Mic09

how much better is watching this than Swansea - Villa?  maybe one day we will be as good as this again...

Tactical genius. He does not seem to care that he parks the bus, he wins, and thats what the fans want. He will go far by that approach, and by drawing with Atletico they are with a big chance of going to the CL final. Unfortunately, the league is out of his hands, so they must rely on other results. I hope they do it though, out of ManC and Liverpool. 

Secondly, as much as we can despise him, he knows exactly what he is doing. Let me give you an example;

When ramires brutally and criminally fouled Karim, Jose knew exactly what he was doing to get himself sent off. I think he did it to take the pressure of his player. And the papers hardly talked about Ramires; it was all about Mourinho getting sent off. 

He is a tactical genius, bit of an asshole, but a great, intelligent manager. 

ill have a pm if you are kind enough 

Gabby.

Let's do it Giggsy style 

 

The prediction contest form now includes an exciting new "Your name!" field. 

 

Thanks to those who have made entries so far. Please  claim ownership of the following - 

 

Entry A

 

1-1 Villa will have less than 25% possession 2-2 1-0 2-1 3-1 2-0 2-2 1-1 Mourinho will blame the ref for something in the post match interview 1-2 3-0

 

 

 

Entry B

 

2-1 Bony to score at least 1 1-4 2-2 1-2 0-1 3-1 2-2 1-2 sterling scores 1-4 3-0

 

 

 

 

Entry C

 

2-2 Weimann to score 1-3 1-1 2-0 2-0 3-0 2-1 3-0 Suarez to score 2-1

3-0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entry D

 

10-1   3-0 3-0 3-0 3-0 0-3 3-0 1-1   3-0 0-3

 

 

 

 

 

 

I claim ownership over entry B!

maybe to do some business at the ground with the new owner? But then again, Im sure Randy has people to show the potential buyers round our facilities. Unless of course, they are not american, and come from the east. Could birmingham be the halfway meeting point?

Or maybe he just fancied a pit stop on broad street?

I know national teams have training camps/games, but a lot of what they play must be influenced by the team that the players play in. And for that reason, Germany will not win it. I was hoping for them to do so, but bayern is nowhere near as good tacticaly as they were last year

 

its probably for the same reason Pele is not considered one of the best players in the history.... Oh, wait a minute...

Ha ha silly, that's not Pele!!  

 

 

Don't.... know.... if.... sarcastic....

I'm sorry Brad 

I never 'had a go' at Holt like a lot of us here, but what makes you guys think that Holt will actually win those crosses?

somebody please pm me when something exciting happens.... booooriiiiing.

Well, it turns out Bayern played the best football last year because they played german football. Tiki Taka does not work against well organised top teams

Have you heard that Zidane will be going for a managers job after wanting to move on from only being an assistant?

Imagine that... 

Guzan

Bacuna Vlaar Baker Bertrand

Delph KEA Westwood

Albrighton Holt Gabby

I know Gabby has been useless recently but it's away from home and I think he is suited to it. Get Marc putting crosses in like he did last week with Holt to get on the end of them.

IIRC Lambert has never lost to Swansea in his managerial career.

Thanks Chappy. Now we know that there is a record to be broken.

Imagine this for a scenario;

Summer of 2014; After months of consultations and meetings, Randy Lerner has given a green light to a 200 million buy out of the Aston Villa club to an American billionaire. The deal was settled as early as April. It is rumoured he was willing to invest an initial 150 million pounds in the summer transfer window, following with another possible 50 million during winter. Unfortunately, Aston Villa, after losing to Southampton, Drawing with Swansea and concedaing the the 91st minute goal against Hull have put themselves in a very difficult situation for their remaining 2 fixtures against Tottenham and Man City. As bravely as they battled, they couldnt hold on to their 2-0 initial Man City lead and conceded 3 quick goals, which was followed ,by a thrashing at White Hart Lane. Villa, for the first time in nearly 30 years got relegated. However, as the billionaire in question was willing to invest in English football, it turned out he held quiet under the table talks with Stoke City. Stoke, the new owned club, are spending their 150 million rather quickly, with the latest arrivals of Diego Costa, Toni Kross and Wesley Sneijder all set to sign 4 year deals.

May of 2017: We have the new Champions of Europe! After a long and amazingly close penalty shoot out, Stoke City have beaten Bayer Munich to the title! 

F*** me.... 

I'd put suarez ahead of aguero, aguero is quality when fit but I think suarez is the better player. I think suarez is a huge part of that liverpool team, not just with his goals but his link up play and work rate is top class.

I'd put Holt above Suarez. 

For me Suarez is in the same league as Joey Barton, Pepe, and half of La Liga (Barca especially). Dirty, dirty players who should not be on the TV for the youngsters to see. Disgrace to walk on the football pitch. 

If Lambert does get a sack, does that mean Given will be a temporary manager?

Hmmm if he might be selling to one of his American mates I might put a fiver on Klinsmann for manager. Is anywhere taking bets on our next manager?

If we get Klinsmann I will personally give you One Million Pounds.

 

Guzan

Lowton

Vlaar

Donacien

Bertrand

Bacuna

Delph

Westwood

Albrighton

Holt

Tonev

 

3-2 Villa

 

 

KEA will be in there to be honest

 

and so will baker....

it does make you wonder what kind of a deal brands like Macron or Warrior have to be offering in order for Us or liverpool to abandon nike or adidas. How do their break their monopolies?

 

 

Agreed, to a great extent Martinez is reaping the benefits of Moyes hard work over many years. Everton are renowned for having next to no money but have bought and sold well.

 

 

To keep completely on topic the issue we have is that we just don't have the management structure or seemingly the ability to create a well organised and difficult to beat side. That is where Everton started and where we are so wrong as seemingly the club thinks Lambert is capable of doing 'a Moyes'. Everything I have seen suggests otherwise.

 

 

People keep citing the Everton example of some managerial triumph in adversity - and Moyes did indeed do a good job.  However, the start of his reign at Everton was;

 

1st season - Only there for 4 months, survived (aim achieved)

2nd season - Finished 7th(!) and was awarded manager of the year

3rd season - Finished 17th(!) with the lowest points total in the clubs' history

 

This is often completely overlooked for the achievements afterwards which arose solely because Moyes was given time to influence his playing squad and stamp his authority on the club.  Everton didn't go for the knee-jerk reaction after obviously completely failing in the 2003/04 season having finished 7th the campaign before and it paid off.

 

I'm not saying this is necessarily the case at Villa/with Lambert, but I'm tired of hearing shit like "look at how well Moyes did at Everton!" as a dig at Lambert when, essentially, their tenures started in much the same vain (aside from Moyes dragging out a 7th place, of course).

 

Good post. I just can't see us getting a top notch manager, but I believe Lambert will build himself a good sqad over the summer, and will EVENTUALLY build something like Everton did. My expectation for next season is to finish 8th and build on from there. Do you think that if we got Mourinho tomorrow we would somehow go on and beat palace without breaking sweat? 

Lambert should be given one more season. IF he still has us around 15th place, we should then consider giving him the sack. Not because he has lost 3 games in a row, but because he has proven not to build a squad capable of good achievement over 3 seasons.

He has definately build a good enough spine of the team;

You could argue that Guzan, Vlaar, Bertrand, Delph, Benteke, Okore could walk into the Everton team straightaway, while players like Gabby, Karim, Westwood, or even Bacuna could make the bench there. 

If we can build on our foundation of Guzan, Vlaar, Bertrand, Delph, Benteke, Okore, add another 3 quality signings, I dont see why we cant go for the top 8 next season. 

with all the respect to the guy, he comes from one of the Europes worst leagues. He will take his time in adjusting to PL, but I am sure he can make a good squad player.