Manager Paul Lambert

[briny_ear]

For some reason this leads me to think of two useful "Netiquette" rules.

 

1. If all you can think to say is "You sound like a 12 year old", just don't bother to say anything. No-one else wants to read that.

 

2. If you do a quote and it produces a post of over a half page long, think about how readable and intelligible that actually is and maybe again don't do it.

 

[villan_007]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People claim they understand giving a manager time, but they really dont.

 

Nail on the head. A few months is not giving time. I appreciate if the manager is not good enough, its just not working out or if results are truly appalling then you have to call time. But with Lambert he had to deal with a huge amount of issues, coupled with him trying to play football with a team who lack experience, quality in a number of positions and importantly, the Villa players from the previous season had a season of playing completely different football ( if i can call it that ).

 

If we go down, I wont shift the blame to much on Lambert. Certainly mistakes have been made hear and there which have cost us a few points but alot of the points thrown away he cant legislate for, its just our team panicking, put it down to experience put it down to the situation at the time, but I have always understood how were progressing under him and i can recognise where he wants to take us. For that reason, I am more than happy to give him time. 

'Trying to play football with a team who lack experience' eh? Who purchased that lack of experience in the first place when there was already inexperience trying to break into the first team?

 

"Progressing under him?" That progression has seen us battling relegation for the best part of the season and breaking records no manager would want on his CV.

 

Did he have much choice considering the positions that needed filling ? Was it viable with the financial restrictions and wage reduction were going through at the moment to go and find a older player with more experience ? probably not, because they would want more money and if they didnt then Id question their quality. He brought in Westwood, Lowton, Bennet and Benteke who are young. Benteke is our player of the season and Lowton and Westwood have been good enough but both showing promise. Only Bennet can really questioned out of Lamberts "inexperienced" signings.

 

The likes of Delph, Weimann, Bannan, Baker and Clarke were all at the club already and are hardly seasoned pro's. I dont like it when people make out he went crazy on youth when he didnt, but given the circumstances we found ourselves in, and the amount of players we needed to bring in players who perhaps lacked a little experience were likely to come in.

 

Do you see everything so black and white ? It is undoubtedly clear that he is installing a philosophy of football in this club, of progressive football. Football that can push clubs on and ultimately be succesfull. We have gone from god awful football, that never wins you games to developing a style of play, which in time and with better players will put us in fantastic stead to push on. Thats progression. Anyone who thought we wouldnt be involved in a relegation scrap ( admiteddly not this much of one ) was naive. It takes more than a season to sort this pish out. 

 

He has made mistakes, I dont deny that but keeping a manager who installs belief and confidence in players like he does, coupled with the way he tries to play football is important.

No i don't see everything black and white. In previous posts i have commended Lambert for actually changing the system and have been one of the very few posters lately who have continually stated that we would stay up if Lambert persisted with correct system.

 

I also recognise that both manager and team may be finally showing signs of growing together in the right direction but that does not exclude Lambert from criticism, criticism which is warranted for his decisions on team selection and tactics for almost three quarters of the season which has resulted in a relegation dogfight that we're still not free from yet.

 

You also cannot ignore the present state of our defence which has been rebuilt by Lambert. I have seen time and time again the excuse that he had limited funding which to replace outgoing players of experience. Did he have to get rid of both Collins and Cuellar immediately? Could there not have been a 'progression' of changing our defence over two to three seasons instead of introducing players without any Premiership experience to form a new defence. That alone invited problems and weaknesses which are still there. Someone posted that it was Lambert's decision to go with youth and thats why he got the job and i would tend to believe that as Lambert has previously stated that the chairman did make funding available for more established Premiership footballers before the season started. You remember the bid for Dempsey.

 

He also had the opportunity to address our weakness at DM with the possible purchase of Diame on a free who went to West Ham. He purchased KEA and the less said about that the better.

 

Just because we now have had a few decent results against some very poor teams shouldn't convince any fan of our club that  Lambert has become a very good manager literally over night. He hasn't, but hopefully he will have learnt a lot this season from his mistakes and won't make the same again next season when hopefully we are still in the Premiership.

 

You missed my point in regards to the black and white comment I think. With him, there is a clear philosophy of the kind of football we play, its one which doesnt have a low ceiling. That kind of football, will give you success. The better players we get in, the better that football becomes and so on. I was making a comment about the attacking / football philosophy of the coach rather than a specific formation he implements.

 

I wouldnt dream of saying Lambert doesnt deserve criticism. That would be daft, and would make me look like a mug. I completely appreciate he has made mistakes, that being said I feel your being overly critical of him. He was trying to find a system, I cant knock him for trying 4-4-2 diamond and 3-5-2. Progressive thinkers should not be dashed aside, but i appreciate a few games were lost on those decisions. He who dares wins and all that, things change in football and I get the impression Lambert is one who likes to be infront of the pack rather than chasing and playing catch up.

 

Alot of our losses / points thrown away have come down to silly individual errors, ones they shouldnt make and although Lambert has to take criticism for some games I dont think its fair to blame him for 3/4 poor performance. We have been playing well enough since January, could be so different if we didnt concede last minute against Swansea ( although we didnt deserve the win ) and held onto 2 goal leads against WBA and Everton. I know thats all IFS and BUTS, but the point remains I feel people have been overly critical of him.

 

Collins yes, he did. He and the club want players who want to play for Villa, who have the right attitude and hunger to suceed. Things had gone sour with Collins and you have to recognise that. He was a disruptive influence on the team and that cannot be tolerated in high performance sport. Did Cuellars contract not expire ? Diame would of been lovely, its all very well in hindsight isnt it ( although I believe you mentioned it preseason ? ), but why didnt all the other clubs go for him ? How do you know we didnt. You make it sound simple.

KEA hasnt been the player we all thought and hoped. He recognised the problem though and tried to address it, ultimately it didnt work out but you cant knock him to much as he tried to address it, and all managers have flops in their history.

 

I have been saying this for longer than the last 5 games, I watched him closely at Norwich. He is a progressive manager who I want here long term. 

He had plenty of time to find a system in pre-season had he not? He has taken far too long to find the correct system to suit the players available and thats why we are currently in a relegation battle. Also remember how many players he purchased in the summer. Good managers buy players to fit the system not the other way about and Lambert not only failed to do that but also failed at how best to use the players already at the club. You are trying to excuse an elementary mistake which the vast majority of good managers wouldn't have made so i do not think i'm being over critical at all!

 

Your saying that Collins was a disruptive influence within the team. Can you actually prove that or is that just your opinion?

 

Cuellar was out of contract but could Lambert not have retained his services in the same way he did with Guzan?

 

No i'm not party to information to determine whether we ever were interested in Diame but we should have been and he probably would have been on a lot less wages than Sissoko who we were interested in.

 

Lambert may indeed be a progressive manager who likes to play attacking football but that alone won't make him into a good manager as we've already seen this season.

 

What an absolute load of nonsense

 

Lambert inherited a complete mess and had to build a team from scratch with limited resources using bargain buys and youngsters whilst weeding out the overpaid crap that had accumulated at the club under previous regimes - no wonder it took some time to find the correct formula. Lambert himself said this would be a long job not a quick fix

 

Collins was clearly a disruptive influence - that was well known. Cuellar was a injury-risk and has hardly done the trick at Sunderland

 

You continue to persist in your fantasy football view of transfers. Picking a particular player like Diame, who you have no idea about availabilty, wages or willingness to come to Villa and then criticising Lambert for not signing him is ridiculous. Even if we were interested in him I doubt we had the finances to afford his wages. Also we were only "interested" in Sissoko until we heard what he wanted in wages.

 

Lambert has made mistakes but anyone would given the circumstances. A win against Fulham and we can begin to relax and look forward to next season

Been very quiet of late 'VillaCas.' Wonder why that is? Your prediction of climbing the table something to do with that?

 

A win against Fulham will not relax anyone and we certainly need more than three more points to do that.

 

I see your still spouting the same old rubbish. Lambert had to build a team from scratch had he? So we had no players at the club at all before lambert arrived. Yet another stupid excuse from someone who should know better by now and i see you're now stating that although Lambert had a full pre-season to appraise what was at the club and to buy players to fit into his chosen system he then needed a further three quarters of a season to finally stumble upon the right system for the payers available to him. Really excellent stuff 'VillaCas.'

 

Not indulging in your idea of fantasy football at all. Just stating that we were crying out for a DM. One became available on a free and signed for the mighty West Ham while Lambert paid a fee for KEA.

 

Yes we know what wages Sissoko is on but he also commanded a fee did he not. Diame was on a free and while i don't know what his wage demands were i would hazzard a guess that they fall some way short of parity with the wage of Sissoko. 

 

Pot kettle

[briny_ear]

^^^^

[CrackpotForeigner]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People claim they understand giving a manager time, but they really dont.

 

Nail on the head. A few months is not giving time. I appreciate if the manager is not good enough, its just not working out or if results are truly appalling then you have to call time. But with Lambert he had to deal with a huge amount of issues, coupled with him trying to play football with a team who lack experience, quality in a number of positions and importantly, the Villa players from the previous season had a season of playing completely different football ( if i can call it that ).

 

If we go down, I wont shift the blame to much on Lambert. Certainly mistakes have been made hear and there which have cost us a few points but alot of the points thrown away he cant legislate for, its just our team panicking, put it down to experience put it down to the situation at the time, but I have always understood how were progressing under him and i can recognise where he wants to take us. For that reason, I am more than happy to give him time. 

'Trying to play football with a team who lack experience' eh? Who purchased that lack of experience in the first place when there was already inexperience trying to break into the first team?

 

"Progressing under him?" That progression has seen us battling relegation for the best part of the season and breaking records no manager would want on his CV.

 

Did he have much choice considering the positions that needed filling ? Was it viable with the financial restrictions and wage reduction were going through at the moment to go and find a older player with more experience ? probably not, because they would want more money and if they didnt then Id question their quality. He brought in Westwood, Lowton, Bennet and Benteke who are young. Benteke is our player of the season and Lowton and Westwood have been good enough but both showing promise. Only Bennet can really questioned out of Lamberts "inexperienced" signings.

 

The likes of Delph, Weimann, Bannan, Baker and Clarke were all at the club already and are hardly seasoned pro's. I dont like it when people make out he went crazy on youth when he didnt, but given the circumstances we found ourselves in, and the amount of players we needed to bring in players who perhaps lacked a little experience were likely to come in.

 

Do you see everything so black and white ? It is undoubtedly clear that he is installing a philosophy of football in this club, of progressive football. Football that can push clubs on and ultimately be succesfull. We have gone from god awful football, that never wins you games to developing a style of play, which in time and with better players will put us in fantastic stead to push on. Thats progression. Anyone who thought we wouldnt be involved in a relegation scrap ( admiteddly not this much of one ) was naive. It takes more than a season to sort this pish out. 

 

He has made mistakes, I dont deny that but keeping a manager who installs belief and confidence in players like he does, coupled with the way he tries to play football is important.

No i don't see everything black and white. In previous posts i have commended Lambert for actually changing the system and have been one of the very few posters lately who have continually stated that we would stay up if Lambert persisted with correct system.

 

I also recognise that both manager and team may be finally showing signs of growing together in the right direction but that does not exclude Lambert from criticism, criticism which is warranted for his decisions on team selection and tactics for almost three quarters of the season which has resulted in a relegation dogfight that we're still not free from yet.

 

You also cannot ignore the present state of our defence which has been rebuilt by Lambert. I have seen time and time again the excuse that he had limited funding which to replace outgoing players of experience. Did he have to get rid of both Collins and Cuellar immediately? Could there not have been a 'progression' of changing our defence over two to three seasons instead of introducing players without any Premiership experience to form a new defence. That alone invited problems and weaknesses which are still there. Someone posted that it was Lambert's decision to go with youth and thats why he got the job and i would tend to believe that as Lambert has previously stated that the chairman did make funding available for more established Premiership footballers before the season started. You remember the bid for Dempsey.

 

He also had the opportunity to address our weakness at DM with the possible purchase of Diame on a free who went to West Ham. He purchased KEA and the less said about that the better.

 

Just because we now have had a few decent results against some very poor teams shouldn't convince any fan of our club that  Lambert has become a very good manager literally over night. He hasn't, but hopefully he will have learnt a lot this season from his mistakes and won't make the same again next season when hopefully we are still in the Premiership.

 

You missed my point in regards to the black and white comment I think. With him, there is a clear philosophy of the kind of football we play, its one which doesnt have a low ceiling. That kind of football, will give you success. The better players we get in, the better that football becomes and so on. I was making a comment about the attacking / football philosophy of the coach rather than a specific formation he implements.

 

I wouldnt dream of saying Lambert doesnt deserve criticism. That would be daft, and would make me look like a mug. I completely appreciate he has made mistakes, that being said I feel your being overly critical of him. He was trying to find a system, I cant knock him for trying 4-4-2 diamond and 3-5-2. Progressive thinkers should not be dashed aside, but i appreciate a few games were lost on those decisions. He who dares wins and all that, things change in football and I get the impression Lambert is one who likes to be infront of the pack rather than chasing and playing catch up.

 

Alot of our losses / points thrown away have come down to silly individual errors, ones they shouldnt make and although Lambert has to take criticism for some games I dont think its fair to blame him for 3/4 poor performance. We have been playing well enough since January, could be so different if we didnt concede last minute against Swansea ( although we didnt deserve the win ) and held onto 2 goal leads against WBA and Everton. I know thats all IFS and BUTS, but the point remains I feel people have been overly critical of him.

 

Collins yes, he did. He and the club want players who want to play for Villa, who have the right attitude and hunger to suceed. Things had gone sour with Collins and you have to recognise that. He was a disruptive influence on the team and that cannot be tolerated in high performance sport. Did Cuellars contract not expire ? Diame would of been lovely, its all very well in hindsight isnt it ( although I believe you mentioned it preseason ? ), but why didnt all the other clubs go for him ? How do you know we didnt. You make it sound simple.

KEA hasnt been the player we all thought and hoped. He recognised the problem though and tried to address it, ultimately it didnt work out but you cant knock him to much as he tried to address it, and all managers have flops in their history.

 

I have been saying this for longer than the last 5 games, I watched him closely at Norwich. He is a progressive manager who I want here long term. 

He had plenty of time to find a system in pre-season had he not? He has taken far too long to find the correct system to suit the players available and thats why we are currently in a relegation battle. Also remember how many players he purchased in the summer. Good managers buy players to fit the system not the other way about and Lambert not only failed to do that but also failed at how best to use the players already at the club. You are trying to excuse an elementary mistake which the vast majority of good managers wouldn't have made so i do not think i'm being over critical at all!

 

Your saying that Collins was a disruptive influence within the team. Can you actually prove that or is that just your opinion?

 

Cuellar was out of contract but could Lambert not have retained his services in the same way he did with Guzan?

 

No i'm not party to information to determine whether we ever were interested in Diame but we should have been and he probably would have been on a lot less wages than Sissoko who we were interested in.

 

Lambert may indeed be a progressive manager who likes to play attacking football but that alone won't make him into a good manager as we've already seen this season.

 

What an absolute load of nonsense

 

Lambert inherited a complete mess and had to build a team from scratch with limited resources using bargain buys and youngsters whilst weeding out the overpaid crap that had accumulated at the club under previous regimes - no wonder it took some time to find the correct formula. Lambert himself said this would be a long job not a quick fix

 

Collins was clearly a disruptive influence - that was well known. Cuellar was a injury-risk and has hardly done the trick at Sunderland

 

You continue to persist in your fantasy football view of transfers. Picking a particular player like Diame, who you have no idea about availabilty, wages or willingness to come to Villa and then criticising Lambert for not signing him is ridiculous. Even if we were interested in him I doubt we had the finances to afford his wages. Also we were only "interested" in Sissoko until we heard what he wanted in wages.

 

Lambert has made mistakes but anyone would given the circumstances. A win against Fulham and we can begin to relax and look forward to next season

Been very quiet of late 'VillaCas.' Wonder why that is? Your prediction of climbing the table something to do with that?

 

A win against Fulham will not relax anyone and we certainly need more than three more points to do that.

 

I see your still spouting the same old rubbish. Lambert had to build a team from scratch had he? So we had no players at the club at all before lambert arrived. Yet another stupid excuse from someone who should know better by now and i see you're now stating that although Lambert had a full pre-season to appraise what was at the club and to buy players to fit into his chosen system he then needed a further three quarters of a season to finally stumble upon the right system for the payers available to him. Really excellent stuff 'VillaCas.'

 

Not indulging in your idea of fantasy football at all. Just stating that we were crying out for a DM. One became available on a free and signed for the mighty West Ham while Lambert paid a fee for KEA.

 

Yes we know what wages Sissoko is on but he also commanded a fee did he not. Diame was on a free and while i don't know what his wage demands were i would hazzard a guess that they fall some way short of parity with the wage of Sissoko. 

 

Pot kettle

 

I agree with some of the points raised above.

 

But never mind that. Let's wind up briny_ear.

[praisedmambo]

 

Lambert had options on a free but chose to spend money on KEA.

 

Why can you not accept the fact we couldn't afford Diames wages? This is the same reason Cuellar wasn't resigned, 45k a week.

 

Please please stop banging on about Collins - just because you weren't around or didn't read it for whatever reason, it's true. He was constantly causing trouble. Respected posters on here with 100% insight have confirmed this. He was a cancer. He had to go.

 

I've had this debate with many posters and none have answered it. You criticize Lambert for putting this defence together. He put it together with the money he was given and the wage limit he had. Who should he have gone for? and none of them are on more than 25k. Premiership footballers don't come to clubs for 25k - hence why he shopped abroad and in the lower leagues.

 

Also, mostly a defence is made up of 4 players, he signed 3 and wasn't given money for a fourth. He admitted in January he had targets but we couldn't afford the wages. Maybe with another CB he wanted things would have been better.

 

You seem to constantly beat him with this transfer stick - he really didn't have any other options with what he had to spend.

How do you know we couldn't afford Diame's wages? If we couldn't afford the wages of Diame why did we place a bid for Dempsey? We paid how much for KEA and then his wages yet you say we couldn't afford Diame on a free plus his wages. Sorry that simply doesn't wash with me.

 

I criticise Lambert for the quality of defence he has built not how much it cost and how the feck do you know what our wage structure is especially when Lambert has already stated that the chairman made funding available for more established players  but he choose not to go down that route in the summer.

 

Of course he had other options. He could have purchased better players than KEA, Bowery, Bennett, Lowton and Vlaar. Benteke is a quality signing. How much wages is he on? How much are we paying Westwood. That proves the point that he could have purchased better quality but instead has built a defence on poor quality players and we've seen that all season with Guzan having to be MOTM on several occasions.

 

I wish several posters on here would look at stats of this season and where we currently are before trying to defend a manager that could still relegate us. 

 

But you're making things up more than anyone!!!

 

How do you know we didn't go in for Diame? How do you know Diame didn't choose to move to London as many players do? (In fact, I'm under the impression this is what happened). Not every transfer comes off (as in actually goes through) so you don't know that the plan wasn't to strengthen more. These are deals done for millions of pounds and put players on contracts worth millions of pounds!!! You can't just throw money about—we are the perfect example of the mess that causes!!!! This is the reason why we have been struggling the last few years AND we have been losing £50 million a year, including the transfer fees we've recouped. Lambert has talked about limited budgets etc. If you can't see the logic in building a young hungry team, in the name of being a sustainable club, then I think you are literally missing the point of every decision he has made. 

 

Lambert by accounts also thought he had a CB in January but the guy went to Italy.

 

Are you comparing Benteke's and Westwood's wages? I don't get it. You know if you have a budget and you pay more for one thing it means you have to pay less for another thing? Right? 

[briny_ear]

Surely you can do a bit better than that, CPF? The next challenge must be to get this quote-on-quote post OVER a page long. What would happen then? Is it technically possible? Someone should try it out. 

[Morpheus]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People claim they understand giving a manager time, but they really dont.

 

Nail on the head. A few months is not giving time. I appreciate if the manager is not good enough, its just not working out or if results are truly appalling then you have to call time. But with Lambert he had to deal with a huge amount of issues, coupled with him trying to play football with a team who lack experience, quality in a number of positions and importantly, the Villa players from the previous season had a season of playing completely different football ( if i can call it that ).

 

If we go down, I wont shift the blame to much on Lambert. Certainly mistakes have been made hear and there which have cost us a few points but alot of the points thrown away he cant legislate for, its just our team panicking, put it down to experience put it down to the situation at the time, but I have always understood how were progressing under him and i can recognise where he wants to take us. For that reason, I am more than happy to give him time. 

'Trying to play football with a team who lack experience' eh? Who purchased that lack of experience in the first place when there was already inexperience trying to break into the first team?

 

"Progressing under him?" That progression has seen us battling relegation for the best part of the season and breaking records no manager would want on his CV.

 

Did he have much choice considering the positions that needed filling ? Was it viable with the financial restrictions and wage reduction were going through at the moment to go and find a older player with more experience ? probably not, because they would want more money and if they didnt then Id question their quality. He brought in Westwood, Lowton, Bennet and Benteke who are young. Benteke is our player of the season and Lowton and Westwood have been good enough but both showing promise. Only Bennet can really questioned out of Lamberts "inexperienced" signings.

 

The likes of Delph, Weimann, Bannan, Baker and Clarke were all at the club already and are hardly seasoned pro's. I dont like it when people make out he went crazy on youth when he didnt, but given the circumstances we found ourselves in, and the amount of players we needed to bring in players who perhaps lacked a little experience were likely to come in.

 

Do you see everything so black and white ? It is undoubtedly clear that he is installing a philosophy of football in this club, of progressive football. Football that can push clubs on and ultimately be succesfull. We have gone from god awful football, that never wins you games to developing a style of play, which in time and with better players will put us in fantastic stead to push on. Thats progression. Anyone who thought we wouldnt be involved in a relegation scrap ( admiteddly not this much of one ) was naive. It takes more than a season to sort this pish out. 

 

He has made mistakes, I dont deny that but keeping a manager who installs belief and confidence in players like he does, coupled with the way he tries to play football is important.

No i don't see everything black and white. In previous posts i have commended Lambert for actually changing the system and have been one of the very few posters lately who have continually stated that we would stay up if Lambert persisted with correct system.

 

I also recognise that both manager and team may be finally showing signs of growing together in the right direction but that does not exclude Lambert from criticism, criticism which is warranted for his decisions on team selection and tactics for almost three quarters of the season which has resulted in a relegation dogfight that we're still not free from yet.

 

You also cannot ignore the present state of our defence which has been rebuilt by Lambert. I have seen time and time again the excuse that he had limited funding which to replace outgoing players of experience. Did he have to get rid of both Collins and Cuellar immediately? Could there not have been a 'progression' of changing our defence over two to three seasons instead of introducing players without any Premiership experience to form a new defence. That alone invited problems and weaknesses which are still there. Someone posted that it was Lambert's decision to go with youth and thats why he got the job and i would tend to believe that as Lambert has previously stated that the chairman did make funding available for more established Premiership footballers before the season started. You remember the bid for Dempsey.

 

He also had the opportunity to address our weakness at DM with the possible purchase of Diame on a free who went to West Ham. He purchased KEA and the less said about that the better.

 

Just because we now have had a few decent results against some very poor teams shouldn't convince any fan of our club that  Lambert has become a very good manager literally over night. He hasn't, but hopefully he will have learnt a lot this season from his mistakes and won't make the same again next season when hopefully we are still in the Premiership.

 

You missed my point in regards to the black and white comment I think. With him, there is a clear philosophy of the kind of football we play, its one which doesnt have a low ceiling. That kind of football, will give you success. The better players we get in, the better that football becomes and so on. I was making a comment about the attacking / football philosophy of the coach rather than a specific formation he implements.

 

I wouldnt dream of saying Lambert doesnt deserve criticism. That would be daft, and would make me look like a mug. I completely appreciate he has made mistakes, that being said I feel your being overly critical of him. He was trying to find a system, I cant knock him for trying 4-4-2 diamond and 3-5-2. Progressive thinkers should not be dashed aside, but i appreciate a few games were lost on those decisions. He who dares wins and all that, things change in football and I get the impression Lambert is one who likes to be infront of the pack rather than chasing and playing catch up.

 

Alot of our losses / points thrown away have come down to silly individual errors, ones they shouldnt make and although Lambert has to take criticism for some games I dont think its fair to blame him for 3/4 poor performance. We have been playing well enough since January, could be so different if we didnt concede last minute against Swansea ( although we didnt deserve the win ) and held onto 2 goal leads against WBA and Everton. I know thats all IFS and BUTS, but the point remains I feel people have been overly critical of him.

 

Collins yes, he did. He and the club want players who want to play for Villa, who have the right attitude and hunger to suceed. Things had gone sour with Collins and you have to recognise that. He was a disruptive influence on the team and that cannot be tolerated in high performance sport. Did Cuellars contract not expire ? Diame would of been lovely, its all very well in hindsight isnt it ( although I believe you mentioned it preseason ? ), but why didnt all the other clubs go for him ? How do you know we didnt. You make it sound simple.

KEA hasnt been the player we all thought and hoped. He recognised the problem though and tried to address it, ultimately it didnt work out but you cant knock him to much as he tried to address it, and all managers have flops in their history.

 

I have been saying this for longer than the last 5 games, I watched him closely at Norwich. He is a progressive manager who I want here long term. 

He had plenty of time to find a system in pre-season had he not? He has taken far too long to find the correct system to suit the players available and thats why we are currently in a relegation battle. Also remember how many players he purchased in the summer. Good managers buy players to fit the system not the other way about and Lambert not only failed to do that but also failed at how best to use the players already at the club. You are trying to excuse an elementary mistake which the vast majority of good managers wouldn't have made so i do not think i'm being over critical at all!

 

Your saying that Collins was a disruptive influence within the team. Can you actually prove that or is that just your opinion?

 

Cuellar was out of contract but could Lambert not have retained his services in the same way he did with Guzan?

 

No i'm not party to information to determine whether we ever were interested in Diame but we should have been and he probably would have been on a lot less wages than Sissoko who we were interested in.

 

Lambert may indeed be a progressive manager who likes to play attacking football but that alone won't make him into a good manager as we've already seen this season.

 

What an absolute load of nonsense

 

Lambert inherited a complete mess and had to build a team from scratch with limited resources using bargain buys and youngsters whilst weeding out the overpaid crap that had accumulated at the club under previous regimes - no wonder it took some time to find the correct formula. Lambert himself said this would be a long job not a quick fix

 

Collins was clearly a disruptive influence - that was well known. Cuellar was a injury-risk and has hardly done the trick at Sunderland

 

You continue to persist in your fantasy football view of transfers. Picking a particular player like Diame, who you have no idea about availabilty, wages or willingness to come to Villa and then criticising Lambert for not signing him is ridiculous. Even if we were interested in him I doubt we had the finances to afford his wages. Also we were only "interested" in Sissoko until we heard what he wanted in wages.

 

Lambert has made mistakes but anyone would given the circumstances. A win against Fulham and we can begin to relax and look forward to next season

Been very quiet of late 'VillaCas.' Wonder why that is? Your prediction of climbing the table something to do with that?

 

A win against Fulham will not relax anyone and we certainly need more than three more points to do that.

 

I see your still spouting the same old rubbish. Lambert had to build a team from scratch had he? So we had no players at the club at all before lambert arrived. Yet another stupid excuse from someone who should know better by now and i see you're now stating that although Lambert had a full pre-season to appraise what was at the club and to buy players to fit into his chosen system he then needed a further three quarters of a season to finally stumble upon the right system for the payers available to him. Really excellent stuff 'VillaCas.'

 

Not indulging in your idea of fantasy football at all. Just stating that we were crying out for a DM. One became available on a free and signed for the mighty West Ham while Lambert paid a fee for KEA.

 

Yes we know what wages Sissoko is on but he also commanded a fee did he not. Diame was on a free and while i don't know what his wage demands were i would hazzard a guess that they fall some way short of parity with the wage of Sissoko. 

 

Pot kettle

There's a surprise.

[KjParton]

**** these quote periods bros...

 

EDIT: Christ... I mean Pyramid not period...

Edited April 9, 2013 by KjParton

[praisedmambo]

I can't believe how easy some people think football management is. 

 

There are many factors contributing to our current performances, as far as I see it. One that must not be overlooked is the return of Gabby and N'Zog from injury, and Delph actually—finally!—starting to play well.

 

Should Lambert not be credited to be the only manager to have Delph actually perform? To have got Gabby playing well again? To further developing Weimann? 

 

Ah. Seriously. 

 

**** it. I can't be bothered to read some of this nonsense, let alone get involved................

Edited April 9, 2013 by praisedmambo

[fightoffyour]

[Morpheus]

 

 

Lambert had options on a free but chose to spend money on KEA.

 

Why can you not accept the fact we couldn't afford Diames wages? This is the same reason Cuellar wasn't resigned, 45k a week.

 

Please please stop banging on about Collins - just because you weren't around or didn't read it for whatever reason, it's true. He was constantly causing trouble. Respected posters on here with 100% insight have confirmed this. He was a cancer. He had to go.

 

I've had this debate with many posters and none have answered it. You criticize Lambert for putting this defence together. He put it together with the money he was given and the wage limit he had. Who should he have gone for? and none of them are on more than 25k. Premiership footballers don't come to clubs for 25k - hence why he shopped abroad and in the lower leagues.

 

Also, mostly a defence is made up of 4 players, he signed 3 and wasn't given money for a fourth. He admitted in January he had targets but we couldn't afford the wages. Maybe with another CB he wanted things would have been better.

 

You seem to constantly beat him with this transfer stick - he really didn't have any other options with what he had to spend.

How do you know we couldn't afford Diame's wages? If we couldn't afford the wages of Diame why did we place a bid for Dempsey? We paid how much for KEA and then his wages yet you say we couldn't afford Diame on a free plus his wages. Sorry that simply doesn't wash with me.

 

I criticise Lambert for the quality of defence he has built not how much it cost and how the feck do you know what our wage structure is especially when Lambert has already stated that the chairman made funding available for more established players  but he choose not to go down that route in the summer.

 

Of course he had other options. He could have purchased better players than KEA, Bowery, Bennett, Lowton and Vlaar. Benteke is a quality signing. How much wages is he on? How much are we paying Westwood. That proves the point that he could have purchased better quality but instead has built a defence on poor quality players and we've seen that all season with Guzan having to be MOTM on several occasions.

 

I wish several posters on here would look at stats of this season and where we currently are before trying to defend a manager that could still relegate us. 

 

But you're making things up more than anyone!!!

 

How do you know we didn't go in for Diame? How do you know Diame didn't choose to move to London as many players do? (In fact, I'm under the impression this is what happened). Not every transfer comes off (as in actually goes through) so you don't know that the plan wasn't to strengthen more. These are deals done for millions of pounds and put players on contracts worth millions of pounds!!! You can't just throw money about—we are the perfect example of the mess that causes!!!! This is the reason why we have been struggling the last few years AND we have been losing £50 million a year, including the transfer fees we've recouped. Lambert has talked about limited budgets etc. If you can't see the logic in building a young hungry team, in the name of being a sustainable club, then I think you are literally missing the point of every decision he has made. 

 

Lambert by accounts also thought he had a CB in January but the guy went to Italy.

 

Are you comparing Benteke's and Westwood's wages? I don't get it. You know if you have a budget and you pay more for one thing it means you have to pay less for another thing? Right? 

 

My point was and still is now when Diame became available he was exactly what was needed at our club to cure an outstanding weakness. The player was also on a free but probably wanted wages around 40 grand plus which we may or may not have been able to pay. However he was a proven quality Premiership player.

 

Lambert spent a fee on KEA plus wages and when that hasn't worked out he has now purchased Sylla.

 

Would Lambert have not been better off purchasing a known Premiership quality player in Diame with obvious sell on value as he was on a free and paying him more in wages than buying one inexperienced player who has failed miserably and another who has still a lot to prove? Remember we are now paying two players two separate wages purchased for the same position and our midfield is still weak! 

[P3te]

Would Lambert have not been better off purchasing a known Premiership quality player in Diame with obvious sell on value as he was on a free and paying him more in wages than buying one inexperienced player who has failed miserably and another who has still a lot to prove? Remember we are now paying two players two separate wages purchased for the same position and our midfield is still weak! 

Who says Diame would've wanted to join us? How do you know we didn't offer him a contract? 

[praisedmambo]

 

 

 

Lambert had options on a free but chose to spend money on KEA.

 

Why can you not accept the fact we couldn't afford Diames wages? This is the same reason Cuellar wasn't resigned, 45k a week.

 

Please please stop banging on about Collins - just because you weren't around or didn't read it for whatever reason, it's true. He was constantly causing trouble. Respected posters on here with 100% insight have confirmed this. He was a cancer. He had to go.

 

I've had this debate with many posters and none have answered it. You criticize Lambert for putting this defence together. He put it together with the money he was given and the wage limit he had. Who should he have gone for? and none of them are on more than 25k. Premiership footballers don't come to clubs for 25k - hence why he shopped abroad and in the lower leagues.

 

Also, mostly a defence is made up of 4 players, he signed 3 and wasn't given money for a fourth. He admitted in January he had targets but we couldn't afford the wages. Maybe with another CB he wanted things would have been better.

 

You seem to constantly beat him with this transfer stick - he really didn't have any other options with what he had to spend.

How do you know we couldn't afford Diame's wages? If we couldn't afford the wages of Diame why did we place a bid for Dempsey? We paid how much for KEA and then his wages yet you say we couldn't afford Diame on a free plus his wages. Sorry that simply doesn't wash with me.

 

I criticise Lambert for the quality of defence he has built not how much it cost and how the feck do you know what our wage structure is especially when Lambert has already stated that the chairman made funding available for more established players  but he choose not to go down that route in the summer.

 

Of course he had other options. He could have purchased better players than KEA, Bowery, Bennett, Lowton and Vlaar. Benteke is a quality signing. How much wages is he on? How much are we paying Westwood. That proves the point that he could have purchased better quality but instead has built a defence on poor quality players and we've seen that all season with Guzan having to be MOTM on several occasions.

 

I wish several posters on here would look at stats of this season and where we currently are before trying to defend a manager that could still relegate us. 

 

But you're making things up more than anyone!!!

 

How do you know we didn't go in for Diame? How do you know Diame didn't choose to move to London as many players do? (In fact, I'm under the impression this is what happened). Not every transfer comes off (as in actually goes through) so you don't know that the plan wasn't to strengthen more. These are deals done for millions of pounds and put players on contracts worth millions of pounds!!! You can't just throw money about—we are the perfect example of the mess that causes!!!! This is the reason why we have been struggling the last few years AND we have been losing £50 million a year, including the transfer fees we've recouped. Lambert has talked about limited budgets etc. If you can't see the logic in building a young hungry team, in the name of being a sustainable club, then I think you are literally missing the point of every decision he has made. 

 

Lambert by accounts also thought he had a CB in January but the guy went to Italy.

 

Are you comparing Benteke's and Westwood's wages? I don't get it. You know if you have a budget and you pay more for one thing it means you have to pay less for another thing? Right? 

 

My point was and still is now when Diame became available he was exactly what was needed at our club to cure an outstanding weakness. The player was also on a free but probably wanted wages around 40 grand plus which we may or may not have been able to pay. However he was a proven quality Premiership player.

 

Lambert spent a fee on KEA plus wages and when that hasn't worked out he has now purchased Sylla.

 

Would Lambert have not been better off purchasing a known Premiership quality player in Diame with obvious sell on value as he was on a free and paying him more in wages than buying one inexperienced player who has failed miserably and another who has still a lot to prove? Remember we are now paying two players two separate wages purchased for the same position and our midfield is still weak! 

There is no logic behind what you are saying: you are making things up! 

 

Maybe Diame wanted to go to West Ham!

 

Lets stick to reality. Sometimes players choose not to come to Villa. Transfers take months to sort out sometimes. Diame signed for West Ham on the 20th June, and Lambert signed for us on the 2nd of June. There is every possibility his move to West Ham was far along at that stage. You do make things out to be more simple than they are in reality. 

[Brumerican]

It's easy to say we should have bought player X instead but how do we know they want to play here ?

Transfers are not as simple as some seem to believe.

[Big_John_10]

Should Lambert not be credited to be the only manager to have Delph actually perform? To have got Gabby playing well again? To further developing Weimann?

Yes

I think people who are critical of Lambert have given him credit when they felt it was deserved. I don't see any posters who haven't given him credit for certain things.

[Big_John_10]

It's easy to say we should have bought player X instead but how do we know they want to play here ?Transfers are not as simple as some seem to believe.

Completely agree.

I also think though its just as easy to say 'who else could we sign' or 'who else would come'

Transfers are difficult and we as fans no little about what happens behind closed doors.

[briny_ear]

Should Lambert not be credited to be the only manager to have Delph actually perform? To have got Gabby playing well again? To further developing Weimann? 

He certainly should. No question about it.

[praisedmambo]

Remember too how unattractive a prospect we were in the summer, and I have a feeling, if we stay up, that we won't be the same unattractive prospect as before on account of us having totally gutted the deadwood team to sort out the financial mess, and to establish a solid foundation to build from with a progressive manager and a young team. This is what needed to happen. We could finish 16th like last year—be in exactly the same place in the table—and yet be a million miles away from being in the same bleak situation. Now we would be moving in the right direction for the first time in years. 

 

Hoping we stay up

[praisedmambo]

It's easy to say we should have bought player X instead but how do we know they want to play here ?Transfers are not as simple as some seem to believe.

Completely agree.

I also think though its just as easy to say 'who else could we sign' or 'who else would come'

Transfers are difficult and we as fans no little about what happens behind closed doors.

It's annoying though that Morpheus is going on about us not signing Diame, when he has no idea if we tried or not. It's total nonsense. 

[Folski]

Wages table based on 11/12 season.

 

1. Man City £200m

2. Chelsea £172m

3. Man Utd £162m

4. Arsenal £144m

5. Liverpool £127m

6. Totenham £93m

7. Aston Villa £75m

8. Q.P.R. £69m

9. Newcastle £65m

10. Everton £62m

11. Sunderland £62m

12. Fulham £55m

13. Stoke £55m

14. West Ham £51m

15. West Brom £48m

16. Norwich £41m

17. Southampton £37m

18. Wigan £37m

19. Swansea £34m

20. Reading £34m

 

Looking at that table it's hard to imagine any of the 6 clubs above us not having added even more with signings like RVP, Hazard, Garcia, Rodwell, Lloris, Dembele, Carzola, Allen, Sturridge. While the ones below us Q.P.R., Newcastle, Sunderland, West Ham, Southampton, Reading all added significantly to their wage budget. Then you have Everton re-signing Pienaar, giving Fellaini a new deal etc, Fulham signing Berbatov, Stoke too splashed a bit of cash signing Adam, Nzonzi, Edu. With the exceptions of maybe Wigan & WBA who unlike Villa have tried to maintain their wages budgets, in my opinion, everyone else has been adding to theirs. I said at the start of the season, I expected a long tough season, we've got that, I also said I'd have taken 17th, I still would.