bobzy

Away team in travelling to destination shock.

Someone asked him on Twitter if Lambert was with, he replied "I believe so".

Edit: By "him", I mean Colley

Frimpong gone to Barnsley on a permanent.  Surely he weren't good enough for us then.

Genuinely amazed that fans apparently know less than scouts in the game.  Amazed

 

 

 

 

 

Right lets play a game.

I am Randy Lerner. I have invested £200m+ into Aston Villa. I've paid off 3 managers in 3 seasons, and now (I think) have the manager that suits my agenda. After a horrorshow last season my club is now comfortably sat 10th in the league.

Explain to me why I should invest more money into Aston Villa today.

Well firstly I don't think your past **** ups are relevant reasons as to not to spend now. Also as 'the plan' is to spend what we can afford, we could build on our 10th place, finish higher up in the league and secure more TV revenue. With a world cup coming up in the summer we could find an increase in fees and wage demands of some of our targets and finally it gives players a chance to bed in and allows the team to have a better chance of starting stronger next season.

Of course his past **** ups are relevant! It's not a **** game, it's real money that he has spent. That's money down the drain that he has lost, whether that's his own fault or not is a whole other matter.

So we fans should suffer because the owner made mistakes. Forgive me for not worrying that a billionaire might lose some money.

 

It is that attitude that makes you sound like a spoilt child.

 

We don't have any right to expect a sugar daddy owner to spend their own money on the club. The money we earn needs to be reinvested (Ellis didn't even manage that) but the extra money Lerner puts in every year on top of that is a bonus, not something to take for granted.

Whilst I do understand your point, no one is forced to own a football club. So expecting an owner, a billionaire at that, to put money in doesn't really sound like a spoilt child attitude to me.

 

But you're also expecting that owner to treat the club like a fan would rather than as a businessman.

If I'm running a football club, have pumped in hundreds of millions and am currently holding on to a loss making entity, I'm not just going to throw more money at it for the reason of "the fans are moaning again".

Celtic accepts 800k bid for Joe Ledley, bid made by Crystal Palace. Seems like quite a good deal that.

Wow

If only we were spending these fees on those players right now

LAMBERT OUT!!

I think it's staggered, so not like receiving £100m straight away - but it's still a significant increase from what they were budgeting on.

 

Well I was 2 in 1986 and I don't see it the same as John

You old git, I was only 1

 

You old fart, I was only just born.

Outspent by Crystal Palace it looks ...

 

I hate the way people bang on about this.

Crystal Palace have just been promoted from the Championship which would've had a squad competing on Championship wages.  They then receive however many millions it is for promotion to the Premier League (don't they call the playoff final the £100m game or something?) meaning that they are bound to be able to spend more than some established Premier League teams in the first season.  See also; Cardiff City.

Now compare those teams spending this season/window to that of us, Sunderland, Swansea, Stoke, West Brom, Norwich, Everton, Fulham (up until now perhaps)... 

 

In terms of control, passing and dribbling yes he's technical ability is quite poor. Doesn't mean he can't take a great free kick though.

 

Overall maybe, but the pass for Benteke's 1-on-1 chance was pretty awesome imo (especially with his left foot).  As you say, great squad player to have.

 

 

I actually don't see the fuss over us not getting any more in, we've got 2 in already, 1 maybe not needed, 1 looks very good so far

thing is what does signing 2/3 players now actually achieve? give us a push to catch Southampton in 9th 5 points ahead of us? or really push the boat out and try and catch Newcastle in 8th 10 points ahead of us?

we'll be safely mid table, as many predicted, boring as it may be, spending £10-15m now on harder to get maybe not 1st choice targets might not do anything, save the energy and the cash till the summer

is that saying that we've given up or gone small time, not in my mind its a realistic view of both villa and the January transfer window as a whole

But if we could get that one quality midfielder who vastly improves the team, that 9th or 8th place would generate more prize money meaning more could be spent in the summer. It would also mean that the player would be acclimatised to our ram and players hopefully meaning that we could push on next yr and not have a complete rebuild again next summer

 

According to this :

 

http://anfieldindex.com/5707/the-financial-importance-of-a-good-premier-league-finish-for-liverpool.html

 

Each place up the league table in 2013/14 is worth an additional £1,126,750, which is quite a jump from the £755,062 last year.

 

So if we were to finish 10th this year that would mean a prize money receipt of £12,394,250, as opposed to the £4,530,372 we got last year for finishing 15th - nearly an £8m difference.  Given how close the table is this year, a bit of an investment now might be a good idea. 

 

To gamble on prize money?  Why? :|

 

The lack of funding argument has also been dissected. Who have we signed this window and what was the mechanism used? Are you telling me that Lambert could not have exercised that loan policy last season with the same calibre of player?

 

 

Whilst I agree with your post to some extent Morpheus (i.e: Lambert isn't doing an exceptional job, just a decent one), we can't really comment on last January's window like this.  For example, who knows which players were available for loan at the time?  Were we in a position to afford their wages?  Would they have actually been an improvement on the team?

Furthermore, the impetus was to, as repeated several billion times on here, build a squad.  Loan players don't give you a squad, they give you a short term solution. What we have now is a squad of players and Lambert seems to be acknowledging that areas need strengthening that haven't worked out within the cheap purchases.

Kozak out injured and we need experience?  Grant Holt on loan is someone he can trust to do the job short term.

Luna and Bennett not quite cutting the grade?  We'll bring in Ryan Bertrand for the rest of the season with a view to purchasing him if he plays well.

Lack of creativity in the middle of the park?  Wes Hoolahan is someone he can trust to do the job and would be a short term, experienced fix.

I'd question his tactics at times, but his signings have all been decent for me.  Not necessarily how the players have actually performed, but what they potentially offered to the team.  As an example, Tonev hasn't worked out - but he looked like the kind of midfielder who would provide goals from an area in which we badly lack them.  The good thing with them is that they are no longer having a massive impact on our finances.  If they don't work out, we can get rid without much of a dent.  As far as putting together an initial squad goes, he's done pretty well.

The big test is this summer.

People say Lambert cannot motivate players but we have taken 10pts from losing positions this season the 2nd highest in the league and only dropped 2pts from winning positions the lowest in the league.

Great stat to be fair.

One of our huge problems over the last few seasons has been conceeding late goals (honestly, we seemed to do it every single game) but it looks like Lambert has worked on this massively.  It might partly be why we've been as conservative r.e: attacking football this season, but the defence looks much more solid this season - even with Luna/Lowton as our full backs...

...granted, though, we now seem to conceed the first goal.  At least that gives us time to score rather than having points stolen away from us, right?

 

 

We're in the top half of the table, 3 points clear of the team below us....and there's only 2 teams above us I'd say we have a chance of getting above even if we had bought an expensive number 10 (the second-tier teams have got much stronger in recent times, like Spurs and Liverpool). I'd say Lambert is doing very well with the quality of players that we have.

 

If you were offered this progression a year ago today I'm pretty sure everyone on the board would have ripped your arm off.

I kind of agree but when we're spending on average about £2m a player I'd expect us to be dominating the possession in most games and at least top 8. Our average points per game is still very low as well. If we'd signed a lot of the players that teams below us have signed in the last 18 months then we would surely be in a better position going forward, after all if you don't pay Premier League wages then you'll get nowhere.

 

This post absolutely baffles me.

 

I think he'd be better off on the right side of the diamond, he's a very good crosser when he does get up the pitch and even his passing in an advanced area is decent, but he doesn't do enough defensively as a dm. Get in a good dm and he could flourish on the diamonds right side IMO.

Agree with this to an extent, although wouldn't want him out wide.  If we got a proper destructive DM in and then had Westwood/Delph as the two more advanced central midfielders, I'd be happy.

I like that Westwood is calm on the ball and just keeps things ticking over - he's just not physical enough to win the ball back if/when he loses it.  There's definitely a place for him in our squad though, definitely.

Didn't Delph play as a right sided attacking midfielder for Leeds? Did very well there I think I recall, so maybe his better position is being out wide and more attacking.

Maybe... but then did you see the ball he "put in" for Benteke/Weimann after he won it off the West Brom player?

Must be Everton and mustn't be too far away?

...as well as the fact that he's a genuine threat with free kicks.  I'm happy with him personally.

Such a relief to see that kind of performance from him, he really had me worried that he'd lost it.

 

I don't think its any coincidence that it came with him

 

A - playing upfront

B - playing off a Benteke on form, Andy really thrives off him.

 

Great and so pleasing to see. So nice that we created so much without Gabby on the pitch

I thought he did well against Liverpool in that "number 10" role as well (mainly pressing their defensive mid until they changed system).  It just proves that Weimann, despite having pace and being able to take people into the channels, is a better player in the middle of the park...

...which actually gives us a bit of a problem as, essentially, he, Benteke and Gabby all need to be in the starting eleven.

I think this is my main problem with him - he just flaps.

Delph has faults (runs too often, loses ball) but has an absolute engine and a decent shot on him... that hopefully we'll see more of

Westwood has faults (too weak, muscled off the ball easily and unable to win it back) but generally keeps things simple and is calm on the ball

El Ahmadi's main strength is.... err.... yeah, I really don't know.

You say not his best game, but I genuinely can't think of anything he did wrong?  At the end, he was calm and wasted the perfect amount of time, claimed a particularly dangerous cross... I just love him as our keeper to be honest.

I'm going there - I thought he was decent tonight.  Not the greatest defensively (more positionally more than anything I think) but offers a surprising amount going forwards.

Weimann outshone him for me, and he should've scored his 1-on-1 chance so I'm glad he got the penalty opportunity to keep his scoring run going.

I still think there's more (i.e: better performances) in him this season if I'm being honest.

 

I actually thought he was pretty average tonight, but the goal was brilliant. Gave away possession far too often with silly runs though, needs to cut that out.

He did make errors but I thought he was our best midfield player.

 

Well, yes... not the greatest amount of competition in the world mind

Westwood was alright - some of his passes went astray though, much like Delph's runs to nowhere.  I genuinely don't understand what El Ahmadi offers the team, though :|

Agreed, was immense tonight.  Timed most things perfectly and was, essentially, a wall.  Great performance.