Have the club accepted relegation?

[Rip Van We Go Again]

So Wanker won't sanction spending and has no qualms about us going down?

Great.

[Ross]

On this reasoning I think it's perfectly plausible that the club will be ready to sell to gut the wage bill. I can see Bent going this month now, someone will test us with a £8m bid or similar and they'll bite.

[Jarpie]

The only reason I can think for not spending is that Lerner & Faulker doesn't believe Lambert can keep us up even if we spend but can't sack him either so they are hoping that the fans will turn against Lambert and they are trying to force him to resign.

Remember all the PR bullshit last summer after hiring Lambert how things will be much better this season and they'll fix the problems they had? I can bet on that Lerner and Faulkner doesn't want to admit that they got it wrong with Lambert and lose their face so now they are trying to spin things that it's impossible to spend on january due elavated fees and wages.

Now I actually wish that some rich arab would buy Villa, put actual competent football people in charge and give them enough money to get us promoted next season.

[Ross]

Taking a step back, it is not implausible quotes are made to sound worse than they are by the press. This is going to big news, so even villa would surely deny it if it were not quite right

Secondly, there may be some sense in not doing a QPR who will be f****d if they go down, but you simply don't say it to the press.  Madness for morale around the club.

My only hope is that PL is trying to play it very cool after some clubs and players are obviously taking the piss. Surely if there was no cash available, we wouldn't have even started talking?

[PeterWithe]

How about this for a zany idea, we just borrow someone elses players till the end of the season and send them back if we get relegated.

[Legion]

Can we have Messi, van Persie...

[Holte132]

I haven't read all of this thread, so apologies if someone else has mentioned this:

There is an article on this very subject in my paper today, but it includes some sentences they seem to have been ignored here.

a. "I don't want to sit here and think 'we keep getting beat but I'm safe'. I worry like hell about things. I still feel like c... ."

b. "I don't go home and think 'that's all right, that's great' and switch off. You want to knock someone's pan in. I always used to blame myself as a footballer and think about what I could do better. As a manager, it's tenfold that."

c. "We have to fight like hell. Relegation? I'm not going to let that happen."

That, to me, doesn't sound like a manager who has accepted that we are going down.

[Legion]

"How are you going to stop it then, Paul?"

[Villafirst]

What's Mr Woodhall's take on this? He's a Lerner fan...

[Steve kirk]

I gave up a while back regarding us signing anyone. It's over, sad days for our great club.

[N'ZMAV]

I'm so depressed.

[Jimbo]

Remember when the General first arrived, saying that one of the main things the new regime wanted to restore was hope. I don't think any of us could have imagined that 7 years down the line it would be the hope that we don't get relegated. And for many of us, fans and club alike it seems, that hope has all but evaporated.

[Richard E]

This would make sense of suggestions that the goalposts have shifted in terms of what finance Lambert was given to believe was going to be available in this window. When it looked like we were on a roll before the Chelsea debacle the powers that be may have thought it was worth investing but since then they have decided that there is no point?

Lame.

[villasjf]

How about this for a zany idea, we just borrow someone elses players till the end of the season and send them back if we get relegated.

We would probably go for Pires and a spurs player with a career threatening injury.

[Irish villain]

Lerner and Faulkner have got away so lightly.

I can't believe they have been allowed to do this with barely a whimper from the fans.