Let the record show

[Risso]

I'm struggling to see what Drummond's point is there to be honest.  He asked for a list of players of the sort we needed that went to our rivals, and I gave their names.  He then seems to be accusing me of not wanting that "sort" of player, which is a) beside the point of what he asked, and b) not true in any case.  I'd have been delighted with most of them to be honest.

[paul_e]

You might have noticed that Sissoko did rather well against us on Tuesday.

It's also worth noting that his transfer fee of 1.5m is offset by a contract of, allegedly, 70k p/w for 6 1/2 years.  so he's effectively a £25m investment, minimum.

[PaulWinch again]

If it's the right player then you have to invest to survive/improve sometimes. It's very early days but I predict that Sissoko will be worth that investment whether he stays or eventually they sell him.

[Risso]

You might have noticed that Sissoko did rather well against us on Tuesday.

It's also worth noting that his transfer fee of 1.5m is offset by a contract of, allegedly, 70k p/w for 6 1/2 years.  so he's effectively a £25m investment, minimum.

£25m over 6 1/2 years, we'll lose that and more in one year when we're relegated.  He looks like a good young player, and was so cheap that if they ever decide to sell him they'll be hard pressed to make a loss on him.  He probably paid his wages for the year by setting up their first goal to move them up the table 3 places.

[PaulWinch again]

You might have noticed that Sissoko did rather well against us on Tuesday.

It's also worth noting that his transfer fee of 1.5m is offset by a contract of, allegedly, 70k p/w for 6 1/2 years.  so he's effectively a £25m investment, minimum.

£25m over 6 1/2 years, we'll lose that and more in one year when we're relegated.  He looks like a good young player, and was so cheap that if they ever decide to sell him they'll be hard pressed to make a loss on him.  He probably paid his wages for the year by setting up their first goal to move them up the table 3 places.

Exactly. £25 million across 6 and half years is hardly a bank breaking investment for a quality player.

[supertom]

You have to speculate to accumulate.
Not only would Sissoko have been good but I think some of Newcastles other surprisingly cheap (transfer fees) French players like Debuchy and Gouffran could be potentially very good indeed.

Of all the teams in the bottom 8, I think we've done the worst business and we're in the worst form. If we finish bottom, I  won't be surprised.

[Brend'Watkins]

I was at the game Tuesday and didn't see anything special from Sissoko.  Did he really stand out?  Maybe I was concentrating on how inept we were all over the park to notice.

[OzVilla]

Of all the teams in the bottom 8, I think we've done the worst business and we're in the worst form.

And by quite a considerable distance I'm afraid to say.

[Risso]

I was at the game Tuesday and didn't see anything special from Sissoko.  Did he really stand out?  Maybe I was concentrating on how inept we were all over the park to notice.

He's new to the league, but set up their goal which ultimately was enough to win them the game.  He faded second half but the damage was done by then.

[paul_e]

I'm not saying it's right or wrong that we didn't get him, I'd have loved to see him join us as I think he'll settle in to the premier league really well.  I'm just pointing out that we didn't miss out on him for want of spending 1.5m, we missed out for want of spending 25m, which does make a big difference.  It may just have been a sum that Lambert wasn't comfortable with.

I'm far more concerned that we didn't spend 1m (total) securing a 4-5month loan of scharner/upson/etc to offer some experience in defence.

[Damo70]

Give me some examples. Who else managed to sign the type of player we were looking for?

Wigan - Paul Scharner (loan)
Reading - Daniel Carrico (£600K)
Southampton - Vegard Forren (£4.2m)
QPR - Tal Ben Haim (free)
Newcastle - Moussa Sissoko (£1.8m)
Fulham - Emmanuel Frimpong (loan)

etc, etc

Risso sums it up. Even if you try to pick hypothetic holes like Scharner wanting to return to his old club, Newcastle offering Sissoko more money and Frimpong wanting to stay in London. We are not being unreasonable in believing it was possible to do enough to stay up. I can't believe I'm saying it but if Sylla turns out to be just the type of midfield player we were looking for, in years to come we could be saying we would have stayed up if only we had got Matthew Upson on loan for a couple of months instead of him going to Brighton!

[eamonn]

The French flag-waving by the Jawdees at the end of the game the other night was quite ironic really.
If Houllier was still here I bet half of them would be playing for us by now.

[TonyD]

The whole business is very very odd.   The decisions made by the board and the managers over the last couple of years have been suspect to say the least.    Do you think we will ever discover what the thinking has been behind these decisions or will it be buried forever?  It would be just nice to know whether RL and PF are simply out of their depth or if there is more to than this than meets the eye.  Either way an explanation is due.

[RussellC]

'Nous'.

The most accurate word to describe what this Villa side is so desperately lacking. I find it hard to believe that we've had a whole month to bring that in- even if it was just players to be part of the squad and influence the kids in training on a day-to-day basis, like previous managers have with Colin Calderwood, Ronnie Johnsen, etc. it's not just the team that's lacking in leaders and experience, it's the entire squad. 

In my opinion (and I'm sure this will be laughed at) Lambert's biggest mistake will go down as selling James Collins. For all of his supposed fault's I'm utterly convinced that if he'd stayed this season we'd be about 5 places higher in the League and heading to Wembley in a few weeks.

I think Lambert (and many others) underestimated just how big a part the momentum of back-to-back promotions played in Norwich's PL finish last year. The players were all confident and relaxed knowing that they had nothing to either prove or lose. They also had a team and squad that was well-integrated, which helped to compensate for it's lack of Premiership experience.

At Villa he's had no momentum, experience or genuine quality and without any of those 3 it's always going to be a struggle. Regardless of any lack of backing from Lerner, I have to say that I think Lambert's inexperience could prove to be just as costly to us this season.

[Simon Ward]

Lambert is now probably the worst manager in our clubs history.

Totally incomprehensibly and totally gutless.

No that crown still belongs to Billy McNeil and DOL