NeilS

7 losses is quite a lot for Bayern, but to be honest I can't remember much about that stint. It may well have been a more competitive league back then, he may have had problems with the squad to overcome. Let's be honest, we are not going to find a manager who doesn't have some period in their career which didn't have problems as more or less every manager has been sacked at some point in their career. I remember a few saying Koemann wasn't a good choice when he was linked a few years ago, and he hasn't done too badly at Southampton to date.

Whilst I am glad he has gone, i did feel a touch of sadness when I heard the news as it means our club is failing again. My thoughts about him and his tenure have changed numerous times during his stay. When he joined I thought he would do well, then by the first Christmas/January I thought he had to go, before a strongish end to the season made me give him another chance. The tail end of last season I finally settled in the needs to go camp. At that point we had stopped scoring goals, and had numerous cup exits to lower league teams. I can handle the odd upset every now and then, but this was happening too regularly for my liking. I kind of feared the worst for him after the Arsenal defeat as the interview I saw on the tv was really garbled, and you could hear in his voice that he was struggling with the pressure. I think it is best alround that this decision has been made, and hope he gets himself sorted and comes back stronger for it as he generally comes across as a nice guy.

Andy Gray was Big Ron's assistant briefly, before leaving to concentrate on his Sky career. I am not sure he is best qualified to be coaching nowadays. I agree that we need to sort out the coaching side of things if Lambert is to stay on. At the moment there are two options: First is to fire Lambert and bring someone esle in, the second (which should have been sorted months ago) is to keep Lambert and hire a decent set of coaches to work alongside him. Karsa and Culverhouse have not been satisfactorily replaced, and although we weren't particularly great while they were here, we have got considerably worse since they were dismissed.

It will be a tough game tonight, no doubt about it. As said above a win, any win would be lovely, and I don't care how we do it. For all I care the ball could bobble up from the floor, bounce off Weimanns Knee, hit Gabby in the face before hitting Benteke in the arse and in off the post. A win would break this dreadful run and hopefully start the teams confidence turning around. Performances can hopefully come later.

A great piece of skill, and cross with his right foot for our goal. Well done Carles, a breath of fresh air in this very stale season. We just need a few others to start performing, so that we are not putting it all on this young lad and hopefully we can get enough results to get us to safety.

Philippe Senderos - 165 career league appearances Ciaran Clark - 106 career league appearances Not really all that much in it to be fair That's surprising to be fair! is that due to Senderos playing second fiddle at Arsenal or injuries? Senderos has made 55 international appearances and Clark 10 to look at it another way although I have to say both Clark and Okore have kept us solid at the back up until last weekend. Beat me to it, I was going to point out the European, International and World Cup appearances as well. Although not much in the number of appearances, the quality and richness of the experiences are far greater for Senderos than Clark. Senderos has played with and against great players in his career before he joined us.

Yeah it will be nice to have him and Vlaar back in central defence for the run in, it would certainly increase my confidence that we could get enough points from the remaining games to have that partnership back together (Admitidly my confidence is pretty low at the moment). Okore and Clark have done well, but a bit of experience at the back wouldn't go amiss when it starts getting down to the business end of the season.

I hope you are both right, I wish I had that confidence in the team. It has been a long time since it has been any fun supporting Villa, the Fans deserve a lot better.

Well we beat Stoke and Hull out of those fixtures already, the rest we either lost or drew. I think we managed 9 points from those listed games so far this season. The fact of the matter is, bar a decent start in which we managed three victories by the odd goal in our first four games we have been dreadful. If we carry on in that vein we will go down, we must improve our goal scoring if we hope to win some games. At the moment it remains to be seen whether they can or not. Hopefully Gil and Sinclair can get us firing, but it is a big ask for a player new to the English game, and a player who has barely played in 2-3 years. I can fully understand the concerns as to whether we can get enough points, recent history suggests that we won't.

I cant see us getting to 34 points so you cant see us get 12 points in 15 games? sure To be fair the last 19 games or 1/2 a season has seen us manage 12 points scoring a whopping 7 goals in the process, so it is a fair concern in my opinion.

I'd take a goal if I was offered it now never mind a point to be honest. I was talking a point minimum. I have put a quid on at 9/1 for a Villa win, it is going to happen i tell you. Reality is i will never see that £1 again, would probably have had better luck buying a scratch card.

We need to start by grabbing a point against Chelsea, and hopefully a goal as well just to break the run if anything. Then we have to hope the addition of Gil and Sinclair start to pay off. So far they haven't had the chance to play together against the also rans in the PL, so it remains to be seen whether they will make the difference required. To be fair, they can't do a lot worse than those who held their places before them so I have a little hope. I think (and this is a big if),IF we can get Vlaar and Senderos fit, then we will probably get enough points on the board. Clark and Okore have done ok, but they struggle against the top quality players and I would prefer the experience of Vlaar and Senderos at the back.

To be fair, Pochetino has always given youth players a chance both at Southampton and Spurs. Alli will back his own ability, and if he does well enough he will probably see that he gets a chance.

It is going to be hard work persuading any decent players to sign for us after that horror showing yesterday. The brief moment of positivity around the club from the Cup win has been blown away, and replaced with the reality of the situation we are in. Therefore I think we are probably done for this window.

I think we are going down this year, I have thought this for a few months now. The lack of goals scored will be our downfall, I had hoped for a miracle and that things might change with Benteke coming back, but that looks less likely with each passing game. It is going to take one hell of a turnaround for us to stay up now, one which I am not sure Lambert is capable of. Depressing times being a Villa fan at the moment. The only hope is that Lerner and Fox act quickly and give us a fighting chance, but history shows Lerner never fires mid season.

I am old enough to remember the Turner/McNeill years, and these are just as bad in my opinion. The lack of goals is a disgrace, and I think the guy has no clue how to change it. He is just out of his depth as the job is too big for him and he looks like a broken man. I think it is best for all parties that he leaves, for us as a club and for him so he can possibly resurect his career at a lower club before it is too late. Unfortunately I think as a club we should have removed him about a month ago, and given a new manager the window to bring some players in. I think we have left it too late to do anything now, so we are probably going to struggle to find a manager who is willing to come in and try to save us with no option to buy a player in. So for now, I think we are stuck with him until the end of the season. We need to pray for a miracle and that the team can find a way to grind out the odd victory here and there to get us over the line. I am sick of this every year! Lerner and Lambert Out!

Earlier in this thread I said I wasn't sure about Sinclair, and I still am not sure whether he will be up to what we require. I am happy it is on a loan with a view to a permanent deal, it means we a chance to try before we buy and gives the lad a chance to prove himself. Hopefully he will prove me and any other doubters wrong and be a hit for us.

Yeah it might be for the best to give him a little break and take him out of the firing line. I can understand Lambert's reluctance though as Gabby is not a prolific goalscorer, and didn't step up to the plate at the end of last season when we were dropping like a stone in Benteke's abscence. In the medium term (Tail end of the season) though, it may make all the difference.

I remember hearing an interview years ago with a former pro on Soccer Saturday (May have been Merson, but can't remember), who was talking about coming back from long term injury. He said something along the lines that when you first come back into the team it is great and you are playing off adrenaline for the first few games, then you hit a wall and struggle as you haven't had the pre-season others have had so your conditioning isn't quite up to everyone elses standards. The former pro also said that sometimes fans mis-interpret lack of confidence for disinterest. This may be what has happened here with Benteke? I hope so anyway, and fingers crossed Benteke can grab a couple of goals in consecutive games to get him up and running again. With the introduction of Gil into the team, hopefully the goals aren't too far away for him.

By my rough calculation we scored maybe 9 goals in 16 games without Benteke, so I think it is safe to say the problems run deeper than CB being in a bad run of form. The scoring ratio has not really improved upon his return either, but so far you can kind of cut CB some slack as he has had an horrendous injury so it will take him time to get fully back and confident. I definitly would not sell him at this moment in time though as I think that would see us go down, it would be madness.Neither Gabby, Weimann or the midfield stepped up with much in the way of goal contributions in CB's abscence, so I think that it is a little unfair and shortsighted to be laying all of the blame at Benteke's feet. We have got to try and utilise CB better, and hopefully with the addition of a couple of players (one hopefully being Gil) we can create better chances more regularly which in itself will give us more likelihood of scoring more often.

Rowett has done a great job so far. But to be fair Lambert had a pretty good record at that level, gaining back to back promotions with Norwich. So it remains to be seen that Rowett is indeed a better manager than Lambert. If he does well for them, then I guess he will be head hunted by one of the many bigger clubs than sha, then we will see if he is a better manager or not?

He's here until the end of the season I think people need to get used to that Yep, I don't think he would be allowed to buy players like Gil if he was leaving this month. He is here for the remainder of this season at least, we have got to hope that maybe with another signing or two this window we can turn a corner and start scoring a bit more frequently and winning a few more games.

I am very wary of this deal, and wouldn't do it if it was down to me, Sinclair has barely played over the last few years, and has been earning a nice wage for doing very little. This makes me wonder whether he still has the sharpness and ability, as you would expect those things to get worse with the lack of playing time. We have been down the route of buying these squad players from the top teams and hoping to turn them into our stars before with Sidwell, Ireland etc. and it has always failed leaving us picking up large wages which could have been spent better. Also while looking at his record I notice most of his best work was at Championship level, bar one good season at Swansea in the PL. So I question whether that it was a one off season. It is too big a risk for my liking, and would rather look for better value abroad. The only way I would be ok with him coming this window is if it was on loan until the summer, give him a chance to prove himself.

Yeah this was the one I was trying to remember. I remembered Charlton won, but not who they were playing. I also remember Clive Mendonca scored a hat trick in the game. I watched it down the pub with my friends, and considering none of us supported either team it was a riveting match.

Let's be honest, he can hardly make us less effective up front. It is however a lot to ask of a young lad coming in from a foreign country into a new league and expecting him to save our bacon. Hopefully this guy won't be the only signing this window, and we can afford to let him settle into the league with little pressure. Fingers crossed the fact that he knows a few of our players already will help him to settle in quicker than normal.