How depressing has it all become?

[NeilH]

Our squad is poor and you’re right that you can’t polish a turd. However, we can go down with a whimper as we would  have done under TSM, or we can try and rebuild from scratch under Lambert.
Right now it’s a bloody long road back to 6th spot, but I’m convinced that if we can survive this season that we will start to make the slow climb back up there.

[Clampy]

Bren'd's right. It's not depressing, it's more frustrating. We all expected a better start under Lambert and it has'nt happened.

[kippaxvilla2]

Lots of managers have tried to play football, and still been relegated.  The quality of the squad is really important, whether it's Stoke or Arsenal style football, and I just don't think ours is good enough.

I refer you to the right honourable Tony Mowbray.

[Risso]

Our squad is poor and you’re right that you can’t polish a turd. However, we can go down with a whimper as we would  have done under TSM, or we can try and rebuild from scratch under Lambert.
Right now it’s a bloody long road back to 6th spot, but I’m convinced that if we can survive this season that we will start to make the slow climb back up there.

Agree with that Neil, but it's the big "IF" we survive.  If we don't, I really think we'd be in the mire for a long time.

[PaulWinch again]

I'd say it's more frustrating than depressing at the momenet, as others have said. Last season was truly depressing, I still feel like there's hope this year.

[peter w]

The problem is that when you just don't know where your next win will come from and you see the team slipping down the league, that it is hard to be anything but 'depressed'.

[NeilH]

Our squad is poor and you’re right that you can’t polish a turd. However, we can go down with a whimper as we would  have done under TSM, or we can try and rebuild from scratch under Lambert.
Right now it’s a bloody long road back to 6th spot, but I’m convinced that if we can survive this season that we will start to make the slow climb back up there.

Agree with that Neil, but it's the big "IF" we survive.  If we don't, I really think we'd be in the mire for a long time.

Its a gamble, but I'd rather take the gamble than simply die slowly. If you buy into the risk we're taking its anything but depressing. Frustrating yes, depressing no. Under McLeish it would simply have been the latter.
And for the record if this experiment does go utterly tits up, I think we'd be in far better shape to come back stronger than we would be under many other managers.

[Risso]

Our squad is poor and you’re right that you can’t polish a turd. However, we can go down with a whimper as we would  have done under TSM, or we can try and rebuild from scratch under Lambert.
Right now it’s a bloody long road back to 6th spot, but I’m convinced that if we can survive this season that we will start to make the slow climb back up there.

Agree with that Neil, but it's the big "IF" we survive.  If we don't, I really think we'd be in the mire for a long time.

Its a gamble, but I'd rather take the gamble than simply die slowly. If you buy into the risk we're taking its anything but depressing. Frustrating yes, depressing no. Under McLeish it would simply have been the latter.
And for the record if this experiment does go utterly tits up, I think we'd be in far better shape to come back stronger than we would be under many other managers.

If McLeish could keep us up, then if Lambert takes us down with the same squad and having added £20m of players to it, I wouldn't give him the chance personally.

[saunders_heroes]

Our squad is poor and you’re right that you can’t polish a turd. However, we can go down with a whimper as we would  have done under TSM, or we can try and rebuild from scratch under Lambert.
Right now it’s a bloody long road back to 6th spot, but I’m convinced that if we can survive this season that we will start to make the slow climb back up there.

Agree with that Neil, but it's the big "IF" we survive.  If we don't, I really think we'd be in the mire for a long time.

Its a gamble, but I'd rather take the gamble than simply die slowly. If you buy into the risk we're taking its anything but depressing. Frustrating yes, depressing no. Under McLeish it would simply have been the latter.
And for the record if this experiment does go utterly tits up, I think we'd be in far better shape to come back stronger than we would be under many other managers.

If McLeish could keep us up, then if Lambert takes us down with the same squad and having added £20m of players to it, I wouldn't give him the chance personally.

Neither would I. He's bought too many lower league players who just haven't performed because quite frankly they're not good enough for the PL.
saying that though, we'll continue to unimpress until Lerner realises that have to invest in top players to perform in the top division. That means paying PL wages not lower league wages. His continuing cutbacks will eventually cost us our Premier League status.

[oldtimernow]

 When I read the initial post I look to the number of postings made.

I compare what long term posters think and take their comments much more seriously, including Risso's  ,sometimes I think Journos join in looking to promote disharmony and discord to enhance their copy?

Things may not be currently as we would like them to be but let's not throw away our optimism so early on.

[N'ZMAV]

Surely our squad this year is no worse than Norwich's last year. It will come right.

[not3bad]

The problem is that when you just don't know where your next win will come from and you see the team slipping down the league, that it is hard to be anything but 'depressed'.

The added thorn in the side at the minute is when we get a bad result you're prone to get a vision of Robbie Savage's smug face.

[paul_e]

Our squad is poor and you’re right that you can’t polish a turd. However, we can go down with a whimper as we would  have done under TSM, or we can try and rebuild from scratch under Lambert.
Right now it’s a bloody long road back to 6th spot, but I’m convinced that if we can survive this season that we will start to make the slow climb back up there.

Agree with that Neil, but it's the big "IF" we survive.  If we don't, I really think we'd be in the mire for a long time.

Its a gamble, but I'd rather take the gamble than simply die slowly. If you buy into the risk we're taking its anything but depressing. Frustrating yes, depressing no. Under McLeish it would simply have been the latter.
And for the record if this experiment does go utterly tits up, I think we'd be in far better shape to come back stronger than we would be under many other managers.

If McLeish could keep us up, then if Lambert takes us down with the same squad and having added £20m of players to it, I wouldn't give him the chance personally.

Neither would I. He's bought too many lower league players who just haven't performed because quite frankly they're not good enough for the PL.
saying that though, we'll continue to unimpress until Lerner realises that have to invest in top players to perform in the top division. That means paying PL wages not lower league wages. His continuing cutbacks will eventually cost us our Premier League status.

Far far too early to cast a judgement on the players who've come in this summer.

Lowton looks good enough for this level, as do, in my opinion, Vlaar, KEA, Benteke and Holman.  Bennett needs time with the squad (he's similar to Lowton but without a summer at the club) and Westwood and Bowery can't be judged either way yet.

I firmly believe the ability of the players who've come in isn't the problem, we're just an inexperienced squad with 2 options to get that experience:

1.  We buy players who been in and around the premier league for a while, with relatively high fees and wages.
2.  We stick to our guns and trust that the talent will shine through sooner rather than later.

I choose 2 as 1 is what we did under MoN to start the whole mess off.

I'd prefer something in the middle though.

[johnc]

This season: stay up
Next season: kick on

That's the plan.

I'm sure that's not what Lerner was hoping for when he appointed Lambert and gave him £20m to spend.

What did he think he was going to get for 20M in this day and age? Champions League?

Well, we are talking about Lerner, so who knows?  But I'm sure that having got rid of McLeish who kept us up, that he didn't expect to appoint a supposedly better manager and give him £20m and then see results get even worse.  Some of the perfomances so far have been just as bad as anything last year, eg against Everton, Southampton and West ham.

Lerner and Faulkner were determined to reshape the club after making the mistake on McLeish.  His tenure was untenable and they knew it. There is no denying that up to now the results have not gone with us, but you cannot say that the football is not better. At least Lambert has a plan and you can see it. Had the status quo been maintained, we’d be just where we are and we could genuinely complain about how depressing it is.
As it stands, it’s not going to plan right now, but I agreed with the Lambert gamble when it was made and still believe in it now. This is going to be a really difficult season and we might go down, however, if we don’t we will recover and be back.
I’m convinced of it, as that's just what this club does.

I still think we will be OK. Mid tablish. Lambert has bought a lot of untried and untested players. It is going to take a few months to see whether they are up to it or not. A win on Saturday is becoming more and more important. We need to start putting some points up on the board. I do honestly believe that we are not quite getting the rub of the green....but then again I am a villa fan, hope springs eternal

[not3bad]

Far far too early to cast a judgement on the players who've come in this summer.

Lowton looks good enough for this level, as do, in my opinion, Vlaar, KEA, Benteke and Holman.  Bennett needs time with the squad (he's similar to Lowton but without a summer at the club) and Westwood and Bowery can't be judged either way yet.

I firmly believe the ability of the players who've come in isn't the problem, we're just an inexperienced squad with 2 options to get that experience:

1.  We buy players who been in and around the premier league for a while, with relatively high fees and wages.
2.  We stick to our guns and trust that the talent will shine through sooner rather than later.

I choose 2 as 1 is what we did under MoN to start the whole mess off.

I'd prefer something in the middle though.

Agree 100%.