danceoftheshamen

Cannot disagree with that at all... The whole club is a farce as things stand.

Absloutely.... you can understand his reluctance to invest more... Especially as it still has to be repaid by the club with interest so in a sense the more he invests the more he shackles his club financially. So a bit of a no win situation in that respect & of course he has to do that under the regulations.

Of course he doesn't but that wasn't my point, my point was that he must have recouped some of that which doesn't seem to be accounted for in any of the stories, articles or posts i see everywhere.

I do actually think that Lerner isn't that overly concerned if we go down now. Has probably weighed up what the costs involved in "guaranteeing" staying up would be against what the actual "losses" would really be if we went down. So... Losses: 1. 70m in new tv money, 2. A bit of a drop in gate receipts etc... Lets say we lost 8000 from the average with a spend per head of £50 per match thats about 400,000 down per home game so around 8m - 9m ish. 3. Then a drop in sponsorship money, as is already apparent with Genting not renewing amongst others most likely.. This i havn't a clue on overall but lets take a wild guess at another 10m? Gains: 1. A parachute payment of approx 16m 2. The cost in transfer fees & wages to "Guarantee" we would stay up would appear to be significant bearing in mind we have one of if not the worst squad ever at this club. So this may well need another 20m plus the wages which may add another 10-15m so there's 30-35m again. We may of course survive with less but i am guessing they would be looking at this as irrelevant unless it would absolutely ensure safety because otherwise it could put us in an even worse position if we increased the wages & spent big on transfer fees only to get relegated anyway which you have to say is a massive possibility. 3. By going down many of the clubs top earners would want out thus reducing the wage bill still further. It may not be all of them but some would leave for sure & certainly more than if we stayed up. Difficult to put a figure on this of course but lets say another 20m in wages off the bill & some money gained from transfers of another 20m 4. As we know some contracts are ending naturally anyway so this would surely finally get the clubs wage bill fully under control with maybe just a couple to shift on at some point. Again the figure for this is difficult to pinpoint but it must surely be another 7-10m? off the wage bill as a rough guess. So that would mean we would lose out on about 89m but would technically "gain" around the same if not actually a little bit more 90 - 100m although that "gain" would be spread over Parachute payment (16m) Savings made by not having to spend on transfer fees & wages to stay up (30-35m) Player sales due to relegation (20m) Savings on wages due to relegation (20m) This would also mean another massive chunk off the wage bill which would surely put the club in a very healthy position regarding the sustainability issue which we all know has been the main target of Randy since the change of plans in 2010. So for me maybe the plan is that if we do manage to stay up then great & the extra TV money would enable us to then maybe strengthen in the summer properly. If we do go down then so be it... But we would then have the wages under control more or less & we would go all out to get back up. A gamble for sure but maybe a calculated one to a point. The one thing it appears that is not an option, is to push the wages right back up again in an all out attempt to stay up (this would explain the repeated comments from Lambert that he wouldn't pay silly wages which is often what happens when buying players at this time of year) So no i think any signings will only come in if they fit in with the overall plan (which may well include relegation hence the lack of willingness to sign any big names etc) In other words if they come they will have to be ok with wages on the lower end in case we go down.... Hence no signings as yet.

I see all this "investment of 250m" talk all the time but what about the monies he has recouped from that? Player sales & the like? Milner, Young, Downing etc etc.. I mean there's what 40m ish just there & you can't tell me all that has been reinvested surely? I mean with the income from tv, prize money etc & the money raised from sales for the last 3 seasons now he must be getting some of that back? I'm no accountant but hey!

For me it's becoming more & more obvious that we are doing a big fat zero... This surely points to a concern that we will get relegated?

A good football team

I think come may we'll be sayng.... "Aston who?" Followed by a 5 second pause for thinking Then "Oh.... That Aston...............HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA!"

Exactly... sums up how i feel too.

""Please note! All watching is done so purely at your own risk! No responsibility will be taken by the company for any loss or damage incurred whatsoever""

I agree..don't think it was the lack of a plan B as such... I just think they failed to cope & do what they were supposed to correctly... Basically their heads went "again" so whatever the plan was, & i'm sure there would have been one, was irrelevant.

They were found out once & for all tonight.

Fading History - Shite For sure

Same thing as usual..we conceded & the players heads imploded & it all fell to pieces like it always does. I just think they havn't got the intelligence to cope when things go wrong.. they get kind of stuck & have a mental block or something. Plans & tactics go out the window & they simply lose the plot for 20 minutes or so.. never seen it in a football team before.. at least not one thats progressed from the sunday leagues

Saw that Newcastle boss in the crowd tonight... Well he's going to have a hard team talk isn't he! "Don't worry lads even if this lot go 1 or 2 up just score a goal (not difficult just get a couple of corners & your done) & then there heads will go... should get 2,3 or 4 easy peasy.

Problem with this is that it's easy to keep saying the "he gave 20m for signings" line... But look at how many experienced players we lost!.. Cuellar, Collins, Petrov etc etc etc the list goes on & on & then you have the summer before with Downing & Milner etc etc.. It's petrifying the amount of players who have been sold/released & then either not replaced or replaced with cheap alternatives with little or no experience or promoted from the youth ranks etc. We lost virtually a whole football team in the summer especially if you count in Petrov, Hutton, Warnock & Dunne too who have played 0 games between them thus far... well sorry but 20m is no where near enough to remain competitive having lost that many players. & it was the same the year before & the year before that! No flipping wonder we are so sh** I can understand the cost cutting thing but surely to goodness if it means survival, especially in this "new tv deal year", this had to be relaxed even if for a year or two until we could free up space on the wage bill etc & allow Paul Lambert at least a fair chance. Then cut the wages as required by all means but at least get us half way up the flipping table first after the close miss last season... It was crazy to carry on the cuts regardless after that.. I'd even go so far as to say incompetent. Ok you could say that the cuts were essential due to the wage bill etc... But how much damage would that really cause if it went on for another 2 or 3 years compared to the impact if we get relegated? Staggering

This is my view too..

I don't know what to say any more... Just I have lost all faith in the club now & sadly that's not even a knee jerk reaction just i have 0 belief in this club anymore... You can only take so much repeated disappointment on this level & you just know they are not even capable of a response whatsoever.. that has been proven after the Chelsea defeat then the Spurs one, then the Wigan one, then the Bradford one TWICE, then the collapses at Swansea & WBA it's just incessant & proves that they are simply not capable of sorting it out... It happened yet again tonight.. they scored & the players imploded again... I Didn't see the Bradford players do that when we went 1-0 up!!

His corners were astonishingly poor thats for sure.. I don't get that.. you are in the Semi final of a cup 1-0 up & on top so what do you do? Carelessly over hit corner after corner? I just don't get it? The same with Lowton, Delph & a few others.. just stupidly wasted really good positions. The problem with this team for me is simple They're thick!

Oh dear thats awful news, hope he recovers ok.

We lost to a superior team. ... One that knows how to defend, Stands firm under pressure & doesn't lose their heads when something doesn't go to plan Has a manager who understands his players & gets them playing to their absolute best & who also are very strong at set pieces both defending them & when attacking but most of all with a team full of brave hearts who actually give a s**t about winning a football match. None of these qualities are possessed by Aston Villa. .. The "Premier League team".

Would love to feel positive about it but i just can't see us not conceding at least 1 most likely 2 goals & i just cannot see our inconsistent forwards scoring enough. Even a 4-2 win after extra time would still put us out on away goals & i really cannot see any way for this lot to score 5 goals. Bradford are quite strong defensively too. Going on our shots to goals ratios we'd need to create around 30 chances to score 5 & that's on a good day

My biggest concern is that it seems like whenever a team has a go at us we collapse.

Not really, just i didn't get a lot of sleep since yeasterday only just risen.

So who would we sell/would want out if we did drop i wonder? & Who would we be buying to try & get straight back up? Who would come? Surely it would be a case of attracting the best players from the Championship & lower leagues...So nothing new there really!