The R word

[The Fun Factory]

I thought we were shaping up for a dull mid table place this year but now we are steaming to the drop zone. Need serious investment of quality players ( even a couple of loans) in January or we are deep in the brown stuff.

[StefanAVFC]

Lerner's poisonous reign needs to stop. Stop moping around, gather fans and ****** protest! Otherwise we'll end up like Cleveland Browns! Who wants that?

I agree but the browns are shit with or without lambert. Awful franchise.

[AVFCAM]

People keep saying that Lerner needs to spend more and offer more wages...but the fact is simple, as a club, we cannot afford to. We've lost tens of millions of pounds every year for about 5 years.

Crowd levels are still lower than the MON era, shirts sales were down last year, possibly not as high as the NIKE days either even now. If we want to start competing with some of te London clubs, we need to start charging the same for tickets and shirts etc.

We can spend £100m in transfers fees and offer £50k a week in wages for players, but we will just constantly be having money pumped into us to keep us afloat. Why should Lerner do that? Te only owners that do are the Middle Eastern Sheikhs who have bottomless oil riches.

Lerner is a business man, not an idiot. I love Villa, but I'm struggling to justify spending money on tickets with the current rubbish, I can't imagine wanting to throw my millions at it consistently to keep it afloat.

I think we'll go down on current form, we've been awful for a while now, good results have just papered over the cracks.

#Lambertout

[dudevillaisnice]

 

I've looked at what Lambert currently puts out on the pitch both tactically and player personnel and I have to say that it's probably not going to get any better without a drastic change. If I were Lambert I would be shouting one word at Lerner over the next five days …. WAGES !!!! Randy has to be made to understand that it is worth spending up to £60 million pounds in January on both transfer fees and WAGES in order to remain a Premiership club. Personally I'm not going to hold my breath!

With the way Lambert speaks in the press he doesn't seem bothered about the lack of funds.

 

 

He should be doing exactly what mackay is doing at Cardiff and putting pressure on the board to give funds via press conferences etc.

 

He hasn't said anything probably out the fear of his job but if he feels he can't do his job because the board are making it difficult he should resign.

 

Either way we can't carry on at this rate.

[Guest av1]

Crowds and shirt sales are down because the shit being served up on the pitch is down. Raising price's is sure fire way for those things to drop further.

[villabromsgrove]

People keep saying that Lerner needs to spend more and offer more wages...but the fact is simple, as a club, we cannot afford to. We've lost tens of millions of pounds every year for about 5 years.

Crowd levels are still lower than the MON era, shirts sales were down last year, possibly not as high as the NIKE days either even now. If we want to start competing with some of te London clubs, we need to start charging the same for tickets and shirts etc.

We can spend £100m in transfers fees and offer £50k a week in wages for players, but we will just constantly be having money pumped into us to keep us afloat. Why should Lerner do that? Te only owners that do are the Middle Eastern Sheikhs who have bottomless oil riches.

Lerner is a business man, not an idiot. I love Villa, but I'm struggling to justify spending money on tickets with the current rubbish, I can't imagine wanting to throw my millions at it consistently to keep it afloat.

I think we'll go down on current form, we've been awful for a while now, good results have just papered over the cracks.

#Lambertout

I would argue the opposite. Lerner has to bite the bullet if he wants to protect his investment. The financial difference between being a Premiership club or a Championship club is huge !!!! He cannot afford not to spend big money as a result of his own folly! Remaining in the Premiership is not a choice for RL, it's an absolute financial necessity.

[Rugeley Villa]

Bloody hell we are already one of the cheapest teams to watch. Put prices up and you will see sub 30k gates for a few games

[ciggiesnbeer]

Crowds are up over last season. Just saying.

 

Anyway nothing good comes from relegation. Nothing. I dont want us to become the next Forest/Leeds/Sheffield.

 

Everything must be done to avoid it.

[AVFCAM]

Protecting the investment is not throwing hundreds of millions at it, committing to a large outlay week on week.

If we get relegated with a low wage bill, we don't take as much of a hit when the loss of money from being out the league. We 'might' start winning so revenues go up from increased ticket sales. The investment is protected.

It may not be what the fans want, but when you are rich enough to own a football club, you have the right to run it as a business, as you are the one who is putting the money into it. If the fans put enough money into the club, then it means you don't have to put your money in, so then you can let the club spend it's own money as they want.

Is Lerner as good an owner (fans wise) as the Sheikhs at City? No.

Does Lerner have the same amount of money as them?! Not even close.

[GENTLEMAN]

Crowds are up over last season. Just saying.

 

Anyway nothing good comes from relegation. Nothing. I dont want us to become the next Forest/Leeds/Sheffield.

 

Everything must be done to avoid it.

This is my biggest fear, I would hate us to fade into insignificance and be stuck where those club are.

[whitsend]

We've been one of the worst sides in this division for a good four years now. I'd imagine fans of other clubs are viewing us like the Boltons slash Blackburns of this world.

We deserve to go down. Bring on Friday night football!!!!

[Mart-L7]

I think we've had it this season unless something massive changes.

The players are playing really bad, Lambert's tactics are shocking, Lerner doesn't invest nowhere near enough.

Now the fans have pretty much turned on the management/coaching staff and team I can't see how things can get better without change

[GENTLEMAN]

We've been one of the worst sides in this division for a good four years now. I'd imagine fans of other clubs are viewing us like the Boltons slash Blackburns of this world.

We deserve to go down. Bring on Friday night football!!!!

I could not give a **** about what other clubs think or feel about Aston Villa.

[The Fun Factory]

People keep saying that Lerner needs to spend more and offer more wages...but the fact is simple, as a club, we cannot afford to. We've lost tens of millions of pounds every year for about 5 years.

Crowd levels are still lower than the MON era, shirts sales were down last year, possibly not as high as the NIKE days either even now. If we want to start competing with some of te London clubs, we need to start charging the same for tickets and shirts etc.

We can spend £100m in transfers fees and offer £50k a week in wages for players, but we will just constantly be having money pumped into us to keep us afloat. Why should Lerner do that? Te only owners that do are the Middle Eastern Sheikhs who have bottomless oil riches.

Lerner is a business man, not an idiot. I love Villa, but I'm struggling to justify spending money on tickets with the current rubbish, I can't imagine wanting to throw my millions at it consistently to keep it afloat.

I think we'll go down on current form, we've been awful for a while now, good results have just papered over the cracks.

#Lambertout

Are you mad? If we charged London prices we would be getting barely 25,000 in at Villa. Which we might get next season if we carry on playing this shit.

[Rugeley Villa]

Atleast if we went down we would be the biggest club in the division so it aint all bad. Our away following would increase aswell. Awesome let's go down!!!

[VillaChris]

Worry for me is the bottom three all won (all away from home) so I think the points needed to stay up will be more than last season. Think Wigan went down on 36 so can see a side going down on 38 or 39 points this season.

 

Luckilly there are plenty of poor teams in the league, Cardiff are in turmoil and their results now are reflecting this and West Ham can't win for toffee. I don't see all of the current bottom trio staying up, still think Palace will go down.

 

It's weird looking at the level. Even with 21 games to go there's a 6 point gap from 9th to 10th so really everyone from Southampton could still realistically go down even though I think us, Stoke and Swansea will all be o.k in the end.

[AVFCAM]

People keep saying that Lerner needs to spend more and offer more wages...but the fact is simple, as a club, we cannot afford to. We've lost tens of millions of pounds every year for about 5 years.

Crowd levels are still lower than the MON era, shirts sales were down last year, possibly not as high as the NIKE days either even now. If we want to start competing with some of te London clubs, we need to start charging the same for tickets and shirts etc.

We can spend £100m in transfers fees and offer £50k a week in wages for players, but we will just constantly be having money pumped into us to keep us afloat. Why should Lerner do that? Te only owners that do are the Middle Eastern Sheikhs who have bottomless oil riches.

Lerner is a business man, not an idiot. I love Villa, but I'm struggling to justify spending money on tickets with the current rubbish, I can't imagine wanting to throw my millions at it consistently to keep it afloat.

I think we'll go down on current form, we've been awful for a while now, good results have just papered over the cracks.

#Lambertout

Are you mad? If we charged London prices we would be getting barely 25,000 in at Villa. Which we might get next season if we carry on playing this shit.

You've kind of missed my point. My point being that we can't compete with the revenues these other clubs bring in.

[King Cropley]

Crowds and shirt sales are down because the shit being served up on the pitch is down. Raising price's is sure fire way for those things to drop further.

Crowd revenue and shirt sales just about cover stewards wages and the kit mans coffee bill these days. Revenue comes from TV and sponsorship.....and based on current form we are about as appealing as Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris introducing Children in Need....

[danceoftheshamen]

Well so much for Lamberts comments about how we had such a tough start and how delighted he was with our points haul from those games. Now look at the last 8 games

against some of the worst teams in the division :/

 

Shocking is an understatement

[VillaChris]

When you take the full 2010-2013 as a whole it's actually incredible we haven't been relegated given how long we've been awful at Villa Park and we've had some pathetic defeats.

 

I thought our time was up a) the night we lost at home to Bolton and Villa Park was in mutiny at McLeish and the night we lost at home to Newcastle last season but both times we got things together and survived. It shows you that thankfully you have to be realty bad for so long to go down.

 

Even though things are grim at the minute, I don't get the feeling we'll go down. Things will pick up eventually although as ever probably more with our away results.