misanthrope

Financial control over an entertainment industry is a pipe dream. Rules to stop reckless borrowing based on income streams that may or may not come to fruition is one thing, preventing a new owner to invest in a club as he/she would see fit is another. If some of the rules they have proposed domestically are ever enforced it would mean nothing short of a miracle will allow clubs to stride forward, it will be gridlock. People claim it's about money now, but that won't change. City have bought our players before with the temptation of success and money, and they can continue to do it. The only difference is before we had hope something similar might happen to us, if these rules were applied there would be none because the only owners that will remain interested in buying football clubs will be those after their own pay day. 5-6 of the top clubs in the PL probably couldn't care less because they have already cemented their status and feel they can compete even with missing out on CL money. The clubs these proposed rules are really hurting are big clubs trying to push on and break into those places, and that goes for all tiers of the football league. I particularly like how the destination of the money going to UEFA's bank account from these fines is 'yet to be decided'. Pretty sure I know the destination

We should just keep them on despite any lack of merit and hope they eventually come good instead. Keep crossing our fingers on away trips to Braintree that he is a SAF in the making and just needs more financial clout!

I was shocked at palace's second, liverpool still had like 8 in the box well after the corner had been taken at 3-1, suicide. Shouldn't be too shocked I guess in the philosophical state the game is in atm where defending an advantage is seen as negative.

Yeah that's why he did it. you have evidence to the contrary? as I've said before the goalposts have moved dramatically since randy bought us, both in terms of city and the FFP rules, don't see why you find it so hard to see why he might have lost interest or why you have so much vitriol for him, think a few people on here are in for a surprise if /when we do get a new richer owner and we don't suddenly start buying a squad of £20m+ players You should really stop believing hearsay that FFP is going to wildly impact anything. It's scaremongering at best and has succeeded only at giving reluctant owners across all levels of the game a great excuse not to invest. You were probably one of the people on these boards claiming city were unsustainable and would come unstuck a couple of years back. Here we are 3 years later and they are about to win their second title, spent about 100m on strikers alone last summer and broke FFP rules which will probably result in them getting fined 20 grand and move along. The impact from domestic rules will be similar. Denying large clubs their TV rights to european games is about as likely as interstellar travel within 10 years. Most people are realising it was all a shocking idea to begin with seeing as how it's only the larger more established clubs that will benefit, solidifying positions in their respective leagues thereby preventing any chance for a club to have any significant rise through the ranks. It's bad for football, there were better ways to stop clubs borrowing irresponsibly and putting their club at risk of oblivion.

We didn't gamble, we had investment. Ridsdale gambled on debt. Our heavy investment into players should have given us better results. Whether that blame fell on Lerner, MON or the players themselves is a contested subject.

I think it's more to do with people's knowledge not going beyond that of the domestic game. Domestically there are very few candidates. There are a fair few more if you look overseas. Trouble is that when one of these is mentioned, ignorance combined with a quick wiki search with the expectancy to find a glittering managerial career of titles and awards normally results in negative feedback. The same people will probably be recommending Paul Scholes to take over who has less charisma than Ed Miliband and will be lucky to even further a coaching career, because he sure as shit doesn't have one in punditry. There was an uproar when Adkins was sacked, now their then unheard of manager is hot property after a season in charge. Our approach to managerial appointments as a club has been nothing short of horrendous, with the requisite 'Premier League Experience' scuppering any chance of hiring anyone who might move the club forward even on a tight budget. Apparently hiring a manager with premier league experience of getting relegated was a more favourable choice than candidates who have gotten clubs with similar financial restraints overperforming in their respective foreign leagues. I think it is quite evident now, even for the die hard believers who thought Randy & Co were a positive influence on the club, that the people running our club are totally and utterly clueless, both in general footballing knowledge and with regards to moving the club forward financially and on the pitch. A positive managerial appointment will depend on the club being sold and a reasonably resourceful owner coming in. Only then can we speculate on the names we could potentially attract, otherwise it's lambert or curbs.

If we are to be taken over, i'd like to think that whoever comes in will not make the same fatal mistake their predecessor did in handing out war chests to someone not qualified to spend them or regulate the resultant assets (if you could call some of them that). This means a no to Lambert for me, assuming a half-decent takeover happens. If it doesn't happen then **** knows honestly, another 20m funded Lambert summer will probably scrape us through another season, just.

Think you'll find that is due to taxation, inflation, culture shock and the discrepancy in ease of acquiring work permits. Check Porto for example, they source from South America paying 500k-2m for players and sell them on for 25m, consistently. Fernando, Mangala and Jackson Martinez will be this summer's exodus and they'll replenish quite comfortably without spending even 5% of what they receive. People often ask me why English clubs can't mimic this citing inferior scouting networks and such, fact is it's just not possible.

If any more former players are mentioned without as little as a coaching badge i'm going to smash my head into a wall.

These sorts of comments are bizarre to me. Last year WBA finished in the top 10, this year Stoke will finish in the top 10, show me the money these have spent. Palace could still finish in the top 10 if they win their last two. It's not that difficult to finish 10th or 9th. Newcastle with a probable loss at Anfield will finish on 49 points and I repeat have won 4 league games since Boxing day. 49 points is roughly a record of 13 wins, 10 draws and 15 defeats e.g. you can lose more than you win over a season and still finish top 10, it's not asking a lot, just us to win a few more home games for example. Just checked and Newcastle's ratio is 12-4-18 so they've lost more than they've won. Palace have lost half of their games and are 11th. Both teams only drawn 4 each so maybe we should just stop drawing games and go all out for wins? He probably means for consistent top half finishes + pushing on, which i'd tend to agree with. We may not be far off top 10, but we're lightyears away from top 7-8, such is the divide.

SWP won 30 odd caps doing that.

Ah yes the clairvoyants are out again, predicting the ill-fated demise of Manchester City and their evil brand of mercenary football! I wonder if the same people(if alive) will be saying the same in 30 years time when City have forged a history greater than any other and are still challenging for silverware. Equipped with flat cap & thermos (or futuristic equivalents) firing off anecdotes of where it all went wrong. It wasn't so long ago that people on here were claiming City would never win the title before their rich owners 'got bored'. Waxing lyrical how Man Utd did it the 'correct' way that we should follow, by 'blooding their youth' which in reality is defined as Beckham, Scholes & Giggs, the rest they bought. In fact their team now is still more expensive than City's and some were bought a while back, without inflation. This didn't start with Man City, in fact they are rather a comfort (to me at least) that the mould can actually be broken, although that is looking less likely to ever happen again with the Financial 'Fair' Player rules which people, again, think will be the bane of City(noticing a trend here?) when in fact all that will be accomplished in essence, is solidifying the assets already in place i.e.. the top 4/5. It's little wonder the top clubs have been so agreeable about it and somehow the smaller clubs (and the average ignoramus) have been fooled into thinking it's somehow a good thing for football? I despair. Then there are the people, who quite remarkably, would be FOR a 'Super League' to get rid of those pagan assholes so we can go back to 1960! (where curiously, players still left for bigger clubs with more money). There's just one minor drawback, money would dry up and nobody would watch it anymore. Moreover any, however fanciful and unlikely, aspirations and dreams that still remain for smaller clubs breaking into the top flight would be masticated, since they will never achieve 'top flight' in effect and neither would we. Probably THE worst thing that could happen and it's unfathomable that some claim this wouldn't be catastrophic, much less want it to happen. The opinion that really riles me above all others though, is this notion of 'the right way' to do things. The CORRECT way as if this is kind of medical procedure with one definitive approach. It's ok for us to take some players off teams less fortunate than our own, but when city takes a player off us it's outrageous, money has ruined everything! Get a hold of yourselves. Should we just block transfers altogether? Be able to field just those from Birmingham and play County football instead and pull in some astronomical cricket crowds perhaps. This has been going on for half a century, and it's all too easy to blame 'Sky's Football'. It's a popular sport yet some want to make it less popular to satisfy their demands. Yes it's about money, yes i'd take any properly reviewed bid by a multi-billionaire in a heartbeat. Any who wouldn't take an opportunity like that with open arms because of their skewed sense of morality (in the entertainment industry) should stop following Villa and football as a whole rather than just threaten to do so. The bubble isn't bursting in our lifetimes so go and watch Tom Daley jump off a board instead or something. I'd much rather our league stayed how it is to be honest, it's a good thing and we should all learn to appreciate it before people with money start looking elsewhere (which has begun already) because of our nonsensical stipulations and high taxes. I would rather the Russian League wasn't the 'one to watch' thank you very much. We compete in the best league in the world however cliche it is to say, it's the truth. I still enjoy watching the villa compete in it no matter how futile some would consider it to be.

Funny how you talk about Lambert being very tactically astute (by the way I believe you) then go on to say he's in the Martin O'Neill mould. The fact that he's tactically astute is one of the things that separates him from MON. Some day you must just give up your blind prejudice about MON, young man Do the following figures help you? 6-6-6-9-15 Hmm.. i'll take a stab, are those the figures spent on Knight, Davies, Sidwell, Harewood and Reo-Coker respectively? If not, perhaps the amount of weekday bevies Dunne, Collins & Warnock have down the Elephant & Castle?

After striking a few more players off the books we're going to have less than half of the budget Eck had last year? Bullshit.

Good in the 'we might break 40 points but then again we may not' kind of way?

My thoughts^

The tinkerman wouldnt fit us well at all imo....would want money...hasnt really set the world alight recently....Albion welcome to him... Wilkins (someone else quoted before albion interviewing) on the other hand would be a good move. I have real respect for the man, think he has a sound football mind and that shows through by talking a lot of sense. That said, I can see him buying only british or foreigners already established in GB which is going to get us 3 average to good players instead of the requisite 5-6. I'd hope we would get someone in with vast scouting knowledge.

All I can see at the moment is that the baggies appear to be showing more ambition than ourselves. This is frightening! Lerner and Faulkner can both do one if they think I will be buying a season ticket without seeing who we get in as manager. I've completely had enough of the board and their lack of ambition and lack of understanding Villa. Things weren't great under Ellis but generally if we were shit one season the next would be more positive and I just don't see that happening with the current board. Villa although not the club we used to be are still one of the biggest clubs in the country and in Europe, with great facilities, youth system and fan base. We pay good wages for supposedly top managers. If we are not attracting the right personel it's because the board can't sell the club to the right people. Before you know it we will be into continuing the farce started last summer. Lambert has yet to prove himself, surviving one season in the premier doesn't justify giving him the job. Norwich would as a whole have been very motivated and underestimated last season. Let's see how he gets on next year. Martinez, isn't going to choose us over Liverpool if they offer him the job and let's be fair, all he has proven is that in the last few weeks of a season he can survive- well I don't just want us to survive. And the other managers linked, Bruce, Hoddle, Curbishley, etc. What a bag of shit. We should be looking at top managers not championship managers! It's refreshing to see someone who hasn't given up on our owner and to a certain extent, our club. These days I generally identify the worst possible target, and as long as it doesn't end up being him i'm contented. A philosophy that didn't pay off last year.

The only reason i'd want Rafa is because appointing him would mean we have money to spend, but then upon realising we have money to spend, I would have preferred someone else to spend it I just can't see it happening though.

Oh do me a favour. Maybe he should have played a 2-5-2 with 10 men and cech as sweeper, or instead pre-emptively throw the game and capitulate to a team that would quite obviously have beaten them with 11 men, let alone 10, if they hadn't 'parked the bus' as some so eloquently point out. If you enjoy watching your incessant sideways and often backwards tiki-taka predominantly used in their own half, with very little penetration in the opposing, then that's your right but don't try and make out it's the only way to win a football match without being 'negative'. I don't want RDM as manager mainly due to his spell at WBA, managing similar quality players as he will have to with us, but trying to discredit his and his team's double this year by the fashion with which they were attained, is utter ignorance.

This is my desired list depending on what RL's intentions are. Long term project aiming to eventually compete with top 4/5 - Budget - 30-40m - AVB Continue Villa trademark of mid-table and occasional Europa - Budget - 20-30m - Lambert RL has given up and ready to sell in not too distant future - 10m - Curbs Wild card - OGS not happening so i'd quite like Poyet I don't like Benitez much, but I would take him in a heartbeat right now with all this uncertainty. I do not want nor rate Martinez for more reasons than i'd care to mention, I honestly think he would be a perpetual failure especially as everyone will want to give him time. If I were a betting man i'd definitely lump some money on RDM though, I think he is the most likely appointment given the stipulations chosen in the past, PL experience - check, Silverware - check, young (for a manager) and vibrant.... well he's got the first part.

Don't tell Lerner that.

Depends on the budget available ultimately, to tempt big names in football to a club such as ours, in a state that we're in, it'll have to be substantial. Also, there is a black cloud over his head atm with regards to opinions, people think he 'couldn't cut it' in the PL and so forth despite being one of the most tactically astute around. The board could have bought into that shite and thus not even considered him for his 'failure'.

Yeah but it would be nice to find another Juan Pablo Angel. His name is Falcao and Porto bought him for like 3m or something and was sold for over 15 times that, unfortunately we were chasing the likes of Sidwell under MON at the time

He'd have to do amazingly well (at least CL qualification & cup wins) for at least 3-4 years before the Glazers would even consider him to take over Man Utd. Man Utd's next manager will be a big name, not someone who has done well for 2 years at a relatively lower level club like Villa. A fair point, but never underestimate fan pressure, it got Kenny back in even though he was unquestionably out of touch with modern football. They absolutely adore OGS up there. Alot of the public and press expect newton heath to bring in a man that will follow in SAF's footsteps and be there a long time. My personal opinion is that it will be more of a merry-go-round compounded by being overshadowed by city. But anyway, living in the present I think it's an encouraging appointment.