GeordieVillan

This. Tim Sherwood is the closest thing to John Gregory since he left. I personally loved our time under Gregory. The football was hit and miss, but he spoke his mind, got the job done, and the team was moderately successful. We certainly weren't the joke that we are now and have been since Gregory left (other than the MON years). For all those that are saying that they don't like Sherwood's personality, I think we need someone with arrogance (like Gregory had), who is prepared to fall out with "big name" players if needs be. I'm genuinely excited about this, and think this could be the beginning of something a bit special over the next few years. Come on Tim prove everyone wrong. String a few results together with some goals, and everyone will be behind you very quickly. I just don't get the comparison. Sure they were both happy to talk freely but when Gregory made a mistake he owned it, when Sherwood made a mistake he still blamed his players. I don't get how people think they know what this guy's character is based on 4 months....if he hasn't proven he's been a success because 4 months isn't long enough, then by the same token to can't have proven he is a rocket polisher or blames his players etc. after 6 months. The guy has a bit of personality, has worked at a top premier league club for a long time, has played at the highest level for years and won things, and is highly regarded by others in the game. I havn't heard one pundit say that they think he would be bad appointment for any club, in fact most think he is a breathe of fresh air. With regards to that interview he gave when he called out some of the Spurs players for not having enough passion, I didn't think there was anything wrong with that. If Lambert had come out and said that about some of our players e.g. Gabby, people would have been loving it and giving him a pat of the back. The way I see it, we need 4 wins and maybe 2 draws and we will be safe. Possibly 3 wins and 3 draws will do it this year, as the teams at the bottom are so poor.

How can you say the team spirit is high?! Our team is pathetic, the players give up after going one goal down most of the time. As far as I can see, the players morale is terrible and they were hiding behind their support of the previous manager, who was taking all of the flack. There is nowhere for them to hide now.

I expect he'll just be watching in some capacity Given his personality, if we are losing at half time, he will probably leave his seat in the stands and go take charge of the dressing room!

Yep, I reckon this has been in the background for a few weeks, and it probably explains the QPR thing. If he knew he was in with a good shout of the Villa job, thats probably why he was making crazy demands at QPR, if thats even true.

This. Tim Sherwood is the closest thing to John Gregory since he left. I personally loved our time under Gregory. The football was hit and miss, but he spoke his mind, got the job done, and the team was moderately successful. We certainly weren't the joke that we are now and have been since Gregory left (other than the MON years). For all those that are saying that they don't like Sherwood's personality, I think we need someone with arrogance (like Gregory had), who is prepared to fall out with "big name" players if needs be. I'm genuinely excited about this, and think this could be the beginning of something a bit special over the next few years. Come on Tim prove everyone wrong. String a few results together with some goals, and everyone will be behind you very quickly.

Agree to an extent - but you can't argue with the fact that not many managers leave Villa to go on to bigger and better things (maybe only GT leaving for England), and not many actually go on to achieve anything of any significance. Villa is the door to career suicide....its not appealing to successful established managers, its only appealing to those who are stepping up from lower leagues, or to those who have nothing to lose. The Doc managed Scotland and Man U after us so he was an exception, Graham Turner had some success at other clubs, but generally its true. I think most people find it a very tough job mentally and are normally burnt out afterwards. This happened to Little and Gregory. How many managers of similar teams go on to better things, David Moyes Everton to Manure? Can't think of many more. Fact is, Lerner doesn't sack managers without a very good reason, he gives them the best chance to succeed in the League, to date, but they still have to perform, if they don't then they have to go. Well the point is, you have to compare like with like. You can't compare us to Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal etc. as for the last 20 years they havn't been shopping around for managers, they have either had long term manager in place or have changed managers and appointed big names.... The clubs that are simliar to us are arguably, off the top of my head - 1) Spurs - Hoddle went to England, Redknapp was linked with England 2) Everton - Moyes was there a long time and went to Man Utd, but it didn't work out 3) Wigan - Martinez left to go to Everton 4) QPR / Fulham - Hughes did well and left both and is still doing well 5) Stoke - Pulis left has done well since 6) Newcastle - Hughton was sacked and went on to find employment although he did take Norwich down eventually! Pardew will do well at Palace 7) Southampton - Pochetinno went to Suprs, and Koeman looks like he will be great for them 8) Swansea - Rodgers went to Liverpool, and although Laudrup was sacked, his reputation is still in tact 9) Norwich - Lambert did well for them and left to take a step up to us Obviously not every manager of these clubs have been a success, but they have at least had some managers who havn't been failures! The only recent manager we have had who was a "success" was probably MON. He was linked at least passing with the England job both before and after he joined us, and when he left we had just had a decent season and his reputation was relatively in tact, at least with everyone other Villa fans. The point is, if you were looking at the Villa job, there is not many people you can look at where you could say - "he did well, and then went on to do XYZ"

This the start of the thread for when Houllier left, I think there are another three parts to it. And there's probably the more recent Lambert thread somewhere on here. Interesting to see the names that were in favour back then but not so much these days Looking back at this, I wish we had gone for Mark Hughes rather than Lambert....I'm sure he would have come to us then....

Agree to an extent - but you can't argue with the fact that not many managers leave Villa to go on to bigger and better things (maybe only GT leaving for England), and not many actually go on to achieve anything of any significance. Villa is the door to career suicide....its not appealing to successful established managers, its only appealing to those who are stepping up from lower leagues, or to those who have nothing to lose.

No, you really couldn't, for many different reasons Would you say that either have been a success since they left here? MON certainly and arguably McLeish both had decent reputations before they came here, and both left under a cloud where the media portrayed them as victims (MON because of transfer budget limitations and McLeish because of the fans). Regardless of that though, coming to Villa has done nothing for their careers since. I wasn't disputing that - I was disputing their "young promising manager" status. Neither were particularly young when they took over and McLeish was anything but promising. He'd just been relegated for the second time in 4 seasons FFS. HA - OK, can't argue with that!

No, you really couldn't, for many different reasons Would you say that either have been a success since they left here? MON certainly and arguably McLeish both had decent reputations before they came here, and both left under a cloud where the media portrayed them as victims (MON because of transfer budget limitations and McLeish because of the fans). Regardless of that though, coming to Villa has done nothing for their careers since.

I posted this in the Lambert thread but.....Aston Villa is fast becoming a graveyard for (young) promising managers - Little, Gregory, O'Leary, Lambert (you could even say MON and McLeish) - none of these have gone on to do anything much. We are no longer a stepping stone club for a manager (e.g. Pochetinno used Southampton as a stepping stone to a bigger club), instead we are a club that most managers with a decent reputation will want to avoid as it will probably destroy them. I'd love to have a manager who does so well with us that they then go on to be linked with jobs at "bigger" clubs or even the England national team. It would at least be a sign that we must be doing well. For this reason, someone like Sherwood, who has nothing to lose, is probably the best we can do. If not Sherwood, then an experienced manager (i.e. not someone in their first job) who has some kind of affiliation with the club and wants to have a shot at it. The only names that spring to mind are Southgate and Grayson. I would probably take Grayson....I've always liked his teams and think he is our "type" of manager....

Really liked and wanted him to do well. We showed glimpses of a bright future under him, but since early 2014, its just been terrible. Whether he lost the squad, or whether the players are to blame, I just don't know. The downturn all seemed to coincide with the departure of his assistants, and perhaps the circumstances around that de-stabilised the squad. Unlike some of our previous managers, he never once said anything to antagonise the fans. People got frustrated with the "we go again", but I think he handled himself with dignity and class throughout, his interviews may have been uninspiring but his message was always consistent i.e. onwards and hopefully upwards. He also never really made a big deal of the fact his hands were tied in terms of budget, partly because I think he had the self belief that he could make a success of things with limited funds. In the end his position was untenable, and there is no doubt he had to go. If he'd managed to get a result against Hull, then maybe we would have gone on a good run and he would have hung on a bit longer. If he has stayed in the job longer than he could/should have because he wanted to be paid, then good luck to him. Who knows when he will get another job. I like to think he stayed because he was always desperate to make it a success. Aston Villa is fast becoming a graveyard for (young) promising managers - Little, Gregory, O'Leary, Lambert (you could even say MON and McLeish) - none of these have gone on to do anything much. We are no longer a stepping stone club for a manager (e.g. Pochetinno used Southampton as a stepping stone to a bigger club), instead we are a club that most managers with a decent reputation will want to avoid as it will probably destroy them. I'd love to have a manager who does so well with us that they then go on to be linked with jobs at "bigger" clubs or even England. It would at least be a sign that we must be doing well. For this reason, someone like Sherwood, who has nothing to lose, is probably the best we can do. Lambert gave up a good thing at Norwich, but it was his choice. I suspect he would have stayed at Norwich if he had his time over again. Its shame it didn't work out, but I wish him all the best.

I really thought and hoped that tonight would be the beginning of a trademark Lambert good run for for 4-5 games. Instead we got the other trademark - possession with no purpose. We are also seeing bad luck going against aswell. A combination of poor management and bad luck will only take us one place. He's lost me too now. With a heavy heart, I have to say - Lambert Out.

I really thought and hoped that tonight would be the beginning of a trademark Lambert good run for for 4-5 games. Instead we got the other trademark - possession with no purpose. We are also seeing bad luck going against aswell. A combination of poor management and bad luck will only take us one place. He's lost me too now. With a heavy heart, I have to say - Lambert Out.

What if we pay £5m and he scores 5-10 goals and it keeps us safe from relegation - is it worth it? What if we don't sign him and we get relegated because we Benteke doesn't start scoring? He's not as good a player as Benteke, he's not as good a player as Agbonlahor - I have three problems with him - he's not that good, he's old and he's expensive. What if we pay £5m for him and as a result of that and his wages we have to sell players in the summer? There are better players about for the money - players with sell on values - players with futures. Ok....but what if we don't buy someone to score goals and we get relegated? I agree with you to an extent, he is not the future of the club, but he is an experienced player who can score goals at the highest level. He is older than our other recent signings, but if he does a job for 2 years then so be it. Benteke and Kozak are both young, as is Weimann, at this moment in time do we really need another young player with potential to improve? With regard to selling players in the summer - which players in our squad are indispensible? Based on what we have seen this season, I don't think any of them are. I also think its very worrying if Agbonlahor is the benchmark for our signings these days - he's a shadow of the player he was under MON and of the player that we all hoped he could be. This all might be a moot point because it could be a garbage story, but I don't understand how we could turn down a player like this, even if we are paying probably twice as much as we should be. Unfortunately we are in a position where we are desperate, so we have to pay over the odds, and based on how tightly the purse strings have been managed in the last 3 years, I would suspect we are not overstretching ourselves.

What if we pay £5m and he scores 5-10 goals and it keeps us safe from relegation - is it worth it? What if we don't sign him and we get relegated because we Benteke doesn't start scoring?

Ricky Lambert has never been overly quick, so I don't think age is an issue, he could easily play until he is 35 at the top level. Jesus Christ, he scored a good goal against us the other week, getting the ball and being direct. If we managed to get him, and played him, Sinclair and Gil, we have 3 new direct attacking players who all have something to prove. And in answer to the question above, yes I would pay £5m for him, because if Benteke doesn't get out of his slump, we will be relegated this season. I suspect PL and Fox have realised the same. Ricky Lambert is potentially a season changing signing for us. I would also say that if at the start of January someone said that Villa would sign three players - Scott Sinclair, Ricky Lambert and Carles Gil (based on what I've seen of him so far) - then I would have bitten their hands off.

Obviously that wasn't good today. 2 other thoughts - 1) why the hell do we still not have an assistant manager? Simply bizarre. 2) for the first time, I have absolutely no idea what team Lambert will pick to play the next game V Chelsea, or even what tactics he will use. To be fair to him, it can't be easy to pick a team after that performance.

When he was at Swansea, I always remember thinking he was a poor man's Ashley Young. He plays the inside left position that Grealish does (or wants to play anyway), I would see this as an obstacle to his development. But, we need players to make sure we stay up this year. Tricky.

Regardless of what you say about our form and lack of goals, we are very tough to play against at home now, which hasn't been the case for the previous 2 years. I think someone said we are unbeaten in 6. 1-0 Villa win. Here starteth the turnaround.

Lerner has done many things wrong and we do need a change of owner, but in no way is he responsible for the fact we cannot score goals or even make any chances against teams that have worse players than us. Anyone who says otherwise is actually insane. Our strategic situation and failings i.e. we have very poor future prospects, and that any manager would struggle to get us higher than 8th in the league - is down to the the Chairman and Board (and to FFP and the way the game has changed). Our operational situation and failings, i.e. the current league position and performances - is down to the manager and players. Happy to argue the toss over whether its Lambert or the players themselves, but Lerner is not in charge of training, tactics or actually out on the field kicking a ball around.

Agree 100%. Don't know how Lambert can't see this.

He is the best footballer we have had since Milner/Barry/Young/JPA. He is being wasted here, he will leave and go on to become one of the best in the world. He is always offside because we don't have anyone who is currently playing a through ball to him quickly and accurately (Cole and Westwood tried is once each today, and both times they held the ball slightly too long). He can improve on his movement, but we should be doing everything we can to get the ball into him as early as possible, and not pissing around with it between our 3 holding midfielders. Most worryingly, he never makes a run into the box anymore, he always holds his position on the edge of the box, as he knows he won't get a cross from anyone other than Hutton.

Can't see that working out at all. Unfortunately there are quite a few examples of clubs that have sacked under-performing managers only to have their replacements come in and fare worse/the same/only marginally better. Just look at Neil Adams with Norwich or Pepe Mel with West Brom. Of course there's the flip-side of this (like Pulis with Crystal Palace) but I don't really see any stand out candidates out there. I'm even wary of the likes of Eddie Howe (not that I think he'd come here) because his profile right now is exactly the same as Lambert's 3 years ago - young, up and coming and with a reputation for attacking football. It's all a big ****. Lambert really doesn't look up to the job and deserves pretty much all the criticism coming his way but I believe that the root of the problem is Lerner. The only thing I can see properly sorting us out is a takeover and a change of manager. I know what you mean, and we can't forget the Brian Little lost the dressing room a bit before he left. BUT, if we need a short term appointment, it should be someone with experience and some loves the club. It could have been John Gregory if not for his heart problem. Although as I type this, I'm thinking of when Alan Shearer took Newcastle down. What hurt today was that Leicester were so much better than us.

He's been poor, and the system is making it even worse. Him, Sanchez and Westwood today had no movement in front of them or out wide, so who are they supposed to pass to? One of them should be left out for another striker or Nzogbia/Grealish.