Who Do You Blame/Who Are You Angry With?

[hilts_coolerking]

The board haven't covered themselves in glory at all since MON left really.

Quite.  O'Neill's departure came at the worst possible moment but what it didn't do was set us on an inescapable path to the bottom of the table.  It has been the decision-making at the top of the club that has taken us there.

[LeeB]

I'm not angry with anyone, I'd rather look forward to it being sorted out.

Which I think it is.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Rinder.

All that early success raised expectations too much.

[chippy]

1. RL = Should have kept giving MON the money as it was clearly working whether or not  a few players were bad. Fergie has signed crap down the years but he still gets money to spend

2. MON = Should not have left us a few days before the new season

3. RL = Appointing crap managers; GH and McLeish

4. The players = Have really under performed and aren't fit to wear the shirt.


Ia mainly blame RL overall though.  He has caused all the problems and events to occur.

[Clampy]

The time to start pointing fingers is if we do end up going down and that's a big if at the moment. At the moment, we're stuck in a bit of a rut. I don't think it's a crisis but we need it to stop it becoming one.

[ozzjim]

I am only "angry" with MON still, as he is a persuasive man that took a lot, with little regard for the long term.

I think Randy gets a massive amount of very unfair stick on here, he has IMO the club at heart and has poured in a lot of money. He got stung with MON, and I personally thought Houllier was actually an intelligent attempt at modernising the club that we were very unlucky as it went badly. Randy dug us out of that hole with money in January, after the debacle of the MON departure. I think GED getting ill totally threw the board, with Randy at a point following MON and still fighting him through the courts leaving a very bitter taste that he was at a real low with it all. Then that summer they did the one thing that they can be rightly lambasted for in appointing McLeish. It was an incredible decision, Martinez made sense to try and keep what GED was trying to implement going. Eck was simply never, ever going to work, why they did it we will never know, but it was awful. He did give him the whole of the Downing fee though to spend, and to most manager 20m would be a lot. The football atmosphere, attitude, everything was wrong.

Then he sacked him, so can be forgiven as he learned from his error, swiftly appointed the man that the vast majority of Villa fans desperately wanted on the final day of last season (I was not a fan, but strangely am now despite results) and gave him 23 million to rebuild a shattered squad.

Lambert for me should be stuck by, even if we go down. He is an intelligent manager, with an eye for a player. Long term I think he will be our Moyes, I think he will be well backed in January and if he can get 3-4 experienced, calm heads with quality into the squad, I think we will be a good side, and good to watch in the future. Now is a time to simply hang on in there for me.

[eastie]

The time to start pointing fingers is if we do end up going down and that's a big if at the moment. At the moment, we're stuck in a bit of a rut. I don't think it's a crisis but we need it to stop it becoming one.

Bit of a rut ? - 3 wins in 30 games is a bit more than that.

[hilts_coolerking]

I personally thought Houllier was actually an intelligent attempt at modernising the club that we were very unlucky as it went badly. Randy dug us out of that hole with money in January, after the debacle of the MON departure. I think GED getting ill totally threw the board,

You can't call that bad luck though.  It would be like signing Kieron Dyer and Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Owen and then claiming it's bad luck when they only play a handful of games.  If Randy hadn't foreseen that Houllier getting ill was a strong possibility then he's a fool.

[bobcat]

The decision to sign Heskey - When we signed him we'd just won 8 away games in a row playing 4-3-3 and we were 8 points clear of Arsenal in 4th place.

We the changed the system to accommodate him and it all fell apart. Coupled with the Moscow team selection incident meant that the O'Neill/Lerner honeymoon period was over.

The lack of managerial stability since has set us back 10 years.

[preston28]

Lerner is primarily to blame followed by Faulkner.

Those at the top have to carry the can when an orgnaisation is failing. Blaming past managers is senseless as they were appointed and allowed to operate as they did by their managers - i.e. Lerner and Faulkner.

[ChrissyPrice]

We tried the old policy of "speculate to accumulate" and we lost. Like Leeds.

MON must take a lot of the blame  because his second-wave of player purchses was very poor and his tactics didn't help. He was given the money to take us to the Champions League and he blew it.

From that point on Lerner at al have continued to do their splendid impression of a rabbit stuck in the glare of headlights.

[Grande Pablo]

I'm not angry with anyone, I'd rather look forward to it being sorted out.

Which I think it is.

My sentiments exactly.  Rome wasn't bult in a day.

[OzVilla]

I'm afraid it is Lerner's fault.  As the owner he hires, fires and controls the purse strings.  All of our problems have come because of poor decisions in those areas.

I'm not angry as I don't think he did these on purpose, he just didn't have the right people around him (another mistake).  Just feel let down.

[Clampy]

The time to start pointing fingers is if we do end up going down and that's a big if at the moment. At the moment, we're stuck in a bit of a rut. I don't think it's a crisis but we need it to stop it becoming one.

Bit of a rut ? - 3 wins in 30 games is a bit more than that.

What I mean is we're in a bit of a groundhog moment if you like. Unable to put a few wins together, hovering in the lower reaches of the league and still struggling with what's gone on in previous seasons.  We need a mid table finish and a bit of stabilty to kick us on.

[JUAN PABLO]

One thing that annoys me other than Amanda Holden is MON thinking he never spent a lot of money here .