Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Legion on February 18, 2013, 03:59:02 PM
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One would have been nice... (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21498007)
Paul Lambert says his Aston Villa side must be prepared for "12 cup finals" as they battle to avoid the drop from the Premier League.
The Birmingham side are currently 17th, a point above 18th-place Reading, as they go into Saturday's match at Arsenal.
"There's no point in looking back and thinking, 'We should have got points here and there'," said the Villa boss.
"From now on in it's 12 cup finals and that's the way we have to view it."
He added: "We lost two-goal leads against Manchester United, West Brom and Everton. It's tough when that happens because those points could have made a major difference.
"We have to be ready for it and win more times than not."
Villa, who did not play at the weekend, go to their 27th league fixture of the campaign on the back of a victory against West Ham.
Lambert is confident his side can build on that success.
"The feeling to try to win is there," said the 43-year-old former Norwich manager. "When you get knocked and knocked at every opportunity, you have to take the game by the scruff of the neck and influence it.
"The last few games we have thought, 'We'll have some of this'. You can't go out and play football like it's a hobby.
"It's your job to win. The confidence is high at the moment."
Consecutive seasons in the top-tier of English football
87 - Arsenal
59 - Everton
51 - Liverpool
38 - Manchester United
35 - Tottenham
25 - Aston Villa
24 - Chelsea
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Just as well they're not cup semi-finals...
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Have you read the comments after that story on the BBC website? Better laugh or else you'll cry.
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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?
Erm....
Aston Villa are going down for sure and deserve too, why?
Teams like Liverpool can change their style of football and stick with it, decent players and a newly promoted team also can try, cause they have momentum..
But the arrogance of the Aston Villa staff, to think they can do the same is beyond all logic!
Dropping older pro's for kids who be sold if good is beyond logic also..
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I like the way many Newcastle fans are still blarting after we took the piss out of them when they went down at VP. It was hilarious then, and it's getting funnier the longer they hold onto the grudge. That's what you get for taking yourselves too seriously, lads:
As a Newcastle United fan I would love to see Aston Villa go down purely for the way they celebrated at the end of the game when Newcastle got relegated.They had nothing to celebrate unless finishing another season mid table is worth celebration.
We finished sixth that season and qualified for Europe.
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12 open top bus trips booked then?
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I like the way many Newcastle fans are still blarting after we took the piss out of them when they went down at VP. It was hilarious then, and it's getting funnier the longer they hold onto the grudge. That's what you get for taking yourselves too seriously, lads:
As a Newcastle United fan I would love to see Aston Villa go down purely for the way they celebrated at the end of the game when Newcastle got relegated.They had nothing to celebrate unless finishing another season mid table is worth celebration.
We finished sixth that season and qualified for Europe.
There'll be plenty queuing up to take the piss out of us if we make the drop. If you live by the sword you have to be prepared to die by the sword.
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Did we go a bit arrogant after Randy arrived and during the push for the Champion's League?
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Did we go a bit arrogant after Randy arrived and during the push for the Champion's League?
I think it was a bit of belief more than arrogance.
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Lamberts comments are exactly what you would expect to hear from a relegation threatened manager. Nothing unusual, most of them come out with something along the same lines.
Lets hope the players keep positive.
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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.
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I always hate the cup final analogy, but he has to say something positive I suppose
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I always hate the cup final analogy, but he has to say something positive I suppose
We wouldn't need twelve if we'd treated one or two earlier games like cup finals.
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Dodgy phrase to use the week that some of us would swap the"12 cup finals" for the one next Sunday.
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I always hate the cup final analogy, but he has to say something positive I suppose
Me too. It's moronic to be honest, and normally just reserved for teams and managers who are in the shit.
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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.
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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.
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Hmmm as our lot dont seem to be bothered about cup finals was that such a good comment??
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We deserve to go down if we finish in the bottom 3 but it will be the culmination of 3 (maybe 4) years decline.
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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. >:(
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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.
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If he thinks this sort of clichéd crap has an effect, he probably should have started saying it, when there were 38 cup-finals.
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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).
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I believe Paul Lambert's favourite animal is the Tazmanian devil and his favourite singer is Lena Zavaroni.
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Lambert's quotes are directly from Billy McBingo's 'prepare for relegation' handbook from 1987.
The 'rabbit in the headlights' look was also aped from Lisbon Bill.
Much like the politician who said, go back to your constituencies and prepare for government', master tactician Lambo is telling us all to 'prepare for the Championship' in his increasingly mumbling media performances.
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We deserve to go down if we finish in the bottom 3 but it will be the culmination of 3 (maybe 4) years decline.
Yes. The leadership of Aston Villa right now is appalling.
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Well if today is how our manager and players approach a 'cup final' then we are definitely doomed.
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Today's result was a missed opportunity, not a disaster but I don't see where 5 wins come from.
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Today's result was a missed opportunity, not a disaster but I don't see where 5 wins come from.
The first 27 games looking at the league table...
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Then time is up for us.
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3 wins and a few draws might be enough. Back-to-back wins against QPR and Reading would be very useful.
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No chance with our goal difference, we need 5 wins for me including nothing negative against QPR and Reading.
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No chance with our goal difference, we need 5 wins for me including nothing negative against QPR and Reading.
Reading & QPR aren't the issue as they're coming down with us.
As someone else pointed out I'd rather have Wigan's run in than ours and they've basically got a point headstart on us with the goal difference. Newcastle's run in is better than ours too - I'm just hoping the UEFA Cup gives them enough distraction to royally cock their league form up. Southampton will just about crawl out of it and anyone above them I think will be fine.
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It's between us, Reading, Wigan and QPR.
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It's between us, Reading, Wigan and QPR.
But we've got to do better than all three of them. For that purpose you only need look at the one expected to finish the highest - given their current form, annual Houdini acts, and much easier run in, Wigan is the only one we need focus on.
I think there'll be daylight between us and them when we come to play them in May.
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I agree but beating two of them would be a start this month. I maintain we need 5 wins, plus a couple of draws and that'll save us.
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11 Cup Finals now!
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Can we not make it 11 league cup quarter finals?
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Swansea and Bradford only had one. Who's laughing now suckers.
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11 Cup Finals now!
You could make a song out of this.
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11 Cup Finals now!
You could make a song out of this.
11 cup finals waiting to be won , 11 cup finals waiting to be won ,
And if one cup final is accidentally lost they'll be 10 cup finals waiting to be won ....
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11 Cup Finals now!
You could make a song out of this.
11 cup finals waiting to be won , 11 cup finals waiting to be won ,
And if one cup final is accidentally lost they'll be 10 cup finals waiting to be won ....
In the 12th Cup Final, Paul Lambert gave to me...a 2-1 Arsenal victory.
In the 11th Cup Final, Paul Lambert gave to me...a drubbing at home to Man City.
In the 10th Cup Final, Paul Lambert gave to me...
...to be continued
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10 burnt haggis'?
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11 Cup Finals and we go again
11 Cup Finals and we go again
And if one Cup Final is thrown away again
There will be 10 Cup Finals and we go again
......
1 Cup Final and we go again
1 Cup Final and we go again
And if one Cup Final is thrown away again
There will be 46 Cup Finals and we go again.
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11 Cup Finals and we go again
11 Cup Finals and we go again
And if one Cup Final is thrown away again
There will be 10 Cup Finals and we go again
......
1 Cup Final and we go again
1 Cup Final and we go again
And if one Cup Final is thrown away again
There will be 46 Cup Finals and we go again.
Defeatist attitude dc5 - keep your head up and listen to gloria gaynor ;)
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11 Cup Finals and we go again
11 Cup Finals and we go again
And if one Cup Final is thrown away again
There will be 10 Cup Finals and we go again
......
1 Cup Final and we go again
1 Cup Final and we go again
And if one Cup Final is thrown away again
There will be 46 Cup Finals and we go again.
Defeatist attitude dc5 - keep your head up and listen to gloria gaynor ;)
Don't start that defeatist thing again, Eastie. I will be going to every game and encouraging them to win but I am not going to go around saying everything will be alright when there is no evidence to suggest that it will. I did the three times table at a very early age and find myself using it every day, followed by a shake of the head. For once, just once, can we be the team to clinch the game with an injury time winner against Man City. Even if we are 4-0 up at half time, I will not rest.
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11 Cup Finals and we go again
11 Cup Finals and we go again
And if one Cup Final is thrown away again
There will be 10 Cup Finals and we go again
......
1 Cup Final and we go again
1 Cup Final and we go again
And if one Cup Final is thrown away again
There will be 46 Cup Finals and we go again.
Defeatist attitude dc5 - keep your head up and listen to gloria gaynor ;)
Don't start that defeatist thing again, Eastie. I will be going to every game and encouraging them to win but I am not going to go around saying everything will be alright when there is no evidence to suggest that it will. I did the three times table at a very early age and find myself using it every day, followed by a shake of the head. For once, just once, can we be the team to clinch the game with an injury time winner against Man City. Even if we are 4-0 up at half time, I will not rest.
I know the feeling my good friend, even at 3-1 at everton i could not begin to relax as the feeling was always there it would go wrong - nailbiting it is , i so wish i could sit back and see a comfy 2 goal win but we do it all the hard way - that night in rotterdam i went from a 17 yr old to a 60 yr old in 90 minutes and i cannot begin to feel how i would react if we had to go to wigan needing a win.
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Occasionaly have happy endings for us.
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Occasionaly have happy endings for us.
I'm not sure that we'd get a happy ending at a Bangkok Massage Parlour at the moment.