nik986

I didn't realise we signed a player named Cisse. Has Guzan missed a game in the league this season too? Back in the day, djibril cisse would have been brilliant for us.

Its going to be just above the drop. I'm going 15-16th. However, its a tight league like it was when Hou was in charge so a run of victories can put a team in the top 10.

I think our scum bag neighbours are a perfect example. Club is probably run worse than ours, financial restraints in the league worse than ours but the club decided enough was enough and the fans are excited again and they've started picking up results. Problem is, whilst I agree with your point, for every successful 'bump' from a new manager, there are double the amount that aren't successful.

It's not that simple at all. I don't think it's out of the possibility that we'll stay up with Lambert (again) but it's far from impossible that he'll take us down. Likewise, a new manager certainly wouldn't guarantee safety either. In fact, if we take the past as a guide, it has shown that even when it looks likely we will drop, we don't as we haven't. I am not happy with the manager, but he does have one thing, and that's keeping us in the league on a limited budget.

He'd better keep his place now... The big problem for us is not so much the number of injuries but who gets them - it's almost always first team players. Often get them in training too

He used to live next to a friend of mine in the jewellery quarter. Out late, different girl each time he was seen etc. He definitely enjoys a party, i think maybe he has taken his eye of the ball, as it were. However, aside from all this, I still think there is a goal threat in there somewhere.

He'd better get game time as a central striker....hope he's not wasted on the allotment like young Jack.

we could probably delete the last 100 pages of this thread and not lose any new information.

(It's not even "Paul Lambert" football, by the way - his Norwich team was attacking and scored loads of goals.) This is an excellent point. Lambert played without width, but a midfield diamond which scored goals (and conceded them). He seems to have 'lost' his way, as at the end of the first season we were 'swashbuckling'.

The best we had (before fulham paid us quite generously for a loan I may add) was Newcastle wanting to pay a low loan fee with up to half his wages still being covered by us..... Can't blame Lambert for no one wanting to buy our expensively paid bang-average players.

That's just it, he wasn't a creative player at United either which is why they dropped him to a deeper role in the end. That does worry me. I'd question whether Lambert has any intention of bringing in a proper creative midfielder. I hope i'm wrong. We've been linked with plenty it just seems to be the one that never comes off. Under Martinez at Wigan he was very creative, played further forward - or at least appeared to be.

We all want more but bitching and moaning about it isn't going to make Lerner sell up any quicker is it. Especially considering the Club is no longer up for sale. Still devastates me every time I read that. Likewise, defending the manager due the economic constraints of the club doesn't help either. I agree trotting out stats and same argument over and over doesn't help either. I suppose fans feel so powerless and there has been little to no improvement in any measurable way except for a reduction in wage bill. Nothing will change, and Lerner hasn't ever sacked a manager mid season anyway. We just have to accept scraping 16-17th is the limit of our ambition. For the record, like mcleish, I think Lambert is a decent guy, doing a poor job with hands tied behind his back. I just wanna see someone else govern a crack at it.

It seems that we should be just happy with our lot and not want more.

a] That's what we did with Lambert - "young and hungry" "long term approach", fans aren't happy and are wanting rid now. b] No, that's not what the successful clubs do. Most of them either stick with a manager for a long time or chop and change at the slightest inkling of decline - often throwing money at the issue. I can't think of any club outside of potentially Swansea/Barcelona who employ managers with a similar philosophy - and even then that's because they generally promote from within the club. The only ethos that anyone really cares about is winning football matches. If we wanted much else, we'd accept some lengthy squad building etc. yes it is what successful clubs do. They have an ethos/mentality/philosophy and appoint based upon that. You can add southampton to that list. Any chairman with half a brain wants to recruit managers who have similar ideas, otherwise you have a constant chopping and changing in the playing staff. And you point on 'he's only had 30 months' - many managers get less and manage to achieve a whole lot more.

There are clearly reasons why things are hard for Lambert, and yes, his hands are somewhat tied behind his back, but this doesn't give him a free pass. We should be competitive, not resigned to losses.

Biggest loss for our club for some time. Our most important player IMO?

Plays players who are out of form and don't rotate squad. Same first XI almost every week, if all fit. I'd say that's insane given our run of results.

Clark isn't great but as a fourth choice or even fifth choice CB, he's not bad. Problem we have is many of our players are too similar. So, at present not a massive difference between a non-playing Okore, baker or Clark. Our squad is full of a lot of average players, whereas other teams have much stronger first XIs.

I agree with this. Which players has our academy produced that are of a Southampton graduate? Barry and Cahill? Both were signed to the academy as late teens. Steven Davis probably best after that and another one we sold for peanuts. The academy just isn't as good as we make it out to be.

If the players boughT into lamberts master plan we may have a hope of keeping him and Delph. If the players believed under Lerner we were going to do something we may have a hope of keeping them. I'm not too concerned about vlaar, injury record and poor games often restricted his impact on the side. Delph concerns me as we have no drive or dynamism in midfield.

It seems as though some will say anything to absolve Lambert from blame. Yes he has worked under an owner who changes goalposts, wants out, and makes things difficult. But many managers do. People aren't saying he is the worst villa manager ever (although stats would back that up to an extent), just that he is not performing as well as we would like, and that others would make more of a difficult situation. Look at who we have on loan this season - pretty much last years transfer window. He hasn't made the most of limited resources available, the football is atrocious, and his brother in law and best mate are bullies. We can make excuses and defend Lambert, or we can look at what has happened over 30 months and say that we deserve better, whatever the ownership situation.

You are talking too much sense! One of my biggest flaws.

The view he's not good enough is held by a manager who has got very little correct over the last 30 months. Corrected!

Nah, he's made from word removed. Well there is that.

Having been to Stamford Bridge and witnessed the polite applause after goals, nothing comes close to that. VP is bad at present, but with a team playing attacking football in front of them, the fans very quickly get off their seats.