Lambert in or out? Poll reset with majority 'in', 7th May

[Chico Hamilton III]

Compared with having 'Arry Redknapp as an ambassador for the club moaning to the press about having no money??? Yes

who the fuck said they wanted Rednapp a manager???

[Malandro]

Geez i wonder sometimes, the problems left by MON are still crippling the club we have had three managers in quick succession that have all hit a brick wall,changing the manager yet again will solve nothing or do you expect Randy to be handing him a warchest of 30 million or so because that is what it will take. Wages are the big issue not the transfer price and what brilliant player is willing to come to us for 40.000 a week when he can get 60.000 somewhere else? Lambert bought well in the summer with the money availeable, you can't expect every player to be a hit especially in the market we are in. We have players that are not good enough and without money no manager can change that.

I just don't understand the blame that MON gets(regarding money). EVERY penny was authorised from above. 

He was caught short with full backs and some odd tactics during his time but overall he built a very good, competitive side.

He left us in the crap because of Randy's change of direction - surely it is very clear why he left now - our squad has been dismantled.

Randy should be the one getting ALL the abuse. He came here with his side kick promising the earth and has now decided it isn't worth it.

Fair play rules my arse. A rich kid that is bored with his toys.

Every peny wasn't spent in a wise way. We could see that. Even at the time. Hindsight doesn't need to tell you the cash spent on Heskey, Harewood etc was bad.

It really is unimportant who he bought and whether they were a success.  The crux is that Randy bought the club and decided to invest his own money (Or is it a club debt now?) He obviously realised at some point that he could not compete and so has more or less pulled the plug.

Or perhaps I am being to unfair to Randy, perhaps he just made a mistake. Did he think short term success and investment would lead to more outside investment and a self sufficient, successful club?

Personally I think he has treated us fans badly. The Krulak affair confirmed it to me - no matter what abuse the General took online, the majority of people who treated him with respect deserved an explanation.
Then again, his disappearance coincided with the tap being switched off.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, I had to collect a friend from Heathrow at 3am. So bushed.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Tactically poor at times however I agree with Robbo, Whats going to change under anyone else? We've been shit for 3 years under 3 different managers, Where do you draw the line?

[django]

I can't believe Houliier, McLeish and Lambert have done no training on set pieces but it's a consistent weakness. Easy to blame the managers/coaches. It it just seems like the players aren't any good to me.

Delph was probably our best player last night but just did what you would expect from a standard professional footballer.

If we sack lambert but the conditions with transfers and wages remain the same I think it wouldn't make much difference. It might give the players a lift if it was a manager with a redknapp style reputation, but we won't attract those managers under our current conditions.

[Malandro]

Tactically poor at times however I agree with Robbo, Whats going to change under anyone else? We've been shit for 3 years under 3 different managers, Where do you draw the line?

a hard one to call. His approach and style on one hand looked attractive but the manner of the defeats (size of defeat, lack of goals and terrible ball retention) is really alarming.
I wont be disappointed if he is sacked, but have zero faith in a new chap to be either any good or to be backed

[N'ZMAV]

Tough call for Lerner, if there is no cash for Lambert to spend, to keep us in the division, then I assume there is no cash for a new manager to spend to also try and keep us in the division. Especially once he's paid up Lamberts contract. Mess.

[pauliewalnuts]

Here's a good example of why we've become so utterly shit.

Villa v Blackburn, Carling Cup semi final, 20 Jan 2010

Guzan

Cuellar - Collins - Dunne - Warnock

Downing - Milner - Petrov - Young

Agbonlahor - Heskey

compare that with last night's team, and even allowing for the presence of Heskey, you can see the comparative lack of quality.

Lambert has to share his shoulder of the blame for this season, but the overall trend has been downwards for three years now. Selling the best players, replacing them with shit, or with kids who are clearly not up to the tast yet - that is going to end up in tears.

[jonzy85]

I can't believe Houliier, McLeish and Lambert have done no training on set pieces but it's a consistent weakness. Easy to blame the managers/coaches. It it just seems like the players aren't any good to me.

Lambert said last night we practice set pieces everyday.

[N'ZMAV]

I can't believe Houliier, McLeish and Lambert have done no training on set pieces but it's a consistent weakness. Easy to blame the managers/coaches. It it just seems like the players aren't any good to me.

Lambert said last night we practice set pieces everyday.

He isn't going to say "We don't bother to practice them"

[jonzy85]

Here's a good example of why we've become so utterly shit.

Villa v Blackburn, Carling Cup semi final, 20 Jan 2010

Guzan

Cuellar - Collins - Dunne - Warnock

Downing - Milner - Petrov - Young

Agbonlahor - Heskey

compare that with last night's team, and even allowing for the presence of Heskey, you can see the comparative lack of quality.

Lambert has to share his shoulder of the blame for this season, but the overall trend has been downwards for three years now. Selling the best players, replacing them with shit, or with kids who are clearly not up to the tast yet - that is going to end up in tears.

Made a very similar point the previous page. From that team Bent for Heskey is the only improvement made. The rest have all been replaced by inferior players or not replaced at all and the position is filled by a former youth player/reserve.

[Mac]

It's a catch 22 again.

There's no point in sacking him because there's nobody better (Ole Gunnar Solskjær FFS) and it would put us back to square one again.

Not convinced that Lerner would be prepared to do that again

Nobody better, how on earth do you come to that conclusion?  He's been beyond abysmal, I'd take just about any out-of-work manager ahead of Lambert.

Quite.  There's mountains of evidence to indicate that almost anybody would be better.

Whilst I agree, I think that only applies to the short term.  We clearly need someone big/good enough to build something long term, or in 12 months time we'll be in exactly the same position

[mrfuse]

Here's a good example of why we've become so utterly shit.

Villa v Blackburn, Carling Cup semi final, 20 Jan 2010

Guzan

Cuellar - Collins - Dunne - Warnock

Downing - Milner - Petrov - Young

Agbonlahor - Heskey

compare that with last night's team, and even allowing for the presence of Heskey, you can see the comparative lack of quality.

Lambert has to share his shoulder of the blame for this season, but the overall trend has been downwards for three years now. Selling the best players, replacing them with shit, or with kids who are clearly not up to the tast yet - that is going to end up in tears.

Agree about the Team line up, The only change between that team and the current one that I can see is Vlaar for either Dunne or Collins and Benteke for Heskey.

[paul_e]

If we look at the first XI that played quite regularly in MON's season:
Friedel
Young/Cuellar - Dunne - Collins - Warnock
Downing - Milner - Petrov - Young
Carew Gabby

Only Gabby and Dunne remain. Of course Warnock is there but deemed surplus to requirements.

Of the players that have been sold/released/ lost for other reasons, how many have been replaced with players approaching anything close to their calibre?

Bent is the obvious one (although it does beg the question why MON wasn't given that money in the summer he left, might have saved us a whole lot of trouble).
Vlaar on paper as a Dutch international should be up to it, but...
I had hopes N'Zogbia would push on to be our next Ashley Young, hasn't happened. Friedel for Given, would have been ok if it wasn't for Given's injury problems and loss of form since.

Essentially, we (Randy) have let the guts of a team go and aside from a one off splurge on Bent (which after the Milner, Young and Downing money, still left him with a nice little profit) he has instructed managers to make do with youngsters playing in the reserves.

That's not even getting into all the squad players that are gone, who may not have been world beaters, but could do a job when needed.

I'm afraid this is bullshit, the players have been replaced in a perfectly reasonable fashion, the problem is that the people making the replacements have all had different ideas on how they want to play the game.

Lets include Barry as well:

Friedel - replaced by Given, no one complained at the time.
Young - replaced by Hutton, agreed he's a crap replacement but that's a TSM decision, from a lerner point of view we replaced an international full back with an international full back.
Collins - replaced by Vlaar, no one complained at the time.
Barry - replaced in the squad with Downing allowing Milner to move infield.
Petrov - Harsh to include him but was replaced by KEA who many on here thought was going to be fantastic.
Downing - not replaced initially but Holman came in to fill the gap after a year, lots of people liked Holman early on.
Milner - replaced by Ireland, many thought we got the better of the deal at the time.
Young - replaced by Nzogbia, many people thought we'd got an upgrade.
Carew - replaced by Bent, unquestionably an upgrade

Squad filler has left and been replaced from the reserves I agree but that's just common sense, players like Beye, sidwell, etc being paid 40-50k to barely play doesn't make any sense, the academy players are perfectly capable of providing the 20minute cameos from the bench and having an impact.  The problems have come about because those academy players aren't being asked to do that, they're being asked to form the spine of the team because the senior players listed above have, pretty much, all failed to deliver as expected.

Lerner is guilty of not having a consistent plan for recruitment of managers, he is not guilty of allowing players to leave and go unreplaced as so many people suggest.  Every single one of the players marked in bold came to the club as an experienced international footballer.

[django]

Also the players in that team v blackburn fitted their roles. Cuellar might have been an unpopular choice for many at full back but you could see the logic in him playing.

Now we seem to have too many players who don't fit the roles they need to play, bannan in defensive midfield, but really him ireland and nzogbia are all best suited to the attacking midfield role. Probably Delphs best position too. Our midfielders generally are jack of all trades types who lack composure and decent deciscion making, a disaster if you are plYing without width. We've got 4 decent strikers, more than we can accommodate, but only one half decent winger in Nzogbia.

Our squad has been built by accident rather than design, a group of left overs that nobody else wants, a group of kids who happen to have graduated from the academy at a convenient time, and a glut of cheap gambles to plug the gaps.

It's left us with not only a dearth of quality but also a selection of Mis shaped pegs to go into the holes.

[olaftab]

How can anyone still say he's a good coach ?

Tactically woeful .

It is good coach who can win back to back promotions and finish mid table in his first season in the Prem League.