wazzap24

He is going to come out and say Something along the lines of.... Not actively looking to sell or he has tried and no takers. Disappointed with past few seasons, but financial restrictions neccersary for future health of club. Continues to be committed to club and trusts Faulkner with day to day running. Lambert will be retained and funds will made available for team in line with what has been provided in last couple of years. Aim is to make villa as competitive as possible and work to improve turnover etc Basically PL will get the normal 20m, plus whatever he can raise from sale or remove from wage bill (which Will be sweet fa unless he can find a home for Bent, Given, Hutton and Zog) Awesome. That would be so disappointing. I don't think so as I would like to see us retain the current first team squad and see Lambert use £20 million or so on a couple of players to improve the first eleven. I don't think it would be the end of the world either, but RL needs to recognise that an increase in investment in the squad will protect his overall position and generate further income. If PL is staying, he needs 30-40m in the summer to buy 3\4 quality players. 25m just won't cut it.

He is going to come out and say Something along the lines of.... Not actively looking to sell or he has tried and no takers. Disappointed with past few seasons, but financial restrictions neccersary for future health of club. Continues to be committed to club and trusts Faulkner with day to day running. Lambert will be retained and funds will made available for team in line with what has been provided in last couple of years. Aim is to make villa as competitive as possible and work to improve turnover etc Basically PL will get the normal 20m, plus whatever he can raise from sale or remove from wage bill (which Will be sweet fa unless he can find a home for Bent, Given, Hutton and Zog) Awesome.

Might aswell ask for rodwell & richards while we at it Wouldn't be a bad shout. Rodwell's injury record would be a concern for me though. I'd take Richards in a heartbeat.

Bertrand, Milner, Barry and Lescott. Top 10 easily. With Lambert in charge.

this. I don't think its as clear cut as some think (re him selling up) Its quite possible he has sought additional investment and this is what will be announced after the season. I think its highly plausible.

Something is happening behind the scenes, that is for certain. It's a bit like the 'not actively looking to sell' comment from Faulkner. If you absolutely have no intention of selling something you own, then that's what you say. You don't say 'I am not actively looking to sell or I will address this at a later date. I'm not convinced he is selling up completely, but I do think he might be looking to share the burden.

Turgid

Me too. Thought it was spot on. I think we should give the manager and his team as much backing as we can between now and the end of the season. Then see what the summer brings in terms of the playing squad and judge them next season. I think there's a nucleus of a decent team there, they just need a bit more time and a couple of new faces in the squad.

Balaban

Whatever the overall position, there was/is still around 13m a year being wasted on 5 players not even contributing to the team. That's a £10m player on 40k a week right there.

I'm not really sure where I stand on our fan base really. As a lasped ST holder, I can totally appreciate the frustration of the fans who have forked out for basically shite results for the past 3 and a half seasons. On the other hand, as a set of fans we are particularly good at moaning and not that great at creating an atmosphere at VP. Our away fans are completely different , the support shown and atmosphere generated by them is amongst the best in the land. I would argue against those saying it doesn't make a difference and the fans are 'not to blame'. Surely, the more fans create a positive, supportive atmosphere, the more chance we have of winning at home? Equally, if fans create a negative, critical atmosphere it aids the opposition. Any normal individual in all walks of life will generally perform better if praised and encouraged, rather than criticised and put down. It's by no means the main reason we are not doing as well as we could at home, but its certainly a contributing factor.

I feel for lambert. Not one of the first 10 outfield players today could be described as 'in form'. You can talk tactics and formations, but form and confidence is is the key. You can argue it's his job to try and inspire confidence, but anyone who's played the game or any other sport knows, ultimately you have to work through it yourself. Unfortunately we seem to have almost an entire squad in this position. Nobody is 'on their game' at all, with the exception of Delph and possibly Vlaar.

Idle speculation. I wouldn't think we would have the £8m to start with. Then there's the wages we couldn't afford to pay him. I'm not sure I'd want him back anyway. Good player and better than what we have, but I don't think he's the player he was a couple of years ago.

Fixed for you!

Mental isn't it?! He might be a bellend, but his music is feckin brilliant.

That's quite an extraordinary view to have, if you don't mind me saying so. We have scored 25 goals in 26 games, worse than all but two teams in the premier league - Norwich who also have 25 and QPR who have 19. It is the combination of scoring so few goals and conceding so many that has put is in such a perilous position. Frankly, our goal-scoring record is pathetic. So far it is as bad as last season and further back in time it is the worst for many a long year There seems little prospect of the defence getting much better, particularly since Lambert did nothing to strengthen the squad in that respect in January. Some might argue we have more chance of improving our goal-scoring ratio, particularly when you think we have a player in the ranks who, when he plays well and is supported effectively by his fellow midfielders and forwards, scores 1 in every 2 games. He also has a proven track record at getting our club out of a relegation hole. I recognise a lot of fans don't like Bent, and I suspect Lambert doesn't either, but sometimes getting results is about playing players who are difficult rather than just having a bunch of likeable lads on the pitch. Excellent post this. I actually agree with Richard in that we are a better side overall without him, but the points you have made make a compelling argument. I would say that while the stats/past point to Bent, he doesn't look like the player we signed anymore imo. Now that might not be entirely down to the player. The players that provided the service have been sold. He's had injury problems. The manager doesn't appear to rate him that highly and some would argue he has been poorly managed. Whatever the reason, I don't think he will be a major factor in our bid to avoid the drop, unless injury dictates. Lambert needs to stick to the current formation. We need Gabby, Weimann and CNZ to to step up and unbelievablebentekkers to keep doing his thing

I think the two after are more important - if we can get anything out of the next two games, it'll be seen as a bonus given their difficulty. I agree to a point, but if we fail to get anything, then confidence will be back on a real low. Would you fancy an away win at Reading on the back of two more defeats? As i say I think both Reading and QPR will come at us and I am not sure the side can handle the pressure. If we sneak a win or scrape a couple of draws in the next two, then the situation could be vastly different going in those games. Confidence is everything as the run in approaches

Lose the next two and it'll be time to call the priest in before they switch the machine off.

Avoiding the drop is going to be a huge task and I'm just not sure we are up to it. West Ham were awful and we still found it extremely tough going. The win was in part down to fat Sam's ridiculous decision to send his teams out to simply contain us in the 1st half. Had they got at us early it would have been a different game IMO. We might get something out of the blue in the next couple of games, which in turn might give the side another shot of confidence to go on a bit of a run. If we don't then I think we are goners. Two defeats would undo any small improvement in confidence gained from the weekend. Reading and QPR will smell blood and you can be certain neither HR or BMcD will send their teams out to sit back and defend against us.

He is a joke. He's the kid at school who was brilliant in the playground at lunchtime, but when he got picked for the school team he was dog turd. Being 'the best player in training' means nothing. He will never be the player he thinks he is. He won't get the chance at a top club again, because he has neither the heart or the balls to do it week in week out for an 'average' club like ours

On yesterdays showing Wet Spam could be the 'surprise' candidate for the drop. People point to their home form, but there are signs of the natives becoming restless down there. A couple more defeats and the pressure will start to tell. The fans will turn on the manager/players pretty quickly. As I said yesterday, they are worse than us in that respect.

Best prospect since Cahill IMO. Nothing special on the ball, but could become a real beast of a centre half if things go right for him. Clark is the better footballer, but Baker is much the better Defender. Reminds me of Carragher/Terry.

Added some end product to his much improved displays of late. PL has to take some credit for playing him in the free role and getting him motivated. He is slowly, alongside Benteke, becoming the focal point of our attacking play. In today's form he is vital to the cause.

I still think we will go down, but there is some renewed hope after results this weekend. We are improving slowly, but surely. Some players are starting to show some form. I also think it isn't over yet for anyone on 30 points or less. More teams are going to to get dragged into this.

Trying to decipher if Delph is any good or not is like trying to solve a complex puzzle, hidden in a confuddling conundrum. After an amazing debut, he has spent the rest of his time at the club either on the treatment table or on the pitch being generally woeful. I'd finally given up on him and come to the conclusion he belonged firmly in the league we signed him from. Now all of a sudden he's starting to show glimpses of the talent I thought he had we when signed him. He's not been amazing and there is huge room for improvement, but the signs are there IMO. He's started to take the ball on the turn more and look to drive forward. He's actually beat a man a few times and his forward passing is coming on. A couple of goals would help. I think the guy deserves some credit for his determination to try and make it here and if he builds on his last 4-5 games he might just do it.