January Transfer Thread: Speculation, Lies, Absolute Cr*p and Bosman Rumours

[Concrete John]

It doesn't make sense as he took the financial hit on buying Bent when in a similar position two years ago?  Given that we'll lose Dunne and Warnock soon enough, it would also be a short term hit in terms of wages.

[eastie]

An apparent ITK on VT (yes I know.....) has stated that the two key targets (CH and Def MF) of Lambert are too expensive for the Board. They were relying on moving some of the remaining high earners on and there are no takers....
Lambert won't resign but make speak out over the fact that he isn't getting financially backed. Nothing to do with the teams performance but the need to get costs further reduced...

Ignoring the providence and reliability of the claim; it seems very detailed and completely improvable, but just to examine the point, to what are the board hoping to achieve?

The squad as it is threadbare, cheap on the main and devoid of quality, if you’re already cut to the bone, how can you cut further?

It suggests something has changed financially since Lambert took over and I cannot imagine what has.

I think the “ITK” is bollocks.

Maybe the something that's changed could be he's lost faith in the manager?  Just a thought.

Lamberts body language on Tuesday seemed a world away from how he was when he came here , his interviews afterwards seemed very downbeat too.

At the end of the day it's randys money at stake .

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah thinking about it, I'm wondering whether the ITK might just be full of shit. It wouldn't be consistent with our approach a couple of years ago, when we were in worse financial state.

[achilles]

An apparent ITK on VT (yes I know.....) has stated that the two key targets (CH and Def MF) of Lambert are too expensive for the Board. They were relying on moving some of the remaining high earners on and there are no takers....
Lambert won't resign but make speak out over the fact that he isn't getting financially backed. Nothing to do with the teams performance but the need to get costs further reduced...

Ignoring the providence and reliability of the claim; it seems very detailed and completely improvable, but just to examine the point, to what are the board hoping to achieve?

The squad as it is threadbare, cheap on the main and devoid of quality, if you’re already cut to the bone, how can you cut further?

It suggests something has changed financially since Lambert took over and I cannot imagine what has.

I think the “ITK” is bollocks.

Hopefully, yes!

[Jarpie]

That "ITK" says that he's proven to the admins of VT that he's a realdeal but I can't understand how that's possible, anyone can come up say that he hears things from someone working in Villa or at the Lerner's end.

I have hard time believing that 5 million for a player would be too much for the board, and that they wouldn't invest to stay in the PL since the club gets 25 million (or so) more tv-money than this season and we'd only have to pay their salary for rest of the season, and Dunne + Warnock are gone in the summer so their salaries for next season are freed.

[Ads]

You notice a lot of stories and rumours like that emerging in times when you're down as you'll get more people believing you.

Eastie, if Lerner lacked faith in him, then he'd have sacked him.

[eastie]

You notice a lot of stories and rumours like that emerging in times when you're down as you'll get more people believing you.

Eastie, if Lerner lacked faith in him, then he'd have sacked him.

Maybe he will If we get trounced on Saturday . It would then very much be a case of back me or sack me and by backing him we are in need of far more than £10m.

I would say to get the 3 or 4 players we need would cost £20m plus in the current market, which is still a lot less than we stand to lose if relegated.

[London Villan]

You notice a lot of stories and rumours like that emerging in times when you're down as you'll get more people believing you.

Eastie, if Lerner lacked faith in him, then he'd have sacked him.

At the very least I think he'll get until the Bradford game.

But as Faulkner said about McLeish, they weighed up sacking him with dozen games left or leaving it until the end of the season. They looked at the past history of all the sackings during the season and post season and the figures backed the decision to wait. I doubt anything has changed in twelve months.

Maybe he will If we get trounced on Saturday .

[claretandbeer]

Yeah thinking about it, I'm wondering whether the ITK might just be full of shit. It wouldn't be consistent with our approach a couple of years ago, when we were in worse financial state.

Took me ages to work out what lol meant,now I've finally worked out ITK means I talk krap.

[achilles]

You notice a lot of stories and rumours like that emerging in times when you're down as you'll get more people believing you.

Eastie, if Lerner lacked faith in him, then he'd have sacked him.

Maybe he will If we get trounced on Saturday . It would then very much be a case of back me or sack me and by backing him we are in need of far more than £10m.

I would say to get the 3 or 4 players we need would cost £20m plus in the current market.

If that happens I am not coming anywhere near this forum, probably won't be able to anyway as it will be in meltdown!

[Walmley_Villa]

I hope it is crap but we have no idea of our financial situation do we?

[Concrete John]

You notice a lot of stories and rumours like that emerging in times when you're down as you'll get more people believing you.

Eastie, if Lerner lacked faith in him, then he'd have sacked him.

Maybe he will If we get trounced on Saturday . It would then very much be a case of back me or sack me and by backing him we are in need of far more than £10m.

I would say to get the 3 or 4 players we need would cost £20m plus in the current market.

I think we could do some decent businessm with £10m.

Sissoko is quoted at 3.5m euros, so take that as around £3m then you have £7m for a CB.  That Norwegian CB talked about the other day could easily be bought for that.

[eastie]

You notice a lot of stories and rumours like that emerging in times when you're down as you'll get more people believing you.

Eastie, if Lerner lacked faith in him, then he'd have sacked him.

At the very least I think he'll get until the Bradford game.

But as Faulkner said about McLeish, they weighed up sacking him with dozen games left or leaving it until the end of the season. They looked at the past history of all the sackings during the season and post season and the figures backed the decision to wait. I doubt anything has changed in twelve months.

Maybe he will If we get trounced on Saturday .

To be honest if they wait 2 weeks the deadline is as good as over and there would be not much point , if they decide on a change the new man would need at least a couple of weeks to bring in his own players - there would be no point sacking a manager after the deadline .

[eamonn]

Who is on our board anyway? How many members, what are their names? British? American?

[NeilH]

Do you honestly think that the board would gamble with our Premier League status for the sake of the few high earners we have left? It would cost inordinately more, were we to be relegated.

Lerner and Faulkner, contrary to some theories can do basic maths.