Have the club accepted relegation?

[Merv]

You can't. It's pointless. He's rarely there, rarely accountable. It won't be RL who feels the heat, anyway. It'll be a young squad of players who are just about shot mentally, anyway.

[john e]

there is a hell of a lot of overeaction going on in this thread in my view

some of you guys have got us down 2 divisions before weve even been relegated out of the prem, where even as bad as weve been we are still above the drop spots

wheres the next point coming from i hear the cry,
 well in the last league game we had we picked up a point after going away to a top half league side where we played them of the pitch in the first half,
 Quality is not the problem, confidence is, as so many of our games this season have shown

if the players are all so rubbish and not fit for the prem league, how come if we go down loads of them will leave to play where.... in the prem league, thought they werent good enough ?

only the best will leave !  thought we didnt have any good players
in my view we have a lot of very good players, who are playing with no confidence and with a mixture of injuries, inexperience and bad luck we find ourselves in a battle for survival

the front two Benteke and Vieman are better than any other front partnership in the bottom half of the league, and some above to, the goalkeeer is solid, and we have the makings of some good players coming through, we just need a break
we went out of the cup to a lower league side, but we forget we made the semi final with some great performances to get there, and we werent the first Prem side to lose against Bradford, they might even go on and win the bloody thing

i'l be sticking with Randy and Lambert for now, the alternatives of RDM, Allardyce, Hughes etc do not thrill and to quote Lambert favourite saying
'i'l go with what we have thanks'

[stubbsyandy]

Well I refuse to accept relegation until it is certain.
Even though we may be run by spineless, inept and invisible idiots, we must give ourselves the best chance by doing the only thing we can do and get behind the team once again.
Time for protest at the end of the season whether we go down or not.

[David_Nab]

Well when we lost to Bolton last year they made a statement when the crowd turned ,so they do take notice.

[Apyadg]

we must give ourselves the best chance by doing the only thing we can do and get behind the team once again.

The crowd was fantastic on Tuesday. How'd that work out?

[achilles]

For a start Lambert can do something positive and re-instate Hutton and Warnock to the first team squad, even put them on the bench if you want but f**king do something POSITIVE, if not for the fans but for the players themselves!

[Mister E]

there is a hell of a lot of overeaction going on in this thread in my view

some of you guys have got us down 2 divisions before weve even been relegated out of the prem, where even as bad as weve been we are still above the drop spots

wheres the next point coming from i hear the cry,
 well in the last league game we had we picked up a point after going away to a top half league side where we played them of the pitch in the first half,
 Quality is not the problem, confidence is, as so many of our games this season have shown

if the players are all so rubbish and not fit for the prem league, how come if we go down loads of them will leave to play where.... in the prem league, thought they werent good enough ?

only the best will leave !  thought we didnt have any good players
in my view we have a lot of very good players, who are playing with no confidence and with a mixture of injuries, inexperience and bad luck we find ourselves in a battle for survival

the front two Benteke and Vieman are better than any other front partnership in the bottom half of the league, and some above to, the goalkeeer is solid, and we have the makings of some good players coming through, we just need a break
we went out of the cup to a lower league side, but we forget we made the semi final with some great performances to get there, and we werent the first Prem side to lose against Bradford, they might even go on and win the bloody thing

i'l be sticking with Randy and Lambert for now, the alternatives of RDM, Allardyce, Hughes etc do not thrill and to quote Lambert favourite saying
'i'l go with what we have thanks'

For me, it's not a case of turning my back on them, and I was a supporter of Lambert joining us. It's more that there is clearly no logic to the current situation: we've all made the point that spending £20m or so now to shore up this callow squad will secure EPL football and deliver a £60m per-annum return. This is the sort of investment that is difficult to argue against.
 
What RL seems to be forgetting is that relegation means a reduction in revenue and therefore a paring back of costs. And an exodus of the best players. All of which makes his asset less valuable for would-be buyers. Spending money to protect your assets and deliver a x3 benefit in the first year (i.e. £20m in transfer + fees, in return for the EPL TV bonus of £60m) seems like a no-brainer to me.

Am I being too simplistic, or has RL sussed out something that I haven't?

[midnite]

How do we protest against a chairman that's never bloody seen.

Aren't you forgetting he watches every game via a satellite link? ;-)

[Jon Crofts]

For a start Lambert can do something positive and re-instate Hutton and Warnock to the first team squad, even put them on the bench if you want but f**king do something POSITIVE, if not for the fans but for the players themselves!

Mutton's off to Majorca & Warnock is off to Leeds so fat chance.

[PaulWinch again]

For the comments about overreaction, at exactly what stage is it ok to react? I think once the manager is saying 'we're not spending money avoiding relegation, in case it doesn't work' when you're 4th bottom in the league. That is the right time to get fucking pissed off and depressed with the running of the club.

[Small Rodent]

As an aside, with all clubs getting £60m isn't this just going to inflate all asking prices for players? So the pecking order will not change much, but 2m players will cost 6m?

[achilles]

For a start Lambert can do something positive and re-instate Hutton and Warnock to the first team squad, even put them on the bench if you want but f**king do something POSITIVE, if not for the fans but for the players themselves!

Mutton's off to Majorca & Warnock is off to Leeds so fat chance.

Cheers, didn't realise, oh well might as well get rid of a few more while we are about it, won't need them where we are going!

[Concrete John]

As an aside, with all clubs getting £60m isn't this just going to inflate all asking prices for players? So the pecking order will not change much, but 2m players will cost 6m?

It may take a little time for it to ripple through, but that's exactly what I expect to happen.  And watch what happens to wages at the same time!

[markeeeebeeee2005]

Reading this has really riled me. I sent a link to my dad also a big Villa fan. We live pretty close to Paul Faulkner so I wanted to see what he thought about penning him a letter and poking it through his letter box. This was his response, which is hard to argue with:

'Yes I saw this last night and it is reported in the papers today. I don't think a letter will make any difference because the plan is:

1. Lock down on all expenditure so there will be no signings or loan players As soon as season finishes a fire sale of the big earners with no relegation clauses in their contracts i.e. Dunne, Given, Bent, Warnock, N'Zogbia, Hutton, Ireland Agbonlahor i.e. what Blues are trying to do now with Butland, Davies etc 
3. Get best prices for the other players who are or might be good enough for Premiership or another European League - Vlaar, Benteke and Weimann for certain and possibly Clark - though I don't rate Clark that highly
4. Don't sack the manager or the coaches - leave that to the next owner to decide and pay for  - see below
5. Try everything and anything to get somebody/anybody to buy the club asap once relegation confirmed - Lerner will be prepared to take a hit on his loans to the club just so he never has to come near the place again but he's got the problem that any prospective buyer will wait for all of the above to happen and then buy as cheap as possible and run it like a Notts Forest or Derby County - living on past glory whilst kicking around the Championship and Div 1 from year to year
6. Faulkener is a complete irrelevance to all of the above because his job is simply to execute what Lerner decides -and tells him to do  he has no authority to make any decisions at alll - AVFC is a private limited companyin which all the shares are owned by Randy.
7. In the meantime leave Lambert to fron tall the press and media with the rope around his neck waiting to walk to the trap door - just as they did with McLeish before him

So personally I wouldn't waste the ink on a letter to the tea boy.'

[john e]

there is a hell of a lot of overeaction going on in this thread in my view

some of you guys have got us down 2 divisions before weve even been relegated out of the prem, where even as bad as weve been we are still above the drop spots

wheres the next point coming from i hear the cry,
 well in the last league game we had we picked up a point after going away to a top half league side where we played them of the pitch in the first half,
 Quality is not the problem, confidence is, as so many of our games this season have shown

if the players are all so rubbish and not fit for the prem league, how come if we go down loads of them will leave to play where.... in the prem league, thought they werent good enough ?

only the best will leave !  thought we didnt have any good players
in my view we have a lot of very good players, who are playing with no confidence and with a mixture of injuries, inexperience and bad luck we find ourselves in a battle for survival

the front two Benteke and Vieman are better than any other front partnership in the bottom half of the league, and some above to, the goalkeeer is solid, and we have the makings of some good players coming through, we just need a break
we went out of the cup to a lower league side, but we forget we made the semi final with some great performances to get there, and we werent the first Prem side to lose against Bradford, they might even go on and win the bloody thing

i'l be sticking with Randy and Lambert for now, the alternatives of RDM, Allardyce, Hughes etc do not thrill and to quote Lambert favourite saying
'i'l go with what we have thanks'

For me, it's not a case of turning my back on them, and I was a supporter of Lambert joining us. It's more that there is clearly no logic to the current situation: we've all made the point that spending £20m or so now to shore up this callow squad will secure EPL football and deliver a £60m per-annum return. This is the sort of investment that is difficult to argue against.
 
What RL seems to be forgetting is that relegation means a reduction in revenue and therefore a paring back of costs. And an exodus of the best players. All of which makes his asset less valuable for would-be buyers. Spending money to protect your assets and deliver a x3 benefit in the first year (i.e. £20m in transfer + fees, in return for the EPL TV bonus of £60m) seems like a no-brainer to me.

Am I being too simplistic, or has RL sussed out something that I haven't?

i agree its a good argument and difficult to dismiss,
 but we are now paying for the sins of the past, Lerner has to take some blame as he is the owner, but he obviously feels he needs to get things under control and its going to be a bit painfull,
i think the club who's plan has the biggest chance of fianancial meltdown is QPR rather than Villa, if they go down it will be very difficult for them, i certainly would not want to be in there boots

the answer to are problems does not lie in bringing cheap rubbish back to the club like davies NRC etc
and loan players are generally on loan for a reason, they arnt performing for there current club, thats why they are not needed
we are very weak midfield, i would love to see someone brought in, but it doesnt look like that will happen,
 remember last time we went out and spent 20 mill on Bent,
 he now hangs around the club rarely playing picking up futunes and if we sold him would probably be looking at 8 mill at best, and whats more we have better strikers at the club who didnt cost anything like as much,
 admittedly Bent is credited with keeping us up, so maybe it was a worthwhile investment but maybe Lerner has had enough of that, and has decided to go another way