Manager Paul Lambert

[Big_John_10]

You don't get Norwich to 12th in the league if you are not a good manager

He is ambitous not a mercenary - two very different things.

Mcleish got blues to 9th.

Your reasoning is struggling.

[Amo69]

I am ITK on this one thing - I know for sure what Sissoko is looking for. He is available for £3.5m - anyone in their right minds would sign him for that much but it is the £75k a week that is putting us and 4 or 5 other clubs off. Sunderland seem most likely to bit the bullet and pay up

I don't think there is any chance that he will come to us - someone will snap him up well before his wage demands are in our league. Unless of course RL has a complete change of mind which could happen

Sunderland hey? I bet MON has got that wage bill to a ridiculous level. Be interesting to see the state they are in a few years down the line.

[VillaCas]

They're really not. The majority of people not happy with Lambert have made their feelings towards the owner very clear.

You really surprise me BJ!

I agree that PL has made a mistakes but in general the problems is the poor quality of the squad he has.

I know your feelings on RL/PF - Surely you must agree that this is where 95% of the problem lies. RL is walking a tightrope - he thinks he can reset the finances whilst just avoiding relegation

I think PL thought he could get to 12th-14th by motivating and organising what we had plus a few bargain buys. He was wrong - it will take more than that. Call that bad management if you like. I just think he made an error of judgement based on a small amount of information available to him at the time.

[VillaCas]

Whatever - let's see what happens if you all get your wish and hound Lambert out

Jose Mourinho couldn't make a difference to the shower that we've got

[AndyBM]

what is PFs employment history? (in short obviously)

directors have always been critisized by fans for years, stride and ansell, now faulkner

hes clearly been told to get the wage bill down, and thats always been the main objective, which is why we will be getting relegated, if the club isnt prepared (that word used to mean something to us) to pay premier league wages, then dont expect to play in the premier league, however, this objective should of always been a secondry aim, because gradually over time, buying proper footballers on the correct contracts, and not buying immitations of footballers on rip off wages, would of balanced out and balanced the books

PF is just doing his job yes, the only issues with this club is on the pitch, bad choices of players made by managers, PL, mcleish, houllier and oneill

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

The history of the Premier League is littered with managers who came up, made a decent fist of it, got held up as the next big thing, but then failed to repeat that success and people realised that they're not actually that good. I'm concerned that PL is going to be one of them.

[markavfc40]

I think PL thought he could get to 12th-14th by motivating and organising what we had plus a few bargain buys. He was wrong - it will take more than that. Call that bad management if you like. I just think he made an error of judgement based on a small amount of information available to him at the time.

The small amount of information he had? I am not being funny mate but any one involved with in football circles could have told him that this club needed far more than a few bargain buys to be looking at finishing 12th-14th. I am also sure he could easily have spoken to McLeish or anyone else still or recently associated with the club.

Lambert also surely must have realised over the summer that there was a gaping hole in the midfield where we needed a defensive central midfielder. He also must have known pre season with Dunne out for at least 3 months we needed another experienced centre back.

You know what though we can waffle on about could've would've should've's all day but we are where we are. For now I would like to see Lambert backed in this window and for him to then bring in the 2 or 3 players of proven quality we need namely a centre back and a least one or two players in midfield. I don't think we are far away from having a team that will survive this season and can look to push on next but we need to make these signings now. Had we have already done so in this window we'd already be 3 points better off.

Edited January 13, 2013 by markavfc40

[VillaCas]

Mcleish got blues to 9th.

Your reasoning is struggling.

Six years of managerial success with 3 other clubs, 50.4% Win rate with Norwich

Six months struggling with the crappest squad I have ever seen at VP doesn't make you a bad manager

[Daniel]

Whatever - let's see what happens if you all get your wish and hound Lambert out

Jose Mourinho couldn't make a difference to the shower that we've got

He might not, but i bet he would've made better use of the money we had given our situation.

Edited January 13, 2013 by Daniel

[VillaCas]

The small amount of information he had? I am not being funny mate but any one involved with in football circles could have told him that this club needed far more than a few bargain buys to be looking at finishing 12th-14th. I am also sure he could easily have spoken to McLeish or anyone else still or recently associated with the club.

On another thread, when asked before christmas where we they thought we would finish the most popular response was 11th

I think Lambert thought that a few bargain buys in the summer, a couple of additions in January and a bit of motivation would see us clear of relegation ie 12th-14th. He now realises that it will need a bit more than that. Call that bad management if you like but I think he is a decent bloke and a decent manager trying to make the best of a bad situation

Perhaps it would be better if he wore a suit (unless of course he did and then.....)

The bloke can't win

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Right man, wrong time. Wrong man, right time. Wrong everything, it doesn't matter. Despite my misgivings yesterday, we may as well stick by him and let him grow, hopefully with us too.

Relegated or not.

[VillaCas]

He might not, but i bet he would've made better use of the money we had given our situation.

What would you have done Daniel? How would you have spent £18m that would be markedly better than what Lambert did? (please note Berbatov and Adam are not allowed answers)

[jim]

Owen Coyle MkII

Edited January 13, 2013 by jim

[Daniel]

What would you have done Daniel? How would you have spent £18m that would be markedly better than what Lambert did? (please note Berbatov and Adam are not allowed answers)

I can't really name players because i don't know the wages of other players / What we could spend, but a few players that were up for the fight might have been better.

It's too early to say that his signings aren't good enough, but i don't think they're ready.

[sharkyvilla]

Ideally we should have gone for Lambert (or someone similar) as first-team coach with Houllier as director of football when O'Neill left. I think Houllier had good ideas but he just couldn't give it all on the touchline. I think deep down Lambert has a similar philosophy but is having to do it with utter carthorses because of the money we've wasted.

[VillaCas]

I can't really name players because i don't know the wages of other players / What we could spend, but a few players that were up for the fight might have been better.

It's too early to say that his signings aren't good enough, but i don't think they're ready.

Easily said isn't it

It's not that his signings are not good enough, it's that what is already here is not good enough

Imagine putting KEA in alongside Barry.....I'd guess he'd look a lot better

Imagine Bennett with Milner in front of him......I'd guess he'd look a lot better

Imagine Clark / Baker with Laursen / Mellberg alongside him......I'd guess he'd look a lot better

[VillaCas]

The problem is not :

"Hutton or Lowton?"

"Should Weimann play wide or in a two up front?"

"Would we be better if PL wore a suit" (yes really!!!)

"Why did we sign Bowery and let Delboy out on loan?"

or a million other piddly little things

It's not even, "is Lambert a decent manager?" (yes he is by the way)

All of that is dicking round the edges

The problem is much deeper than that - we've had three seasons of mis-management and are now trying to fix it in an instant. We are currently spending like a championship club.

RL is flirting with disaster and backing PL to work a miracle - it's his club and his investment a I suppose he can do what he wants. If it was my club I'd loosen the pursestrings a bit but ultimately its up to RL

Give PL a break and focus attention on the real issue

[LondonLax]

The problem is much deeper than that - we've had three seasons of mis-management and are now trying to fix it in an instant. We are currently spending like a championship club.

Could you please name the Championship club that spends £18m in one window?

Lambert has had enough money to keep us up. He must take some of the blame for our position.

[DCJonah]

Easily said isn't it

It's not that his signings are not good enough, it's that what is already here is not good enough

Imagine putting KEA in alongside Barry.....I'd guess he'd look a lot better

Imagine Bennett with Milner in front of him......I'd guess he'd look a lot better

Imagine Clark / Baker with Laursen / Mellberg alongside him......I'd guess he'd look a lot better

To be fair to Daniel, he doesn't have the resources, and isn't paid millions to buy players to improve Aston Villa. It's pretty stupid claiming that because he can't name names, that the players aren't out there.

The simple fact is, he's had money, and hasn't spent it wisely.

We are currently spending like a championship club.

We were the 6th highest spenders in the summer. I also think we'll spend around £10m by the end of January. I would've thought that would eclipse the majority of our relegation rivals.

[dukes]

I don't know what the middle bit of your comment means

Damn predictive text on the iPad !

It should have read "why is he not communicating this better ? Whay has he not resigned due to the lack of support from the board ?"

So he took the job even though he was told he couldn't sign players until players that would be almost impossible to sell (Ireland on £60k per week, Warnock on £45k per week and Hutton on £40k per week allegedly) were no longer at the club. What kind of manager takes a job in those circumstances. If Lambert took the poisoned challis that is the Aston Villa managers job on those conditions then he is either the most arrogant man in the world, just plain crazy, or just here for the money himself (i don't think it's the last one).

Forgive me, i don't know your situation, are you a personal friend of Lambert ? You seem to know an awful lot about his agreement with our board, and about his satisfaction with the team and players he bought. (that's not a dig, it's an honest question).

Surely now that there is a very real possibility that Lambert will get this team relegated he'd be better off talking to the board and telling them he needs to use the experience he has in the squad ? Bennett's confidence must be shot to pieces with the pelters he's received for his performances, as much as i don't particularly rate Warnock he'd be a better bet for that position, and he has always seemed to give 100%. And let's assume for Bent to play again we have to pay £6M surely it's better to pay the money and use him properly, then sell him at the end of the season if it means his goals save us ? desperate times call for desperate measures, unless Bent really is stirring up trouble as some have claimed.

I'd love for Ireland to go, i don't think he's had one decent game for us, but I really think this is a player we're stuck with, again he's earning £60k a week allegedly, who in their right mind will pay us that for him ?