danceoftheshamen

We need around 5 wins & 6 draws with no more than 5 defeats to reach the 40 point mark... Or possibly 4 wins & 9 draws? Thats a tall order from 16 games... Our best hope maybe that we will hopefully need a low points tally to survive around 37/38 ish.. Not if our rivals keep picking up points against the likes of Chelsea however!

I seriously hope we do not go down obviously.. My point is that if it did happen then like it or not the best thing we could do would be to make the most of it & help get the club back up again. Of course it would be damaging financially & in other ways which i don't dispute whatsoever but is it recoverable from?.. Well yeah it is!... Although no easy task of course as evidenced by the lists of teams which have been posted above who have disappeared into the abyss somewhat. But many of those sides disappeared a long while ago & were surely not in such a strong position as Aston Villa. Surely we would be among the biggest & most likely "the" biggest club in the lower divisions if it did happen. This you would hope would put us at an advantage when recruiting the players to get us back up? Especially taking into account Paul Lambert's habit of scouring the lower divisions already anyway. Anyway the best idea of course is to move heaven & Earth to stay up whatever it takes & i certainly have not given up on that idea whatsoever (despite maybe my odd knee jerk reaction rant over the last few weeks to the contrary ).... So....Over to you Randy & Paul's ... Where's these signings to save our arses?

Thing is though Jon i think the damage has already been done to a large extent. If we do get relegated then we simply have to see it as an opportunity to sort this horrid mess out once & for all. Take the opportunity to truly rid the club of the wasters, hangers on & the like, sweep it clean & rebuild something much better... Then come back stronger... Of course if we stay up then great & this is by far the preferable option.

It's been like this for several years now. Dull, ordinary or completely unknown squad players. It started under MON who aside from maybe Carew, Young & Milner started this "Mr average" trend. Since then the only one worthy of a mention is perhaps Bent. Otherwise dozens of poor to average players & nothing to get the excitement levels up.

Nah.. he's way out of our present League. Should try QPR every other decent player is going there due to their incredible size & stature in World football

So are we realistically in with a shout of this Sissoko or is it fantasy football again? No doubt he wouldn't blink at going to QPR, Saints (or should i say sinners) or any other Premiership club but when it come to the mighty Aston Villa?... Erm nope! No doubt he will end up either at Sunderland or Fiorentina.

That has got to be the most stupid transfer decision ever made at this club. I mean what on Earth were they thinking? Were regularly putting 3 4 & 5 past teams prior to Heskey's arrival so MON buys flipping Heskey!.. It was downhill from there.

Have to say i can only agree with you Moose. It would be an opportunity in reality to sort the horrid mess out with less pressure on everybody & without the protection racket which comes with the Premier League. Once we had gotten over the disappointment & the red mist had cleared i think it could be a very interesting time actually. Loads of local derbies too. I remember the 87 relegation & i was a home & away supporter then.. we had an absolute ball we really did. Villa was the game everyone was waiting for & we always had a great atmosphere & of course got promoted into the bargain too. Great fun.

Lol! Like it!

From those remaining fixtures i can see around 10 games which we could possibly get points from.. Lets say we only managed to do that from 8 of those with 4 wins & 4 draws.. thats 16 points which puts us around 35 i believe.. so we need a couple of unexpected wins for me to stand a chance of staying up, against the likes of Chelsea (H), Man City (H), Liverpool (H), Arsenal (A)... i wont even bother putting Man U (A) however lol!

Meanwhile we get relegated whilst they survive & get a share of the new TV money.

Thats the bit i always get confused by... How come we are trying to "operate within our means" whilst all the others cannot possibly be doing the same?.. for example how much must QPR be paying in wages compared to their income?.. The net result..we drop like a stone & they survive!.. Bizarre.. really really bizarre!

So we are now going to get another Man City esque thing with QPR? This Premier league is becoming more & more laughable every year.. Roll on the Championship.. proper football at last. I have no respect whatsoever for Chelsea, Man City, QPR, or any of the other "Plaything" sides in the Prem.. The whole thing is a charade & these sides are protected by the FA too due to their money... Shame the Baggies can't get relegated too.. maybe we could have a "Premier League free zone in the Midlands" in protest or something

The thing is for me we could actually have a squad of superstars of the future, Benteke, Westwood, Guzan, Weimann, Lowton, Gardner (when fit) all have bags of potential. The problem is there are so many of them in the one squad at the same time & the "experienced" players around them simply ain't doing it... That is where the problem lies.

I remember many teams playing well but not getting the results the deserved ending in relegation. WBA, Bolton, West Ham etc etc .. the giveaway sign is when a team plays "well" but cannot finish or defend.... That perfectly sums up Aston Villa 2012/13

For me? when we won the League & Ron Saunders left. We failed to strengthen a very small squad & only signed Andy Blair if i remember correctly? Then A Mr Ellis took charge from the Bendalls & down hill we went... Tony Barton did well to win us the European Cup but then it was 25 years of depressing under achievement. I can only remember a couple of random years when we got a decentish side & finished 2nd .. once under Ron Atkinson & once under Graham Taylor.. But we were always a couple of top players short due to Ellis lacking that ambition... I swear to this day he did it deliberatley so as to not lift expectations too high meaning he would have pressure to then keep us there. As for under Lerner? When Lerner suddenly moved the goalposts on MON & he & Krulak quit.. that was the start & the firesale has been going on ever since.

What a complete shambles.. 2 defeats..at home no less... against two of our main rivals for relegation with 0 goals scored!...Not even so much as a goal ffs!!

Very difficult that. The problem is we have nothing to go on with Lerner apart from silence & a few "cash flingings" such as putting buses on for away fans, scarfs a pub renovation & the like. I would love to know what his actual spend on players is since he came but with player sales, Prize money & the like taken into account. As for Ellis well he was just full of it & brilliant at mass duping everybody & filling them with false hope but he simply lacked ambition. I distinctly remember being in Rotterdam to watch this fallen giant win the big one only to then watch 30 years of underachievement follow. So my answer has to be NEITHER

Lambert has alluded to it in his recent interviews when tackled about the clubs transfer plans.. Also Hairy hands has posted stuff about it many pages back somewhere

So what i don't get, or maybe i missed it somewhere? Is just how low has this wage bill got to get before it is deemed low enough for this club to be self sufficient? Is it already there? ..Well apparently not! So what exactly? we are surely one of the top 8 clubs in the country size wise so how come we can't pay any decent wages out & all the smaller clubs than us can?.. Or are the wages really still too high? even after 3 years of cuts?

Beginning to think he wants the wage bill slashed so he can leave asap in the knowledge he left the club able to cover itself... Shouldn't be too much of a problem with Championship wages & attendances in the low to mid 20k's

Well i'm mid 40's, 1st game i went to was in the late 70's & this is definately the worst Villa squad in my memory

I have already accepted we will be playing Championship football next season. Have lost interest in the rest of this season already. We are basically S**t & have been for years now. Shame as i used to have some good times at Villa Park once upon a time.

Worst Villa side i can ever remember in over 35 years. They have nothing whatsoever.. Crap defence, crap midfield, hit & miss (more miss) forwards & a half decent keeper or two. Now zero confidence too.. I have already accepted this lot will be in the Championship next season... All those around us are strengthening whilst we sit there going "Oh.. our billionaire chairman can't afford to increase the wage bill which has been slashed for the last 3 years running" ...Der! Any team with even the remotest bit of quality about it would've shown some sort of reaction to the 8-0 Chelsea loss.... Our reaction?... lost the next game 0-4.. then the next 0-3... Then we get a lucky 2-2 draw at Swansea (should have been 4-2 loss lets be honest) scrape a 2-1 win against an awful Championship side in the cup & then get embarrassed AGAIN at a 4th tier team worth £7500!!.... So licking our wounds this remarkable history rewriting side come up with another corker of a reaction... They lose at home again against one of their main relegation rivals......lol! What a complete joke!

Know exactly how you feel Harry... The fun has gone eh? It's now all about embarrassment, disappointment, false hope & shock at the depths we have sunken to so quickly. When Mon was here & we were doing okayish i got us a new supporter.. a young lad who had just moved here from abroad, loved his football & he became a fan & told him about how this great club was on the up again & the sleeping giant was about to awaken etc etc... Now i can't even bear to speak to him about it all!.. What on Earth am i supposed to say?!..