BG_Villa_Fan

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.

I think the three months is just a stop-gap before he signs for Milan.

Fixed

a fellow poster with a grudge.

No way..

Food for thought: We repeatedly mention that Villa are, on average, the fifth best team since the Prem began. This is only because, largely through luck alone, we have managed to avoid being relegated several times, i.e. it is a result of us spending 20 years in the league, not a reflection on our performance in that time. Our actual average Prem finish in that time is 9th.

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.

I am not knocking either Bent or Berbatov here but those two up front together would have meant having two lazy players in the starting line up instead of the one we have now. I like them both but not in the same team!

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.

Success is relative, it doesn't have to be about winning trophies.

They were bottom of the entire football league 10 years ago, now they're near the top of the Prem.

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.

I agree with villabromsgrove. While having money is important, I'd rather succeed with young, hungry talent rather than overpaid 'wellknown' players. However, it would be nice seeing Villa climb up a bit, which having Sheikh whoever would do.

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.

That's rubbish. Problem is if we went that way, we sell our soul. If we don't, no success. We can't win. Football is broken, completely and utterly, and until it all implodes on itself and we can start again we can't win either way.

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.

That's rubbish. Problem is if we went that way, we sell our soul. If we don't, no success. We can't win. Football is broken, completely and utterly, and until it all implodes on itself and we can start again we can't win either way.

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.

It's all very weird at the villa now to be honest, there is no clear message of where we want to go.

I think we are due a bit of honesty for a change.

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.

he is going to do to sunderland what he did to us, wait and see

Take them to Europe?

I'm going to say - lets leave Lambert to sort it out for himself.

Very much this.

Also, it's not like we need to have a single formation to play, or even a primary one, I fully expect Lambo to try out different ones and adjust depending on the opposition. That said, the 90's 3-5-2 would not be suited to today's premier league, but works ok in Italy ( Napoli , etc ).

Lambert is so far away from O'Neill. Unlike O'Neill Lambert:

- Looks further afield than the UK for players and doesn't sign players on massive wages and stupidly long contracts

- Gets players passing the ball

- Is tactically astute

- Rotates his squads

- Isn't a word removed

People only compare the two because Lambert played under O'Neill and they both managed Norwich.

All of these are debateable. What's similar is that they both have presence, pride, leadership and inner fire about them, unlike the previous two maganers.

I hope miniMON 'fails' just as miserably as MON, in contrast to the great heights of the previous 2 seasons.

Good result for MON, not surprisingly.

DOL > Houllier >>> McShit

Anyone know how much Carroll is Actually on? 80k? 90k? 60-70k?

65k apparently

Really doubt he's on that low of a wage. He was a 35 million transfer, if his agent has only negotiated 65K a week Carroll should have fired him.

I never said he would've cost £3m, but I'm pretty sure that at that moment in time if MON had asked to buy Bent instead of Heskey Lerner would've backed him.

The MON would have been a fool. He should have asked Lerner to get him Messi, instead of Bent.

If we can sign Darren Bent while sitting in the relegation zone and with a supposedly shit manager then we could've easily signed him a couple of years before. But no, instead we got Heskey.

Now, that could be a wild speculation on my part, but I kind of doubt Bent was available for 3 mil at the time.

Really great news and I was sure they would never find it, they spent years looking for it at another collider in the US but this was too small I suppose.

It's not that small at all, it's mass is huge, comparatively speaking of course. Problem is or was apparently, the period of time it exists.

Thing is if we let Given go and replace him with someone like Green or Butland we'd be downgrading the position, whereas QPR would be improving. If we keep going this route for each position, then we'd end up with a worse team than last season's.

I'm not a fan of Given long contract, but right now he's probably the best goalkeeper available to Villa, so I'd rather he stays until we can actually get an improvement.

Fair point although I'd guess that is what the Newcastle fans also thought when they sold Given but they had Krul. Now granted he wasn't his immediate replacement but you get the point.

Given might be the best keeper available to us right now but he is 36 and the club should I think be thinking about more than the immediate future and the next season. If we can replace him with a younger keeper who could go on to surpass him or from who we could get a lot more years service then there is a value in that.

Sure, but we haven't got that brilliant young keeper yet. Going by your example - Krul needed years to learn while being a back up to Given ( and others ). I'm OK with that route, as long as the manager thinks the young keeper is talented, however, not as a direct replacement right now as is being suggested.

Thing is if we let Given go and replace him with someone like Green or Butland we'd be downgrading the position, whereas QPR would be improving. If we keep going this route for each position, then we'd end up with a worse team than last season's.

I'm not a fan of Given long contract, but right now he's probably the best goalkeeper available to Villa, so I'd rather he stays until we can actually get an improvement.