12 cup finals

[Irish villain]

Lamberts comments are exactly what you would expect to hear from a relegation threatened manager.

That's the thing that struck me.  Depressing isn't it?

I expect to hear that sort of comment from Wigan's manager or someone equally crap.  To hear it from the Villa manager hurts.

Sadly that's what we are and have been for a couple of years.

I still back Lambert to get it right and think he can help break the cycle next season.

[not3bad]

One thing about the cup final analogy is it does help focus the mind on that task that needs to be done.  Would it have been better if the players had treated earlier games the same way?  Yes it would, but we can't do anything about that now.

[London Villan]

Hmmm as our lot dont seem to be bothered about cup finals was that such a good comment??

[PaulWinch again]

I never like this cliched 'cup final' stuff that managers come out with. The players shouldn't be so short sighted that they can't realise that all 38 games across the season are equally important. In short they should show the same commitment and effort in every game and not just when the situation becomes desperate.

[Chris Smith]

It still surprises me that people analyse this press conference stuff so deeply. To imagine that this makes any difference to how we perform seems fanciful to say the least.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Compare Lambert's comments with the stuff Wenger was coming out with in his press meltdown yesterday and you'll see two managers under real pressure.

I thought Wenger was hilarious - refused to talk about the FA cup game, saying that the press conference was to discuss the European Cup tie. When someone asked him about the Bayern team he refused to talk about them.

He seems to be coping with the presure worse than Lambert

[supertom]

It still surprises me that people analyse this press conference stuff so deeply. To imagine that this makes any difference to how we perform seems fanciful to say the least.

It's not so much that, for me anyway. I'd just rather we didn't have to hear this stuff every week. 12 cup finals, or another week it's one of our players (normally one of the less consistent ones) coming out and saying it's time we played better. Ir's all fluff. We very rarely back these words up, which is frustrating for the fans and then as a consequence whatever our manager or players then comes out with next up is, like now, picked apart.

What I'd really like is a few weeks of not hearing much from the squad and manager, other than some decent results and performances on the pitch. But that's not too likely.

[Villadroid]

Have you read the comments after that story on the BBC website?  Better laugh or else you'll cry.

What on earth is this idiot on about?


Aston Villa are going down for sure and deserve too, why?

That is the most frustrating part.

Villa's problems look entirely self-inflicted.

It is impossible to find any vindication for what they have done and they can't really claim to be unlucky.

Right up to the moment the transfer window closed it was possible to make the claim that it was someone else's fault and that Villa's strategy arose out of high principle but as soon as it became plain that they were intent on doing the absolute minimum to alter their likely fate, all explanations and excuses became untenable.

Neither owner or manager can take much credit.

So when neutrals tell us the club deserve relegation it is impossible to disagree.

The fans, however, do not deserve it, because they have been loyal to the point of idiocy, and they have deflected blame away from the guilty parties and shown faith in people who have subsequently let them down.

As ever: lions led by donkeys.

[Mister E]

Neither owner or manager can take much credit.

So when neutrals tell us the club deserve relegation it is impossible to disagree.

The fans, however, do not deserve it, because they have been loyal to the point of idiocy, and they have deflected blame away from the guilty parties and shown faith in people who have subsequently let them down.

As ever: lions led by donkeys.

Hmmm, agreed; depressingly.

[Damo70]

It takes me back to the years between 1985 and 1987 when Allan Evans and Andy Gray seemed to take it in turns to issue the weekly rallying cry on the back page of the mail.

[rob_bridge]

We deserve to go down if we finish in the bottom 3 but it will be the culmination of 3 (maybe 4) years decline.

[Bottom Right 89]

I think PL is adding to the pressure on the players, he needs to be causing a distraction and getting stuck into Wenger it wouldn't take much given yesterdays press conference. We've had two weeks off on the back of a home win, our players should be relaxed and confident. Arsenal have had a shit result in the Cup and a tough Champs league encounter - if our lads come out the blocks like they did at Everton, the Emirates will self implode and what we don't need is everyone nervous, dropping back and giving the ball away because they're thinking about the league table and Cup finals all the time.   

Those bed sheets taking the P out of Newcastle a few years ago have got a lot to answer for. Not only have we had to suffer abuse the whole season
from the local idiots but if I have to read one of these "what goes around comes around" comments from the Geordies again. Anyone would think that we'd burnt effigy's of Kevin Keegan and poisoned their pigeons FFS GET OVER IT.

[Chris Smith]

It still surprises me that people analyse this press conference stuff so deeply. To imagine that this makes any difference to how we perform seems fanciful to say the least.

It's not so much that, for me anyway. I'd just rather we didn't have to hear this stuff every week. 12 cup finals, or another week it's one of our players (normally one of the less consistent ones) coming out and saying it's time we played better. Ir's all fluff. We very rarely back these words up, which is frustrating for the fans and then as a consequence whatever our manager or players then comes out with next up is, like now, picked apart.

What I'd really like is a few weeks of not hearing much from the squad and manager, other than some decent results and performances on the pitch. But that's not too likely.

You're not obliged to read it. I know that's a bit glib, as fans we like to know what's going on, but I just try to take it for the fluff that it is.

I'm sure there's some sort of obligation on the club to provide players and the manager for press conferences and web site content.

[Villadroid]

If he thinks this sort of clichéd crap has an effect, he probably should have started saying it, when there were 38 cup-finals.

[pauliewalnuts]

Let's not forget, the managers do weekly press conferences. Much of the time, they'd probably prefer to say nothing at all, but it isn't really an option.

If i were Lambert, I'd certainly not prefer to talk about relegation scraps, but it's hard not to when, for starters, we are clearly in one, and secondly, you've got the likes of Colley, Kendrick and Abraham asking questions about it all the time (in between Woodward's "what's your favourite animal ... who is your favourite singer?" level stuff for the OS).