danceoftheshamen

Just watched the looped SSN interview with Lambert.. Good to hear he & everybody else are "highly embarrassed" at the Bradford result & he still thinks we can pull it back. Also he says he has had sleepless nights all week! & i think he meant it too! Only thing i cannot quite grasp is the whole "He understands the finances of the club need to work" thing! The way he said it made it sound as though the club could go bust or something?.. surely it's not that bad is it?... It does sound as though a Mr Lerner has simply stopped any investment & the club is in effect "on it's own" so to speak... Obviously with the wages being as they are with the hangers on on high salaries this is still causing a massive problem. So I think the situation may well be that Lerner is basically running the club on a "self sufficient" basis now. I.e no more bail outs or input from him personally...Kind of ties up with what Hairyhands said earlier too.

Great thanks for that Ender 4.. so thats good news then as in it makes it unlikely that thats in the plans..you would hope Only thing not factored in there is money from selling the likes of Bent etc & i'd include Benteke & a few others who would want out in that if we went down too... So that would no doubt reduce the "losses" somewhat. Gate receipts i assume would drop but would only make a difference of between around 5-8m as a wild estimate? So no .. it's unlikely that's the "Plan" which is a good thing!

Just shown on SSN that he is in the squad for Southampton!..Great news

I think we are maybe ahead of Reading but other than that i'd have QPR, Southampton, Stoke, Wigan (never thought i would hear myself say that), Newcastle, Fulham etc all ahead of us.....However!.. If we got Vlaar, Dunne, Bent, Albrighton, Westwood, Stephens back & stiffened the spine in January... It could be a very different picture & we have a chance... As it stands though.. no chance. The most important guy at Villa Park at this point for me is................The Physio Sign the two players Lambert is hinting he's after DM & CB & we could be ok..just.

Think Benteke would deffo be gone.. but then we have Bowery so maybe he'd come good at that level especially?

Exactly what i'm beginning to think now Coda... Wonder what the wage bill is at present? Also what will it drop to when some big contracts end in the summer? It does all make you wonder whether they are now actually looking at nothing but the hard nosed business aspect? i.e what we lose if relegated in tv money & gate receipts?... versus... what do we gain in parachute payments, less wages & sale fees of best players? Would we be better off financially "temporarily" if we went down.? Of course this would only be of relevance if we came back up very quickly which is surely a huge risk.. But this would give Lambert a chance to rebuild with less pressure on the young players & instill his ethos thoroughly before we "hopefully" came back up with the finances under full control, confidence back & a more settled & established team? Who knows with the wages then fully under control we may have room for a couple of marque signings by then too! It's just looking more & more likely to me but hey.... I could be miles off of course

I take that, coupled with Hairyhands' posts, as the surest sign yet that they are now preparing for relegation. If they were doing anything else adding another couple of signings would not be an issue considering how much the wage bill has been slashed over the last few seasons... It would be an issue however if we went down. Why would you not add 2 players who could keep us up with the massive difference it would make to finances at this point? It makes no sense.

I was just going to post defending the number of goals against as being warped by the Chelsea, Southampton, Spurs & Man City results (21 goals against in 4 games) & say that if you took those as somewhat abnormal due to the inexperience in the team/fluke results or whatever, then things were not as bad as they appear. But then i remember the games when we have been perhaps fortunate to get away with not conceding many...Liverpool (a), QPR (a), Swansea (a) & then suddenly i realised just how bad we actually are as the list just goes on & on & on then you add in Wigan (H), Bradford (a), Everton (H) etc etc & enough said i think.

"Prepared" should surely now be replaced with "Peppered"

Seconded!

Yeah i see that Jarpie... even so i think we are that bad at the back that even if he is on for an hour or something it would be beneficial to us.... I keep seeing 21 goals against in what, 6 games? That's desperation time!

Really?.. Hutton for sure & Warnock maybe, although i can't help but think even he is better than what we have at present. Error prone yes but then so are all of our Left backs. At least Warnock has experience to call on. As for Dunne i just think despite his occasional errors he would reduce the number of goals conceded & could just be the steadying influence we need back there.. At least until the summer. Only thing which would change my mind on that is if the rumours of "Disruptive influences" are correct of course.

If we sell anyone to QPR then they all need their pulses checking at VP.. Arry would love that.. strengthen them whilst removing the one player from us who just could come back in & fill a massive hole at the back!.

So if we did get relegated has anybody compared or got any idea of actually how much we would miss out on in new TV money as compared to how much we gain by being relegated? .....................Benefits of relegation A/ Contracts running down / players leaving / reduced wage bill B/ Money saved in last few transfer windows including this one (as surely we have adopted an "absolute minimum" policy?) D/ Parachute payments E/ Money gained from selling players Compared to what we would lose: A/ Lower gate receipts B/ Less TV coverage / Prize Money I am seriously beginning to think that the accountants at Villa Park have calculated that we would be financially better off by being relegated. If we manage to stay up great & thats a bonus but if we go down all the biggest earners would want out, contracts run down, wage issues alleviated... Basically we sweep clean & start again? This would explain the silence from the club, Mon walking, the selling of all our best players, the massive reduction in the wage bill at such a rapid rate, the decision to stall the ground expansion, the freezing out of Bent, the transfer policy in general & lack of movement thus far this window despite the desperate nature of things at present.

So to summise the last few pages I thought it may be worth trying to solve Villa's plight with Mathematics.. So here's how i got on: Firstly we needed to find the common denominator: ..SQUAD DECIMATED .....SQUAD DECIMATED.....SQUAD DECIMATED Mon walks --/--Houllier episode--/--Mcleish episode--/--Lambert episode Randy Lerner Enough said?

Re: Dunne.. Anyone know how far off he is?.. & Vlaar? .. I still think Lowton - Vlaar - Dunne - Warnock would make a massive difference to our goals against column.

""Villa have informed Sky Sports"" is what it says.. Took this as being a direct quote from the club?

Good point Sne & one which i agree with.

Was looking at the current spine of the team Guzan (decent) ..............Clark (Poor).........Baker (Patchy) ............Bannan (Poor).. ....Delph (Poor) ............Weimann (decent /Learning)....Benteke (Good but learning) Is it any suprise we are in the mess we are? Add to that a very poor Left back situation. The players we are missing through injury or just not playing/fancied would change it to something like this .................................Guzan (decent) ...............Vlaar (Good / learning).. Dunne (Solid / error prone) ...............Westwood (Good/learning).. Ireland (Woefull) ..................................Bent (Never plays) I admit i would love to see how Vlaar & Dunne played together in defence & it's obvious we need a midfield general to partner Westwood. But it's plainly obvious why we are struggling looking at that lot. Any good team has a solid spine ours is either injured or not up to a sufficient standard. So for me in defence we need to get fit / replace Dunne, get Vlaar fit & give Clark & Baker a rest / chance to regroup & buy a new Left Back or bring Warnock back on a "last chance" basis. In Midfield we need a top notch Captain/general to replace Petrov.. I think Westwood is good but we need to drop Bannan & Delph yesterday. Up front i think we are reasonable but need to resolve the Bent situation & replace him as necessary with someone Lambert likes. & thats just the spine!!! lol!

Hmm.. Think its more important to get the foundations right before we put the cream on personally.. Its the spine of the team that needs major work especially in midfield & defence.

Dead in water Link: http://tinyurl.com/b4jpo6q ""Aston Villa rubbish reports claiming they are keen on Inter Milan's Philippe Coutinho Sky Sports understands that Aston Villa have been left bemused by links to Inter Milan's Philippe Countinho. Quotes attributed to Coutinho's agent, Cacau Barbosa, on Thursday suggested that the winger was a top target for Villa during the January transfer window. While pointing out that no deal had been agreed, Barbosa claimed that the Premier League club had enquired as to the winger's availability. Villa have informed Sky Sports that this is not the case, with no approach having been made. Paul Lambert is in the market for new recruits, but Coutinho is not considered to be a name towards the top of his wish list. It is possible that Countinho will be on the move during the current window, as the Brazilian is out of favour at Inter, but any imminent switch to Villa Park would appear to be unlikely.""

^^ This It's the startling pace at which & unbelievable length of time that this decimation has occurred over which is mystifying. It's almost as though Randy came in one day & just threw his toys & said "right thats it... Plan B now everyone & if you don't like it do one!" I think we all know the long & short of the financial issues etc but it's been done in such a destructive & careless manner with little regard for the fans.. Indeed a whitewash of info decended at the same time don't forget. This just seems a bit odd to me? Surely this could have been done but on a not so steep downward curve? After all if we'd finished higher we'd have earned more in prize money thus helping bridge the gap whilst the wages came down......... Odd.

I think the thing with the Bradford debacle is that we had ample pre warning of what to expect.. I can understand a shock cup result but i fail to see where the "Shock" was in that. We should have known what to expect & i am sure did so & to lose like that despite being "prepared" is what worries me. I still have time for Lambert i really do it's our players i have issues with. They are simply not good enough.

What i find a bit of a concern is that the style Lambert appears to be trying to incorporate, which appears to be something he picked up from his time under Hitzfield in Germany maybe, needs good players to make it work. Lets face it look at the players he played with in Germany.. that was a team packed with top players. Then if you look at his time at Celtic & compare the opposition up there to the Prem & a few things become apparant. So maybe the theory is good & could be great... But you need darn good players to make it work right?.... One thing we desperately lack by the looks of it is good players. So to Saturday & Southampton... I fear for us. Their forward line is 10 times the force that Bradfords is & we already of course have history against them with ..& thats with Vlaar playing!. Our only chance is a high scoring encounter which we edge in my book as i really cannot see them scoring less than 2/3 goals... Sad times when we need to be looking at 3 to 4 goals just to ensure draws!

I wonder what odds you'd get on a "0" in the against column for a Villa game now?