Lambert's Vision for Villa

[Louzie0]

The last manager lost his job because the season ticket renewals were looking to be a disaster the club and Randy just couldn't afford, so it had a lot to do with the supporters. Please stop this Ireland is playing well for Hughes shit, i manage to watch all games over here and take great interest in how Villa players are going at different clubs and to put it bluntly all of what you call senior players are no different to how they were at Villa.
Ireland in the game before last was subbed at half time and in his last game he was taken off just after the start of the second half, they said ha wasn't well. The time he spent on the pitch he seemed to be going half pace. Does Bent start any games? how many goals has he scored?.

Bent is not pulling any trees up as far as I have noticed.

[brian green]

I agree wholeheartedly Kevin.   It comes back to my point about the third way.   The first way is to be taken over by trillionaire owners and buy success.   The second way is to try to punch way above your weight with bargain players, young players, loan signings and dollops of good luck or the third way which is to be better and quicker and craftier at finding talent before the opposition finds it.   World wide scouting properly staffed and properly funded is almost certainly a more certain route towards a more productive premiership points per million spent.

[Monty]

I agree Brian, but with a caveat: our job isn't to find the talent first, the big clubs' scouting networks will have seen every player we do - our job is to take the punts on the ones they won't.

[PeterWithesShin]

Bent is rarely fit, and when he is he rarely scores these days. Maybe Lambert suspected both those things would be issues which is why he bought another striker and fobbed Bent off on someone who would pay a chunk of his wages?

[pauliewalnuts]

With Martinez, we asked Whelan for permission to speak to him, he gave it.

We asked Martinez if he wanted to speak to us, and he said no. That's all fact.

Probably - and this isn't factual, just opinion - because he probably felt he owed something to Wigan.

That, to me, is knocking us back. He wasn't offered the job, true, but he was offered the chance to be considered, and wasn't interested.

I don't think there's anything too controversial in all that, but it strikes me that people saying "he was told what the budget would be, and wasn't interested" are really just putting a spin on it to suit their stance - there is not any evidence in a single thing anyone has said that supports that as the way things went.

It doesnt even make sense as an idea - why would we tell him what the budget would be before talking to him?

We wouldn't, but hey ho, that's not doomish enough for some.

[Monty]

He was dead right about Bent. He gave him a huge chance and made him captain and everything, and Bent still moved less off the ball than a netballer does with the ball.

[pauliewalnuts]

Bent is rarely fit, and when he is he rarely scores these days. Maybe Lambert suspected both those things would be issues which is why he bought another striker and fobbed Bent off on someone who would pay a chunk of his wages?

I was dismayed when it first started to look like we'd sell Bent, but look at what he's achieved since he left - absolutely nothing. He's the epitome of a player left behind by the game.

There's not a single shred of evidence to suggest we were wrong to punt him on. If he'd done something at Fulham, maybe, but he has done the square root of sweet FA.

[Gareth]

I see Lambert is targeting experience in January now...the penny drops with the last man standing :-) he'll be going for quality or leaders next :-)

[chrisf]

I agree wholeheartedly Kevin.   It comes back to my point about the third way.   The first way is to be taken over by trillionaire owners and buy success.   The second way is to try to punch way above your weight with bargain players, young players, loan signings and dollops of good luck or the third way which is to be better and quicker and craftier at finding talent before the opposition finds it.   World wide scouting properly staffed and properly funded is almost certainly a more certain route towards a more productive premiership points per million spent.

Isn't your third way just your second way when it works?

I've seen enough from Lambert's signings to be convinced that he'll be successful with the second way given time.

[Dante Lavelli]

Lambert's vision will come to fruition a lot faster if he accepts that he needs to approach this with some flexibility and understands that January represents a really critical time in his tenure to turn this around and get it right.

#ding# correct answer.

[onje_villa]

I really would love it if he could inform us what that plan involves. Previously, he has been known for causing remarkably quick renaissances of clubs, particularly getting Norwich back to the Premier League in two successive promotions, and I know that we're a bigger club fallen on our own brand off hard times but Norwich were a big club compared to everyone around them and fallen on incredibly hard times, so I don't buy that counter-argument.

Also, I'd like to know why this project appears to have nothing to do with keeping the ball - Swansea, Southampton and Cardiff can all do it, why can't we? It's a bit saddening, because I'm fed up of seeing 1970s football down at the Villa (but without the success of the 70s).

Given that he's not going to be fired any time soon (presumably because Lerner felt that he was too trigger-happy at the Browns and has swung to the opposite extreme with us), we have no choice but to support him and hope that he gets it right, and I believe his intentions are more ambitious and - how to put this - aesthetically salubrious than those of his predecessor, but he better start looking with a bit less Britishness and a bit more culture at the clubs playing better football than us and start copying their training methods fast no matter how effeminate or nerdy they seem, because otherwise he's never going to get either the style he wants nor the success that that style brings.

Paul. I like you, still. But I'm begging you for this, because if you won't do it then nobody will.

Good post Montbert.

[Dante Lavelli]

Cheers mate, bit of a surprise that one.

Why are you surprised our wage bill is lower than spurs? They have made several big signings in recent months.

I'm not, I suspected sarcasm so I decided to fight fire with fire.

Nobody can elaborate on our finances then?

It's been reported on here a few times that the wages/turnover ratio is now back where it needs to be.  Whether this mean that we can now start signing well paid players again or whether the aggregate wage bill needs to stay at this level remains to be seen.  Ditto - no-one really knows whether the new TV money has already been factored in.

In summary, we're no longer living outside our means = good.

[Eigentor]

If I remember correctly, McLeish was also boasting about how he, Lerner and Faulkner shared a 'vision' for Aston Villa. It only lasted for a season.

I'm not sure if it is a good sign when the manager becomes very philosophical when the team isn't playing well.

However, I believe there is little chance that Lambert will lose his job. The squad is largely his - 16 of 35 players in the first team squad is signed by him. How a new manager would do better with those players than Lambert isn't clear. And the alternative: to let the new man rebuild the squad once again may not be an attractive option to Lerner and co. Neither GH nor McLeish managed to put their mark on the squad to the extent that Lambert has, and that made them easier to dispose of.

[pauliewalnuts]

In summary, we're no longer living outside our means = good.

I know what you mean, and I am playing devil's advocate here, but I can't resist asking why we weren't so pleased at not living outside our means when Ellis was in control?

[adrenachrome]

He was dead right about Bent. He gave him a huge chance and made him captain and everything, and Bent still moved less off the ball than a netballer does with the ball.

And new Fulham boss Rene Meulensteen said he is a fat fuck:
Mirror