West Ham v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Legion]

MOTD highlights

[Mister E]

I think the formation will be changed about a bit over the next few weeks to be fair. Lambert changed it week to week at Norwich. Lets not get too down.

The view I was left with after watching the game was that one of the teams on display has got lots of development scope; the other will be pretty much the same in 6 months' time. I thought the Spammers were very one-dimensional; WYSIWYG. And of course it worked against a side that is still finding its identity.

With the one or two additions that I think will come this month, we'll improve and - whilst not winning anything of note this season - do okay by the end of the season.

I suspect some of our kids may well get moved on but 2 or 3 may develop into useful EPL players.

[john e]

For fucks sake, some people on here haven't got a clue, it's one game we are not going down.

Paul Lambert lost 15 games last season where we only lost 14, so let's all relax abit, I think we all said we'd rather have a few more losses instead of draws for a few more wins.

We have to accept we are a midtable team now.

We won't be a midtable team if there aren't at a minimum 3-4 decent quality new players brought in. We will be going down as leaving aside the lack of quality in the squad there is a distinct lack of leadership and fight in the team. We have inherited the dreadful trait from last season in that if we concede first we disintegrate into a rabble. Do people honestly think Gabby after two shite
disinterested seasons is going to improve us much?

Paul Lambert surely wouldn't have moved to Villa unless there was some level of funding available so yesterday might well be a welcome wake up call to him and particularly the board. To think the majority of the forum were turning up their noses at Grant Holt coming in. He is the kind of character we need in the team. Robbie Keane even too. Players who won't accept losing to piss poor teams like West Ham.

we were in trouble last year because of the manager,
we wont be in trouble this year because of the manager

[nick harper]

I have no doubt that Lambert will get much more out of our senior players once things begin to settle down. But, I stand by my big concern that the squad is supplemented by too many home grown players, none of whom have demonstrated to me that they have a long term future at this level.

[brontebilly]

For fucks sake, some people on here haven't got a clue, it's one game we are not going down.

Paul Lambert lost 15 games last season where we only lost 14, so let's all relax abit, I think we all said we'd rather have a few more losses instead of draws for a few more wins.

We have to accept we are a midtable team now.

We won't be a midtable team if there aren't at a minimum 3-4 decent quality new players brought in. We will be going down as leaving aside the lack of quality in the squad there is a distinct lack of leadership and fight in the team. We have inherited the dreadful trait from last season in that if we concede first we disintegrate into a rabble. Do people honestly think Gabby after two shite
disinterested seasons is going to improve us much?

Paul Lambert surely wouldn't have moved to Villa unless there was some level of funding available so yesterday might well be a welcome wake up call to him and particularly the board. To think the majority of the forum were turning up their noses at Grant Holt coming in. He is the kind of character we need in the team. Robbie Keane even too. Players who won't accept losing to piss poor teams like West Ham.

we were in trouble last year because of the manager,
we wont be in trouble this year because of the manager

and the season before last, we were in trouble because of the manager too I guess?

Paul Lambert is a good manager but the old saying you cant shine shit comes to mind.

We have a lot of players in our squad that arent up to even solid midtable EPL standard. Id safely say Given, El Ahmedi and Bent are but the rest?

[The Laughing Policeman]

Woke up this morning full of the joys of life, then I read this thread and now I'm listening to Leonard Cohen and looking longingly at the carving knife.
Doomed we're all doomed I tell ye.

[nick harper]

One further point to emphasis the challenge facing Lambert - this squad has won one of their last 17 league games.

He somehow has to instill some confidence into them and quickly

[jeowje]

I think we would all have accepted that an opening day defeat away from home was a distinct possibility. I genuinely expected there to be some positives to take though.

As i think has been mentioned already, i think this 'emporer's new clothes' thing we have about our academy players is the problem... the fact is that we don't have a squad of players capable of being competitive at this level.

The chronic lack of investment over the last couple of years is very telling, did it matter who the manager was(does anybody even remember?) at Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday when they fell away and got relegated. We have that feel about us now.

God i'm being a miserablist, im probably just talking hungover nonesense!

[Dave Clark Five]

N'Zogbia has blamed the previous manager for his crap performances last season. Nowhere to hide now, Charles.
Still not convinced by Bent, 'lack of service' or otherwise.
A good home win under our belt will do the world of good.
Roll on Saturday.

[CT]

It's going to take PL some time to clean up the mess left by those before him.

I've actually just read the last H&V from last season - We would have been mightily relieved then knowing we'd be in a position now where we have a good manager and some decent new signings.

I'm sure Paul knows where we need to strengthen.

[Villafirst]

It amazes me how little stick Lerner gets on these forums. He's the one who's appointed the managers in the last two years which has caused this situation. PL is a step in the right direction but he needs substantial funds to work with - how about the £35M in your back pocket Randy from the Young and Downing sales? What happened to the Proud History, Bright Future slogan and the master 5 year plan?

[Pete3206]

It amazes me how little stick Lerner gets on these forums. He's the one who's appointed the managers in the last two years which has caused this situation. PL is a step in the right direction but he needs substantial funds to work with - how about the £35M in your back pocket Randy from the Young and Downing sales? What happened to the Proud History, Bright Future slogan and the master 5 year plan?

All this has been said and more, ad nauseum.

[Matt Collins]

Lerner made several well documented and costly mistakes. But it's not fair to criticise him for a lack of investment. He's massively subsidised a club attempting to punch above its economic weight and we've since been taking pretty severe steps to remedy that. As a strategy, I think it's eminently criticisable. But it's not just to criticise a lack of investment. 

We get similar crowds and have had similar / less success than a club like Everton, who essentially need to make a net £5m per year profit on transfers every season.

[jeowje]

Economics in football appear to be a confusing thing nowadays... spending money eventually does guarantee success as Man City have proved, but even with 500 million or whatever it is that they have spent, they barely won the premier league. Footballing success maybe, but will they ever balance the books from it?

What level of investment is required to earn a releative degree of success- ie top six, as under MON- and what financial rewards are there for this? The money that he spent to achieve a more respectable level of (ultimate) failure just cannot be justified in a business sense.  It seems that the best strategy is to survive in the PL with the least expenditure possible- attempting anything more is just not realistic.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Plus, I actually like Lineker, Shearer, and Hanson.

Fair enough with Lineker and Shearer, but Hanson have done nothing of note since 'Mmm bop.'