The Paul Lambert thread - poll reset after our capitulation to Hull

[pauliewalnuts]

Picture this...

Villa get relegated. Lambert gets fired. Neil Lennon gets appointed after both Lerner and Faulkner receive a letter of recommendation from Gordon Strachan.

Jesus. No.

Although it could be worse.

It could be Gordon Strachan getting recommended.

[olaftab]

Lambert going on about things happening behind the scenes that we don't know about can surely mean one of two things

One is that there's a takeover happening - sadly, I find this hard to believe.

The other is that Lerner has totally put the squeeze on re signings. Which I find significantly easier to believe.

May be both these things are true but what influence do they have on say last 4 results?

[pauliewalnuts]

In fairness, if there is no money then whoever is manager is going to struggle. I believe there is money though, not Pubehead spending, but £20mill a season isn't peanuts either.

I agree with all that except the idea that money is there.

I entirely believe talk of us having been in for a number of midfielders but them all getting knocked back by the board. They've spent the last two or three years telling us ad infinitum that we need to cut back, be self sufficient, and have spent that time signing lower league or European selling league players who cost a lot less in salary. There's huge amounts of evidence to suggest that is true.

I do agree, though, that he has at least had some money. Mostly it has been spent on players who really aren't much cop, but even that is not the problem. The problem is that, for most of this season, almost all of it, Lambert has actually managed to create from that mediocre squad something which looks worse than it should do.

Crap most of the players may be, but under Lambert they're looking worse than they are.

The thing about any manager struggling without money is also true. That's the scariest thing about where we are and what the rumours are saying. If this is our intended way of approaching the next few years, then I am pretty sure we will bob around for a few years (or less) at the arse end of the table and then slip into the Championship.

If you don't spend the money on the players, you don't stay in the top flight. That's practically scientific fact.

[the hole in the wall]

please Lerner..Faulkner and Lambert go now..youv turned us our villa into a laughing stock... no ambition no direction ... we have a manager who is tactically neive..a chairmen who doesnt care anymore and faulkner whats his role..muppet.

[pauliewalnuts]

Lambert going on about things happening behind the scenes that we don't know about can surely mean one of two things

One is that there's a takeover happening - sadly, I find this hard to believe.

The other is that Lerner has totally put the squeeze on re signings. Which I find significantly easier to believe.

May be both these things are true but what influence do they have on say last 4 results?

We're not where we are because of the last four results, though, we're there because over the course of the season we've had lots of spells of matches with similarly poor results.

I think Lambert actually gets a relatively easy ride in a lot of ways. First Aston Villa manager in 140 years to lose 10 home league games, and he's still got two to play. That is quite staggering. And then there's the fact he lost nine of them last season. Oh, and the fact we also lost at home to Sheffield United this season.

It's not just Lambert, though. It is the chairman, the board, the lack of understanding of the game, and the sheer reality distortion field they have around them.

A few weeks ago, they were talking about a new contract for him. Not sacking him, which should have been the discussion, but actually rewarding him. And they managed to let this news get out, to make things worse.

it's staggering incompetence.

[Stu]

We're in the maws of doom.

The very maws of doom.

[Stu]

And I agree with paulie. Laying the blame solely at Lambert's feet is unfair if it's true about the board being unwilling to finance certain signings.

The symptoms are on the pitch for the malais the club is in, but the cause is to be found elsewhere.

[Damo70]

Picture this...

Villa get relegated. Lambert gets fired. Neil Lennon gets appointed after both Lerner and Faulkner receive a letter of recommendation from Gordon Strachan.

Jesus. No.

I'm not sure you should say no to Jesus. On the plus side he can perform miracles on a small budget. On the down side some may want to crucify him from day one. I'm not sure Randy and Paul would be keen on the twelve coaching staff he would want to bring with him and I certainly wouldn't trust Judas the scout. And his youth coach Thomas doubts he could make a go it of anyway.

[pauliewalnuts]

Picture this...

Villa get relegated. Lambert gets fired. Neil Lennon gets appointed after both Lerner and Faulkner receive a letter of recommendation from Gordon Strachan.

Jesus. No.

I'm not sure you should say no to Jesus. On the plus side he can perform miracles on a small budget. On the down side some may want to crucify him from day one. I'm not sure Randy and Paul would be keen on the twelve coaching staff he would want to bring with him and I certainly wouldn't trust Judas the scout. And his youth coach Thomas doubts he could make a go it of anyway.

He's also probably the one person who likes crosses less than Lambert.

[PeterWithesShin]

Well the evidence exists that there is some money there. It's why we've spent approx £20m both of the last two seasons. Maybe the money for big wages or Pubey levels of spending hasn't been there, but we haven't been paupers either.

[pauliewalnuts]

We're in the maws of doom.

The very maws of doom.

Maws.

A word we don't hear frequently enough.

[pauliewalnuts]

Well the evidence exists that there is some money there. It's why we've spent approx £20m both of the last two seasons. Maybe the money for big wages or Pubey levels of spending hasn't been there, but we haven't been paupers either.

It doesn't have the same effect if the constraining issue is the wage bill, though.

That thing about Sissoko, Barry, Lukaku etc - that will all have been about wages, not fees. Lambert said a while ago they tried to get Lukaku in but couldn't make the wages work.

Spending 20m on players from the lower divisions or poor European leagues is going to get you quite a lot of players who aren't really very good.

We have also spent the last two years systematically alienating almost every well paid player we have. It's no coincidence.

[IAmTheOneIanOlney]

Picture this...

Villa get relegated. Lambert gets fired. Neil Lennon gets appointed after both Lerner and Faulkner receive a letter of recommendation from Gordon Strachan.

Jesus. No.

He did it for Lazarus, he can do it for us. Jesus gets my vote.


I'm not sure you should say no to Jesus. On the plus side he can perform miracles on a small budget. On the down side some may want to crucify him from day one. I'm not sure Randy and Paul would be keen on the twelve coaching staff he would want to bring with him and I certainly wouldn't trust Judas the scout. And his youth coach Thomas doubts he could make a go it of anyway.

He's also probably the one person who likes crosses less than Lambert.

[PeterWithesShin]

Agreed, but however it is spent, £20m a year isn't us spending nothing either.

[pauliewalnuts]

Agreed, but however it is spent, £20m a year isn't us spending nothing either.

It's not us adding  enough quality to the squad either, though.

It's like having a 100 quid weekly food shopping allowance but having to spend it all at Netto.

If wages are that big a problem, adding decent players will always be nigh on impossible, because even if you pay the fees, they cost salary money. Lambert said we couldn't make Lukaku happen because of wages, and that was the summer he went to Albion. That's worrying.

We needed bodies in January, and ended up with two players on loan, one of whom was Grant Holt.

I know he put in a shift last week, but really, if you're shopping around at the Grant Holt end of the market, I think that says a lot about your financial clout.