Lerner backs Villa boss Lambert

[Drummond]

I think he's just saying what everyone else has for a while. We've spent a shedload of cash to get precisely nowhere. We're probably at the bottom of  a value for money table.

Especially this season.  £23m to be much worse than McLeish, jesus h christ.

At this point, yes. However, McLeish had started to drop like a stone right about now.....

[Rancid custard]

I'm sorry, it doesn't even come across as if it was written by someone who is supposed to be a fan. No passion or emotion in it. The final paragraph starts with 'On a personal note...' but what exactly was personal about it? It sounded as formal as the rest of the statement. It sounds no different to a statement that would be released by someone like McDonalds if they were found guilty of food poisoning. It is just a damage limitation exercise with Lerner knowing that a loss against Newcastle will mean the he will permenantly lose the vast majority of fans. This is just an attempt to nip some of this unrest in the bud. Well Mr Lerner, you may subdue some with this hollow statement, but you don't fool me!

What do you want - an ending of SOTC? Of course it's formal; it's a professional business statement. It's not a Facebook status.

To be fair, the end of SOTC was really really depressing.

[villa `cross the mersey]

I stopped believing when I got to this bit:

""It has been rewarding at times this season although certainly frustrating as well, particularly recently"

Rewarding? when exactly?

Frustrating? Losing 8 -0, losing at home to Southampton and Wigan, then being dumped out of two cups by lower league opposition - thats just frustrating? Lerner and his muppet or puppet are spouting so much bollocks its untrue.

Lambert is another failure in the long list of failures our owner has presided over.

I really fail to see how buying a clutch of players "who are not yet ready for the Premier League" and playing them to the detriment of their progression is helping the club or the players concerned.

A few on here are being taken in by the rhetoric of "buying young hungry players for the future" rubbish - unless we loan or buy experienced Premiership players over the next few days there will be no Bright Future - the ship will have sailed Mr Lerner.

[neo_Villan]

It wouldn't have done any harm In all seriousness though, after waiting so long to even hear from the owner of the club, I expected more then the usual vote of confidence guff. Firsty, I expected an admission of just how bad the current situation is. Then I expected a clear plan outlined as to how we can turn it around. What did we learn from the statement? We are keeping the same clueless manager who has presided over the worst 5 weeks in a generation (if not in our entire history!) and he may be backed with a couple of deadline day signings which will be too little, too late. Lerner is just playing Russian Roulette with our top-flight status and that is quite simply unacceptable. A little honesty wouldn't go amiss either. 'Players have been discussed but nothing has materialised.' Do they expect us to swallow that whole? Lambert may be useless but he knows his way around the market. I don't believe for a second he wouldn't have been able to pull at least one deal off by now if he had money. I think we have gone back to the sell-to-buy policy (remember Vlaar being messed around until we had sold Collins?) and they expected Bent to have gone by now. Some people seem to be suggesting that we should be grateful that he has released this statement. But our gripe is he doesn't communicate enough. This one-off statement doesn't change that.

You wanted them to say things are as bad as you think they are, then sack the manager and sign new players? Then because this didn't happen they're telling fibs. Still, as you said earlier and while we're quoting eighties musical icons, there ain't no fooling you.

As bad as I think they are?! I don't think you will find anybody who would claim our predicament is anything other then dire. As for the manager, he should have been backed or sacked. If Lerner believes in him so strongly, he should have given him the funding needed at the beginning of the window. Instead, Lambert has been left in limbo really. And yes they are lying. When Lambert says in an interview a while ago that he will strengthen in January and now he says he doesn't think there will be any signings, then clearly he doesn't have any funding. When we are into the last few days of the window and we haven't so much as bid for anyone, then again it is clear there is no funding. As you rightly point out- there is no fooling me. 

[Drummond]

Beating Liverpool 1-3, Man City 2-4, Norwich........ They were all rewarding, unless your wants are becoming too high.

Reaching a Cup Semi, that was rewarding (until we got there).

[Drummond]

This is the league in 2010/11 compared with this season.

We've less points, less wins and worse GD, but, when you compare, we're further from the foot this season, it's similarly as close, yet the doom and gloom that consumes many didn't happen then. Why would that be, relatively we're probably better off, perhaps that's why he's getting support from the owner.


POS      LP   CLUB                            P   W   D   L   GF   GA   GD   PTS
15      (15)   West Bromwich Albion   23   7   4   12   29   43   -14   25
16      (16)   Aston Villa                   23   6   7   10   25   39   -14   25
17      (17)   Birmingham City           22   4   11   7   21   31   -10   23
18      (18)   Wigan Athletic                   23   4   10   9   19   37   -18   22
19      (19)   Wolves                          23   6   3   14   24   41   -17   21
20      (20)   West Ham United           24   4   9   11   24   43   -19   21

15      (15)   Southampton                   23   5   8   10   30   40   -10   23
16      (16)   Newcastle United           23   5   6   12   28   41   -13   21
17      (17)   Aston Villa                   23   4   8   11   19   44   -25   20
18      (18)   Reading                           23   4   7   12   28   43   -15   19
19      (19)   Wigan Athletic                   23   5   4   14   25   43   -18   19
20      (20)   Queens Park Rangers   23   2   9   12   18   37   -19   15
POS      LP    CLUB                            P   W   D   L   GF   GA   GD   PTS

[ciggiesnbeer]

I appreciate Lerners comments. They answer a lot of my questions and seem crystal clear to me. I still think we are going down but his comments do reassure me about his commitment to the club and lambert.

Lets hope it pays off.

[tomd2103]

Beating Liverpool 1-3, Man City (Reserves) 2-4, Norwich........ They were all rewarding, unless your wants are becoming too high.

Reaching a Cup Semi, that was rewarding (until we got there).

Fixed.

[Monty]

But in 10/11 it was clearly a mad false position whereas this time we thoroughly deserve it. 10/11 for us was like Newcastle this season - nobody seriously expects Cabaye, Sissoko etc to go down, just like Young, Downing et al weren't going down - whereas we look absolutely terrible this time around, and the clubs below us look like they're hitting form just as we're dropping like a stone.

[Monty]

I appreciate Lerners comments. They answer a lot of my questions and seem crystal clear to me. I still think we are going down but his comments do reassure me about his commitment to the club and lambert.

Lets hope it pays off.

No owner who is willing to let Aston Villa get relegated has my confidence.

[eastie]

Nurseys interesting take -

Villa owner Randy Lerner continues to stand by Paul Lambert but fans are starting to rapidly lose faith in their boss.

Lambert’s reign is certainly not going according to plan following Tuesday night’s embarrassing Capital One Cup semi-final exit to League Two Bradford.

It was humiliating, depressing and worrying for the future of Villa.

I personally remain a Lambert admirer.

I saw how he turned around my boyhood club Norwich City from a mess in League One.

You certainly don’t become a bad manager in the space of six months.

He was successful for three successive seasons as he enjoyed back-to-back promotions and then kept the Canaries in the top-flight.

Lambert and his side acquitted themselves very well at every fresh challenge and Villa looked to have snapped up one of the brightest managerial talents around last summer.

But the supporters who acclaimed Lambert’s appointment have a rather different view now.

And I must admit the characteristics that made Norwich so successful under Lambert are hard to spot right now at Villa.

At Norwich, Lambert’s side won promotion to the Premier League with an incredible number of dramatic late goals.

But this Villa side seem more likely to concede a late goal than score.

Lambert’s Canaries had indefatigable energy and a will to win which kept them going until the final whistle.



But against both West Brom and Bradford, in crunch games, Villa have badly lost their way in the second half.

At Carrow Road, when Lambert’s side’s were losing, he would often show his gamblers’ streak by making a double or even triple substitution.

But his same methods just don’t seem to be working at Villa.

His subs against Bradford – throwing Darren Bent and Andreas Weimann up front alongside Gabriel Agbonlahor and Cristian Benteke – arguably backfired.

Bradford manager Phil Parkinson readily admitted post-match it just created more space for them to exploit.

Norwich players I spoke to under Lambert paid tribute to his motivational skills.

And just last weekend Grant Holt tweeted he was confident Villa would survive under Lambert.

But most - and this applied under Gerard Houllier and Alex McLeish previously too - of Villa's players are under-achieving and struggling for consistency.

I certainly don’t remember Norwich conceding numerous goals from set-pieces under Lambert like this Villa side.

What the Canaries had under Lambert were determined, decent characters in the dressing room like Holt, John Ruddy and Russell Martin.

They were grounded, likeable individuals who had worked their way up the leagues the hard way, were determined to make the most of every opportunity and were fighters when the going got tough.

And that’s my biggest concern now as Villa face a tense relegation run-in.

I do not doubt Lambert’s own bottle or qualities, but that of the players.



Playing well for 45 minutes like against West Brom or Bradford is not enough.

They seem to do well when the team is playing confidently at the start of games, but when they need to dig out a result some are more than likely to go missing.

It is very worrying ahead of next Tuesday’s vital Premier League home game with Newcastle.

Just staying up is now the only thing that matters for Villa.

They have avoided the drop the last two seasons but perhaps it will be third time unlucky?

Villa certainly seem to be a massive container-ship of mediocrity heading towards the rocks.

The club have been drifting for two seasons now trying to stay afloat in choppy waters amid a new financial policy.

But at what cost? For a relegation shipwreck may leave Villa marooned in the Championship.

[Apyadg]

This is the league in 2010/11 compared with this season.

We've less points, less wins and worse GD, but, when you compare, we're further from the foot this season, it's similarly as close, yet the doom and gloom that consumes many didn't happen then. Why would that be, relatively we're probably better off, perhaps that's why he's getting support from the owner.

I find it bizarre that you consider us to be relatively better off, just because we're a point further away from rock bottom. The number of points we are from 20th is irrelevant, the number of points and relative position to 18th is the only thing that matters. In this respect, and every other point you care to name, we're worse off.

In addition to the general doom and gloom due to how poor we look this season, I think it's inevitable that people become more resigned to relegation when it's not just a single poor season.

We briefly flirted with the foot of the table in Houllier's season, but turned things around towards the end of the season. Last year was worse, and now this season we're even closer to the drop. Of course people are going to be more negative.

Another point is that even last season, when things looked their worst, I think most people thought that we had a pretty decent team, being dragged down by a very poor, negative manager. This season, we can't even cling on to that, it just seems our squad is very shit.

[richardhubbard]

Lerner a fucking fool and makes Doug look like Steve Jobs

We stuck in a lay bye , with a broken metro and no fucking money to repair it

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Lerner a fucking fool and makes Doug look like Steve Jobs

Erm..Steve Jobs is dead.

[richardhubbard]

Lerner a fucking fool and makes Doug look like Steve Jobs

Erm..Steve Jobs is dead.

When he was a live!