El-Reacho

He's no athlete - so shouldn't take him too long to get up to his level of match fitness ;-) Back for WBA game?

http://goo.gl/DAVSE Interesting article about how leaderless we are in a footballing sense. I know people on here have raised issues as to how reliable this guy is (the journalist). Quite interesting that he says O'Neill spent £20m more than was agreed with Randy. Did he actually give O'Neill his account details? Seems incredible - especially when the last £20m O'Neill spent at Villa would have been Dunne, Warnock, and Collins. He clearly blew his budget before he even looked at replacing the back 4 - hence the overspend.

The wind will change. The one blessing is that it's still only January. We can rebuild our confidence with a goal or two and an addition or two and we'll slowly drag ourselves out of this.

Begs the question - Is Lambert here because he knows what the future holds? Just like O'Neill joined the club under Ellis when he knew what was on the cards. I love a good conspiracy theory.

Suede released their new single on Monday - not a great day to do it admittedly; they obviously didn't realise Bowie was releasing his. It's on thier website. It's no Wild Ones.

^ Saw them support Suede way back when. Must be more than 10 years ago now? Great singer.

Boeing 737 - Low Anthem. Brilliant.

Giro to start in Belfast (my back garden) in 2014 - heads to Dublin (Pat McQuaid's son's back garden coincidentally) on stage one. My favourite race - should be fun! I'm sure Contador, Hesjedal, Wiggo et al will be delighted about this when they see the current news.

Thank. ****.

FIFA 2013.

Perhaps PL wanted Dale Stephens plus a defensive midfielder with premier league experience and has now been forced to choose one or the other due to RL's turning off of the taps.

Why have four successive Villa managers (including the one who scouted him and subsequently bought him) played him in that position then? He also played there when he returned to Leeds on loan IIRC. Surely he's bound to have mentioned to someone along the way that he's an attacking winger if that's were he's at his best. That could solve a problem area for us in itself.

Hendrie scored a few screamers in his time IIRC.

Any estimates as to what the proposed fee and wages might be?

Am hoping Vlaar and Dunne will suddenly be fit in the same way as Zog, Bent , and Gabby were last week. Those two are probably more important to us now than anyone we're likely to sign. Zog showed glimpses in his last two games that he can offer something - hopefully he can give us a strong finish to the season.

Wow - that's all we need? Hope somebody mentions this to PL. Maybe Lerner's of this belief too - hence no money for players. Just get a defensive coach instead.

I'd have Clark in there instead of Warnock - he did well at LB under Houllier and can pass it. Would also be good for him being alongside Dunne and being told what to do rather than trying to marshal things himself. I think Warnock well and truly gave up on us when O'Neill left. His displays since then have just reeked of someone who doesn't care. Doesn't care if he give away dangerous frees, doesn't care if he just hoofs it and loses possession.

A fit Dunne is exactly what we need for the run in. He's at his best in desperate last ditch defending - it's what he thrives on. He's exactly what the younger defenders need when we're under the cosh. I would hope that, despite the fact he's injured - he's still in the dressing room talking to the likes of the Clark and Baker. Despite his recent form and injuries he's an experienced premier league defender and at the top of his game was one of the league's best. He's never had pace or athleticism so it's not like he'll come back missing it. I think he could give us one last big effort and really make a difference.

Keys is the hairy one isn't he? Good article though - hard to disagree with...

Faulkner's an administrator - he doesn't make any decisions. He's a run around that takes care of the day to day requirements of running a large business. I reckon he would have very little to do with footballing issues other than perhaps the PR side of them.

That's as much the fault of his team mates is it is his. Sums up our performances right now as they're all to scared to want the ball.

It's how Swansea got Michu so cheap. Everyone in Spain seemed to know how good he was.

DOL not exactly the guy you want when funds are tight. He'd have Bannan and Bennett running to the press to complain.....

On the other hand Houllier, McLeish, had one season - we went nowhere and we had to start again. Imagine we'd been able to keep going with Houllier - where do you think we'd be? O'Neill had a few seasons to build. I don't think we have anywhere close to having the squad to allow a manager to come in and give us a shot in the arm to bring us up the table in half a season like say Gregory did.

I think Lambert's fed up demeanour last night was him knowing that what he had out on the pitch isn't good enough. The tactics/formation isn't the issue for me. The players know they can't cope - hence a complete lack of motivation. They're too scared to want the ball and just panic when they get it. Bennett was like a rabbit in the headlights. Lambert knows they can't cope, Lerner and Faulkner have to know they can't cope. You read about young players joining big clubs and having the likes of a Roy Keane or Viera breathing down their necks in training from day one - cajoling them and constantly at them to improve every part of their game. We simply don't have that. The next few weeks are huge - it's up to RL to decide if he wants to finance it, and PL to bring the required players. Sacking Lambert is madness - we'll be right back here in a year's time with the next guy - either fighting relegation or rebuilding in the Championship. If it's the latter - Lambert's probably the most qualified to do it. It's major biting of the bullet - but stability has to be the priority.