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

[saunders_heroes]

He has made mistakes, but tonight I think he should stay. Who else do we suggest? The bloke has been let down by the owner, not his fault. He wanted Sissoko, seems a class act, but we couldnt pay the wages. Not his fault who we did get

But why not spend what little cash we had in January on a defender? That's what we needed the most.

[Rancid custard]

Lambert is clearly not going anywhere, and we haven't strengthened the defence which most thought was essential. So all he can do now is draft in an expert defensive coach because the bloke doing it now is clearly a load of shit. It's our only hope.

Any ideas who that could be?

Martin Laursen please.

Nail.on.head.

I'd settle for any decent centre half from recent past. Laursen, God, Mellberg, hell if it is't some kind of time distortion trick I seem to recall Portsmouth under 'Arry were pretty tight at the back when Tony Adams became his number 2. What's he up to these days?

[mike]

If we do stay up, will Lambert can any credit for it?

I think he'd have to, as every fucker has us down as it stands.

That doesn't make sense. Him being very slightly less shit than we thought doesn't make him any good. Only nearly getting us relegated, as opposed to actually getting us relegated would not be a mark of any kind of success. If you can tell me we stay up because of his tactics, team selection, motivational skills, organisation, or any other attribute, fine, but the mere fact he keeps us up when a lot of people thought he wouldn't puts him in the esteemed company of Mr A McLeish.

If he keeps us up, I'm sure along the way those skills you mention would be utillised.

But my point wax that merely keeping us up will not necessarily show that he has those skills to the degree I would expect in a manager of Aston Villa. To repeat myself, that is a level of performance achieved by TSM. To follow your argument he was ok?

[LeeB]

If we do stay up, will Lambert can any credit for it?

I think he'd have to, as every fucker has us down as it stands.

That doesn't make sense. Him being very slightly less shit than we thought doesn't make him any good. Only nearly getting us relegated, as opposed to actually getting us relegated would not be a mark of any kind of success. If you can tell me we stay up because of his tactics, team selection, motivational skills, organisation, or any other attribute, fine, but the mere fact he keeps us up when a lot of people thought he wouldn't puts him in the esteemed company of Mr A McLeish.

If he keeps us up, I'm sure along the way those skills you mention would be utillised.

But my point wax that merely keeping us up will not necessarily show that he has those skills to the degree I would expect in a manager of Aston Villa. To repeat myself, that is a level of performance achieved by TSM. To follow your argument he was ok?

On that basis maybe no, but given the circumstances en route I would say yes.

[TonyD]

He still gets my vote. I think we can stay up, especially with the firepower we have at the front. If we stay up and buy a few good players in the summer then next season will be very very promising indeed.

[villan from luton]

He has made mistakes, but tonight I think he should stay. Who else do we suggest? The bloke has been let down by the owner, not his fault. He wanted Sissoko, seems a class act, but we couldnt pay the wages. Not his fault who we did get

But why not spend what little cash we had in January on a defender? That's what we needed the most.

Such as who and please dont say Upson. He has been lleft high and dry by the owner, lets move on

[Drummond]

We clearly were after someone at the back, I seem to recall Lambert dropping hints about Lescott for a while at the beginning of the window until Man City said no way. He will have been trying, but then I guess he's a failure at that too.

[KevinGage]

Yep Allardyce from a purely practical point of view and continuity would have been a good selection at the time and no way would we have had a relegation scrap with that squad under him.

I'd have cried bitter, salty years if we had gone for the greatest manager Real Madrid never had then. I'm not crazy about the idea of Allardyce now, in all honesty.

In 2010 we had an opportunity to push the thing on, and a manager/coach with a decent profile  wasn't beyond us. 

Moyes was the favourite of many.  I suggested Laudrup even back then as an outside bet (though I was concerned that he didn't seem to have too much longevity at his previous clubs, despite enjoying a degree of success with most).

The likes of Koeman and Rijkaard expressed interest in the job.  The guy we went for did actually have a  good reputation in the game.   But he was past his best and had an air of someone winding his career down and going through the motions, reflecting on glory days of yesteryear.   I wanted to like GH, most of us probably did. He just made it so very very hard.

Fast forward two and a bit years and we're in a slightly different situation, to put it mildly.  Now -if we have any serious notions about staying in the top flight- it's about grinding out the 4/5 victories we need to stay up.  It is absolutely all about the short term.

Will Lambert be able to deliver that?  Based on the season so far, it seems unlikely.   It's not as if we're unlucky, drawing and losing games we should win.  It's the same basic errors occuring again and again. Plus, to me, this talk of longterm planning is overplayed anyway.  Not many clubs could ignore results as brutal as ours have been and fob it off, with the notion that we might (possibly) be a bit better at some unspecified point in the future.

[villan from luton]

We clearly were after someone at the back, I seem to recall Lambert dropping hints about Lescott for a while at the beginning of the window until Man City said no way. He will have been trying, but then I guess he's a failure at that too.

He may have wanted Lescott, maybe he didnt have the funds eh

[Toronto Villa]

I was listening a radio show about agents today. It shouldn't discounted how repulsive those people get especially during a very short transfer window. It's entirely possible we wanted other players but the combined transfer, sign on, salary and agent fees was just too much for our targets. We still should have been able to get someone in defence though despite that mind you. The players wouldn't all have been of Lescott quality.

[Dave Clark Five]

Looks like the gap is closing in the poll. Is this new votes or people changing their minds?

[Dave Clark Five]

Rob- yes they survived on the last day against wimbledon and had their worst ever start to the next  season , he lasted 10 months-

Walker quit Norwich in January 1994, following a long running feud with Chairman Robert Chase (mainly centring around Chase's habit of selling off the club's key players without consulting his manager first - for example Robert Fleck to Chelsea just after Walker's appointment), to become manager of Everton, with Everton having to pay substantial compensation to Norwich to secure his services.

] Everton made a disastrous start to the 1994/95 season, failing to win a single league game until November. With Everton bottom of the table and having made their worst ever start to a league season, Walker was sacked having spent just ten months in charge and recording only six league wins, leaving him with the worst record of any post-war Everton manager. Walker was nicknamed the 'Silver Fox' during his time at Goodison, and one of the more positive aspects of his reign was his decision to bring the controversial Rangers striker Duncan Ferguson to Everton on loan, a gamble which ultimately paid off after Walker's departure with Joe Royle signing the Scot on a permanent basis.
After Walker's dismissal, Everton went on that season to not only successfully avoid relegation but also win the FA Cup under Royle.

Eastipedia is always a good source of reference.

[rob_bridge]

Rob- yes they survived on the last day against wimbledon and had their worst ever start to the next  season , he lasted 10 months-

Walker quit Norwich in January 1994, following a long running feud with Chairman Robert Chase (mainly centring around Chase's habit of selling off the club's key players without consulting his manager first - for example Robert Fleck to Chelsea just after Walker's appointment), to become manager of Everton, with Everton having to pay substantial compensation to Norwich to secure his services.

] Everton made a disastrous start to the 1994/95 season, failing to win a single league game until November. With Everton bottom of the table and having made their worst ever start to a league season, Walker was sacked having spent just ten months in charge and recording only six league wins, leaving him with the worst record of any post-war Everton manager. Walker was nicknamed the 'Silver Fox' during his time at Goodison, and one of the more positive aspects of his reign was his decision to bring the controversial Rangers striker Duncan Ferguson to Everton on loan, a gamble which ultimately paid off after Walker's departure with Joe Royle signing the Scot on a permanent basis.
After Walker's dismissal, Everton went on that season to not only successfully avoid relegation but also win the FA Cup under Royle.

Eastipedia is always a good source of reference.

Still none the wiser as to whether they were better off for sacking who Kendall? in 93-94.

[eamonn]

The time to make the change was mid-month after the Southampton game. We still would have had the Newcastle game to come as well as the second leg of the Cup semi to put right. As has been mentioned, winning at Citeh and Norwich to get to the semi-final possibly, being generous, cancels out the subsequent embarassing knock-out by Bradford.

I'd just love to know what happened to the money earmarked to buy Dempsey. Apparently we would have got Benteke anyway. If there was more money there to spend in Jan, then the only reason I can see Lambert not going for more/better players is a stubborn belief in what he's got already. If it's true though, and Inspectors Gnasher and Eastie are correct; that negligence is reason enough for sacking.

[Greg N'Ash]

The time to make the change was mid-month after the Southampton game. We still would have had the Newcastle game to come as well as the second leg of the Cup semi to put right. As has been mentioned, winning at Citeh and Norwich to get to the semi-final possibly, being generous, cancels out the subsequent embarassing knock-out by Bradford.

I'd just love to know what happened to the money earmarked to buy Dempsey. Apparently we would have got Benteke anyway. If there was more money there to spend in Jan, then the only reason I can see Lambert not going for more/better players is a stubborn belief in what he's got already. If it's true though, and Inspectors Gnasher and Eastie are correct; that negligence is reason enough for sacking.

Heh. I don't claim to know anything. All i'm going on is what eastie's source told him, and that conflicts with what the manager has said, both on how much much was available and who he chose to spend some of it on. All that's certain is someone seems to be lying or as another forumer said "dangerous games appear to be being played"

I quite understand the rationale behind Lambchop not having a fortune to spend, and indeed not buying a defender if he couldn't find someone better than what we have. Where that argument falls down is, how expensive, or on what wages would someone have to be to be no better than the current mob? Lambchop's opinion may differ than ours on that, but if you look at who he did sign he was hardly shopping in Harrods, so he can find a very cheap Defensive midfielder, and the worlds oldest youth player on loan who are both better than what we've got in his opinion, but he can't find a bog standard defender? By his own standards of signings these are not expensive players, and certainly affordable in the budget he is alledged to have been given. So whether he has got a mental block about the defence or threw his toys out the pram when the club wouldn't sanction a big name, something's going on imo.

 I would say this constant peddling of the "we've got no money but i love Randy" line from the manager seems to seriously contradict what appeared simultaneously in about 3 or 4 newspaper reports a few weeks back, when the general opinion on here was the press had been tipped-off by the club that Lerner had sanctioned some spending. So either Lerner went back on his word and Eastie's source is wrong or lying, or Lambert chose not to spend all his budget