Thinking The Unthinkable

[Risso]

I know things are looking bleak but some seem to thrive when we lose..

That sort of point just isn't worth debating.

[Chris Smith]

We're in a weird position at the moment. It's highly unusual for an established PL team to have to completely rebuild in the way that we have, even promoted teams have had time to develop understandings on the pitch and establish a way of playing. There have been encouraging signs in recent weeks that the players are getting used to each other and this league, but for a team in our position to go to Man City and get the kind of luck we did is only going to produce one outcome.

I think we've shown enough to suggest that when competing on a more level paying field we can hold our own and it will be those games from now on that will determine our season.

[Mister E]

Some Villa fans are insufferable cry babies when the chips are down.
 
Did the season finish yesterday? Have Villa been relegated? Do we just throw the towel in now?

Mayday! Mayday!

Whilst i'm not sure cry babies is the word, the Randy Out brigade tend to re-surface after a few defeats.

It's not so much about Randy Out. It's more the absence of discernible strategy that's very disconcerting: we need strong leadership and some indication that there's method i nthe madness. At the moment, we are all thrashing around trying to second-guess what our future holds.
Is Lambert pursuing an agreed approach, using youngsters and hoping that they mature through the season sufficiently enough to keep us up? Does RL have a long-term plan? Or is everyone operating outside of any agreed plan and RL has simply "shut up shop"?

The lack of answers to questions like these is what is spooking me. 'Cos in the end, the answers determine what's going on pitch-wise.

[Irish villain]

I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if the point has been made already.

In my view, the mistake was Houllier. That was the beginning of the rot. If we had got that appointment right we could be playing regular Champions League football now. If we had got in a hungry manager with good contacts on the continent we could have got more from our existing players and found a few talents on the continent. MON had reached the end of the road and the club had reached a crossroads but crucially we had the prestige to get in a top manager to take us to the next level and more prizemoney etc. Instead of setting the 'PL experience and no job' criteria we should have drawn up a list of managers and chased them. We ended up appointing somebody who never seemed to be that hungry for the job ad thought anything from 7th down was about our place in English football. That season was real struggle despite the 9th place finish. Up until April it looked very dangerous for us.  It was the appointment of Houllier that sowed the seeds of doubt as to the footballing nous of the club. It was just such a bad fit and evey other week there was a new PR disaster as the club lost its way somewhat. Houllier was never a long-term appointment, it was just ridiculous.

Once he went and we very publicly got rejected by Martinez it was clear that we no longer had the prestige that we had the previous year. It was also clear that there would be no more big spending (Houllier got £30m to spend) so we were never going to get a Grade A manager. Our confidence in the board and the future of the club were rocked completely by the appointment of TSM. As my friend sais last night, maybe  McLeish did a good job keeping 'you lot up'? Maybe he did.

But our plight is the fault of terrible miss-management at the top. If we stay up (i still think we will) it will be a long hard road back to mid-table security and from there to anything above eight.

Thank you Randy.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I know things are looking bleak but some seem to thrive when we lose..

That sort of point just isn't worth debating.

Agree. Quite insulting actually.

[Irish villain]

I'm sick of the same posters who keep saying the football  is worse.. you know who you are! you never say anything positive. Lambert and the lads need support not sniping. Some of you seem to spend 24 hours on a keyboard  'supporting' . Yeah things don't look good from a far but most can see we play better football at least.

All the support in the world won't be enough to keep us up. What has the club given us to cheer about? Look at the support they get: Fulham away, Sunderland away, against United last week. Supporters need something in return for spending hard earned cash and turning up in the numbers they do.

[LeeB]

I know things are looking bleak but some seem to thrive when we lose..

That sort of point just isn't worth debating.

Agree. Quite insulting actually.

You've gone soft, you pair.

There has been the odd poster who only ever surfaces when times are bleak.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I know things are looking bleak but some seem to thrive when we lose..

That sort of point just isn't worth debating.

Agree. Quite insulting actually.

You've gone soft, you pair.

There has been the odd poster who only ever surfaces when times are bleak.

Who?

Don't tell me Gregnash, he doesn't count as he's a wild card on  a wind up.

I do find the suggestion of 'thriving when we lose' insulting.
I want us to be winners and nothing makes me happier when we're doing that (at least from what I can remember)

[martin o`who??]

The current Squad plainly isnt good enough or we wouldnt be where we are, if Randy doesnt splash some cash in january, i think we may have to bear the unbearable, and judging by my text inbox last night a by 4:55, unbearable is exactly what it would be.

[Monty]

We're in a weird position at the moment. It's highly unusual for an established PL team to have to completely rebuild in the way that we have, even promoted teams have had time to develop understandings on the pitch and establish a way of playing. There have been encouraging signs in recent weeks that the players are getting used to each other and this league, but for a team in our position to go to Man City and get the kind of luck we did is only going to produce one outcome.

I think we've shown enough to suggest that when competing on a more level paying field we can hold our own and it will be those games from now on that will determine our season.

Agreed 100%.

[Risso]

Other than the bollocks offside decision yesterday, we've competed on a level playing field all season, and have won two games.  In two of the defeats we were absolutely torn apart by Everton and Southampton.  We've played a third of the season now, are in the bottom three and have scored a mere ten goals and have a minus 12 goal difference, so I think it's rather clear that we haven't been holding our own.  There has been the odd decent performance, but no team ever gets relegated without playing well and winning a few games, so that's hardly any comfort.

[Irish villain]

Other than the bollocks offside decision yesterday, we've competed on a level playing field all season, and have won two games.  In two of the defeats we were absolutely torn apart by Everton and Southampton.  We've played a third of the season now, are in the bottom three and have scored a mere ten goals and have a minus 12 goal difference, so I think it's rather clear that we haven't been holding our own.  There has been the odd decent performance, but no team ever gets relegated without playing well and winning a few games, so that's hardly any comfort.

Do you think we will go down? I am 50:50, I think January could save us if we manage to get to January on 19+ points.

[MarkM]

Other than the bollocks offside decision yesterday, we've competed on a level playing field all season, and have won two games.  In two of the defeats we were absolutely torn apart by Everton and Southampton.  We've played a third of the season now, are in the bottom three and have scored a mere ten goals and have a minus 12 goal difference, so I think it's rather clear that we haven't been holding our own.  There has been the odd decent performance, but no team ever gets relegated without playing well and winning a few games, so that's hardly any comfort.

Agreed.

I remember we beat West Ham really well during our relegation season, the headline on the press was "it's vintage claret!"

We went down not long after that!

[Eigentor]

Other than the bollocks offside decision yesterday, we've competed on a level playing field all season, and have won two games.  In two of the defeats we were absolutely torn apart by Everton and Southampton.  We've played a third of the season now, are in the bottom three and have scored a mere ten goals and have a minus 12 goal difference, so I think it's rather clear that we haven't been holding our own.  There has been the odd decent performance, but no team ever gets relegated without playing well and winning a few games, so that's hardly any comfort.

Obviously the status after 12 matches is relegation form, as we are in the relegation zone. The question is whether we're progressing. In my opinion, we are, slightly. The start of the season was pretty abysmal. But lately, against Sunderland and Man Utd, our performances have been more encouraging. As stated earlier, the matches against Reading, QPR and Stoke will be telling. At that point, Lambert should have had enough time to find his best team, and the opposition will be of the kind where we'll need points, not just progress.

[andyh]

Some Villa fans are insufferable cry babies when the chips are down.
 
Did the season finish yesterday? Have Villa been relegated? Do we just throw the towel in now?

Mayday! Mayday!

No, you are right, the season didn't end yesterday.
Nor does it start after we have played Arsenal, as some seem to believe......."just get these few tough games out of the way and we'll be ok...etc etc".
We are already down amongst the dead men, I'm struggling to see how we wil get away from them.