you for that doubtful honour.

Almost embarrassed to admit to this, but I started supporting Aston Villa in 1956, just a year before the famous Cup Final, in which fellow Ulsterman Peter McParland featured heavily. To be brief, a boy arrived at our school, having been expelled from another local school. We were all 12-year-olds, but he was one of these boys who seemed older and more advanced than the rest of us, bit of a chancer ( he ended up a bank manager). He had a scheme based on the old Division One, whereby you put money in, not much of course, and won money dependent on how your team performed. We drew teams out of a hat. I drew Aston Villa. Not very romantic, but I was hooked and have been a proud supporter ever since.

Whilst I have my doubts, at the moment at least, about Lambert's abilities overall, when he has been able to spend decent money, in Aston Villa terms, he has done well, so if he wants to buy Gil for that sort of money I would be hopeful that Gil would be a good buy.

Lol what a strange thing to say. Jack, you're on the bench this week because MOTD didnt show enough highlights of you. Missing the point? Surely the fact that he featured so heavily compared to others would mean that he should continue to start. Or did MOTD just miss the many scintillating passages of play involving other team-mates.

This seems more solid than Sinclair in my opinion Didn't Lambert confirm that he is interested in Sinclair in his press conference today? I thought another poster had indicated that Lambert had basically said the opposite?

Cannot afford it, or do not think he is worth it. Big difference. If it is the latter, cannot disagree with them. Think Sinclair has had his day.

Good post, Tro, and a whiskey reference too. Extra good for that.

This I like. Sinclair's record is not that good, and I would hope we could do better for the sort of money he would want. The way he has conducted his career so far gives me no reason to think he will get his career on track again.