Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: kipeye on February 02, 2013, 02:17:04 PM
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Please -no tin-hat stuff-I am just expressing a considered opinion and sorry for the long post.
I have not enjoyed this year one bit but then again -the last 3 have been pretty bad. Having settled down a bit now and having had chance to compare with the last 50 years of supporting the team, I guess I am not resigned, but expecting relegation now.
Firstly, Randy. He doesn't say much and seems to be really bad at picking people to run the club (all except for Sid) at all levels. However, he has always begun by putting his hand in his pocket and does not seem to want to take credit where it is not due or interfere with the playing side of things. Also he doesn't seem to be calling us or looking to sell to the first buyer with cash. Not much granted, but enough for me to say that there are worse owners out there and it seems he is well intentioned.
Lambert has not been a disaster-but his results on the pitch have been. I have not seen a single player he has bought that does not have potential, and indeed-showed that fairly quickly. I also liked the way he went about bringing in new blood and recognising that the legacy that really belongs to MON was a poisonous one in the main. Yes, we had a team full of internationals-some of whom stayed to see Lambert in, but most of them are players I have been relieved to see the back of. Unfortunately-he did not get the balance right and from a poor start it has now imploded to the point potential is now very far from what we need. He also seems slow in redressing the lack of experience.
However, if we go down the side would need more than one season to return. This is not unknown to others who have been going as long as I have or longer. If we manage to survive, we won't get worse next year.So, I would not change Lambert for at least one more season.
I do not want relegation, but I will still enjoy watching my team whatever the division. Many younger fans are still puzzled when us old 'uns say the 3rd Division years were really great fun. It was simply because we just went to enjoy the game and watch the team and it was really different in a nice way.
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+1
I too still back Lerner and Lambert.
I have no time what-so-ever for our CEO. At the time Lerner took over, a Browns fan told me that Randy was fine. It was the people that he brought in to run things that you need to worry about.
I won't make any excuses for Lambert, his formations and ability to organise the team have been woeful but I do think he's bought well and will come good in time. That may well include a season or more in the Championship.
I also think that the strategy of buying young players with potential is the only way that we can ever hope to challenge in the future. Buying players with experience means buying players with a reputation. Players with a reputation know that they'll find another club whatever happens and this regularly results in lazy Ireland/Hutton/Dunne/Warnock type acquisitions.
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I think modern football is a hideous corrupt business, massive sums of money getting paid to shit players, crooked agents and hopeless managers. Someone needs to try something else, so I'm a reluctant +1 too.
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I think modern football is a hideous corrupt business, massive sums of money getting paid to shit players, crooked agents and hopeless managers. Someone needs to try something else, so I'm a reluctant +1 too.
Swansea are, Wigan (sort of) are, even the Sandwellites are. We're just doing it with hopeless ineptitude.
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A decent middle man between the manager and the chairman would be good. Faulkner is just a tosspot of the highest order, imo.
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Personally, I think they're a criminally useless pair of twats, but each to their own.
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A decent middle man between the manager and the chairman would be good. Faulkner is just a tosspot of the highest order, imo.
Faulkner is a waste of time and more importantly, money. What exactly does he do?
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Whatever Mr Lerner, Sir tells him to do. That's exactly why he's in the job. He does exactly what he's told.
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It's hard to back a man that won't finance a defender when you can't defend
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I too don't dislike either. I can understand the Lerner plan to make us self sustaining but as we've learnt a lot of things have to be correct and in place for that to be a reality. A rookie manager at such a club at this level and a squad lacking in ability and experience make it virtually impossible. Lerner should have extended his time frame and invested in more quality to give his plan a chance. He didn't and that decision could set us back a good few years.
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Lerner's plan ended when we didn't make the champs league after MON's second season. He lost all interest then.
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Lets be fair, Lerner has backed every manager, but has had his fingers badly burnt by some signings a few years ago. That said, I do think he needed to help the manager more in this window and seemingly left him hanging.
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Lets be fair, Lerner has backed every manager, but has had his fingers badly burnt by some signings a few years ago. That said, I do think he needed to help the manager more in this window and seemingly left him hanging.
He hasn't backed Lambert with wages though. Don't let the £20m in transfer fees fool you. The reason we aimed so low is because no Premier League standard player sign for the YTS rate wages we play. Hence, we're so much in the shit.
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Lets be fair, Lerner has backed every manager, but has had his fingers badly burnt by some signings a few years ago. That said, I do think he needed to help the manager more in this window and seemingly left him hanging.
He hasn't backed Lambert with wages though. Don't let the £20m in transfer fees fool you. The reason we aimed so low is because no Premier League standard player sign for the YTS rate wages we play. Hence, we're so much in the shit.
Spot on.
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Lets be fair, Lerner has backed every manager, but has had his fingers badly burnt by some signings a few years ago. That said, I do think he needed to help the manager more in this window and seemingly left him hanging.
And that is part of the problem. Not thet he backs them but the manager choice and control he's given them. We've needed an experienced body at top level from day one. Lerner's failing is not so much who he has appointed but who he hasn't.
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I back Lambert.
I am not sure about Randy but he has invested close to £200M of his money.
However i am absolutely sure that Failkner is not good enough to manage us.
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I back Lambert.
I am not sure about Randy but he has invested close to £200M of his money.
However i am absolutely sure that Failkner is not good enough to manage us.
You have put my thoughts into words - thank you
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Lets be fair, Lerner has backed every manager, but has had his fingers badly burnt by some signings a few years ago. That said, I do think he needed to help the manager more in this window and seemingly left him hanging.
He hasn't backed Lambert with wages though. Don't let the £20m in transfer fees fool you. The reason we aimed so low is because no Premier League standard player sign for the YTS rate wages we play. Hence, we're so much in the shit.
Spot on.
I wouldnt mind a YTS wage like they are on. We have paid some stupid wages with the likes of Beye in recent times and yes he probably is holding back, As someone who is an old git, would rather that than doing a Arry and Fernandes and putting the future of the club at risk
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I back Lambert in the sense that if he was sacked tomorrow I do not think it would improve our chances of staying up.
I back Randy in the sense that I do not want him just to sell to anybody, there are a lot of well off lunatics out there who could do us much more serious damage.
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I back Lambert in the sense that if he was sacked tomorrow I do not think it would improve our chances of staying up.
I back Randy in the sense that I do not want him just to sell to anybody, there are a lot of well off lunatics out there who could do us much more serious damage.
Agree with your views Andy. Would we want the Venkys or even horrors of horrors the Bhatti Bros?
We certainly would not!!
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How many fans of other teams do you think would want Lerner in charge right now?
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Personally, I think they're a criminally useless pair of twats, but each to their own.
Will you get off the fence...
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I think modern football is a hideous corrupt business, massive sums of money getting paid to shit players, crooked agents and hopeless managers. Someone needs to try something else, so I'm a reluctant +1 too.
21st century bread and circuses for us toilers.
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When the new regime moved into Villa Park, it was Sid or Kevin Mac. Sid was selected at the interview and Kevin had to go. They must have had big ideas at that stage to upset the back room staff, especially as there would have been ways to fit them both in for continuity at the junior level.
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Kipeye my old mate - you are what makes Villa a great club.
Indeed - the third division is where I started going down the Villa and I have to say that the decade that followed was one of the best in my sporting life.
I don't get the hatred and vitriol aimed at Lerner - he's spent way more in his six years than Doug Ellis did in his twenty plus years. And as for the abuse aimed at Lambert by the haters - I can only surmise that it's not because they don't like him - it's because they are fickle.
The Express and Star carries an interesting story - it is Lambert responding to the likes of Collymore regarding his signings in the window. It makes for interesting reading.
http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2013/02/02/paul-lambert-hits-out-at-critics-of-aston-villa-signings/ (http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2013/02/02/paul-lambert-hits-out-at-critics-of-aston-villa-signings/)
Villa have lost money every year since Lerner came in. The loss has been growing. Last year it reached £53.9 million pounds. What business in its right mind can continue on a path that leads to such deficits? British Leyland is the only one I can think of.
Yes we are changing - yes it is difficult - and yes it needs to be done.
Lambert has proven himself as an adept man working on a budget. He is not being starved of funding. He is being asked to work to a remit. It is the same remit that brought Benteke to Villa Park. The wailing about lack of big money signings in the window is a product of the Sky Sports generation - fuelled by the obscene spending of such clubs as Chelsea, QPR, and Manchester City.
Villa have never been like that. We have always grown great players or found gems in the lower divisions. Our great players were all either on the scrapheap or came from lower leagues. I offer you Brian Little, David Platt, Ashley Young, Dwight Yorke, and Sir Paul McGrath as examples of this. When we have spent top money on transfer and wages we have tended to end up with David Ginola or Stanley Collymore.
Villa's team are not far away from clicking. Defending as a unit is plainly still an issue. But they are trying to play football going forward - and the three (oh why not four!) I saw created and scored against an in-form Everton were world class. The toffees near me (yes I had to sit on my hands) were full of anger against Moyes - calling him stubborn - and lamenting how they always fail against 'lower' teams. I had to laugh - it put me in mind of some of the folk on here.
We will get better.
UTV
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Kipeye my old mate - you are what makes Villa a great club.
Indeed - the third division is where I started going down the Villa and I have to say that the decade that followed was one of the best in my sporting life.
I don't get the hatred and vitriol aimed at Lerner - he's spent way more in his six years than Doug Ellis did in his twenty plus years. And as for the abuse aimed at Lambert by the haters - I can only surmise that it's not because they don't like him - it's because they are fickle.
The Express and Star carries an interesting story - it is Lambert responding to the likes of Collymore regarding his signings in the window. It makes for interesting reading.
http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2013/02/02/paul-lambert-hits-out-at-critics-of-aston-villa-signings/ (http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2013/02/02/paul-lambert-hits-out-at-critics-of-aston-villa-signings/)
Villa have lost money every year since Lerner came in. The loss has been growing. Last year it reached £53.9 million pounds. What business in its right mind can continue on a path that leads to such deficits? British Leyland is the only one I can think of.
Yes we are changing - yes it is difficult - and yes it needs to be done.
Lambert has proven himself as an adept man working on a budget. He is not being starved of funding. He is being asked to work to a remit. It is the same remit that brought Benteke to Villa Park. The wailing about lack of big money signings in the window is a product of the Sky Sports generation - fuelled by the obscene spending of such clubs as Chelsea, QPR, and Manchester City.
Villa have never been like that. We have always grown great players or found gems in the lower divisions. Our great players were all either on the scrapheap or came from lower leagues. I offer you Brian Little, David Platt, Ashley Young, Dwight Yorke, and Sir Paul McGrath as examples of this. When we have spent top money on transfer and wages we have tended to end up with David Ginola or Stanley Collymore.
Villa's team are not far away from clicking. Defending as a unit is plainly still an issue. But they are trying to play football going forward - and the three (oh why not four!) I saw created and scored against an in-form Everton were world class. The toffees near me (yes I had to sit on my hands) were full of anger against Moyes - calling him stubborn - and lamenting how they always fail against 'lower' teams. I had to laugh - it put me in mind of some of the folk on here.
We will get better.
UTV
Why if people dont rate lambert and the job that hes doing does that make them fickle? Results speak for themselves and people have every right to express their feeling if they dont rate lambert - we all want whats best for the club and are all entitled to our views .
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Thank you Paul Faulkner.
As for that piece in the Express and Star, it's a few paragraphs containing Paul Lambert's soundbites. Hardly interesting.
We're not fickle, we're deeply concerned that our club is going down the pan, thanks to a seemingly non existent owner and a small time manager.
Wake up and smell the coffee.
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How can anyone claim Lambert has been adept at working with a budget? We're 2nd from bottom, and he's wasted millions on mainly rubbish.
Wake up for crying out loud!
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I read all the foregoing with interest. The only real comment I cannot take is that it was "fun" in the Third Division. I went home and away and the only reason we can look back on those bad black days through rose tinted spectacles is because we know it all worked out in the end. We would not be so sanguine about it now if we had followed fellow Football League founder members Accrington Stanley into oblivion.
Just like the present time if by some miracle we scape up next season there will be a general air of those who have just got off a scary ride at Alton Towers. That is the core of the problem we barely survived last year and the year before flattered us with some unexpected final games but we have not read the writing on the wall.
We skated on thin ice with the appointment of a sick man, then we went skating on it again with the appointment of an inferior one now this season we have skated on the thinnest of thin ice by appointing a manager who has to cheese pare the wages bill and who has never been tested in the heat he is now facing.
When McLeish went the first and foremost thing which should have been addressed was not the up front saving of money but the up front saving of the club. The money problems could have been dealt with later. Our position in the Premiership was, and still should be our first and overriding priority. Everything else pales into insignificance beside it. We should have assembled a side which could take points off those of our own standard and ground out mid table security. Once that was done the policy of introducing potential future talent could have and should have been introduced. The dash for Ajax style glory on the cheap was folly.
It is all very well to make excuses for Lambert but in the real world we all stand or fall by our results. For whatever reason his results have been appalling. How bad do they have to get before the can is passed to him and he is made to carry it?
There is all this hyperbole from him about "fighting" for results. Did he fight with Lerner and Faulkner in the transfer window for the money to pay the wages of a defender? If he did there is no evidence of it and if he did and failed he should have the bottle to let the fans know that he did and where the real fault lies.
As for Lerner and Faulkner. Faulkner is from all the evidence a useless twat who should never have been given the job in the first place. Lerner does have a lot on the credit side but of late has taken to doing a runner from Villa Park and in my opinion has not shown sufficient interest in the club's problems.
Sorry to be so long winded but I feel very strongly about what is happening to the club which means so much to me.
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Kipeye my old mate - you are what makes Villa a great club.
Indeed - the third division is where I started going down the Villa and I have to say that the decade that followed was one of the best in my sporting life.
I don't get the hatred and vitriol aimed at Lerner - he's spent way more in his six years than Doug Ellis did in his twenty plus years. And as for the abuse aimed at Lambert by the haters - I can only surmise that it's not because they don't like him - it's because they are fickle.
The Express and Star carries an interesting story - it is Lambert responding to the likes of Collymore regarding his signings in the window. It makes for interesting reading.
http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2013/02/02/paul-lambert-hits-out-at-critics-of-aston-villa-signings/ (http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2013/02/02/paul-lambert-hits-out-at-critics-of-aston-villa-signings/)
Villa have lost money every year since Lerner came in. The loss has been growing. Last year it reached £53.9 million pounds. What business in its right mind can continue on a path that leads to such deficits? British Leyland is the only one I can think of.
Yes we are changing - yes it is difficult - and yes it needs to be done.
Lambert has proven himself as an adept man working on a budget. He is not being starved of funding. He is being asked to work to a remit. It is the same remit that brought Benteke to Villa Park. The wailing about lack of big money signings in the window is a product of the Sky Sports generation - fuelled by the obscene spending of such clubs as Chelsea, QPR, and Manchester City.
Villa have never been like that. We have always grown great players or found gems in the lower divisions. Our great players were all either on the scrapheap or came from lower leagues. I offer you Brian Little, David Platt, Ashley Young, Dwight Yorke, and Sir Paul McGrath as examples of this. When we have spent top money on transfer and wages we have tended to end up with David Ginola or Stanley Collymore.
Villa's team are not far away from clicking. Defending as a unit is plainly still an issue. But they are trying to play football going forward - and the three (oh why not four!) I saw created and scored against an in-form Everton were world class. The toffees near me (yes I had to sit on my hands) were full of anger against Moyes - calling him stubborn - and lamenting how they always fail against 'lower' teams. I had to laugh - it put me in mind of some of the folk on here.
We will get better.
UTV
What a one-eyed piece of rubbish. You could just as easily say that when we've gone for youngsters from the lower leagues, we've ended up with Fabian Delph, Michael Boulding, and Curtis Davies. When we've paid big money on top players, we got Dean Saunders, Andy Townsend, Ashley Young and James Milner. And please for the love of god look up the word 'fickle'. Then come back when you understand what it actually means. Thanks.
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Lets be fair, Lerner has backed every manager, but has had his fingers badly burnt by some signings a few years ago. That said, I do think he needed to help the manager more in this window and seemingly left him hanging.
He hasn't backed Lambert with wages though. Don't let the £20m in transfer fees fool you. The reason we aimed so low is because no Premier League standard player sign for the YTS rate wages we play. Hence, we're so much in the shit.
Spot on.
Other PL clubs seem to do it okay!
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How can anyone claim Lambert has been adept at working with a budget? We're 2nd from bottom, and he's wasted millions on mainly rubbish.
Wake up for crying out loud!
Guzan, Vlaar, Lowton and Benteke have been our best players. Mainly rubbish? What tosh. He's had to reduce our massive wage bill by buying from abroad and from lower leagues, making sure they're under the 25k wage cap. If you're looking for scapegoats why not look to players like Bent, Ireland, Bannan, N'Zogbia, Delph, Warnock, Hutton and Agbonlahor who have all failed to impress for the majority of this season despite being our big earners.
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How can anyone claim Lambert has been adept at working with a budget? We're 2nd from bottom, and he's wasted millions on mainly rubbish.
Wake up for crying out loud!
Guzan, Vlaar, Lowton and Benteke have been our best players. Mainly rubbish? What tosh. He's had to reduce our massive wage bill by buying from abroad and from lower leagues, making sure they're under the 25k wage cap. If you're looking for scapegoats why not look to players like Bent, Ireland, Bannan, N'Zogbia, Delph, Warnock, Hutton and Agbonlahor who have all failed to impress for the majority of this season despite being our big earners.
Yeah right. Only Benteke can hold his head up this season (of Lambert's signings). The rest have been a crock of shit. Oh and please, Guzan a Lambert signing? Give me a break. His contract ran out and the club then renewed it. You're scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one.
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How can anyone claim Lambert has been adept at working with a budget? We're 2nd from bottom, and he's wasted millions on mainly rubbish.
Wake up for crying out loud!
Guzan, Vlaar, Lowton and Benteke have been our best players. Mainly rubbish? What tosh. He's had to reduce our massive wage bill by buying from abroad and from lower leagues, making sure they're under the 25k wage cap. If you're looking for scapegoats why not look to players like Bent, Ireland, Bannan, N'Zogbia, Delph, Warnock, Hutton and Agbonlahor who have all failed to impress for the majority of this season despite being our big earners.
They may not be great but you can't blame players who haven't played for us this season because of Lambchop's stubborness!
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lamberts signings have been with the exception of benteke and guzan very average or desperate
top of the desperate class is bennett whoever scouted him should be sectioned
lowton,el ahmadi could note tackle a fish supper along with westwood
vlaar does not appear to be fit but then when you look up is career you can see why
so you get what you pay for
hope we stay up and are proved wrong about the above
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How can anyone claim Lambert has been adept at working with a budget? We're 2nd from bottom, and he's wasted millions on mainly rubbish.
Wake up for crying out loud!
Guzan, Vlaar, Lowton and Benteke have been our best players. Mainly rubbish? What tosh. He's had to reduce our massive wage bill by buying from abroad and from lower leagues, making sure they're under the 25k wage cap. If you're looking for scapegoats why not look to players like Bent, Ireland, Bannan, N'Zogbia, Delph, Warnock, Hutton and Agbonlahor who have all failed to impress for the majority of this season despite being our big earners.
Yeah right. Only Benteke can hold his head up this season (of Lambert's signings). The rest have been a crock of shit. Oh and please, Guzan a Lambert signing? Give me a break. His contract ran out and the club then renewed it. You're scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one.
His contract ran out and Lambert signed him. Half the people on here wanted him gone so we could have Given first choice and bring in a cheaper back up. What a disaster that would have been. He was out the door until Lambert rocked up. Excellent signing by Lambert. £20k a week.
Lowton was signed for £1m and would be worth about five times that today. One of our best performers and if you say otherwise you must be mental. £15k a week. Vlaar was signed for £3m and he's twice the centre back that Clark or Baker is at this current time. Only on £20k a week and you can look at the Christmas defeats to see we missed him massively.
Benteke was bought for £7m and could be sold for £25m this summer. Signing of the season aside from possibly Michu. In fact I would argue he's better than Michu because he was an unproven 21 year old rather than the highest scoring midfielder in La Liga. He's on £20k a week.
Then we have Bennett and KEA. Neither of whom I'm writing off as disasters. Bennett has shown glimpses of excellence and is getting better each week. £15k a week. KEA needs to be bedded in this league just like Stan needed a year to get to grips. Certainly not a bad player and he was brought in on the cheap at £20k a week.
Westwood looks to be as good a midfielder in the centre of the park as we've had for years. He was signed for peanuts and is the heart of this Villa team and keeps us ticking over well. Signed for £1m and on £10k a week. Excellent signing.
So I make that out to be about 120k a week? What's that, a Hutton and an Ireland? Less than a Beye, Warnock and Hutton? A Bent and a Delph? If you think he's bought badly you've got to be off your rocker when you realise what he's working with and what value he's bought for so little.
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Lowton a £5m fullback? Ha!
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Lowton a £5m fullback? Ha!
I've imagined that you said that 'HA' bit at the end in the style of Holly Johnson as he goes into 'Born to run'
It just makes me feel better.
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As for Lerner and Faulkner. Faulkner is from all the evidence a useless twat who should never have been given the job in the first place. Lerner does have a lot on the credit side but of late has taken to doing a runner from Villa Park and in my opinion has not shown sufficient interest in the club's problems.
Sorry to be so long winded but I feel very strongly about what is happening to the club which means so much to me.
I had to read it all to see if there was anything I agreed with and yes I do agree on above quote.
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How can anyone claim Lambert has been adept at working with a budget? We're 2nd from bottom, and he's wasted millions on mainly rubbish.
Wake up for crying out loud!
Guzan, Vlaar, Lowton and Benteke have been our best players. Mainly rubbish? What tosh. He's had to reduce our massive wage bill by buying from abroad and from lower leagues, making sure they're under the 25k wage cap. If you're looking for scapegoats why not look to players like Bent, Ireland, Bannan, N'Zogbia, Delph, Warnock, Hutton and Agbonlahor who have all failed to impress for the majority of this season despite being our big earners.
Yeah right. Only Benteke can hold his head up this season (of Lambert's signings). The rest have been a crock of shit. Oh and please, Guzan a Lambert signing? Give me a break. His contract ran out and the club then renewed it. You're scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one.
His contract ran out and Lambert signed him. Half the people on here wanted him gone so we could have Given first choice and bring in a cheaper back up. What a disaster that would have been. He was out the door until Lambert rocked up. Excellent signing by Lambert. £20k a week.
Lowton was signed for £1m and would be worth about five times that today. One of our best performers and if you say otherwise you must be mental. £15k a week. Vlaar was signed for £3m and he's twice the centre back that Clark or Baker is at this current time. Only on £20k a week and you can look at the Christmas defeats to see we missed him massively.
Benteke was bought for £7m and could be sold for £25m this summer. Signing of the season aside from possibly Michu. In fact I would argue he's better than Michu because he was an unproven 21 year old rather than the highest scoring midfielder in La Liga. He's on £20k a week.
Then we have Bennett and KEA. Neither of whom I'm writing off as disasters. Bennett has shown glimpses of excellence and is getting better each week. £15k a week. KEA needs to be bedded in this league just like Stan needed a year to get to grips. Certainly not a bad player and he was brought in on the cheap at £20k a week.
Westwood looks to be as good a midfielder in the centre of the park as we've had for years. He was signed for peanuts and is the heart of this Villa team and keeps us ticking over well. Signed for £1m and on £10k a week. Excellent signing.
So I make that out to be about 120k a week? What's that, a Hutton and an Ireland? Less than a Beye, Warnock and Hutton? A Bent and a Delph? If you think he's bought badly you've got to be off your rocker when you realise what he's working with and what value he's bought for so little.
Well I'm in agreement with most of this. Stay up by the skin of our teeth this year and it could be a lot rosier next year.
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Kipeye my old mate - you are what makes Villa a great club.
Indeed - the third division is where I started going down the Villa and I have to say that the decade that followed was one of the best in my sporting life.
I don't get the hatred and vitriol aimed at Lerner - he's spent way more in his six years than Doug Ellis did in his twenty plus years. And as for the abuse aimed at Lambert by the haters - I can only surmise that it's not because they don't like him - it's because they are fickle.
The Express and Star carries an interesting story - it is Lambert responding to the likes of Collymore regarding his signings in the window. It makes for interesting reading.
http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2013/02/02/paul-lambert-hits-out-at-critics-of-aston-villa-signings/ (http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/aston-villa-fc/2013/02/02/paul-lambert-hits-out-at-critics-of-aston-villa-signings/)
Villa have lost money every year since Lerner came in. The loss has been growing. Last year it reached £53.9 million pounds. What business in its right mind can continue on a path that leads to such deficits? British Leyland is the only one I can think of.
Yes we are changing - yes it is difficult - and yes it needs to be done.
Lambert has proven himself as an adept man working on a budget. He is not being starved of funding. He is being asked to work to a remit. It is the same remit that brought Benteke to Villa Park. The wailing about lack of big money signings in the window is a product of the Sky Sports generation - fuelled by the obscene spending of such clubs as Chelsea, QPR, and Manchester City.
Villa have never been like that. We have always grown great players or found gems in the lower divisions. Our great players were all either on the scrapheap or came from lower leagues. I offer you Brian Little, David Platt, Ashley Young, Dwight Yorke, and Sir Paul McGrath as examples of this. When we have spent top money on transfer and wages we have tended to end up with David Ginola or Stanley Collymore.
Villa's team are not far away from clicking. Defending as a unit is plainly still an issue. But they are trying to play football going forward - and the three (oh why not four!) I saw created and scored against an in-form Everton were world class. The toffees near me (yes I had to sit on my hands) were full of anger against Moyes - calling him stubborn - and lamenting how they always fail against 'lower' teams. I had to laugh - it put me in mind of some of the folk on here.
We will get better.
UTV
What a one-eyed piece of rubbish. You could just as easily say that when we've gone for youngsters from the lower leagues, we've ended up with Fabian Delph, Michael Boulding, and Curtis Davies. When we've paid big money on top players, we got Dean Saunders, Andy Townsend, Ashley Young and James Milner. And please for the love of god look up the word 'fickle'. Then come back when you understand what it actually means. Thanks.
I'm not brilliant with our history but I'm pretty sure that during the very early days of the football league, we broke transfer records on a regular basis and paid what was then, some very high fees\salaries...so we have been the likes of modern Chelsea, man city and QPR.
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Sonly-Nice to know I am not alone. Brian-I understand why you would disagree with me about the 3rd division but my point was not that I thought it was fun-like in novelty, but for once it was nice to let go of all the pretensions and just enjoying the football for the 90 minutes. I am also trying to say-we will not lose the Villa to a slow and final decline and if we go down it is still possible to enjoy supporting them
As for you Rissole-you should know better.