Lerner backs Villa boss Lambert

[Jimbo]

I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours, but I think that Lerner has a sick sense of humour, and when we go down I expect to find him laughing.

While stroking his pussy?

[Jimbo]

Cat, obviously.

[Fergal]

So he is gonna back him but not if it costs anything....

[royvilla949]

I would reiterate that Paul has achieved success at many levels of professional football





That line is a bit odd ! 

   yes i thought so as well

[Drummond]

Why is that odd?! He was successful in Scotland, In Germany, in the Champions League, in various leagues in England.

[neo_Villan]

I'm sorry, it doesn't even come across as if it was written by someone who is supposed to be a fan. No passion or emotion in it. The final paragraph starts with 'On a personal note...' but what exactly was personal about it? It sounded as formal as the rest of the statement. It sounds no different to a statement that would be released by someone like McDonalds if they were found guilty of food poisoning. It is just a damage limitation exercise with Lerner knowing that a loss against Newcastle will mean the he will permenantly lose the vast majority of fans. This is just an attempt to nip some of this unrest in the bud. Well Mr Lerner, you may subdue some with this hollow statement, but you don't fool me!

What do you want - an ending of SOTC? Of course it's formal; it's a professional business statement. It's not a Facebook status.

It wouldn't have done any harm In all seriousness though, after waiting so long to even hear from the owner of the club, I expected more then the usual vote of confidence guff. Firsty, I expected an admission of just how bad the current situation is. Then I expected a clear plan outlined as to how we can turn it around. What did we learn from the statement? We are keeping the same clueless manager who has presided over the worst 5 weeks in a generation (if not in our entire history!) and he may be backed with a couple of deadline day signings which will be too little, too late. Lerner is just playing Russian Roulette with our top-flight status and that is quite simply unacceptable. A little honesty wouldn't go amiss either. 'Players have been discussed but nothing has materialised.' Do they expect us to swallow that whole? Lambert may be useless but he knows his way around the market. I don't believe for a second he wouldn't have been able to pull at least one deal off by now if he had money. I think we have gone back to the sell-to-buy policy (remember Vlaar being messed around until we had sold Collins?) and they expected Bent to have gone by now. Some people seem to be suggesting that we should be grateful that he has released this statement. But our gripe is he doesn't communicate enough. This one-off statement doesn't change that.

[pauliewalnuts]

Good, but he has to back him in the "hand in pocket, fetching wallet" style, too.

[tomd2103]

what the fuck does this mean ?

"The Villa board knew that with Paul we would begin to address the club’s multi-year lack of competitive stability"

what the fuck is he actually trying to say, and why the fuck can't he say it in Englsh (or American) ?

I take it to mean that unlike previous years, we have to spend within our means and not have to rely on him to continually pump in millions of his own money in.  Fair enough I suppose, especially as there are a number of clubs currently above us in the table who seem to be doing that (including one just down the road as much as it pains me to say).

[Drummond]

I think he's just saying what everyone else has for a while. We've spent a shedload of cash to get precisely nowhere. We're probably at the bottom of  a value for money table.

[Risso]

I think he's just saying what everyone else has for a while. We've spent a shedload of cash to get precisely nowhere. We're probably at the bottom of  a value for money table.

Especially this season.  £23m to be much worse than McLeish, jesus h christ.

[LeeS]

I would reiterate that Paul has achieved success at many levels of professional football





That line is a bit odd ! 

   yes i thought so as well

You are both far more clever than me, if you read something else into what is a factual statement about Lambert's career.

[dave.woodhall]

I'm sorry, it doesn't even come across as if it was written by someone who is supposed to be a fan. No passion or emotion in it. The final paragraph starts with 'On a personal note...' but what exactly was personal about it? It sounded as formal as the rest of the statement. It sounds no different to a statement that would be released by someone like McDonalds if they were found guilty of food poisoning. It is just a damage limitation exercise with Lerner knowing that a loss against Newcastle will mean the he will permenantly lose the vast majority of fans. This is just an attempt to nip some of this unrest in the bud. Well Mr Lerner, you may subdue some with this hollow statement, but you don't fool me!

What do you want - an ending of SOTC? Of course it's formal; it's a professional business statement. It's not a Facebook status.

It wouldn't have done any harm In all seriousness though, after waiting so long to even hear from the owner of the club, I expected more then the usual vote of confidence guff. Firsty, I expected an admission of just how bad the current situation is. Then I expected a clear plan outlined as to how we can turn it around. What did we learn from the statement? We are keeping the same clueless manager who has presided over the worst 5 weeks in a generation (if not in our entire history!) and he may be backed with a couple of deadline day signings which will be too little, too late. Lerner is just playing Russian Roulette with our top-flight status and that is quite simply unacceptable. A little honesty wouldn't go amiss either. 'Players have been discussed but nothing has materialised.' Do they expect us to swallow that whole? Lambert may be useless but he knows his way around the market. I don't believe for a second he wouldn't have been able to pull at least one deal off by now if he had money. I think we have gone back to the sell-to-buy policy (remember Vlaar being messed around until we had sold Collins?) and they expected Bent to have gone by now. Some people seem to be suggesting that we should be grateful that he has released this statement. But our gripe is he doesn't communicate enough. This one-off statement doesn't change that.

You wanted them to say things are as bad as you think they are, then sack the manager and sign new players? Then because this didn't happen they're telling fibs. Still, as you said earlier and while we're quoting eighties musical icons, there ain't no fooling you.

[Monty]

What's notable there is Lambert saying 'the squad is good enough to stay up' and 'we need a few more players in'. There are two things this could mean, as far as I can see:

1) that he wants to keep up the morale of the players we have in case we don't sign anyone, while trying to get a message to Lerner that we actually do need bodies in;

or 2) that we have enough to stay up, but in order to achieve our higher ambitions we need to add more players.

I hope he means the former, and I hope Lerner heeds the message (which presumably he'd be telling him in person as well), because there's no way anyone can be certain that this squad is definitely good enough to stay up.

[Drummond]

I really don't think, from the way both have talked about each other, that he needs to be sending veiled messages through quotes to the press.

[Monty]

I really don't think, from the way both have talked about each other, that he needs to be sending veiled messages through quotes to the press.

I agree. I just hope he is, because the alternative shows a worrying and bewildering blindness.