suttonpaul

he will be out for a month at least which is the next 5 games including the league cup

moot point panto that there isn't that many individuals in the world that want to throw away half a billion or more at a play thing.

Got to say John that we should see how we fair this whole season before talking about appropriate investment above what is already being spent as this will be Lamberts first full season not in transition. We saw how much better the team did in the latter stages of last season and we see glimpses of it this season so far too. If we are spending money before next summer it should really only go on an attacking midfielder. Id rather see us keep our powder dry until the summer if not.

thats not even a solution any more. if we had oil billions take over and pull a city, wed not be allowed to play in europe anyway by the time we qualified Hey Pete, Your actually wrong. If a new owner brought say 300m of players on silly wages ala city now and did it the same way city did it at the start of this era then you would be right but if an owner came in did exactly what I just said but did it the way city do it now then it is perfectly fine. The difference is City is now funded through sponsorship it is still through the owners companies but it is still effectively the owner funding it. That however is FFP legal.

Am i proposing spending a fortune? I've actually said i was happy with the business we did in the summer. Unlike you though i don't have complete faith that we actually have a plan to be competitive again. And unlike you i do blame Lerner for the decline of our club and the fact we have seen such a consistent level of shitness. The thing is though that the only way to be competitive is to spend a fortune. I don't think we have a plan to be as competitive as you'd like us to be, because I know that we can't afford it - the only plan that does that is "Get bought by an extremely rich owner" an owner as different to Randy as he is to Doug - that's how quickly things changed. From where we are to sixth would take £100m a year for the next four years - that's the only way to do it - it's how the league is designed. If you blame Lerner for the decline of our club, then you blame the decline of the club on the lack of spending, if you want that to change, then you are proposing spending a fortune. You can't have both - it's no longer possible to have success without spending a fortune. And P3te, solid foundations don't get you there - neither does a sound financial footing - the teams that have made it have made it by spending the best part of a billion pounds that they didn't have. That's why for me, the interesting bit starts once we've finished the rationalisation and we are a club with a balance sheet that makes sense for a regular company - where do we go from there? I think the plan is to get comfy and sit there until either the worlds richest man wanders by or someone changes the rules - I don't think that's a reflection of Lerner's ambition, I think it's a sensible response to knowing that he doesn't have enough money to do something different. For me once the finances are all sorted the aim is 7th place best of the rest we cant do better than that other than a one off unless we get a super rich owner like you say. I completely agree and wish we would all just get on the same page on this one.

John your getting boring now please actually propose something..... you say change the owner (to someone who will spend big) that is fair enough I agree with you. If any super rich Arab or Russian is reading this me and John will welcome you with open arms please write a cheque for 500m to a billion pounds for 5 to 8 years funding please then sod off. That is fair. You then went on to say just raise the budget a little more..... to what? and to what end? I don't want any more platitudes from you please give me the other proposal with Randy here.

Am i proposing spending a fortune? I've actually said i was happy with the business we did in the summer. Unlike you though i don't have complete faith that we actually have a plan to be competitive again. And unlike you i do blame Lerner for the decline of our club and the fact we have seen such a consistent level of shitness. Sorry what? What are you proposing should be done.

I would love to hear his proposals to.

I'm not sure what your basing this tripe on. I'm not sure how the stats add up now but back in 2010 we stood as the 4th most successful club in terms of trophies won in the history of English football. We were also at that time 6th in the overall Premier League table since it began. We had also just finished 6th three times on the spin. Everything about the club at that time - long, medium and short term history told you we were at the very least one of the top 6 clubs in this country. Now due in the main to some very poor managerial choices and a lack of investment we have struggled over the last three years. Our most sustained period of struggle in over 25 years. Do not let that blind you though. This is and always will be a great and very special club.The history it has you simply can't buy right back from our chairman at the time inventing the league. No fan should ever lose sight of how great this club is and how lucky we still are even in times of struggle to be supporters of it. We do however have to maintain our high expectations, expectations built on years of tradition and that even at times when we struggle separate us from other clubs.We ever lose sight of how great we are and lower our expectations as fans we'd be doing a disservice to all those fans who have gone before us and we may as well throw the towel in. All very nice mate except two things we are one of only 7 or eight clubs who have been in the PL every year so that stat just says that because we have managed not to get relegated we are there by proxy and way more importantly this 4th most successful club point you made I have one thing to say about this.... how many cups in our roll of honour have we won since 1945? make it 1913 in the last 100 years. We won loads so many generations ago that when you take it away we don't look as special as what you say. Which reflects where we are today. I am as much a fan as anyone on here. I'm just a realist. No FA Cup Win for 56 years and take that one cup away no win for 93 years! No League Cup win for 17 years No League win for 31 years and take that one away no league win for 102 years. FA Cup 7: 1887, 1895, 1897, 1905, 1913, 1920, 1957 League Cup 5: 1961, 1975, 1977, 1994, 1996 First Division champions 7: 1893–94, 1895–96, 1896–97, 1898–99, 1899–1900, 1909–10, 1980–81 lol just seen your post I was typing it while you posted that.

You say this like we've finished there and people aren't happy. In 10/11 we scraped into 9th place with 2 excellent results when the manager Lerner hired was too ill to be around the first team. We then finished in 16th place the 2 seasons that followed. So not sure what the point is here. So have we become this under Lerner or were we like this under Doug? Because under Doug we seemed to all expect more but now we're just average so we should be happy if we achieve mediocrity. I say this like our fans need to get real with expectations of how close it is between the clubs after the top six teams in the league and excuse me if I don't shit my pants after 4 games of which we did extremely well in 2 games at Stamford Bridge and Ashburton Grove As for your Doug vs Lerner comparison it doesn't wash with me as I have enough brain cells to see what has happened to PL club ownership since 2006 and 2013 the leagues moved on you should too.

I'm with this guy here we aren't a massive club anymore and there just happens to be 6 of those currently in our league. If we were a club that deserved to be up there we would generate the revenue to be up there BUT WE DONT. We tried and we had the sixth highest revenue when we were sixth in a time when Spurs and City were making some big strides and making it much more difficult for us to ever take that step up. FACE FACTS we should be happy with 7th to 9th top 3 in best of the rest because those are the revenues we make. What will happen when West Ham a London club move to the Olympic stadium? they will become 7th highest earners..... money = place in the league maybe not over the course of a season but over 3/4/5 seasons it always does. So like I said about 10 pages ago we either move the club to London (cant and wont happen) or we get a billionaire who wants to throw 500m to a billion at the club WE WONT BE A MASSIVE CLUB unless we do something completely left field like we have with all these kids and unknown players. So either this pays off or it makes us more attractive for a sale having a low wage bill (especially when those last few really high earners go next summer) and low debts. Please stop all this my great club bollocks we are average PL fodder that doesn't make us Southend......

we cant even fill the ground with the prices we have but I agree with the sentiment.

Why "to be fair"? Lambert has been in charge for over a season now. You cannot use our home form being poor before his arrival as some kind of defence. When was the last time we had a clean sheet in a league match? How many league matches have we played with Lambert where we kept a clean sheet? I'm not sure if we can link other sites but I do feel that this interesting little video by Pat Nevin MIGHT explain a little about our home form other than the fact that we are a counter attacking team which is always going to be a better away team setup. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22646131

Ok I'm bored I will throw my hat in to the ring. If I were the manager (always a bad start to a sentence) the first seven things I would try and sort is the following........ 1. Tell Guzan to change up his distribution make the other team guess if your going to throw, play it short or as he does 99% of the time kick it long ball. 2. TRY to teach the centre backs how to challenge for a header on the oppositions goal when they come up for corners (we don't score enough). 3. I would have brought a player who is more creative in the middle of the park but can also defend this player for me as we have to do it on the cheap would not have been Sylla last January it would have been Sissoko for the same money as Sylla! 4. I would have brought a player for the midfield three who gets into the box from midfield late ala Taylor, Lampard, Scholes etc doesn't have to be someone awesome they only have to oust Alhamdi for playing quality while having the ability to make those runs. 5. I would be more ruthless with changing the playing staff in the game example today of the worst player was Wiemann he should have been subbed somewhere between 55 and 65 mins gone with Tonev coming on an easy decision to make which is done on 88 mins. 6. We NEVER flash low balls across the box for someone to get their foot on or the opposition defenders to make a mistake and an own goal, its so basic... WHY NOT? 7. We need to take a few pop shots from outside the box to keep the opposition guessing what is going to be done, we can be quite predictable. Tell me I am wrong and enlighten me.

I'm not a massive Lerner fan however fans need to get real....... A fair amount of clubs in the championship pay the same or more for a ticket than our fans do. We don't sell out the ground. We don't have the pull of fashionable London. We don't have champions league revenues. We are a football dinosaur just like Everton or Leeds. The game has changed and we don't have the pull or the money to compete our league is finishing 7th that is winning the league for us until we either 1, move to London or 2, get a billionaire owner who literally wants to throw 500m to 1000m at the club ala Chelsea/Man City. Just get over it. Watch the games to be entertained, be loyal and hope for a cup win.

Get away what's his name? I have some cousins in Tralee too who are Villa fans too. Any names? O'Sullivan's Stephen, David, Gordon (although he moved away) and Jim.

Get away what's his name? I have some cousins in Tralee too who are Villa fans too.

Belgian Guy - At least you have him in your great National side. Enjoy that if nothing else. Plus, you are a Villa fan now, what more could you wish for? 400 paracetamol and a bottle of whiskey? lol

I posted that this morning nothing has changed with the exception of now something has obviously happened i.e. a club has contacted his agent that is very serious that is on his list of who he is interested in moving to. On a side note my own thoughts...... I know Chelsea rumours will be strong, spurs too but I have a sneaky feeling it is Arsenal, bid turned down today maybe not willing to go higher and know we will accept that kind of money for Benteke? 2+2 = 5 probably.

Bloody hell, He doesn't last long does he. Hope he gets his moneys worth! lol I just hope if we sell Benteke that we get our moneys worth unlike Bent for 5 million!

Ok I am not ITK however what I do know is that Benteke is happy at Villa but is just seeing what happens this summer. This is second hand knowledge from someone who sees him for 10 minutes a couple of times a week but I do know it is true. On a side note my own thoughts...... why sign a deal for 40 or 60k a week early and weaken your bargaining point if a big transfer is possible? 15 weeks at 20k rise 300 or at 40 rise 600k that's peanuts to what the lad will earn in his career.

Me too 29 yr old striker with a 1 in 2 goal ration on 66k a week who is English and has been banging them in for almost a decade. 5m is a joke.

14m according to that Jouralist last year with half on Benteke!

Ive been told by someone who happens to see Benteke twice a week that he does want to move on should a really good opportunity come up. It is hardly news but I thought I would share, On a separate point the guy who was saying we may have 70 million to spend I see it differently. Yes we will have a lower wage bill because of the wasters who have/will leave this Summer but based on a 20m budget Benteke being sold and Bent being sold we would be lucky to get 35m combined for Benteke & Bent and then the 20m that is 55m. Factor in wages expect to spend around 40m

Let me know if they want to use the offer and i get something out of it too...... a reference site