No signings so concerning

[Chris Smith]

It seems unlikely to me that anyone who has been or will be sounded out about the job will have been done so without the question of an transfer budget and potential targets being identified and when the appointment is made, I would expect (hope..?) that some new signings will be made shortly thereafter.

Hope so, but that in essence means that they'll have to appoint somebody in the next day or two whereas the General has been talking about taking our time.

[dave.woodhall]

The problem is so many of you have got so giddy with excitement because MON has left, you lost your critical faculties. We were shit on Sunday, we have a board committed to reducing the wage bill, a chairman talking about living within our means, his spokesman one week extolling our youth players and the next decrying the 'poor' attendances. We've lost our player of the season and not replaced him, we've had a problem with goal scoring for 2 years and not addressed it and we're unlikely to buy anyone this year.

The board have a patchy record with appointments (how many Chief Execs have we got through?) so I'm uneasy about their ability to pick the right man and worry that they're looking for the cheap option who will be more concerned with the wage bill than trying to win things. Of course I might be worrying unduly (I hope I am) but there are very real grounds for concern.

How many times do we have to suffer a variation on this "I'm really clever and you're all stupid" theme? It really is getting very tedious to read through yet another Chris Smith diatribe about how we're doomed but he's the only one who can see it. The board you are castigating now is the same board who you have spent four years praising for just about everything they've done. They have made mistakes - not least letting the previous manager have too much power (including the power of hire and fire over off-field personnel) and too much money to spend (which is why economies now have to be made) - but I'm at a loss to see how they are suddenly taking us backward at a rate of knots.

 

[Chris Smith]

The problem is so many of you have got so giddy with excitement because MON has left, you lost your critical faculties. We were shit on Sunday, we have a board committed to reducing the wage bill, a chairman talking about living within our means, his spokesman one week extolling our youth players and the next decrying the 'poor' attendances. We've lost our player of the season and not replaced him, we've had a problem with goal scoring for 2 years and not addressed it and we're unlikely to buy anyone this year.

The board have a patchy record with appointments (how many Chief Execs have we got through?) so I'm uneasy about their ability to pick the right man and worry that they're looking for the cheap option who will be more concerned with the wage bill than trying to win things. Of course I might be worrying unduly (I hope I am) but there are very real grounds for concern.

How many times do we have to suffer a variation on this "I'm really clever and you're all stupid" theme? It really is getting very tedious to read through yet another Chris Smith diatribe about how we're doomed but he's the only one who can see it. The board you are castigating now is the same board who you have spent four years praising for just about everything they've done. They have made mistakes - not least letting the previous manager have too much power (including the power of hire and fire over off-field personnel) and too much money to spend (which is why economies now have to be made) - but I'm at a loss to see how they are suddenly taking us backward at a rate of knots.

 

Why is it wrong to have doubts given the situation I outlined above? I don't think I've posted anything factually incorrect. As I've said I'm hoping to be proved wrong but as it stands I'm worried about the current direction of the club. The talk all summer has been about cutting the wage bill and Randy reiterated in his statement after MON walked that we'd be working within our means. If that's the way it has to be then it's fair enough, he's the boss, but under those circumstances it is difficult to be optimistic about on field matters. You yourself suggested that we might be looking at a mid table finish but to me that just means losing more of our best players next summer.

[dave.woodhall]

Why is it wrong to have doubts given the situation I outlined above? I don't think I've posted anything factually incorrect. As I've said I'm hoping to be proved wrong but as it stands I'm worried about the current direction of the club. The talk all summer has been about cutting the wage bill and Randy reiterated in his statement after MON walked that we'd be working within our means. If that's the way it has to be then it's fair enough, he's the boss, but under those circumstances it is difficult to be optimistic about on field matters. You yourself suggested that we might be looking at a mid table finish but to me that just means losing more of our best players next summer.

It's one thing to have doubts but quite another to have a sideswipe at everyone who disagrees with you every time you say anything. You're wrong in many of your opinion is fact statements and I would like to know how it is that living within our means (or as it was called back then 'sustainable growth') was such a good thing until two weeks ago and now it's a surefire recipe for disaster. 

[Chris Smith]

Why is it wrong to have doubts given the situation I outlined above? I don't think I've posted anything factually incorrect. As I've said I'm hoping to be proved wrong but as it stands I'm worried about the current direction of the club. The talk all summer has been about cutting the wage bill and Randy reiterated in his statement after MON walked that we'd be working within our means. If that's the way it has to be then it's fair enough, he's the boss, but under those circumstances it is difficult to be optimistic about on field matters. You yourself suggested that we might be looking at a mid table finish but to me that just means losing more of our best players next summer.

It's one thing to have doubts but quite another to have a sideswipe at everyone who disagrees with you every time you say anything. You're wrong in many of your opinion is fact statements and I would like to know how it is that living within our means (or as it was called back then 'sustainable growth') was such a good thing until two weeks ago and now it's a surefire recipe for disaster. 

Come on Dave, Mark took the piss out of me and I took the piss out of him. There really is no need for it to be taken as anything more than that.

I haven't said it was recipe for disaster, that's your interpretation, I said that I have worries because the team had issues at the end of the season that still haven't been addressed and it seems unlikely to me that they will be this summer. I want to be optimistic but I struggle to find anything to give me grounds, particularly after the dismal affort at Newcastle and seeing Milner set up Barry last night.

Quite possibly I am being unduly harsh on Randy and co but my gut feeling isn't good about it and I can't pretend that it is.

[pauliewalnuts]

The board have a patchy record with appointments (how many Chief Execs have we got through?)

Yes, that's a good point.

I wonder if the same person who had the press officer removed and his mate installed was perhaps involved in the departure of the Chief Executives? Conjecture, maybe, but the disappearances of FitzGerald and Cunnah hardly strike me as sound pieces of evidence for the board making shit appointments.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Come on Dave, Mark took the piss out of me and I took the piss out of him. There really is no need for it to be taken as anything more than that.

Agreed.

[dave.woodhall]

I haven't said it was recipe for disaster, that's your interpretation, I said that I have worries because the team had issues at the end of the season that still haven't been addressed and it seems unlikely to me that they will be this summer.

You're absolutely right. And I wonder who's fault that is?

[Dave Cooper please]

I said that I have worries because the team had issues at the end of the season that still haven't been addressed

Some of us have been saying very similar things for the past three seasons and have been shot down by the Smudge gun on every occasion.

[adrenachrome]

I said that I have worries because the team had issues at the end of the season that still haven't been addressed

Some of us have been saying very similar things for the past three seasons and have been shot down by the Smudge gun on every occasion.

Shot down by the the Smudge gun?

Have you been on those purple pills again, ya daft poet?

[fredm]

Delph won't be back for ages, certainly not in 2010.

I would save save for maybe being a cental midfielder light, there is enough in the squad for a new manager to be working with until January.

I have said for the last two seasons, that with a different slant on the coaching side the squad at VP could achieve more than they were doing - and that is taking into account the Wembley appearances etc.
I genuinely believe that there was a possibility that all could have achieved a bit more than they were showing - put that collectively together as a team and there would have been better results obtained. I hope that the new managerial team, whoever they may be, achieve this potential that is in the squad.

[Mr Diggles]

The moment MON walked out it was clear that this was going to be a season of transition with up and down results. Even before that I believed we were headed for 8-9th in the table.

To suggest Villa is currently on collision course for a massive iceberg is ridiculous - we have a decent squad and a very good first team after all, who are capable players - and some of the comments being made about the board and their nefarious and cunning plans to avoid spending money are frankly laughable.

[ktvillan]

The problem is so many of you have got so giddy with excitement because MON has left, you lost your critical faculties. We were shit on Sunday, we have a board committed to reducing the wage bill, a chairman talking about living within our means, his spokesman one week extolling our youth players and the next decrying the 'poor' attendances. We've lost our player of the season and not replaced him, we've had a problem with goal scoring for 2 years and not addressed it and we're unlikely to buy anyone this year.

I don't know about the mythical beast Chris Smith - the voice of reason but I do recall Chris Smith the patient positivist / optimist.   He seems to have transmogrified into the most negative person on the site.    Really Chris, criticising the club for wanting to reduce a wage bill that is 85% of turnover and living within our means ?  What would you prefer they do? Especially when a signifcant chunk of that is spent on players who haven't been playing?  And living witthin our means will be a requirement soon anyway.  Ironically many of the problems you outline above  - not addressing the goalscoring problem, not buying anyone this close season, excessive wages -  are down to O'Neill, the man you wouldn't hear a bad word against.  Even the poor attendances (which don't exactly help the turnover to wages ratio) might have something to do with O'Neill's uninspiring signings and turgid football.

The board have a patchy record with appointments (how many Chief Execs have we got through?) so I'm uneasy about their ability to pick the right man and worry that they're looking for the cheap option who will be more concerned with the wage bill than trying to win things. Of course I might be worrying unduly (I hope I am) but there are very real grounds for concern.

Here you may have a point - their track record with the Brown's is far from good, and it's possible the selection of O'Neill had more to do with Ellis than Randy and Co.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I don't know about the mythical beast Chris Smith - the voice of reason

It's true, he hasn't always been like this. Long before his pill addiction, Chris used to post some really well balanced stuff, it was around the time when Jimmy Hogan was manager.

[Billy Walker]

I must say I do share Chris Smith's outlook here.  It feels as though a certain cycle of progress has come to an end within the club.  It has been said many times before that the next manager appointed will be very telling and I think that holds true.

I don't know why, but I feel as though we are reliving the early mid-eighties here.  Tony Barton has just left and we  need an appointment that will remodel and take Villa into a new era.  Just as back then, there are financial issues that need to be addressed, there are squad members to be moved on and youngsters to blood.  We clearly need an experienced, winning manager to steady the ship and move it forward.  Just as with the appointment of O'Neill, we need to re-draw a winning vision of the club's future and appoint a winning manager to realize it.

I desperately hope Randy and his advisors get this appointment spot on and keep things moving forward because if we allow any rot to set in it will be unpleasant.  Talk of settling for mid-table will soon turn into talk of relegation scraps and dog-fights.  Complacency will set in:  "Villa are too good to be relegated" etc. will be the common phrase but before we know it we find ourselves in a Newastle/Leeds/Forest/ Sheffield Wednesday situation.  When the rot sets in it sets in quick. 

Like Chris I worry.  Casting my mind back to '83-'84, I worry that we are going to end up with an inexperienced Graham Turner when we clearly need to pull out all the stops to lure an Alex Ferguson or a promising Howard Kendall.  Has Randy the track record and nous to get such a call right?  Is it all simply down to pot luck anyway?

On reflection I think I'm worried because I'm simply scarred by memories of those wretched days from back in the eighties.  I don't want those days to revist this great club.  We must keep the momentum upwards at all costs.