Brumstopdogs Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 The only thing keeping Lambert here is the owner is even more clueless than the manager. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 http://football.chrisnee.co.uk/2014/04/aston-villa-stagnant-helpless-and.html?m=1 Good read. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 http://football.chrisnee.co.uk/2014/04/aston-villa-stagnant-helpless-and.html?m=1 Good read. ....couldn't have put it better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordSepulchrave Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I'm still behind Lambert really, although we've been mediocre this season, but he's got a lot to prove next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaggy Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I'm hoping he can yet again prove how crap he is elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I'm hoping he can yet again prove how crap he is elsewhere. For what reason other than pettiness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I'm hoping he can yet again prove how crap he is elsewhere. For what reason other than pettiness? It's better than him continuing to prove how crap he is here, surely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Until the last 3 matches you could say that we were just about on target to have a better season than 12/13. We have been more consistent and until Stoke, conceded less goals. We have avoided hammerings but also haven't had a run like the last 10 games or so or last year. We also have been worse to watch. But I really do not see any progress now unless we do something mad like win our last 2 homes games. That is a crazy thought I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Of course points comparisons over a season aren't always accurate but generally if over a season you get close to 50 points you'll probably be in the top half, if you get 60 + points over a season you'll probably finish in the top 6 as we obviously did in the 3 seasons under MON. So yes I would like us to get past the mentality of just trying to scrape to 40 points every season as that's only ever going to get you a couple of places above the relegation zone. If we could just have a season of comfortably getting to 50 points like Southampton and Newcastle should do then that would give me hope we're slowly building towards eventually challenging the top 6 again. Really 13, 14th,15th it doesn't matter to me, it's not good enough as we're miles off even the top 10. That's my expectation next season, for me this season and last were always going to be about surviving, sadly. Well, you were a lot more pessimistic than Lambert himself then. After beating Liverpool in 2012, he said he'd have us in Europe in 3 years. We're 1 and a half years into that, and we're barely out of the relegation zone. There's a lot of retrospective claiming around these parts that this season was 'always going to be about surviving', but I don't believe Lambert himself thought that, and I don't recall it being a theme widely expounded upon before this season started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Yeah but O'Neill said that one day maybe Villa could win the European Cup again. That what manager do, bullshit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isa Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I can't recall anybody saying they would be content with scrapping survival again at the beginning of the season. The talk was unanimously of solidifying a mid-table spot. Seems like yet another changing of the goalposts by some. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 It's true, the momentum we ended last season with, the coup of getting one of the best strikers in the league to stay with us and the fact we actually did have a decent start to what was a tricky start to the season (3 wins from our first 6 games) which saw us comfortably mid table imo should've seen us have a Newcastle type of season. Not good enough to challenge the top 6 as they've shown since they sold Cabaye but still a season in which they've never been in relegation danger and despite them being rubbish now they still should hit 50 points and top 10. I fail to see why that should be beyond us nowdays. All we've seen from this season is from October onwards the results and performances just decline with a couple of notable exceptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Yeah but O'Neill said that one day maybe Villa could win the European Cup again. That what manager do, bullshit. Yes, sometimes they bullshit to the media. And sometimes they sit down in a boardroom and set targets. In Lambert's case, we often hear reference to a 'three year plan'. I don't believe that that three-year plan consisted of:1) scrape survival for 2 seasons2) ???????????????3) top half of the table in the third season! When you set a three-year plan, you generally set targets for two positive step-improvements. That hasn't happened, and doesn't look like it's going to. Maybe Lambert was bullshitting when he gave that press conference, but equally as likely, he actually believed it, and he's been as surprised and disappointed by our failure to improve as everyone else. I just don't accept that the plan - either from the manager or from the same fans we hear it from today - was always that 'the first two years is just about surviving'. It's being said now to retrospectively justify his continued employment after a poor season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anything11 Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I do not agree that the circumstances of the club have bought Lambert time but more that these circumstances are the reason he would be given time in the first place. Replacing a squad on the budget he has had is a hard task for anyone and it took some balls for Lambert to agree to the deal. Unless we start to spend then in my eyes the blame will fall more with Lerner than Lambert. Lambert is trying to build a squad/team/new era of a huge club with one hand tied behind his back and this summer is make or break. Noone can compete in this league or long periods with with minimal money we have been spending. Wigan flirted with relegation for years before eventually dropping and look how well Martinez has done now with better quality players. Lambert doesnt appear to be going completely style over substance for fear of doing a wigan - i assume part of his mandate when joining the club was to keep us in the PL so he has to walk a tightrope of performances vs points to do so. He isnt taking the risks we would like to see with players and formations as surviving another year is priority. If Lerner is going to sell then i hope Lambert gets a chance to show what he can build and is backed financially to do so. He was an exciting young british manager upon arriving here and i believe with a little less reatraint Villa can see the best of him. Results for the moment are not good enough and he would be the first to admit it - he has taken on a monumental task and in my opinion deserves some support. Lerner on the other hand needs to front up or sell up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 I can't recall anybody saying they would be content with scrapping survival again at the beginning of the season. The talk was unanimously of solidifying a mid-table spot. Seems like yet another changing of the goalposts by some. If you go back to the early pages of the "Where will we finish?" thread, most people were indeed thinking top half last summer. And here's a little quiz. In June/August last year, who said FFS, we WILL finish in the top half. Seriously, if Paul Lambert can't get us six more points in his second season he should be sacked. And I say that as a huge fan. , And who said Only that French tw*t with the dodgy ticker ever abused & disrespected the FA Cup, something I shall never forgive him for. The FA Cup is Villa's Cup.....I've always believed that & I;m certain we'll take it seriously. Answers on a postcard pl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 I think what is even more depressing is the lack of coverage of how truly abysmal we have been at home this season. This years ago we would have had 'Villa in crisis' headlines and Doug getting abuse. It is just the shrug of the shoulder and so what attitude that hits me. We have become a nothing club, content to tread water and pick up the tv money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isa Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 (edited) Just read through some of it Briney. The most sombre prediction I saw in the first few pages was probably: 15th - Defense still looks lightweight to me. ...which was pretty accurate as it has turned out. As for the this one: FFS, we WILL finish in the top half. Seriously, if Paul Lambert can't get us six more points in his second season he should be sacked. And I say that as a huge fan. No doubt it's author will try and pass it off as tongue-in-cheek or something. Here is probably the most visionary of the ones I saw, again by Smetrov, which amazingly was posted after the second game when optimism was through the roof: There looks a lot more dross this season - I m not convinced we've progressed much at - no clean sheets - No one other than Benteke looks like scoring - barring a big splash in the transfer market I'm sticking with 15th.... ...and here is Mantis' populist response: There looks a lot more dross this season - I m not convinced we've progressed much at I'm sorry but that's simply wrong. We got absolutely nothing out of these 3 fixtures last season, and one of them was an 8-0 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea, which is considerably worse than the narrow 2-1 defeat (that probably wouldn't have been a defeat had the refereeing been fair). I fail to see how getting 3 points from 3 fixtures last season that we got 0 points from isn't progression? The performance today wasn't even that bad for most of the game, we just lacked that cutting edge. We ended last season in top 8 form by beating most of the non-top 10 teams, while losing to all of the top 6 teams. I think it's more than a little unfair to be saying we haven't progressed and that there's more "dross" when you consider that we've only played teams from last season's top 6 so far this season and put in two very good performances from our first 3 games. If anything things suggest we have progressed, if only by a little. Strange as he now claims that he only judges progression by league position, not by points comparisions with last season. Edited April 8, 2014 by Isa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozvillafan Posted April 8, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted April 8, 2014 Trying to get away from the point-scoring going on in this thread, this is worth repeating: http://football.chrisnee.co.uk/2014/04/aston-villa-stagnant-helpless-and.html?m=1 Good read. The most telling part of that article is this: At Villa, Lambert is the most senior football man. The cheques might be signed above him but he's responsible for Villa's transfer activity, for their playing strategy and tactics, and for coaching, preparing and motivating his players.Unless the football strategy is set at a more senior level - perhaps even accompanied by the handling of transfers - there is no project. None. Nada. It's just a word, a euphemism for the negligent ongoing commitment to an under-performing component who will, ultimately, eventually leave.When he does go, whether it's because the club moves on or because he takes another job, the "project" is gone with him and the whole process begins again. I'm not convinced Lambert can carry out his own plan, but I'm also concerned that Lerner/Faulkner will appoint yet another manager of similar poor quality. So.... .....damned if we do, damned if we don't. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuck Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 http://football.chrisnee.co.uk/2014/04/aston-villa-stagnant-helpless-and.html?m=1 Good read. Bang on. Frightening really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anything11 Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 I'm not necessarily convinced by the article to be honest. It raises some very true points but what help did Ferguson have from above when he started at United? He narrowly avoided the sack then he built them from the ground up. Did Wenger have people above him doing some of the background work? Martinez seems to be in control of it all at Everton going by recent interviews as well. These situations can only work when there is money to spend especially in this day and age of football - currently we are not investing in the squad other than to remain afloat which is just going to land us in the championship in the long run. Lambert brought with him his team to control all of these matters and maybe the job was just too big for him? Or maybe we are merely experiencing an inevitable stutter? Either Lerner was cutting costs with a view to reinvesting or he is about to bail in the summer. Only time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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