Manager Paul Lambert

[villan_007]

 

 

Depends on where you think Aston Villa should be.

Season 2 of a project that is attempting to remove short-termist shite from the football club? I'll take midtable thanks.

So what happens if we're in another relegation battle next season?

 

 

Well let's see what happens this season first.

[BOF]

Depends on where you think Aston Villa should be.

Season 2 of a project that is attempting to remove short-termist shite from the football club? I'll take midtable thanks.

So what happens if we're in another relegation battle next season?

I dunno but sure let's pretend it's going to happen and complain about it now.

[avfc1982]

Depends on where you think Aston Villa should be.

Season 2 of a project that is attempting to remove short-termist shite from the football club? I'll take midtable thanks.

So what happens if we're in another relegation battle next season?

 

Well let's see what happens this season first.

That's what we were saying this time last year.

[BOF]

That's what we were saying this time last year.

Last year was a relegation battle (year one). We're saying this year we'll accept midtable (year two). Can you see what's happening?

[villan_007]

 

 

 

We're far from struggling. We look on course for a comfortable, if boring midtable finish.

Depends on where you think Aston Villa should be. For me the team we have now is simply unacceptable and to lose so many home games is beneath a club as big as ours. The fact that so many of our fans accept this is a damning inditement of the state of our club right now.

Thank-you very much Mr. Lerner. Now sell up and get out.

 

 

Do people not remember Doug being even more terrible? At least Randy put money in. We were almost getting relegated back then too. 

 

So O'Leary finished well one season, with Randy we had three sixth placed finishes all entirely subsidised by his own pocket.

I remember us having bad seasons under Ellis, but what I also remember is that Ellis would always get his wallet out the following season and put it right. Lerner does nothing of the sort, and we're now into our 4th consecutive season of struggle.

That never happened under Ellis.

Lerner out!

 

Utter rubbish - he never spent enough or spent what we needed to do. Whilst things have been bad the past few seasons, what Randy has put into the club simply dwarfs what Ellis put in.

He's put a relative pittance in over the last few years - hence the diabolical squad we have now.

 

So you wanted him to keep spending so we ended up like leeds or portsmouth??? some fans just can't see what happened and what needed to be done.

 

We are on track.

On track to what, mediocrity?

 

 

Yes the whole project is about finishing midtable. ffs!

 

You can't see, most likely you are walking in a Fifa wonderland and expecting us to finish top 4 after 1 season of finally getting rid of the mess that has been crippling us for too many seasons.

[avfc1982]

Depends on where you think Aston Villa should be.

Season 2 of a project that is attempting to remove short-termist shite from the football club? I'll take midtable thanks.

So what happens if we're in another relegation battle next season?

I dunno but sure let's pretend it's going to happen and complain about it now.

Well if everyone had that outlook no one would ever make a decision before it was too late.

We're into our 4th consecutive season of struggle. Has that ever happened before in your time of following the Villa? Certainly not in mine. Wake up and smell the coffee, Lerner has lost interest and Villa are suffering for it. There's no plan other than to run Villa on a shoestring.

[GENTLEMAN]

The fact that so many of our fans accept this is a damning inditement of the state of our club right now. 

 

I would like to believe the majority of supporters can see improvements, however slight they may appear, to the squad/team from last season. 

[avfc1982]

The fact that so many of our fans accept this is a damning inditement of the state of our club right now.

I would like to believe the majority of supporters can see improvements, however slight they may appear, to the squad/team from last season.

I don't see any real improvements on last season other than a couple of extra points. In reality we're just as appalling as we were last season, and our home form is simply beneath us.

[Isa]

Do people not remember Doug being even more terrible? At least Randy put money in. We were almost getting relegated back then too. 

 

So O'Leary finished well one season, with Randy we had three sixth placed finishes all entirely subsidised by his own pocket.

Wow! Sixth place on a top four wagebill...

[Big_John_10]

Do people not remember Doug being even more terrible? At least Randy put money in. We were almost getting relegated back then too.

So O'Leary finished well one season, with Randy we had three sixth placed finishes all entirely subsidised by his own pocket.

Do you remember Doug? I'm not sure you do. In premiership history we finished outside the top half 3 times. We're now looking like doing that for the 3rd consecutive year.

[BOF]

Well if everyone had that outlook no one would ever make a decision before it was too late.

We're into our 4th consecutive season of struggle. Has that ever happened before in your time of following the Villa? Certainly not in mine. Wake up and smell the coffee, Lerner has lost interest and Villa are suffering for it. There's no plan other than to run Villa on a shoestring.

I really don't know how else to put this to you. Just calm down for a minute and read this. It is precisely because of the approach taken by Houllier & McLeish that we have brought in Lambert to change the way we do things. This is year TWO of Lambert rectifying the problems. Last year was a relegation battle and this year will hopefully be midtable. That is progress along a timescale that I can accept. You say wake up and smell the coffee. I say stop drinking 3 pints of espresso a day and tearing your hair out.

[Papillon]

We're far from struggling. We look on course for a comfortable, if boring midtable finish.

 

I guess a matter of three points would severely dampen that outlook? Give us three points extra and we would be slammed mid-table, take away three points and we would have been in the relegation mix. Who knows what happens in the next months?

 

We are 14th and we didn't score a single goal in the month of October, our last goal was on the 28th of September. That is four games without a goal my friend, and luckily we played Hull and West Ham in that period so that we could at least get a couple of points and some clean sheets. We got kicked in the ass by Spurs in the League Cup as well, again without scoring a single goal. On top of that, we are really struggling to create chances and we have somewhat been found out by most teams as they know from the start we only have one weapon in the bag. When our only really good player Benteke is injured or struggling, we are also struggling big-time. We have few or no attacking setups - everything looks a bit random when we play, we don't know who our best player is in several positions basically because no-one is doing an OK job there, key players from last season have been underwhelming this entire season and our midfields don't score goals or contribute with vital assists. Our set-pieces are non-existing compared to other teams and yet we stick with the same guns, even though both statistics and our own bleeding eyes are screaming for a change. 

 

You say we are far from struggling, I really cannot fathom how you come up with that because I really think we are struggling. I would say that at best we would be looking at a comfortable mid-table finish, but right now I fear the dogfight under us more than I predict a 10th-11th or top-half finish. I expect us to come up with some form every once in a while, and we will get some luck here and there to beat teams like Newcastle or Swansea, so I don't really fear relegation that much. There are some really poor teams in this league this season, and Crystal Palace are cemented for relegation already. Sunderland are in the shit as well, but it's far too early to tell as they canned Di Canio at the perfect moment. A couple of wins on the trot at they are firmly back in the mix, although they have Man City next and then Chelsea in three weeks.

[avfc1982]

Well if everyone had that outlook no one would ever make a decision before it was too late.We're into our 4th consecutive season of struggle. Has that ever happened before in your time of following the Villa? Certainly not in mine. Wake up and smell the coffee, Lerner has lost interest and Villa are suffering for it. There's no plan other than to run Villa on a shoestring.

I really don't know how else to put this to you. Just calm down for a minute and read this. It is precisely because of the approach taken by Houllier & McLeish that we have brought in Lambert to change the way we do things. This is year TWO of Lambert rectifying the problems. Last year was a relegation battle and this year will hopefully be midtable. That is progress along a timescale that I can accept. You say wake up and smell the coffee. I say stop drinking 3 pints of espresso a day and tearing your hair out.

It's pretty obvious to me that the real reason O'Neill walked was because Lerner told him he was cutting his investment in the club, and he pretty much has ever since (Bent aside). O'Neill knew the direction Lerner was taking the club (downwards) so he walked. Don't try and pretend it was McLeish and Houllier who caused all our problems because it wasn't. It was Randy Lerner.

What I find most sad about the Villa these days is the way our fan base has been reduced to nothing more than nodding dogs when we used to be pro-active. Imagine the uproar if it was Ellis who had done this to us and not Lerner. They'd be riots outside his house, but now we bow down to Randy in a "we know our place" type of way.

So so sad.

[adw95]

 

 

Well if everyone had that outlook no one would ever make a decision before it was too late.We're into our 4th consecutive season of struggle. Has that ever happened before in your time of following the Villa? Certainly not in mine. Wake up and smell the coffee, Lerner has lost interest and Villa are suffering for it. There's no plan other than to run Villa on a shoestring.

I really don't know how else to put this to you. Just calm down for a minute and read this. It is precisely because of the approach taken by Houllier & McLeish that we have brought in Lambert to change the way we do things. This is year TWO of Lambert rectifying the problems. Last year was a relegation battle and this year will hopefully be midtable. That is progress along a timescale that I can accept. You say wake up and smell the coffee. I say stop drinking 3 pints of espresso a day and tearing your hair out.

It's pretty obvious to me that the real reason O'Neill walked was because Lerner told him he was cutting his investment in the club, and he pretty much has ever since (Bent aside). O'Neill knew the direction Lerner was taking the club (downwards) so he walked. Don't try and pretend it was McLeish and Houllier who caused all our problems because it wasn't. It was Randy Lerner.

What I find most sad about the Villa these days is the way our fan base has been reduced to nothing more than nodding dogs when we used to be pro-active. Imagine the uproar if it was Ellis who had done this to us and not Lerner. They'd be riots outside his house, but now we bow down to Randy in a "we know our place" type of way.

So so sad.

 

 

Who told you why O'Neill left? What are your sources?

[Keyblade]

 

We're far from struggling. We look on course for a comfortable, if boring midtable finish.

 

I guess a matter of three points would severely dampen that outlook? Give us three points extra and we would be slammed mid-table, take away three points and we would have been in the relegation mix. Who knows what happens in the next months?

 

We are 14th and we didn't score a single goal in the month of October, our last goal was on the 28th of September. That is four games without a goal my friend, and luckily we played Hull and West Ham in that period so that we could at least get a couple of points and some clean sheets. We got kicked in the ass by Spurs in the League Cup as well, again without scoring a single goal. On top of that, we are really struggling to create chances and we have somewhat been found out by most teams as they know from the start we only have one weapon in the bag. When our only really good player Benteke is injured or struggling, we are also struggling big-time. We have few or no attacking setups - everything looks a bit random when we play, we don't know who our best player is in several positions basically because no-one is doing an OK job there, key players from last season have been underwhelming this entire season and our midfields don't score goals or contribute with vital assists. Our set-pieces are non-existing compared to other teams and yet we stick with the same guns, even though both statistics and our own bleeding eyes are screaming for a change. 

 

You say we are far from struggling, I really cannot fathom how you come up with that because I really think we are struggling. I would say that at best we would be looking at a comfortable mid-table finish, but right now I fear the dogfight under us more than I predict a 10th-11th or top-half finish. I expect us to come up with some form every once in a while, and we will get some luck here and there to beat teams like Newcastle or Swansea, so I don't really fear relegation that much. There are some really poor teams in this league this season, and Crystal Palace are cemented for relegation already. Sunderland are in the shit as well, but it's far too early to tell as they canned Di Canio at the perfect moment. A couple of wins on the trot at they are firmly back in the mix, although they have Man City next and then Chelsea in three weeks.

 

 

Before our barren run, weren't we like the 4th highest scorers in the league? That's all it is, a barren run caused by the bad form of our strikers which I'm sure will be rectified soon, not least by the insatiable hunger of The Beast. If you don't expect a relegation battle, then we are midtable plain and simple. Anything from 8th - 15th I'd say is midtable, and I can easily see us finishing in that bracket. Struggle? Nah.

[Papillon]

 

Do people not remember Doug being even more terrible? At least Randy put money in. We were almost getting relegated back then too. 

 

So O'Leary finished well one season, with Randy we had three sixth placed finishes all entirely subsidised by his own pocket.

Wow! Sixth place on a top four wagebill...

 

 

Interestingly enough, there is correlation between the wage bill and the final position in the table. As illustrated by you, we got 6th three times in a row with a wage bill slightly higher than where we ended up.

 

My question to you is, with this in mind, what can we reasonably expect when we slash our wage-bill and try to spend the least money in the league? We have cut the spending and the wages, but what does that help when we lose revenue, potential high-end sponsorships, merchandise drops, people refusing to go the games etc? We have basically one player I would imagine people getting on the back on their kits, our sales around the world must be at a low because of this, even though I don't have any figures to back that up.

 

It seems to me that some fans here believe we are the new Borussia Dortmund and that we are buying players just like Arsenal did a few years ago. Well guess what, that feat is incredibly hard, if not impossible for a club of our stature coming out of a city like Birmingham that is obviously not a Mekka in terms of football, so I find it hard to accept the arguments about wages going down = positive. We balance our books and we are perhaps not that dependent on Lerner, but we are also selling our only slim chance of success doing it this way and people are losing interest. Managers don't have 5-6 years in this game, they have 2-3 years before changes are made automatically. I'm not a betting man, but I would say the chances of Lambert being sacked within two years is 95% certain, and our chances for success under this approach is 5%. It takes some financial input and change of strategy to make that outcome look much better, but that means Lerner has to fork out some more cash and it means Lambert has to change his view of the market. We got the Benteke, now I would like to see some interesting buys in that bracket and not the Bowery one. More Okore and less Helenius to put it that way...

[avfc1982]

Well if everyone had that outlook no one would ever make a decision before it was too late.We're into our 4th consecutive season of struggle. Has that ever happened before in your time of following the Villa? Certainly not in mine. Wake up and smell the coffee, Lerner has lost interest and Villa are suffering for it. There's no plan other than to run Villa on a shoestring.

I really don't know how else to put this to you. Just calm down for a minute and read this. It is precisely because of the approach taken by Houllier & McLeish that we have brought in Lambert to change the way we do things. This is year TWO of Lambert rectifying the problems. Last year was a relegation battle and this year will hopefully be midtable. That is progress along a timescale that I can accept. You say wake up and smell the coffee. I say stop drinking 3 pints of espresso a day and tearing your hair out.

It's pretty obvious to me that the real reason O'Neill walked was because Lerner told him he was cutting his investment in the club, and he pretty much has ever since (Bent aside). O'Neill knew the direction Lerner was taking the club (downwards) so he walked. Don't try and pretend it was McLeish and Houllier who caused all our problems because it wasn't. It was Randy Lerner.

What I find most sad about the Villa these days is the way our fan base has been reduced to nothing more than nodding dogs when we used to be pro-active. Imagine the uproar if it was Ellis who had done this to us and not Lerner. They'd be riots outside his house, but now we bow down to Randy in a "we know our place" type of way.

So so sad.

 

Who told you why O'Neill left? What are your sources?

None, it's my opinion. Where are Bof's sources for his "year 2 project" stuff?

It's just opinion, that's what this place is all about isn't it?

[GENTLEMAN]

I don't see any real improvements on last season other than a couple of extra points

 

There is some improvement on last season then? Progress was always going to be gradual.

 

. In reality we're just as appalling as we were last season, and our home form is simply beneath us.

 

I agree our home form is not the best but you can see we are striving to improve that record. We have deserved a lot more in the last two home games, I think we have genuinely been unlucky recently. I have no doubts our home form will improve in the coming months though.

Edited November 5, 2013 by GENTLEMAN

[Papillon]

 

 

We're far from struggling. We look on course for a comfortable, if boring midtable finish.

 

I guess a matter of three points would severely dampen that outlook? Give us three points extra and we would be slammed mid-table, take away three points and we would have been in the relegation mix. Who knows what happens in the next months?

 

We are 14th and we didn't score a single goal in the month of October, our last goal was on the 28th of September. That is four games without a goal my friend, and luckily we played Hull and West Ham in that period so that we could at least get a couple of points and some clean sheets. We got kicked in the ass by Spurs in the League Cup as well, again without scoring a single goal. On top of that, we are really struggling to create chances and we have somewhat been found out by most teams as they know from the start we only have one weapon in the bag. When our only really good player Benteke is injured or struggling, we are also struggling big-time. We have few or no attacking setups - everything looks a bit random when we play, we don't know who our best player is in several positions basically because no-one is doing an OK job there, key players from last season have been underwhelming this entire season and our midfields don't score goals or contribute with vital assists. Our set-pieces are non-existing compared to other teams and yet we stick with the same guns, even though both statistics and our own bleeding eyes are screaming for a change. 

 

You say we are far from struggling, I really cannot fathom how you come up with that because I really think we are struggling. I would say that at best we would be looking at a comfortable mid-table finish, but right now I fear the dogfight under us more than I predict a 10th-11th or top-half finish. I expect us to come up with some form every once in a while, and we will get some luck here and there to beat teams like Newcastle or Swansea, so I don't really fear relegation that much. There are some really poor teams in this league this season, and Crystal Palace are cemented for relegation already. Sunderland are in the shit as well, but it's far too early to tell as they canned Di Canio at the perfect moment. A couple of wins on the trot at they are firmly back in the mix, although they have Man City next and then Chelsea in three weeks.

 

 

Before our barren run, weren't we like the 4th highest scorers in the league? That's all it is, a barren run caused by the bad form of our strikers which I'm sure will be rectified soon, not least by the insatiable hunger of The Beast. If you don't expect a relegation battle, then we are midtable plain and simple. Anything from 8th - 15th I'd say is midtable, and I can easily see us finishing in that bracket. Struggle? Nah.

 

 

I really hope we catch some form and get out of the mess instead of ending up in it before Christmas. Of course. However, 15th is not mid-table is it? We ended up there last season and we were firmly in the mix three weeks before the season ended. A loss here or a win there for another teams and we would have gone down, at least that's how I felt when Wigan played their games at the end. I remember them losing to Arsenal (I think) and that kind of made things impossible for us in terms of going down, that was like the 37th game of the season.

 

We are only 10 games in and nothing is set in stone yet, but our alarming form in front of goals the last four games must be taken into consideration. Few teams go four games without scoring and think of it as nothing. Luckily we have Cardiff at home in the weekend, it is one of the best opportunities for us to gather some pace again.

[adw95]

 

 

 

 

Well if everyone had that outlook no one would ever make a decision before it was too late.We're into our 4th consecutive season of struggle. Has that ever happened before in your time of following the Villa? Certainly not in mine. Wake up and smell the coffee, Lerner has lost interest and Villa are suffering for it. There's no plan other than to run Villa on a shoestring.

I really don't know how else to put this to you. Just calm down for a minute and read this. It is precisely because of the approach taken by Houllier & McLeish that we have brought in Lambert to change the way we do things. This is year TWO of Lambert rectifying the problems. Last year was a relegation battle and this year will hopefully be midtable. That is progress along a timescale that I can accept. You say wake up and smell the coffee. I say stop drinking 3 pints of espresso a day and tearing your hair out.

It's pretty obvious to me that the real reason O'Neill walked was because Lerner told him he was cutting his investment in the club, and he pretty much has ever since (Bent aside). O'Neill knew the direction Lerner was taking the club (downwards) so he walked. Don't try and pretend it was McLeish and Houllier who caused all our problems because it wasn't. It was Randy Lerner.

What I find most sad about the Villa these days is the way our fan base has been reduced to nothing more than nodding dogs when we used to be pro-active. Imagine the uproar if it was Ellis who had done this to us and not Lerner. They'd be riots outside his house, but now we bow down to Randy in a "we know our place" type of way.

So so sad.

 

Who told you why O'Neill left? What are your sources?

None, it's my opinion. Where are Bof's sources for his "year 2 project" stuff?

It's just opinion, that's what this place is all about isn't it?

 

 

 

Why does he need sources to say Lambert is trying to change things, that's obvious from what's been going on since he arrived. Your statement is about internal affairs of which none of us (I assume) know anything about.