Who Do You Blame/Who Are You Angry With?

[Concrete John]

In many ways they're all partially to blame.  When an established PL club gets relegated, and for the record I don't think we will, then it's usually a combination of factors. 

I don't level too much criticism as Lambert yet.  Someone above mentioned his transfer strategy isn't paying off, but in many ways it was more of a financial necessity than it was a strategy.

What's more important is how we put it right, which i think is three key things:-
1.  The players getting further used to the manager's style of play.
2.  The kids, plus new foreigh signings, learning from the experience they're getting.
3.  Randy opening the cheque book a little in January.

I think all three will happen, hence not being too concerned just yet. 

[MoetVillan]

To be honest, im pretty fucked off with that linesman

[pauliewalnuts]

O'Neill was to blame for kicking off the crisis.

It then moved to Lerner and Faulkner, who reacted to it by making things much worse, with two piss poor appointments (one of which actually goes way beyond that) with the too-fast trimming of the wage bill with flogging and not replacing our best players,

You could also point the finger at them for allowing the wage bill to get to such a bad state in the first place.

Nobody was saying "oh, no, stop buying players, Martin" at the time, but we had no idea just how precarious the financial situation was at the time (and even given that, a few of us were pointing out the fact we must have been spunking cash away on non-utilised dross)

[oldtimernow]

We're all going to die....and the end of the world is nigh.

We could do with some serious chill pill dispensing on this site.....pity  I've retired I could make a fortune.

Mind you ask me again after the next 4 games and I may be near the front of the queue.

ps I have yet to find any evidence that Lerner actively wanted to sell his best players....they all wanted to move to bigger and 'better' things at other clubs and didn't give a diddly squat for the progress of our club...it was all about them and their grubby futures

[Jon Crofts]

Lerner - not for 2 poorly thought through appointments, not for allowing the transfer policy or wage structures of previous regimes but for having absolutely no plan whatsoever.

[ktvillan]

The buck stops with Lerner. Whatever mistakes O'Neill made re signings and wages, it was on Lerner's watch.  Subsequent appointments were a tad optimistic (Houllier, although I could see some logic in it) and then not even on nodding terms with sanity (TSM).   He showed for a decade at the Brown's that he was hopeless at running a sports club in a sport that he supposedly knew something about.  He has shown on many an occasion that neither he nor his chosen aides know more than the cubed root of bugger all about running a football club.   I suspect he isn't very bright.

[jeowje]

The rot seemed to set in 18-24 months before Doug sold up, we seemed to be a club in decline, no longer able/willing to compete financially with the biggest clubs. O'leary was lambasted for likening us to Charlton and Southampton, accused of playing down expectations and failing to acknowledge our rightful place in the scheme of things.

Then, out of nowhere, Lerner and O'Neill came rolling in, bringing along a tidal wave of optimism. It seemed that we would, finally, have some backing, some vision- speculate to acculmulate, modern commercial accumen, tap into new revenue streams, etc.

Despite the expenditure, we did not achieve enough- Lerner did not accumulate (ie by breaking the top four)- and now much as under Doug, we once again have to live within our means. Perhaps our means, our abilty to generate revenue, is simply not commensurate with competitive clubs in the PL any more, and Doug was only reflecting that in his stewardship of the finances of the club, as maybe is Lerner too now that he has been burned.

Maybe we were actually cut adrift from the top clubs quite some time ago, but masked it temporarily during the ealy MON years by being 'pumped full of steroids' with unsustainable levels of cash being injected.

It feels difficult to point the finger of blame on any one person to me, it just feels as though we are back to where we were under O'leary in early summer 2006- a club in terminal decline with the stench of relegation about us. God that all sounds misreable. Im feeling pretty down today, this is probably a very pessimistic piece!

[oldtimernow]

If Lerner is to blame it is for putting his trust in the MON project to bring us the goodies.

We bought it and it seems so did a fair few Sunderland supporters too.

And probably his next club's fans will too unless he's finally  twigged .

He also trusted others about later appointments, including the Villa crowd calling for Lambert at the end of last season

[richardhubbard]

Firmly in the hands of Lerner as owner and Faulkner as CEO

Lerner/Faulkner let MON spend crazy money on silly signing and should have seen signs of him flouncing off

They appointed Houiller and then the debacle of Mcdisaster

[L.Bowker]

O’Neil left us in whole lot of mess, he didn't have to leave as close to the start of the season as he did, he must have known he was off. Also he seemed to have a philosophy  of "buy enough players for big money, on big wages, someone  is bound to come good" really hurt us and his successors in terms of transfers.

I understand why people want to blame learner to an extent, but at the end of the day he trusted O’Neil to spend the money wisely but should have stepped in.

Why McLeish was appointed i will never understand, i was willing to give him a chance and i did but for many he was doomed from the outset! but he wasn't the right man, but can you blame him for not being a very good manager.

I don't think you can blame Lambert, he is re-building villa, and yes he is buying in experienced players but he is looking long term not looking for a quick fix.

Most of all i blame the ref. If decision went our way then it would be a whole different story!

[Risso]

The buck stops firmly with Lerner.  He's made a horrendous mess of the last three years to four years, and there's no sign of an end to our downward spiral.  That said, he must be well pissed off that Lambert is performing as badly as he is having given him £20m to spend in the summer.

[oldtimernow]

Don't like Lambert do we Risso...perhaps its time to revert to your old name?

[olaftab]

I blame Al Qaeda and Muslim moderates for not intervening  and sorting out the  fundamentalists.

[arnie66]

I would blame the MON strop/Lerner's tightening of the purse strings and appointment of TSM/Man Citys emergence as the combined issue.

I'm not angry in the slightest. I don't like our league position... but I'm going nowhere, VTID and all that. Enjoy the journey it will be fun.

This 100%

[hilts_coolerking]

Difficult to imagine anyone bears more responsibility than Lerner and Faulkner.

Lerner took 12 months too long in realising O'Neill was limited, to say nothing of his wasteful spending.  Then he appointed a manager who hadn't had a decent Premier League season for 10 years but who did have a history of serious health problems.  Fast forward 9 months and we're fighting relegation and the manager has had to retire due to serious health problems.  It doesn't take a genius to see that as a potential outcome, but Lerner apparently did not.

Then Lerner seemingly goes through a list of replacements before deciding that Alex McLeish was the answer.  But even then he had thought about Roberto Martinez - and the type of football he plays - before going for McLeish, and the type of football he plays.  In Lerner's method there didn't appear to be any common sense or even a clear idea of what he wanted.

And through all that period we've been selling our best players, and only partially reinvesting the money - often on inexperienced players - with the predictable effect on the overall quality of the squad.

It really does surprise me that there isn't more criticism of Lerner and Faulkner, especially on H&V