Lambert OUT

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Palace,Sunderland and Fulham have all sacked their managers recently and the connection is ? They have all picked up enough to win a few games and  move closer to us. What's to say it would not work for Villa

yeah but Fulham's is a Fergie accolyte(sic) and evidently that's a no  no  at B6

I had an interesting conversation today with my Man Utd brother-in-law about René Meulensteen. I'd never heard of him but apparently everybody at Old Trafford highly respects the fella and he's given a lot of the credit for last season's success, more so than Fergie if the rumours are true. The board did everything to persuade Moyes to keep him on but he insisted in bringing in his own staff. They very reluctantly agreed but were not very happy about it.

Time will tell but it does give you an indication that there are very good alternatives out there if you know where to look. The old chestnut of "oh but who can we get that's better" is plain nonsense. There's thousands out there to choose from, almost all would jump at the chance of managing a club like Villa, the only problem is identifying the right man. I'd hope we've learnt out lesson and have actively put in place a contingency plan should the manager ever need replacing.

Leaving it to see who applies or a letter from Red Nose is not the way I imagine a top club to deal with the matter.

[Steve R]

Please not Hoddle. He would only bang on about what a bastard I was in a previous life.

[junxs]

The sensible thing to do is to let him have the January window to sort this mess out. He sorted it last year, so give him the chance to do it again. I just don't think there’s anyone available who could get the ethos of these players changed in such a short time whereas at least Lambert can get them playing something like the back end of last year again.

Especially if the alternatives are Hoddle and OGS. I'd rather Martin Laursen got the job than either of those two but again you'd be asking a lot from him to sort this out.

Lambert knows the strength of these players and I'd rather him try to just about keep us up than risk complete free fall under inexperienced/sabbatical new management. Change it in the summer if we must like we did with Eck & Houllier.

[saunders_heroes]

The scariest thing is that it doesn't matter who's in charge we're going to struggle at the wrong end of the table while Lerner persists with his cost cutting. He actively sold all our best players and replaced them with cheap low quality shit and expected them to compete in the Premier League. You get what you pay for in life and this dreadful squad is the consequence of our chronic lack of ambition.
I've said it before, this is the worst Villa squad I've ever seen.

[Matt Collins]

1. Has Lerner really been as miserly as people suggest since O'Neill left? We've bought bent, makoun, n'zogbia, Ireland, Hutton, given (£40k a week for five years). That's nearly £50m of transfer fees plus god knows how much in wages for players all now ditched (and not a penny of transfer income to offset against that investment. And that's after years of subsidising the club and ditching the majority of players signed for about 25% of what we paid.

Since then he's wanted to pursue a new strategy and who can blame him?!

The risk/ problem is that under lambert we've gone too far in buying unknowns. But we've still changed around an entire squad with a net outlay of what? £40m? What income has come in so far? Pennies.

The problem is a series of poor choices by randy and Faulkner, and by the managers they've appointed. It's not a simple lack of investment story at all.

[rob_bridge]

The scariest thing is that it doesn't matter who's in charge we're going to struggle at the wrong end of the table while Lerner persists with his cost cutting. He actively sold all our best players and replaced them with cheap low quality shit and expected them to compete in the Premier League. You get what you pay for in life and this dreadful squad is the consequence of our chronic lack of ambition.
I've said it before, this is the worst Villa squad I've ever seen.

I'm struggling to think of a worse one quality wise.

[Matt Collins]

2. Randy won't sack lambert unless we're really getting stranded. He's never acted mid way through a season. And he knows that a new manager could well want to get rid of at least half the squad again and bring in about eight new players.

[Matt Collins]

Transfers in under lambert with estimated prices:
Steer (free) Lowton (1) Okore (4) vlaar (3) Luna (1) Bennett (2.5) bacuna (1.5) Westwood (1) kea (2) Tonev (3) benteke (7) kozak (7) sylla (0.5) Bowery (0.5) helenius (1.5)

That's about £35m in two years. Plus about £10m in paying off former managers. I think income has been less than £5m.

So from Randy's perspective that's a clear picture of continuous net transfer investment.

But what's very obvious is that to replace the best part of an entire squad for that over two years and you're banking on unearthing some pretty cheap bargains.

[pauliewalnuts]

The scariest thing is that it doesn't matter who's in charge we're going to struggle at the wrong end of the table while Lerner persists with his cost cutting. He actively sold all our best players and replaced them with cheap low quality shit and expected them to compete in the Premier League. You get what you pay for in life and this dreadful squad is the consequence of our chronic lack of ambition.
I've said it before, this is the worst Villa squad I've ever seen.

That's a monumentally depressing post, mostly because it's largely true, certainly in terms of the weak squad.

[russon]

Especially if the alternatives are Hoddle and OGS. I'd rather Martin Laursen got the job than either of those two but again you'd be asking a lot from him to sort this out.

Oh for a Martin Laursen in our defence now. Leader, fighter, footballer, all the things we're lacking. I could have wept when I looked at yesterday's defensive line up - Lowton, Clark, Baker, Luna? I ask you to name a worse back four in the history of Aston Villa.

[richard moore]

Has the incompetent, incoherent, uncharistmatic, boring oaf been sacked yet? I'd rather hoped it might have happened in the night with the time difference in the USA

[eastie]

The biggest worry for me is that I'm not sure randy would sack him even if we lost the next 4 games - from lamberts comments on the other thread on Lerner it suggests the chairman is hardly a hard line boss and maybe not ruthless enough to act .

People tell me he fired coaches  at will at the browns but I'm not sure he realises quite how bad things are here .

[Villafirst]

7 wins in 28 at home, be lucky if we have any season ticket holders left next summer....

I very nearly didn't renew for this season. I've missed the Man Utd and yesterdays games - good decision! A terrible Christmas just like last year. I will not renew whilst he's in charge - shocking value for money. Six defeats out of nine home matches and only six goals scored?  A complete failure which is getting worse.

[sirlordbaltimore]

The scariest thing is that it doesn't matter who's in charge we're going to struggle at the wrong end of the table while Lerner persists with his cost cutting.

Whilst I agree with that to some extent, it doesn't stop a manager doing the very basics right and getting the best with what he's got. Neither of which Lambert is doing

[jwarry]

Some very interesting comments on the Villa Facebook pages by some bloke called Dennis Jones in the last 12 hours. Stuff about Lerner bordering on defamatory but worrying if true