How depressing has it all become?

[Merv]

Good comments, Neil. I agree. I (and we) knew that the club needed to almost start again. Lambert's come in at our lowest point, really. It's a big job. My expectations were fairly low for the season, I thought top half at absolute best - even so, I didn't expect five defeats from the first eight games.

I feel okay about things though. I trust this manager to get it right. Don't think he's found his best team yet.

[paul_e]

I'm not depressed in the slightest, I'm frustrated with things at the moment as I know we can be a lot better than we have been so far.

Outside the top 3 I think there's very little between most of the rest of the league, they're all capable of beating each other, the key is taking your chances and getting on a run, I think we have the quality to have a run of results at some point which will be more than enough to keep us safe.  Given that I'm happy for this season to be a learning experience for the youngsters, playing the right way getting used to the league, ready to push on in the next couple of years.

[not3bad]

This season: stay up
Next season: kick on

That's the plan.

[Risso]

This season: stay up
Next season: kick on

That's the plan.

I'm sure that's not what Lerner was hoping for when he appointed Lambert and gave him £20m to spend.

[kippaxvilla2]

How about getting in NRC as a stop gap.  Strikes me the team needs leadership in midfield...has he found a club yet?

[NeilH]

This season: stay up
Next season: kick on

That's the plan.

I'm sure that's not what Lerner was hoping for when he appointed Lambert and gave him £20m to spend.

I disagree. I suspect that it is exactly what he wanted. You only have to look at the squad to see that this season was always going to be a case of just staying up. You cannot throw 20M at a club that just managed to stay up last season and expect anything more than the same this season.
We've got to try and look beyond this season and assume that on the basis of staying up we'll start to recover once more.

We've been in this position before, we've gotten out of this position before and this cycle will repeat itself some time in the future too.... AVFC, bobbling along on the cusp of success and decline since 1874.

[darren woolley]

How about getting in NRC as a stop gap.  Strikes me the team needs leadership in midfield...has he found a club yet?

He's at Ipswich for 3 months.

[Brend'Watkins]

I don't find the current situation depressing at all.  It's very frustrating for sure results wise but at least we are trying to play football.

We deserved a draw on Saturday but luck went against us. 

[johnc]

This season: stay up
Next season: kick on

That's the plan.

I'm sure that's not what Lerner was hoping for when he appointed Lambert and gave him £20m to spend.

What did he think he was going to get for 20M in this day and age? Champions League?

[not3bad]

This season: stay up
Next season: kick on

That's the plan.

I'm sure that's not what Lerner was hoping for when he appointed Lambert and gave him £20m to spend.

Didn't most of us go into this season saying we'd be happy with a mid table finish?

[Risso]

This season: stay up
Next season: kick on

That's the plan.

I'm sure that's not what Lerner was hoping for when he appointed Lambert and gave him £20m to spend.

What did he think he was going to get for 20M in this day and age? Champions League?

Well, we are talking about Lerner, so who knows?  But I'm sure that having got rid of McLeish who kept us up, that he didn't expect to appoint a supposedly better manager and give him £20m and then see results get even worse.  Some of the perfomances so far have been just as bad as anything last year, eg against Everton, Southampton and West ham.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Re Mon, Sunderland have won 1 in 15 and have had the lowest amount of shots on goal in all 4 divisions, He's spent a bit and is hardly tearing up trees

[NeilH]

This season: stay up
Next season: kick on

That's the plan.

I'm sure that's not what Lerner was hoping for when he appointed Lambert and gave him £20m to spend.

What did he think he was going to get for 20M in this day and age? Champions League?

Well, we are talking about Lerner, so who knows?  But I'm sure that having got rid of McLeish who kept us up, that he didn't expect to appoint a supposedly better manager and give him £20m and then see results get even worse.  Some of the perfomances so far have been just as bad as anything last year, eg against Everton, Southampton and West ham.

Lerner and Faulkner were determined to reshape the club after making the mistake on McLeish.  His tenure was untenable and they knew it. There is no denying that up to now the results have not gone with us, but you cannot say that the football is not better. At least Lambert has a plan and you can see it. Had the status quo been maintained, we’d be just where we are and we could genuinely complain about how depressing it is.
As it stands, it’s not going to plan right now, but I agreed with the Lambert gamble when it was made and still believe in it now. This is going to be a really difficult season and we might go down, however, if we don’t we will recover and be back.
I’m convinced of it, as that's just what this club does.

[not3bad]

Some of the perfomances so far have been just as bad as anything last year, eg against Everton, Southampton and West ham.

None of those performances were anything like as soul destroying as what we saw against the likes of Spurs away and Manchester United at home last year.  For a start we scored goals against Everton and Southampton.  We had no ambition to get out of our own half in many matches last year, let alone try to score a goal.

[Risso]

Lots of managers have tried to play football, and still been relegated.  The quality of the squad is really important, whether it's Stoke or Arsenal style football, and I just don't think ours is good enough.