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

[pauliewalnuts]

We still have the eighth highest wage bill in the league.
.

I'm not arguing with you on this but how do you know this to be true?

Was in the Guardians football finances feature last week.

It'll be influenced by the 'bomb squad' members still on the wage bill.

If ever there were an illustration of how abysmally this club is run, then it is that whole 'bomb squad' thing.

A failure in the contract negotiations at the start and a failure to utilise the assets while we have them to aid in offloading them.

We have been badly run from 2006 to the present.

To be fair, I think if Lambert had tried to utilise Hutton, he'd have been hounded out of the club by irate fans. N'Zogbia seems to have had a long term injury, and when he was fit at the start, Lambert did play him. Ireland was a useless waster and was offloaded at the first available opportunity. Lambert did give him a chance, too. And Bent was never the same after his injury. Given was awarded a silly contract.

I'm not convinced the club could have done much different in respect of the bomb squad. Apart, obviously, from not signing them (with the exception of Bent, who actually proved vital) and paying them stupid wages to start with.

The problem with Ireland was imo that he seemed not to give a shit every two-three games, and when he did give, his performance wasn't worth of the salary we paid him.

It's not like we are the first club to ever find itself with underperforming, disappointing players.

What do other clubs do? They sell them.

What do we do? We send them out to play frisbee or rounders for a few hours and continue paying them 60k a week until their contract says we can stop.

[fbriai]

Randy is a good man, and he has spent a lot of money on this club. He "got" the club in a way that many others have not and do not. He has run it awfully, though, and it doesn't take much of a glance at the way money was wasted to see that.

I just don't see how it is possible for it to have been anything other than a job badly done to have spent hundreds of millions of pounds to end up with a really poor squad which has spent four years arsing around at the bottom of the table.

I get the feeling that they've been taken to the cleaners at times because of the extent of their naivety about football in general. They had no history in the game prior to arriving at Villa Park, not even from the perspective of growing up playing it in the streets and living and breathing it. Even Faulkner doesn't give me the impression of being someone who loved football as a kid. I think that they just didn't really understand it. They probably understand how it all works a bit better now, but it's all a bit late in the day.

It's a real shame, because they have done some really, really fine things and they do all seem like decent people. I just think that they've been very naive on occasions, and others have probably taken advantage of that all too readily.

[eamonn]

We still have the eighth highest wage bill in the league.
.

I'm not arguing with you on this but how do you know this to be true?

Was in the Guardians football finances feature last week.

Interesting and worrying in equal measure.

Have you got a link, Eamonn

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/01/premier-league-accounts-club-by-club-david-conn

QPR were seventh highest wage-payers and finished bottom so I guess we weren't the anomaly in shelling out wages on under/non-performers.

[fbriai]

I mentioned QPR on another thread earlier on; it could definitely be worse! Here's how a QPR-supporting mate of mine put it:

With regard to Redknapp, if you look at the league position today from the perspective of last seasons calamity, we're probably ahead of the game. I thought we'd be mid table at best this year.

However, the squad is huge, overpaid and aging and Redknapp's short termism is making it worse.

We currently have eight loans when only five can be included in a match day squad.

Youth team prospects are loaned out to make way for more "experienced pros".

Check this out for a rogues gallery of has beens.

Benoit Asso Ekotto
Luke Young
Sean Wright Phillips
Aaron Hughes
Madibo Maiga
Kevin Doyle
Joey Barton
Yossi Benayoun
Niko Krancjar
Julio Cesar
Bobby Zamora
Andy Johnson
Armand Traore
Karl Henry
Jermaine Jenas
Gary O'Neill

That's got to be close to £600k-£950k per week for just those clowns alone.

None of the lessons from the disastrous second season in the Premier League have been learnt, we've simply layered another load of ex-premier league players on top of the crap we've already got.

In the January transfer window, we couldn't get the striker we wanted, so we got three in on loan.

The soul of the club has been eroded as its painfully obvious the players couldn't care less, for obvious reasons. I feel completely disconnected from the club in its current incarnation, hence I've only been three times this year.

Sorry about the rant, its just gutting to see a huge opportunity missed, as well as the potential for it all to go calamitously wrong if we don't get promoted.

And breath.

[supertom]

I mentioned QPR on another thread earlier on; it could definitely be worse! Here's how a QPR-supporting mate of mine put it:

With regard to Redknapp, if you look at the league position today from the perspective of last seasons calamity, we're probably ahead of the game. I thought we'd be mid table at best this year.

However, the squad is huge, overpaid and aging and Redknapp's short termism is making it worse.

We currently have eight loans when only five can be included in a match day squad.

Youth team prospects are loaned out to make way for more "experienced pros".

Check this out for a rogues gallery of has beens.

Benoit Asso Ekotto
Luke Young
Sean Wright Phillips
Aaron Hughes
Madibo Maiga
Kevin Doyle
Joey Barton
Yossi Benayoun
Niko Krancjar
Julio Cesar
Bobby Zamora
Andy Johnson
Armand Traore
Karl Henry
Jermaine Jenas
Gary O'Neill

That's got to be close to £600k-£950k per week for just those clowns alone.

None of the lessons from the disastrous second season in the Premier League have been learnt, we've simply layered another load of ex-premier league players on top of the crap we've already got.

In the January transfer window, we couldn't get the striker we wanted, so we got three in on loan.

The soul of the club has been eroded as its painfully obvious the players couldn't care less, for obvious reasons. I feel completely disconnected from the club in its current incarnation, hence I've only been three times this year.

Sorry about the rant, its just gutting to see a huge opportunity missed, as well as the potential for it all to go calamitously wrong if we don't get promoted.

And breath.

This is exactly how my R's mate sees it too. He's also not really a big fan of Redknapp for several reasons. The style of football has been a matter of contention for the Rangers fans. They've largely found Redknapps style pretty dour for them. Good defence but not great in attack.
Plus he persistently contradicts himself/talks nonsense (no surprise). He came into the club stating what a mess it was because of the transfer policy, paying out ridiculous sums for passed it mercenaries. Then 90% of Arry's signings since that time have been just that. Indeed the issue of loan players has also wound the fans up. They've got more loan players in than they're actually allowed to include in the match day squad, and some of them seem utterly pointless. They loaned in some unheard of Brazilian striker who's not even played.

Total shambles of a club.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh QPR are completely stuffed.

[rob_bridge]

Anyone else notice how the fawning Redknapp media pundits have gone on what a great manager he is. In fact as quiet as he has since their form dropped off a cliff after Christmas.

There are few crumbs of comfort in this disastrous season but I'd like to see them get bombed out of the play offs tomorrow.

[rob_bridge]

Thanks for that link Eamonn.

I think the single most disappointing stat is we are 10th in the turnover.

Below West Ham!!

[mr underhill]

everything about Villa at the moment is pretty disappointing tbh. let's hope for improved fortune soon.

[Tony Erdington]

Before lambert, didn't Rafa (yes fsw) say he would come but wanted money to spend. think were some way from attracting such a high profile manger as that now.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Before lambert, didn't Rafa (yes fsw) say he would come but wanted money to spend. think were some way from attracting such a high profile manger as that now.

I recall this rumour as well.

Also Maradona definitely did say he wanted to come. I wanted him at the time purely for the entertainment value. Looking back I was right.

[Des Little]

Oh QPR are completely stuffed.

Good!

[brontebilly]

We still have the eighth highest wage bill in the league.
.

I'm not arguing with you on this but how do you know this to be true?

Was in the Guardians football finances feature last week.

It'll be influenced by the 'bomb squad' members still on the wage bill.

If ever there were an illustration of how abysmally this club is run, then it is that whole 'bomb squad' thing.

A failure in the contract negotiations at the start and a failure to utilise the assets while we have them to aid in offloading them.

We have been badly run from 2006 to the present.

I keep saying this, but the one thing we have consistently failed to do in that time is manage the squad.

The squad should be the club's main asset, the club should be largely based around improving it, or, in base terms, maintaining and improving it's value.

For some reason, we do not appear to have done this. We are, for example, great at selling really good players - Milner, Young, Downing, Barry, ones people actively want. What about the other ones, though, who aren't so high profile?

Why are Hutton, Bent, N'Zogbia (because he will be one of them, have no doubt), Given, why are these players seemingly impossible to sell? Are they on stupid money? If so, that's poor management. If not, then it's still poor management in failing to sell them.

How many players have we had sit out huge contracts, contribute fuck all, and walk away for nothing?

Cuellar? NRC? Luke Young? Heskey? Ireland?

Randy is a good man, and he has spent a lot of money on this club. He "got" the club in a way that many others have not and do not. He has run it awfully, though, and it doesn't take much of a glance at the way money was wasted to see that.

I just don't see how it is possible for it to have been anything other than a job badly done to have spent hundreds of millions of pounds to end up with a really poor squad which has spent four years arsing around at the bottom of the table.

A Functioning CEO would never have let the Reo Coker and Cuellar situations escalate to a point where they were allowed to run down their contracts. We would have got around half what we paid for them if we let them go with 12 months left on their contracts like what Wenger does. Ireland in hindsight should have been flogged after his POTY season. Albrighton is going to walk this season for free. Same as Herd and a few others who should have been let go at least a year ago.

Lerner seems utterly clueless at even running a business. It's no wonder we are stony broke with the financial mismanagement that has taken place under his reign.

For example we paid the bones of a million quid for each of Makoun's appearances. Doubt we even got a thank you in return. The five year Given deal, the Kozak signing looks a nailed on net loss for us too. 500k is it for each Darren Bent goal.

Each club makes mistakes but we continuously shoot ourselves in the foot with the contracts management of players and staff

[Sexual Ealing]

Before lambert, didn't Rafa (yes fsw) say he would come but wanted money to spend. think were some way from attracting such a high profile manger as that now.

I recall this rumour as well.

Also Maradona definitely did say he wanted to come. I wanted him at the time purely for the entertainment value. Looking back I was right.

You definitely were.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Before lambert, didn't Rafa (yes fsw) say he would come but wanted money to spend. think were some way from attracting such a high profile manger as that now.

I recall this rumour as well.

Also Maradona definitely did say he wanted to come. I wanted him at the time purely for the entertainment value. Looking back I was right.

You definitely were.

It would have been a media circus somewhere between Dicanio and Mourinoh but I fancy we would have also seen some more exciting football.