How would you feel....

[eastie]

Also all this lack of possession is tiring when you are continually chasing the opposition - later in the season our fitness levels could suffer as some players may be burnt out .

[London Villan]

It's not as if he hasn't had any cash and in the best MON-ism he now has a growing collection of players that seem to be surplus to the squad.... Bennett, Helenius, Bowery you can add the group of players he has totally de-valued (Bent, Given and Hutton) to that little group. When resources are limited surely you need to address the key issues first... where you can question Kozak's signing.

[tomd2103]

I was encouraged by some of the performances in the second half of last season and I thought we had kicked on again with the performances in the first three games of this season.  Since then, however, we have regressed badly and although we sit fairly comfortably in the table at the moment, we are still uncomfortably close to relegation trouble.   

[supertom]

Also all this lack of possession is tiring when you are continually chasing the opposition - later in the season our fitness levels could suffer as some players may be burnt out .

I'm wondering if this hasn't contributed toward injuries already.

[Colin B]

Well I personally hope he stays and I think he is doing the job that needs to be done at the moment as well as could be expected.

When he took over I guess the general plan was to clear the squad of high paid players who were not playing in order to get the club in a sound financial position whilst staying in the premier league. The second part was to build a base and then slowly build from there.

I would say we are still in phase one of this plan and whilst I agree that it isn't pretty at the moment I also think it is necessary.

Where we are next summer will be interesting. If Benteke does move for £40m and the usual £20m is made available then it will be interesting to see how this money is spent.

[edgysatsuma89]

I'll eat my own head if we can get anywhere near £40m for Benteke next summer.

[supertom]

I'll eat my own head if we can get anywhere near £40m for Benteke next summer.

We'll be lucky to get 40 quid if he carries on playing like this.

[VicMackey]

I haven't read the entire thread but my question is how would the players feel?  Never mind if the supporters think he is right/wrong for the job - if the players have already made their mind up and don't seem capable of raising their game or doing whatever it is he's telling them to do then it's time for him to go.

That said, I can't see Lerner forking out more of his money to get rid of Lambert and his coaching staff.  We're likely stuck with him until at least the end of the season.  Hopefully we can stumble our way to safety - but I have my doubts - and then reassess.  Fresh (or perhaps 'older') blood is clearly needed in January.

Lambert's critical mission for now is working out a way for us to play at home and turn around this appalling run of results.  A decent run of home results will boost confidence (on and off the pitch) and relieve some pressure.

[Damo70]

I wonder if the fans who travel home and away look on things a bit more positively than the season ticket holders who don't travel. One of my favourite ever seasons was '87-'88 when I went home and away all season. But up until the last three games and clinching promotion I wonder how home fans felt about that season. We have games against Stoke, Palace, Swansea and Sunderland and a transfer window coming up. Although after last year I'm not getting too excited about the window.

[brian green]

Season ticket holders do travel.   I go home and away and so do my sons.   Whether we get shot of Lambert is neither here nor there while there is in place the overriding priority of balancing the books.   I think Lambert has not lived up to expectations and neither have the players he has brought in.   He has favourites (KEA especially is specially undeserving of the starts he gets), he is boring, he is inarticulate to the point of incomprehension, he is not football savvy, he has money wasting tendencies (Kozak for example) but he tries to play attacking football and he is not TSM.

With so much money having been wasted there appears to be little chance that the book balancing straight jacket will be removed any time in the next few years.   I cannot see any manager able to do much more than Lambert is doing under the circumstances except perhaps be less monosyllabic and boring.   What would you give to have BFR talking to the players and talking to the fans.

[eastie]

I'll eat my own head if we can get anywhere near £40m for Benteke next summer.

We'll be lucky to get 40 quid if he carries on playing like this.

£20m top whack if he regains some form - this barren spell will have showed clubs he is far from the finished article yet.

[eastie]

Season ticket holders do travel.   I go home and away and so do my sons.   Whether we get shot of Lambert is neither here nor there while there is in place the overriding priority of balancing the books.   I think Lambert has not lived up to expectations and neither have the players he has brought in.   He has favourites (KEA especially is specially undeserving of the starts he gets), he is boring, he is inarticulate to the point of incomprehension, he is not football savvy, he has money wasting tendencies (Kozak for example) but he tries to play attacking football and he is not TSM.

With so much money having been wasted there appears to be little chance that the book balancing straight jacket will be removed any time in the next few years.   I cannot see any manager able to do much more than Lambert is doing under the circumstances except perhaps be less monosyllabic and boring.   What would you give to have BFR talking to the players and talking to the fans.

I agree with a lot of your posts and am delighted you are no longer Navin - however I'm not in agreement about him trying to play attacking football- many times this season we have struggled to even get an attempt  on goal and the football to me has been for the most part totally dreadful .

[PaulTheVillan]

I think WBA were right to sack Clarke. He's been on the slump for a long time.

If we sacked Lambert I don't think I would be that bothered, I'm bored of everything to do with Villa at the moment, that's a combination of Paul Lambert, the awful football, the home form and the lack of real investment.

I worry about the next appointment.

[Jimbo]

I worry about the next appointment.

That's it in a nutshell. Can we trust the club to make the right appointment, in the right manner? And would the new man make any difference under the current financial constraints?

Lambert has assembled his own team at no little cost. A new man will almost certainly want to do the same. There's no way we'll want to start the clearout process all over again so I'm afraid we're stuck with what we have for good or bad.

[Damo70]

A new manager, as we know better than any other club means new players in and current players out. We couldn't get buyers and decent money for the likes of Bent so how a new man would flog Lambert's signings at the moment god knows. David Jason maybe?