Lambert's Vision for Villa

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

Kozak is certainly a piece in the puzzle. His movement is excellent and he offers something different from a entente in that regard, as although he is huge, he isn't a battering ram. We clearly lack an intelligent attacking midfielder, but if we could pick one up in the summer, I am glad we at least got Kozak.

The decision makes even more sense when you look at how poor Weimann has been.

Aren't you the one who always goes on about his celebrations? Are you sure you're judging him based on his performances for us?

Kozak is a squad player. I haven't seen anything from him to suggest he'd be more than that.

[not3bad]

Vlaar, Clark and Delph have noticeably improved.
Lowton, benteke, Weimann, Westwood, sylla , have all failed to reproduce last seasons form.

This is where things have gone wrong, this season, in a nutshell.

[Ad@m]

Kozak is certainly a piece in the puzzle. His movement is excellent and he offers something different from a entente in that regard, as although he is huge, he isn't a battering ram. We clearly lack an intelligent attacking midfielder, but if we could pick one up in the summer, I am glad we at least got Kozak.

The decision makes even more sense when you look at how poor Weimann has been.

Aren't you the one who always goes on about his celebrations? Are you sure you're judging him based on his performances for us?

Kozak is a squad player. I haven't seen anything from him to suggest he'd be more than that.

I was one of the most critical about our purchase of him but credit where it's due - he's scored 4 goals from 8 starts and 6 sub appearances.  That's not a bad return.  Couple that with his record in the Europa League (although his record in Italy is shite!) and there's clearly more to him than just being a squad player.

[paulcomben]

Wow. January has not yet begun, but we seem to have added Woodward and Westward to Westwood, according to this thread. Is the long term plan in fact to sign non existent players, thus appeasing we fans yet saving any financial outlay?!

[Rigadon]

Relegation would be a disaster for villa.  At all costs, lambert and Lerner need to collude enough in terms of transfer targets and the money for them next month.  I'm not talking silly money either.  We need a centre half (on loan if necessary) and a midfielder who can play.  I think 'the plan' if indeed there is one is to keep villa up and around mid table which is about an uninspiring as it gets.  Therefore, the plan needs to include  luring some  experienced quality here before we get relegated. 

[Pat McMahon]

My take is on Lener is simple. I think the takeover at Man City completely changed his outloook on owning Villa.

When he bought us I genuinely thought investing £100 million into the playing staff would give us a realistic chance of reaching the Champions League, and thus drastically increase our revenue. This was stage 1 of any "plan" but it was very much an "all or nothing" approach that, as we all know, ended in nothing. Subsequently the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurts have all had to spend more and more just to keep up with City and, when we weren't able to do so, Randy realised it was sheer folly to blow millions in order to keep us in and around the Europa League places. In addition to this he would have seen the likes of Swansea and Wigan winning silverware whilst not spending "silly money" and decided Villa should be able to follow suit.

In hindsight, had we picked-up a Laudrup or Martinez (or maybe even a Lambert) as soon as MON left we may be much further ahead than we are, say where Everton are now. The damage done by the Houllier and McLeish years however, has set the club-back drastically and given Lambert an incredibly big task of improving the side whilst cutting-back on the wage-bill.

RussellC, this pretty much sums up my thinking on our time since Randy arrived too.

[Ron Manager]

Gerard Houllier could have been an excellent manager at Aston Villa but should never have been taken on because of his past medical history. I think Lambert desperately needs help,even if he wouldnt welcome it. As a Director of Football Gerard Houllier could be the answer.

[john e]

I don't know about Lamberts vision, but mine will be somewhat impaired by 12 O'clock tonight

[stubbsyandy]

Gerard Houllier could have been an excellent manager at Aston Villa but should never have been taken on because of his past medical history. I think Lambert desperately needs help,even if he wouldnt welcome it. As a Director of Football Gerard Houllier could be the answer.

Decent point that

[Ad@m]

Gerard Houllier could have been an excellent manager at Aston Villa but should never have been taken on because of his past medical history. I think Lambert desperately needs help,even if he wouldnt welcome it. As a Director of Football Gerard Houllier could be the answer.

Decent point that

It wouldn't be a bad idea but I think the doc "advised" GH to quit football for the sake of his heart.

[john e]

Gerard Houllier could have been an excellent manager at Aston Villa but should never have been taken on because of his past medical history. I think Lambert desperately needs help,even if he wouldnt welcome it. As a Director of Football Gerard Houllier could be the answer.

there are plenty of people who have had heart problems who have gone on to lead full lives and be successful in stressfull jobs in other walks of life, so football shouldn't be any different

with hindsight it didn't work out because his heart problem returned which was obviously unfortunate,
 but it still doesn't mean he shouldn't have been given the chance, not everyone who has had a heart complaint should thrown on the scrap heat,
 Randy should be congratulated in not descriminating in that way in my view

[Ads]

Yes, I judge him on what I see playing for us.

[rob_bridge]

My take is on Lener is simple. I think the takeover at Man City completely changed his outloook on owning Villa.

When he bought us I genuinely thought investing £100 million into the playing staff would give us a realistic chance of reaching the Champions League, and thus drastically increase our revenue. This was stage 1 of any "plan" but it was very much an "all or nothing" approach that, as we all know, ended in nothing. Subsequently the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurts have all had to spend more and more just to keep up with City and, when we weren't able to do so, Randy realised it was sheer folly to blow millions in order to keep us in and around the Europa League places. In addition to this he would have seen the likes of Swansea and Wigan winning silverware whilst not spending "silly money" and decided Villa should be able to follow suit.

In hindsight, had we picked-up a Laudrup or Martinez (or maybe even a Lambert) as soon as MON left we may be much further ahead than we are, say where Everton are now. The damage done by the Houllier and McLeish years however, has set the club-back drastically and given Lambert an incredibly big task of improving the side whilst cutting-back on the wage-bill.

RussellC, this pretty much sums up my thinking on our time since Randy arrived too.

Quite correct - Dinosaur appointments. One highly over-rated and who was way past his best with zero feel for the club and the other who was so disastrously far out of his depth it was cringeworthy.
Not to mention they followed another 'old' style manager.

I want the modern, progressive approach with fewer mercenaries paid an absolute fortune.

I just now have misgivings that Lambert is the person to be able to deliver this given the constraints he, or any subsequent replacement for that matter has to work, with in the next 2 years.

[Legion]

Houllier is Head of Global Football for Red Bull. He is responsible for Austrian side FC Red Bull Salzburg, Germany's RB Leipzig and the New York Red Bulls from the US as well as the Red Bull Brasil and the Red Bull Ghana academies.

[Dribbler]

I can see both sides of this argument but we are playing with fire because if we are relegated the whole vision/plan is flushed down the toilet.

That's just it.  The work being done now should mean that if the worse did happen we won't do a Leeds/Forest/Wednesday.  That's not to say we're planning for relegation - we're just running the club in a responsible way which means we don't implode if something horrible happens.

Ah i see, so what you're saying is that the extreme cost cutting that could possibly relegate us, would leave us in a good position if we get relegated (debatable), therefore we are right to take cost cutting to a level that might relegate us, because it will help us if we are relegated! A most cunning plan indeed, almost a self serving prophecy.

I suppose it's similar to the following logic: filling the squad with championship level players is a great idea, because if they get us relegated to the championship, we'll have a ready made squad of championship level players on championship wages!

Your posts seem to present us with this false dichotomy of spending options, spend hundreds of millions like Man City even though we can't afford to and would face impending financial doom, or spend reasonably to put the club on a sound financial footing. Well if you put it that way and those are our only two options, yes of course I'd go for the latter. Though i suspect that there might be a finer gradient of options in between the two you offer.

I would actually say however that what we're doing isn't running the club in a 'responsible way', to have a 'vision' implies some sort of long term foresight, yet as a club we've lurched from MoN to Houllier, to McLeish to Lambert, a yo yoing of footballing 'styles' and 'visions' if ever you could find them, now we've lurched between one extreme of overspending to another of extreme underspending. That's a very dangerous game to play. What we need at the club is a long term vision that involves smooth transition (as talked about in another thread), but the club seems incapable of doing so. This is the reason why we are where we are, when other clubs seem to have developed over the last few years.

vision