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Im sure that's the way we would have gone had we signed Solkjaer as manager, speaking of that, how about Vegard Forren?

Might very well be one or the other, but from what i've seen of Bony (only a few games to be honest) they are not really that similar and might work very well together. Bony is faster, shorter and has a better touch and technique than Benteke who is equally strong but taller and more of a target man

Pretty much every kid in Sweden has Zlatan Ibrahimovic as thier idol and wan't to follow in his footstep playing for Barcelona, Milan and so on. For them playing for Aston Villa is just a step on the way. Nothing wrong with this althou it obviously isn't the smartest thing to say when signing for us. For me this showes he has ambition and is a bit cocky but as long as he keeps his head on his shoulders this is a good thing. We'll be hard pressed to find any quality players who's life long dream is to play for Aston Villa their entire career, especially players from abroad. Just you wait if we manage to sign John Guidetti, then we'll have our fill of amzing quotes. That boy is a walking headline and cocky as hell, but he also works harder than anyone else to achive his goals as a footballer

Hope we try for Martin Olsson from Blackburn, he'd be reasonably cheap and both a better left back and winger than anybody in our squad. He also plays in the lower leagues now so it should be right up Lamberts ally

Of course! ...or of cause

Son of God! Only Messi and Ronaldo are better atm

By that merit many of Barcelonas (and every other clubs academy players) would'nt count as their products as they joined in their late teens. Pedro, Busquets, Cuenca, Fontàs... Not saying your wrong, but it's a bit harsh to dismiss the work that Ajax does

If Lewis Holtby were willing to leave Schalke for us i'd strongly suggest letting a shrink test him for mental illness as there must be something very wrong with his head. Schalke to Villa is sadly a massive step down in every possible way at the moment. I can possibly se him moving to Everton if they sell Fellaini, but i think he'll stay with Schalke a while longer. It's really hard to guess which quality players we'll pursue as i have no idea what our ambitions are and what kind of sums Lerner will make avaliable. I hope we go for the Dutch/Belgian/German line rather than English lower leagues prospects. As mentioned earlier in the thread the coming 6-7 months will determine if we are to remaine as an elite club, if we go down i don't think we'll go up again unless we find a new mega rich owner

This was actually the first game that gave me any hope that Lambert and the players have what it takes to save us from relegation. Sure, we lost as always against Man U, and in the same manor as always, but there were positive signs and i hope we can build from this. Unlike previous seasons we didn't just bend over and drop our pants, we tried to play football and it nearly worked. Well done Lambert! Let's hope we stick with the 4-3-3/4-5-1 from now on. 4-4-2 doesn't suit our squad at all as our central midfielders are weak and we don't have any wingers with quality. This positive performance against United will mean diddly squat unless we start getting some points on the board pretty soon, but still, this was an improvement

With Trappatoni at Ireland is it really that far fetched to suggest Redknapp to Scotland? Now i don't think he'll go there but it's not fully impossible

Linked to Wes Hoolahan today... Surelly this is just lazy journalism? 30 years old with 1 Irish cap and 1,5 seasons in top flight football and standing at a whopping 5ft6 is not really what i'd hoped for with our new german superscout. Yes he did have a good game against us, but let's be honest, who hasn't?

You don't think we should give him at least 9 games before writing him off?

All i've said is that we must start to show either results or signs of improvement pretty soon if Lambert is to continue, not that i wan't him out asap. With the path we've choosen (young unproven lower league players who hopefully have potential) i don't think we can get anyone more suitable than Lambert as he's also young unproven but hopefully have potential and is used to working with players like ours. Except the established ones like Bent, Ireland, Given and NZogbia... Bringing in a foreign manager now just would not work, they would not know how to handle a squad like this and the players would not understand what the manager was trying to implement as many of them lack enough football education and tactical knowledge. Even a senior player like Gabby, bless his heart mostly runs around like a headless chicken most of the time. For good or bad Lambert is what we have but that doesn't mean we should just accept bad results and dire football, just because he's not McLeish. If our premiership status is at risk we must act before it's to late. That time is still some way of yet

You were'nt willing to give Houllier or McLeish a chance, but Lambert is a diffrent story? So results doesn't really matter as long as you like/dislike the manager? Edit: I didn't wan't McLeish or Houllier either thou i did have slight hopes Houllier might have worked out, he didn't...

So far that's also what Lambert has brought, therefore the 180 in support must be 100% based on emotion and nothing else?

I pretty much agree with this (Thou i wanted Bilic) And no i don't wan't Lambert gone yet, but i also don't think this can go on much longer if things don't improve soon

Delph just isn't good enough to start, and he hasn't got any attributes to be an effective impact player as a sub. Either loan him out again or sell him before he leaves on a free. At least with Albrighton there is a chance he might come of the bench and do something against a tired defence, the only thing Delph will offer is an occational yellow or red card

As we're already starting with Delph and Albrighton i don't think we can't afford to give the opposing teams any more handicaps

"There is no risk of Aston Villa being relegated this season"

Yeah it's quite bad. I know you really can't compare but Chelsea had 2 players sent off against Man U but still managed to have 82% passing percentage...

So, this gameweek we had the lowest passing percentage of all teams with 66%. Second lowest was Reading with 69%. 222 out of 334 passes went to the right adress, in the attacking 1/3 of the field it was 39%... We had 42% posession at home to Norwich, of course this was partly because of Bennets red card, but still. For me the worst thing is that im struggling to see ANY structure and idea in the way Lambert sets up the team to attack, im just not seeing what it is Lambert is trying to do. I know he's supposed to be the next big thing in brittish management, but so far he has not done anything to merrit this. He seems to be an inspirational manager with very little tactical ability, much like MON. Still, it's early days yet and he might turn out to be the right choice for us, let's hope so

Yeah, i reckon that's about right

No Mantis i do not have a time machine... but i have watched enough football to see where this is going. Unless Randy makes huge (£40-60m) funds avaliable in january (which he won't) and Lambert spends it on quality and not potential (which he won't) i sadly don't see us staying up.

Because that's how it usually works in football. Managers, even the very worst ones have to fail over and over again before teams stop asking for their service. Lamber will have a couple more failiures in him before this happens

What makes people think that Lambert will stay when we go down? Just look at his record, the way he left Colchester for Norwich was even worse than how O'Neill walked out on us. When we are relegated, and we will be, Lambert will walk out on us and take another step on his career ladder. He will not be missed...