nik986

I like Lambert, he seems a nice guy. I really want him to succeed. But, clearly, after two and a half years, nothing has moved forward. He has spent money and on the whole the team/squad has not improved. Yes he's had successes with Benteke and Vlaar, but far too many misses, most of whom are out on loan this season. We are in as bad a position as when he took over, the football is as bad, and the most worrying thing for me is with have no ethos or philosophy in our football except for sit back and hope for the best. At least when we were signing young, lower league players, it seemed as those he had a plan, now it seems as though the years here have aged him and made him weary and he had no idea.

Had options to move to more stable and currently more attractive clubs than us too. Who? Wrexham, Crawley, Scunthorpe. Bradford, Millwall, Leyton Orient, Sheffield United Grealish, through his new agent, had options to wait until the summer to sign for Tottenham, Newcastle and West Ham. Other 'reported' interest in the press, although unconfirmed as I know it, was from Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea.

'Aye, he's a good lad but he needs to run around more and work harder to be in my side, creativity is one thing, but we want to keep things tight' is what I imagine PL would say.

Who are they? I doubt anyone really feels that way. Judging from the general mood and negative posts on the forum, it seems some posters are very bitter about a positive performance and result. Had Wet Spam had their shooting boots on, we'd had lost. Had Guzan not had a blinder, we'd had lost. More often than not, playing in the same vein in the premier league, we'd lose. Positive performance and result?

If he can't sell outright, surely he can find someone to invest?

Of course there hasn't been any progress. We've had hardly any money to spend, and what we have spent has gone on players who have been injured a lot of the time. It doesn't matter how loudly you demand a silk purse or how many times you point out that you don't have a silk purse if the raw materials are limited to a sow's ear. So what's the point of his appointment and keeping him if we don't expect improvement from a manager we wanted rid of? If we don't spend any money we can HOPE for improvement, but hardly expect it or demand it. In fact the law of averages says we should expect the exact opposite. Other managers manage to improve their clubs with a relatively small net spend.

Of course there hasn't been any progress. We've had hardly any money to spend, and what we have spent has gone on players who have been injured a lot of the time. It doesn't matter how loudly you demand a silk purse or how many times you point out that you don't have a silk purse if the raw materials are limited to a sow's ear. So what's the point of his appointment and keeping him if we don't expect improvement from a manager we wanted rid of? Many managers don't get lots of millions to spend but still improve the players/team. Lambert seems incapable of improving players/team.

Had options to move to more stable and currently more attractive clubs than us too.

Lets not confuse opinion for fact, please.

People saying he can do better, but is unlucky with players who didn't make the field today. Rubbish. He has a '£24m' striker on the bench. Bent is past his best IMO however, I am sure another manager like a Moyes, Pulis etc would get more from Bent than Lambert has with way he has treated him.

A neat and tidy player. An upgrade on Westwood.

How Grealish does not get on bench baffles me.

Not good enough. I'd let him go. International break, best time to do it. Gives new manager a month before transfer window.

Benteke was an idiot but Ref had a mare.

Benteke deserved to go. Idiot. But what about Spurs finishing with 11 players? Madness.

I struggle to understand Sherwood etc. I've seen nothing in these managers to suggest an improvement. As many have said, Lambert has proved he can keep a poor side up. I don't want to risk that as I believe we will still stay up this season, however, the quality of football is abysmal. Therefore, unless a decent manager is available we may as well stay with what we have. This is not a backing for Lambert, as my previous posts will show I want rid ASAP, but unless we have someone else e.g. Moyes lined up, its a waste of time.

Lambert probably prefers to leave him to work with his carrotts.

Id also state that we have regressed under Lambert from McLeish - McLeish didn't rack up the appalling records that Lambert has.....

More so than under McLeish, definitely. Pretending we've regressed from when McLeish was here is ludicrous. McLeish was supposed to be a blip, a season of poor defensive football, its become the normality. Not higher value, better value. Massive difference. The cost of our first team (fees and wages) is much lower and they win more games. Win more games? He has an equivalent win % to McLeish, so lowest of a Villa manager in the Prem. They do not win more games. What constitutes a "deserved win" in your mind? We're never going to outpass a £300m squad over 90 minutes. We won games without incorrect decisions or freak own goals, that's not luck. When they have a number of very good opportunities and carve us open a number of times but inexplicably fail to score, you can also chalk that up to lucky. I am not advocating going to City, United, Chelsea and Arsenal and trying to 'outplay' them, but to attack and take them on now and again would be nice rather than most of the time allowing them to pat us on the back for losing 2/3-0.

Steve mclaren has achieved a lot more in football than villa have in last 2 decades. Failed with England but who doesn't. Wasn't great at forest and had an iffy stage towards the end of his boro tenure but also got them to a European final was it? Did he also win them a cup? Had fc twente as the dominant force in Dutch football and is doing well with derby, who play some cracking stuff from what I see. Seems to be overlooked coz he stood with a brolly - when it was **** pissing it down and once talked in a Dutch accent. We really are not in a position to be picky like we have been the last few times when we've been choosing managers. This.

He's been here more than two years, he's assembled a much better value squad than the one that was here when he got here and the previous style of play left no room for regression. We didn't even try to win games. Has anyone ever said this in real life? Ah yes. Start from the conclusion, work backwards and attribute any conflicting evidence to luck. Clearly meant just over two years, but really validates a point that you make to pick up on little mistakes. He's assembled a higher value squad? What has happened to values of Bent, N'Zogbia etc. Our high value players then? I'd disagree, aside from Benteke, Delph and Vlaar - who else is 'highly valued'? The style of play, for me, is the same as under McLeish. However, Lambert has had over two years with this squad and there is no evidence of his coaching improving players or a tactical blueprint. And, the 'lucky' wins. Having watched the majority in the flesh, few were deserved wins. Southampton last season was hilarious.

Sanchez was the bright spot for me. Sat in front of back four, recycled the ball well, and did more than the backwards and sideways pass. Yes, he made some mistakes but at least he looked bright. Had the other 10 played in the same vein we would have won.

He only 'works' when he is placed on a slow full back, or against a team who's full backs push forward. Even then, he is often found out. Not good enough, hasn't been for a long time.

How a player who looks likely to do something everytime he touches the ball is not able to get into, at the very least, a matchday squad of a team who fail to create a decent goalscoring opportunity in over 300 odd minutes of football is beyond me.

Any manager is going to look at the ownership situation and think 'I could be out of a job within weeks...' Maybe our best bet would be to bring back a few ex-villans as a management team?