BG_Villa_Fan

Well, it obviously is a balance between what the manager wants and what the board can afford to get. The key is to negotiate and find this balance. It's very easy to blame someone, say the board gives O'Neill a budget of 200k per week for the transfer window and he buys Beye on wages that are high but within the set budget - then who's fault is it? I say both are wrong. Every football club has a team that should be both financially aware and with enough footballing knowledge, so that they would make the decisions in the best interest of the club. Now, obviously they'll make mistakes, but overall they should be steering the club forward. This hasn't been happening at Villa for a while now and with quite a few different managers. Also, as much as I agree that managers don't want to be controlled by the board, it is very naive to think that the manager himself does all of the transfer business, from the fee negotiating to the contract detials. As for Chelsea, they have been successful because Abramovich has more money than common sense, but I'd argue they would have been even more successful if he had let Mourinho do his thing and hadn't fired him.

Well, according to your logic a football club cannot be run in a financially responsible manner unless the guy who provides the money also has the footballing knowhow to do all the deals himself. I don't find this to be the case in most teams and wherever this happens, cough Chelsea cough, the results are rarely positive. In business, management delegates responsibilities to people, who work within a predefined set of rules to the best interest of the club or owner. Whether the responsible people are a number of advisors, or a director of football or the manager himself is up to the higher management - and so is the overall responsibilty for the business results. In Villa's case - if Lerner hasn't been able to hire people with the good footballing knowhow to do good deadls, then that's his problem and his responsibility.

How about this : - The manager names the players he wants - The board gets them players if available and if on a contract that the board find financially acceptable

Tbh, I agree with most of this. I'm just waiting for Lambert to show some of this superduper amazingness I only read about because his gametime decisions and results so far have certainly left a lot to be desired.

The transformation of old Richard into an IanRobo clone in the space of a couple of months is mind-boggling

Don't believe this is true because it's the games head to head and not the goal difference that matters most when two teams have equal points. Thus Chelsea are already behind Shakhtar no matter what and Juventus only need a draw to be ahead of Chelsea too.

Very harsh on Di Matteo. Whether he had luck winning the Champions league or not is irrelevant. Why keep him in the job in the first place if he'd be on such a short leash? I hope whoever comes next fails miserably, this is not how a manager should be treated.

Can't be too big a rivalry when 'Smäll/Calmed' always get beat.

Very much the same as it is now, one of the biggest site meltdowns was after the 1st day of the season Wigan loss. It was epic, haven't seen anything remotely similar in the past 3 seasons. Of course then we went on to beat Liverpool at Anfield.

Top post Mark, spot on!

Very true. The levels of hypocrisy in some comments are laughable, especially when people say Lambert should be backed even if he relegates us. McShite didn't do it and he had much less resources than Lambert. If we go down this season it'd be 100% on Lambert. That said, I doubt it, cause I believe he can become the good manager that people think he already is.

Why? Did McLeish perform miracles last season? Lambert got McLeish's team and spent quite a bit of money on top. He wouldn't need miracles to save us, he'd only have to do an acceptable job given the resources.

Safe to say Lambert hasn't covered himself in glory since the start of the season, however, I don't see how it's possible for him to do worse than McLeish and relegate us. After all, he's got McLeish's squad + 17 or so million spent. He should **** it up massively to get us relegated.

Fixed

No way..

Obviously this debate has been done to death, but just to clarify - finishing on the 9th position on average does not mean you're the 9th best team. Man U's average finish during the premier league is 2nd, but that doesn't mean they're the 2nd best team during that period.

Having Berbatov behind Bent would mean he'd get the service he needs in order to be the goalscorer he's proven to be. Not that there was any chance Berbatov would come to Villa or for Villa to afford his wages.

True, but how do you define success for Aston Villa FC? Is finishing 15th or so with the 15th or so wage bill success? If that's your definition, then fair enough that's where we're heading anyway.

Well yea, but thing is, it's impossible because at the first spark of the kind of talent needed for success our young players would be off to the teams that spend lots of money and get paid 100K per week rather than 30K at a self-sustainably run club. As they should, tbh.

What does 'selling our soul' mean? As long as we're raiding the likes of Wigan or Middlesbrough for the N'Zogbias and Downings we're not selling it, but if we start spending a lot of money on stars (cough* Bent *cough)we would be? As I said, football is already broken, it's all about where you are in the financial power chain and we're above the likes of Wigan and 'Boro, but so far below the Man City's etc it's unbelievable. Football sold it's soul to Sky, Villa included. I have no answer, except lets all burn it down and start over. Tbh, I fully agree with what you're saying. I just think it's not a matter of doing a Man City at the cost of selling our soul - it's already sold, and it's just a matter of the amount of money to spend right now. So there's no moral high ground to be stood about it, that's just what football is nowadays and it's very unlikely to change.

What does 'selling our soul' mean? As long as we're raiding the likes of Wigan or Middlesbrough for the N'Zogbias and Downings we're not selling it, but if we start spending a lot of money on stars (cough* Bent *cough)we would be?

Berbatov to Fulham apparently sealed. Brilliant signing for them.

Given 1 - 1 Howard

I hope Moyes shows some mercy.

I think it's quite clear, tbh ( for this season at least ). 1. Get rid of anyone on high wages if possible. 2. Buy replacement on lower wages. 3. Survive.