shaggy

Have you had your tonsils out?

rjw63 to clear up any confusion. My dad passed several months ago but was just referring to the actual week when he died rather than last week.

I'd play Gabby up front on his own. Has done it before and been a success but since its Lambert then it will be Holt with Gabby and Weimann out wide.

I don't recall anyone on here ever blaming the fans for our predicament. Performances at home were blamed on a lack of support and pressure from the stands. Since our home form has been a major contributing factor to our predicament as you call it then its safe to say the poster's point was correct.

Garcia's putting is suspect particularly under pressure which is a big no no around Augusta. Would like to see Rory win.

Lose against Palace and we'll be right back in the mire again.

Also sorry to hear that Stevo. You always have the feeling that your parents are always going to be there and when they're not it is a massive shock to the system. Forever onwards you walk around with a hole in your heart which can be partly filled with good memories but really you are stripped bare to the world as you no longer have their protection. When you have troubles in your life they are no longer at the end of a phone call or a visit and they are the only people you can really trust so it is a massive loss. Someone once said to me that losing your wife or partner is much worse than losing your parents. Well I've lost both my parents and I can't imagine being any more devastated than that but I've only experienced the latter. When I posted last night Mike I hadn't noticed your post stating that your dad had finally passed away. So sorry for your loss. My dad had been complaining of chest and arm pains all week and I had been trying to persuade him to go to the doctor. Finally he made a appointment to go and see the doc on the Friday but on the Thursday night died in his sleep from a heart attack. I'm sure like me you have no regrets and by the sound of it you were great mates. Some people didn't have a great father like you or I so I consider myself lucky and try and be happy for him as his suffering is now over. For the rest of your life he will be with you. You might be doing something mundane such as travelling on a bus or just walking somewhere and you will get this sudden warm feeling in your heart which then envelopes your whole body. That's your dad with you and telling you he's ok. Those images of him struggling for his last breath will eventually be replaced by him visiting you in your dreams and those are the memories that will last. Good luck mate and be thankful that you had such a great dad.

My uncle developed a very bad cough that just wouldn't go away. His GP eventually sent him for tests which revealed lung cancer. My uncle had been a heavy smoker most of his life but had kicked the habit for the last ten years but the damaged had already been done. He went through chemo and thought he had beaten it. Months later tests revealed that it had come back so he fought again and is now in remission. He loved his sport and played football for several local teams while working for most of his life before the battle. He now is a changed man losing most of his hair, frail and needs the use of a walking stick but he still has a positive outlook on life and has never said 'why me?' He is as I'm sure your dad is, an inspiration and mate I'm so, so, sorry for your trouble.

I'm surprised Bob didn't try and use a Live Aid.

I've won the lottery!!! Happy days.

Agree Electric Avenue. Every time I've seen him he performs well below the hype. I keep expecting him to do something special on the ball and never seen him do it.

By scoring they just made them angry.

No renewal of his contract and sacked after the last game of the season to allow a new manager to come in and sort out the mess.

If you don't take care of the small things, the big things won't follow. It still happened. It wasn't his fault that it didn't happen before he arrived. It's been done now. Are you seriously clinging onto that tenuous stat I'm not clinging onto anything - I'm just using it as an example of records and how really they don't mean anything. They are broken all the time at different points in time. This isn't athletics. Yet reading back through this topic some posters regularly put our away form forward as evidence to defend Lambert. Maybe its just those records which are acceptable to you as stats?

I don't understand some of your points here. For example; Lambert has improved Villa by removing players on "fat luxurious contracts", but should also do better "considering the players that Lambert had at his disposal before starting to rebuild". Which is it? He should've let them go or he should've kept them? Following on from this, you stated that Lambert shouldn't be praised - he's not being praised! This isn't a black or white situation between fans of "he's shit sack him" or "he's the messiah, keep him forever"; the fact is that Lambert has done an average job. A job that was to be expected but he has neither failed at nor exceeded. You could certainly argue it's been worse than hoped for - I'm sure most people (the manager included) would agree - but it hasn't been a mitigating disaster. The bit in bold; why did Roberto Martinez turn down this easy, dream job for any manager wishing to enhance their reputation? It's a no lose situation after all, perfect. He must be mad to have passed up on the opportunity. The bit in underlined italics; we're in 13th place. This isn't lying just above the relegation zone; we're closer to the top half. By all means argue on the aesthetic value of the football we play, the poor results at home or the disappointing cup defeats. In terms of real movement, we're placed higher in the table and are on a better financial footing. Lambert isn't a genius for this by any stretch, but it's happening. Maybe heading up the table is moving in the wrong direction for some people because it means Lambert won't be sacked, though? Haters gonna hate. All of this overlooks so many different factors as well such as the time it takes for new players to get used to the Premier League or for an entirely new squad to gel and settle together. Electric_Avenue asked somewhere further back in the thread about timescales for "pro-Lambert fans" - as has been said many, many times; this summer is key and Lambert has until Christmas (if seriously relegation threatened) / the end of next season in my eyes. If there's no improvement over 3 seasons, that's a major worry. However, I definitely don't expect us to be tearing up trees after a season and 2/3's. I think this is the problem with football; insta-success and history matter too much. There's a pretty unrealistic view on "where teams should be". David Moyes to be sacked after 1 season because Man Utd are 7th for example. Change takes time and stability is incredibly important in football - just look at the bottom of the league to be reminded of this. All fair questions and its refreshing to see them asked without sarcasm or an attempt at point scoring. The FB situation. Is Hutton any worse than Bennett or Luna? Could we have used Hutton on a temporary basis until better became available? Could we have used Bent and retained Fonzy instead of purchasing Kozak and Bowery? Could we have kept faith with Albrighton instead of purchasing Tonev? Could we have got more out of Given than signing Steer? Was Bannan much worse than Sylla or KEA. Yes the issue is wages but Bent, Given and Hutton are still on our books while paying the wages of new players. If we couldn't sell those players would it not have been better to try and utilize them rather than sticking them into a bomb squad? Arguably those players are still better than the new signings with the exception of Benteke. I think the answer is somewhere in between the two keeping some of those players while letting others go which he did with Cuellar and Collins. The problem has been that those players have been replaced with players of inferior ability and that's why we have struggled. If you look back through the site gentleman, Lambert has been praise for doing a good job. Yes i expected someone to come back to me about Martinez and its a fair point. I'm not party to the circumstances to explain why Martinez turned us down. It could have been a number of reasons including that he simply didn't fancy working under another budget restriction or it could have been that he was informed that the Everton job was going to become available and he would be offered it. You also have to consider that Lambert was given a fair whack of money in his first transfer window with us so it may not have been just about the budget restrictions? We're actually starting to drop our placement again Gentleman and it has been anything but stable this season with our present form also deteriorating. If we lose against Palace then we will be back in trouble again. If lambert came in and played Hutton at left back then I'd want him out before he started. Also I wouldn't call £20mill a fair whack of money for the Villa job. So on the basis of playing one player you would have wanted Lambert sacked at the start of last season while then being prepared to stick with him through one relegation dogfight and hovering above the relegation places this season? If he had concentrated on our weaknesses particularly in midfield while keeping more of the players that were here then 20m was a decent first window budget.

I don't understand some of your points here. For example; Lambert has improved Villa by removing players on "fat luxurious contracts", but should also do better "considering the players that Lambert had at his disposal before starting to rebuild". Which is it? He should've let them go or he should've kept them? Following on from this, you stated that Lambert shouldn't be praised - he's not being praised! This isn't a black or white situation between fans of "he's shit sack him" or "he's the messiah, keep him forever"; the fact is that Lambert has done an average job. A job that was to be expected but he has neither failed at nor exceeded. You could certainly argue it's been worse than hoped for - I'm sure most people (the manager included) would agree - but it hasn't been a mitigating disaster. The bit in bold; why did Roberto Martinez turn down this easy, dream job for any manager wishing to enhance their reputation? It's a no lose situation after all, perfect. He must be mad to have passed up on the opportunity. The bit in underlined italics; we're in 13th place. This isn't lying just above the relegation zone; we're closer to the top half. By all means argue on the aesthetic value of the football we play, the poor results at home or the disappointing cup defeats. In terms of real movement, we're placed higher in the table and are on a better financial footing. Lambert isn't a genius for this by any stretch, but it's happening. Maybe heading up the table is moving in the wrong direction for some people because it means Lambert won't be sacked, though? Haters gonna hate. All of this overlooks so many different factors as well such as the time it takes for new players to get used to the Premier League or for an entirely new squad to gel and settle together. Electric_Avenue asked somewhere further back in the thread about timescales for "pro-Lambert fans" - as has been said many, many times; this summer is key and Lambert has until Christmas (if seriously relegation threatened) / the end of next season in my eyes. If there's no improvement over 3 seasons, that's a major worry. However, I definitely don't expect us to be tearing up trees after a season and 2/3's. I think this is the problem with football; insta-success and history matter too much. There's a pretty unrealistic view on "where teams should be". David Moyes to be sacked after 1 season because Man Utd are 7th for example. Change takes time and stability is incredibly important in football - just look at the bottom of the league to be reminded of this. All fair questions and its refreshing to see them asked without sarcasm or an attempt at point scoring. To answer your first question. Is Hutton any worse than Bennett or Luna? Could we have used Hutton on a temporary basis until better became available? Could we have used Bent and retained Fonzy instead of purchasing Kozak and Bowery? Could we have kept faith with Albrighton instead of purchasing Tonev? Could we have got more out of Given than signing Steer? Was Bannan much worse than Sylla or KEA. Yes the issue is wages but Bent, Given and Hutton are still on our books while paying the wages of new players. If we couldn't sell those players would it not have been better to try and utilize them rather than sticking them into a bomb squad? Arguably those players are still better than the new signings with the exception of Benteke. I think the answer is somewhere in between the two keeping some of those players while letting others go which he did with Cuellar and Collins. The problem has been that those players have been replaced with players of inferior ability and that's why we have struggled. If you look back through the site gentleman, Lambert has been praise for doing a good job. Yes i expected someone to come back to me about Martinez and its a fair point. I'm not party to the circumstances to explain why Martinez turned us down. It could have been a number of reasons including that he simply didn't fancy working under another budget restriction or it could have been that he was informed that the Everton job was going to become available and he would be offered it. You also have to consider that Lambert was given a fair whack of money in his first transfer window with us so it may not have been just about the budget restrictions? We're actually starting to drop our placement again Gentleman and it has been anything but stable this season with our present form also deteriorating. If we lose against Palace then we will be back in trouble again.

Clearly since Lambert has been here there has been improvement in one area only and that is to rid ourselves of players who weren't deserving of their fat luxurious contracts. Should that be enough to be apathetic towards his result record when you also factor in the chairman's lack of investment in the team compared to other Premiership teams? To answer the first question any other manager taking the job would have had to deal with the wage issue and would have acted accordingly so I'm not sure that should be something you can base any defence of Lambert on. The follow on argument from that is well while removing those players and revamping the squad he has managed to keep us in the Premiership. The opportunity to revamp a squad with reasonable funding, to be allowed to build your own team is something that most managers would see as a welcome challenge, certainly a manager who would want to enhance his reputation and knowing that you were following a manager who was ultimately hated by the majority of the fan base would be seen by many as a no lose situation. Considering the players that Lambert had at his disposal before starting to rebuild and backing his own judgement in the transfer market the manager and chairman would have at the very least expected to retain our Premiership status. Any other manager coming into Villa Park would not have expected to worry about relegation so managing to keep us in the Premiership with some very poor teams around us would have been a low starting point of expectancy and not really something to warrant praise. I've often wondered to myself what was Lambert's expectations when he came to our club? He would have come here full of confidence knowing that with very little investment he had already gained promotion for Norwich and then managed to secure mid table playing some good football while beating us with a degree of comfort in his last game. In that respect maybe he was a good fit for us since some fan expectancy had hit the floor and there was a higher tolerance level towards mediocrity because at least that was better than what we had under McLeish. Since we have been ever present in the Premier League there is no praise here for being promoted and certainly no praise for being in a relegation battle in season one and positioned just above the relegation zone in season two. So in his own mind has he deemed himself a failure at Villa Park or does he gage success by replicating his placement with Norwich? Reading his comments in the press one would assume that he realizes the expectancy levels are higher here certainly more than they were at Norwich so with that in mind he must be particularly disappointed with our performances in his second season with us as we are currently heading in the wrong direction again. So with very little money and with an inferior squad to our own he overachieved at Norwich. With better players at our club and 40+m to spend achieving one relegation dogfight and struggling to stay mid table he has been deemed by some on here as doing a good job for this club. You wonder then why those who have had the nerve to criticize Lambert get so exasperated with the stated points of defence above.

I didn't use the word entirety or mention every game.

A league table shows how you're doing compared to everyone else. It shows he's been here longer than most. Its not proof he's been here for ages and ages but it does show that in modern football he's had a while in charge now. If the job was your usual premier league managers job then you'd have a point. Jeez, I was speaking to a Derby fan who understands what Lambert has had to do better than some on here do. That's probably due to not having to pay to watch the dross served up by Lambert and his team over the last two seasons. Was it dross when we beat Arsenal, Man City or Chelsea? When we smashed Sunderland 6-1? Yes there has been a great deal of dross but to say that the entirety of Lambert's tenure has been rubbish is ridiculous. Point out where I've said that.

Can question him whenever you like. It just seems you can't defend him whenever though. Of course you can defend him but that defence has become as brittle as the teams due to Lambert's record with us.

A league table shows how you're doing compared to everyone else. It shows he's been here longer than most. Its not proof he's been here for ages and ages but it does show that in modern football he's had a while in charge now. If the job was your usual premier league managers job then you'd have a point. Jeez, I was speaking to a Derby fan who understands what Lambert has had to do better than some on here do. That's probably due to not having to pay to watch the dross served up by Lambert and his team over the last two seasons.

It implies that he's the 5th longest serving manager in the league. The point is he hasn't just been here a few months. And neither has he been here for a particularly long time. A 'long-time' is contextual though. In the current Premier League managerial climate, he has been given quite a bit of time which is why he is 5th on the list. One could argue that he hasn't had a massive amount of time to sort out the problems at Villa. One could also argue that he has made those problems worse on the playing side.

I used to think Thailand was spelt Toyland and full of toys. Could never understand why a lot of men went there until I watched a few programmes on television. That was about ten years ago and now I want to go.

It's the same thing.

A fit Richards yes but very injury prone and that would be a worry for me in that how many games a season he would play for us.