jackbauer24

We have brought in Gil and Sinclair which adds to our attacking threat. A striker might be nice but I think what we have will be enough and it's not vital. Once we get beyond Chelsea (and Arsenal disaster) I will be a bit more optimistic about our attacking threat against the teams around us. I wish we'd had games against the likes of Hull, Everton and Swansea before the transfer window closed to see where we are with these two players. With Gil and Sinclair starting I think we'll slowly improve regardless of bringing a striker in.

Well this backfired spectacularly...

A new subject to discuss that might pull us away from the very depressing now! Getting back from the Arsenal game I was trying to think of anything but the match so started thinking about the experience, the stadium and the 'show'. Maybe I was trying to attach some worth to the amount of money I'd spent! Anyway, first time at the Emirates. Obviously has the benefit of being modern and them having a lot of money! Impressed with the seats above all else, didn't know you could be comfortable on stadium seats! So, what would you like to see improved at Villa Park (not including team/ manager etc!) My list; Stadium seats - Arsenal's were padded! Stadium announcements - every away game shows how crap our pa system is. Internal 'design' - nothing major needs to happen for a lick of paint. What else would you like improved? Or, dare we be positive; what do you think Villa Park does well?

Milner played brilliantly... So Newcastle took him back and had another two years out of him! We signed him some two years after the loan. Nah, still keeping my point

My issue is "what successful loan have we ever turned in to a permanent signing?" It's all well and good having an option to sign permanently but he's not forced to do it and teams with more money will come in if he rediscovers any form. I know the upside of that is we get 6 months of a talented player but long term loss in that we've done all the hard work reinvigorating a player who will be great for the opposition all next season and beyond. I hate loans. Cleverley - miss Bertrand - success (left) Holt - miss Dawkins - miss Jenas - miss Keane - success (left) Walker - success (left) Bradley - miss So never thrilled by a loan! Who was our first ever loan signing as it, not definitively, seems to be tied to success - no loans when we were doing well.

I have nothing bad to say about Mr Fox's work at Villa, largely because I imagine (and hope) a lot of work is being done unseen to improve us. However, I wish he'd waited to talk at least a week more as he's bringing the whole mini optimism spark right down with all this reality crap! We were all a little boosted by Gil, the FA Cup and Delph and then he goes and pours water on the fire by; *Saying Lerner isn't a motivated seller *We will take at least three to five years to get CLOSE to a European spot ("maybe") *That we will likely never compete with the top five Nothing is wrong with what he's saying, it's just....depressing!

I had problems after problems with estate agents but you're kind of stuck if you can't buy. I think the initial costs they want, the renewal costs and everything else under the sun is ridiculous. It's also not in their interest for you to stay in the property as they will make more money by renting it to different people as they get a new lot of fees. They'll also be pushing to increase rent regularly and don't care about tenants. However, and I'm not saying this is a guaranteed way of avoiding hassle, I've found ditching the estate agents is much better! I've used Gumtree and private landlords and have had zero issues and am saving money. The landlord doesn't have to pay the estate agent a cut so my rent is cheaper, they just want reliable tenants and they aren't silly about initial fees etc, normally just wanting a deposit. Obviously ensure you get a contract etc and make sure everything is above board but I strongly recommend trying to find a private landlord and skipping the estate agents completely. One final warning, I looked at four private landlord houses - three were barely fit for habitation so nearly gave up! But I found a three bedroomed house in Kings Norton, new build, garden, drive, ensuite etc for less than £600 a month and have lived here for over three years without any hassle whatsoever - on the one occasion there was an issue he paid for the repair immediately. He wanted to meet in person (obvious when looking around house too) and chat, one month rent as deposit and sign some probably printed off the internet contract! Easy.

Interesting snippet from a longer article from Brian Reade in the Mirror; <quote>Consequently, for the past few years, Villa has been a ghost ship, drifting towards the rocks. I know a high-profile manager who was interviewed for the Villa job in the summer of 2012 and wanted to take it... until Lerner told him how much he’d have to spend on new players and salaries. He laughed and declined. Paul Lambert didn’t.</quote> Full article can be read on the Mirror; http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/brian-reade-column-aston-villa-4979624? (Can't edit this post as intended due to using tablet)

I remain a big fan of Weimann. Despite our goal drought, every time he has come on we've had a few more chances purely because of the outstanding amount of work he puts in every time. He at least makes defenders work and that can create spaces for others. He's not an amazing finisher by any stretch but if he was playing in the right position he'd reliably be getting 10-15 goals a season. He is not a winger. He works harder, runs quicker and finishes better than Gabby these days.

Feel sorry for the lad before he's even kicked a ball. Not many have heard of him, have seen a heavily cherry picked YouTube video and now he's expected to be the sole player to unlock defences. That's a hell of a weight for a foreign youngster! He probably won't even play much to begin with.

Hutton without a doubt. This is a guy who I never wanted near a Villa shirt again, was 'bombsquaded' and was absolute trash every time he played. These days he's one of first names on the team sheet. Some improvement in Clark and Baker but a) both still prone to rash stupid decisions and helped significantly by the more experienced players around them this season. The idea of Clark and Baker as the central partnership would fill be with a little dread. They need an Okore/ Vlaar/ Senderos to marshal them.

Cleverley is made a little bit of a scapegoat by Villa fans. Week after week he steps out on that pitch to give them more ammunition! Seriously though he's about our level. He's certainly not worth the ridiculous figures banded around and if he goes to Everton I'd not care a jot. He's outperformed by Sanchez, Westwood and Delph consistently. However he's a country mile better than Richardson! If he stays for free then good addition but if any fee is needed I think we could do a lot better. We bought Westwood for £2/3m? That's about his value if he had a few years left on his contract.

I think Benteke is a fantastic player and easily our only 'star'. However, I think we should have sold him when we were getting quotes around the £30m mark. Let's be sensible, in our position we should have taken the cash and spread it about a bit more. On average Lambert has spent less than £3m per player so that'd arguably be ten new players! I am slightly exaggerating there but there is a serious point behind it. Benteke is a luxury we can't afford. He's at least three years worth of budget in one player so when he's injured, off form or, as he is now, simply lazy we have nothing. Furthermore, he gets devalued for every season he can't score because of the rest of the team and every year his contract runs down. Benteke is not so good that the kind of money we could have got for him would not have made a more significant difference used elsewhere. We'd be better with a worse striker (but maybe playing Gabby/Andi as strikers rather than wingers) but better/ more creative midfield. I'd like to keep him and have the funds to provide the players who could provide any striker with service but that really is a ridiculous pipedream with Lerner in charge! There's no point having Messi in the team if the rest are Tonev!

I HATE Lerner; he's ruined my club. I may only be old enough to have known the Premiership years (first game in 93) but Ellis at least made decisions - he did back or sack. Not always correctly but I don't think he would let us get relegated, Lerner doesn't care other than for the cash. Name another club in the country where the former owner turns up to more games than the current one?!

I think Lerner needs asking one question; "Who's failing? You or Lambert?" Everyone agrees this is a sh*t time to be a fan, everyone. So if he thinks Lambert is at fault for our position he should sack him. If he genuinely believes he has given him sufficient funds for transfers and wages then he needs sacking. However if he's pleased with the job Lambert is doing under the remit he's been given then he must back him with funds immediately. Significant funds - at least £10-15m. You can't have it both ways as this is why everyone hates it at Villa at the moment. BACK HIM or SACK HIM. Personally I'd back him given those choices. I hate our predicament as much as anyone and I'll lose my rag loads of times at Lambert and the players and get infuriated at the crap that I pay to watch week in, week out but when I calm down and look at the bigger picture I just know the biggest change in fortunes will come from financial input not a change in manager. My greatest fear is Lambert is becoming an easy target and distracting from the real problem - Lerner. If Lambert goes fine, I won't cry but I won't expect significant change and all it will have done is give Lerner more restbite from the fans as he'll just use classic line new manager/ new start line. I HATE Lerner; he's ruined my club. I may only be old enough to have known the Premiership years (first game in 93) but Ellis at least made decisions - he did back or sack. Not always correctly but I don't think he would let us get relegated, Lerner doesn't care other than for the cash. Name another club in the country where the former owner turns up to more games than the current one?!

I am normally a defender of Lambert but today was awful. Awful. Disgraceful. Appalling. However, I'm not quite in the Lambert Out group. Don't get me wrong, Lambert messed this one up. We've apparently been waiting for a team not to sit back against us and Leicester didn't - and they could have won 4 or 5 nil! Really bad. No fight, sloppy, lazy. Cleverly needs dropping, as does Benteke who thinks he can just sulk rather than work. No striker is playing well but Weizmann at least tries unlike Gabby. Swapping Sanchez for Richardson was a ridiculous decision! We miss Delph badly. However, once the furore of this appalling match has died down I still believe that there is little that will be improved by changing the manager. I will admit I'm not as resolute in that belief as I have been but I think that's just because of today. Yes a crap Leicester smashed us with less money but if it was always based on paper every result would be predictable. We've beaten/ matched teams that are far better than us this season too. We are appalling. I will not deny that. But I think most Lambert sympathisers will think as I do; it's not good enough, we hate this season, the football, the players but, while I wouldn't exactly care if he was sacked, I still don't think he's the main problem. What funds would a new manager get to improve this crap?

IF I understand this then (and I'm not sure I do!) we will remain in a crappy situation until the summer when we lose the bigger earners and the effects of loss of value in their initial transfer fee. We then might be making £20-£30m profit a season so, seeing as Lerner will not be spending his own money anymore, it's fair to think this will largely (at least 50%) be used to service the current overall debt. Say we paid off £20m a year I assume we're talking ten years to be out of debt in the current climate. So if Lerner stays it's much of the same for another ten years? Only hope new owners working in a paying of the debt off as part of deal. As for newly promoted sides, they are using their three years worth of losses up in one year in the hope of Premiership survival? Which leaves them screwed next year and beyond unless they can shift players for high transfers (Southampton). Is this correct? But where do West Ham, Newcastle and even West Brom get there seemingly higher budgets from? Everton and West Ham spent over £30m each.

I suppose the question really is, what can the average Premier League team afford transfer and wages wise? If you're not the likes of Man City/ Chelsea then what is within affordable ranges based on average turnover? If we are (except the debt) now self sufficient, why are we such paupers in comparison with a majority of other teams? Are everyone else living far beyond their means and we'll be sitting bottom of a five team league when everyone else has gone bust?! Newly promoted Leicester have just spent £9m on a striker with around the kind of wages we offer, how do the likes of these teams afford it?

Someone had commented on the last set of accounts (Feb 14) but thread was locked due to age. I know our financial past has been discussed to death but what about the future? The latest report will not be due til late Feb but what are people's views on where we currently stand and are there are any accountants that can take a guess at what our future may hold? I must admit, going forward, I'm struggling to understand why we are such paupers - is it simply a case of paying off old debts and how many years will that take? Very roughly I think our basic turnover should be around £85m, with wages hopefully dropping closer to £65m (from £75m) so that means we should be making somewhat of a profit this year (I know there are other operating costs). Or is it not this simple? I am no accountant but why are we struggling to financially compete when the likes of West Brom, Leicester and QPR can outspend us in transfers and wages. All within the remit of FFP. If the debt were wiped out, would we be competing with these 'smaller' clubs? How long will we paying for past mistakes?

My view on current transfer window, rumours and the status of our players; Finances are obviously (unfortunately) the key in all decisions that needs to be made so we have to be realistic, accept what we can get and let go of our pride to some degree. Vlaar - if we can sell in Jan then we should. He's hardly played, he's not going to make us any more likely to avoid relegation and any money we can get for him is a bonus as I think we all accept he's not signing anyways new contract anyway. Delph - try our best to make him stay but if not, he must see out contract. He's far more crucial to our midfield than Vlaar is to our defence. Only silly money should make us sell him now. Cleverley - after failing to really impress we shouldn't be buying now. Certainly not for the ridiculous figures banded around (how come Vlaar captain is worth £1.5m with 6 months and unwanted midfielder is worth over four times that much with 6 months left?!) Decision to buy in summer should be left til then. Sinclair - the sort of player we need position wise. Unproven recently and a risk but I think he's the best we'll get with the kind of transfers/ wages we can offer. Very few players we will be linked with will excite fans now. We are not financially able to buy those players. The best we will get is more 'meh' players that we can only hope will prove at least adequate players - see more Cissokho's.

To put it in to perspective, although not the whole story, we have a harder tie than some all Premier league ties if you look at difference in league position of all 92 clubs. We are 12th in England, Bournemouth are 21st, so 8 teams between us. However Saints potentially play Crystal Palace and there are 13 teams between them and 14 between potential Tottenham/Leicester tie. So you could argue (without me actually researching this) we actually got the hardest tie of any Premier League team! Yes, you can tell, I'm already trying to rationlise a defeat!

We are so devoid of any creativity or intentions of passing forwards that it is painful to watch 90 minutes. Players don't like to take anyone on and it feels more like a training session of one touch keep the ball that results in high possession but no attacks. Furthermore there is always that risk of a slip or an error which puts us in significant trouble. I think the problems at Villa are little to do with Lambert and more to do with budget constraints in transfers and, more crucially, wages but I have to admit I heard rather loud 'We want Lambert Out' chants coming from the Holte End. As for today, more boredom to the point I wish theyd just extend the half time challenge to 90 minutes instead...

That's more a sad snapshot of football than anything else; too much 'now, now, now' child like reactionary decisions rather than building something solid. Funny to think that if Fergie had first been employed in this era he would have been sacked far before he had a chance to make them the most successful team in English history... But that's off topic.

I wont but my girlfriend will have hers on! Catch you there for a drink!

I'd be very surprised if they aren't, they seem to have all the matches on. And I'll be there again this year for it! Might see you there!