Transfer Speculation / Gossip

[aj2k77]

I wouldn't say we're decidedly average, that to me would be a Stoke. We are worse than they are. We also have two of our best players with 1 year left and I have no faith that the club will sort the situation out properly before they leave for nothing, leaving us to replace them with more tatt.

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Last season's struggle was more of an exaggerated version of Houlliers, where we started poorly, but then picked up a lot post January. So much so, that we finished 9th, albeit in a tight league. We were never going down though.

Last season was like that, but perhaps more pronounced. We were never going down and looked bang average up until possibly our best performance of the season against Chelsea, where we collapsed and limped home, unbeknown that we had secured safety against Chelsea.

[Toronto Villa]

The current feeling by many is a result of the last few years plus the catastrophic way we collapsed we fell from safety post Chelsea to near relegation. I said last year that has the season gone 2 more games we'd be gone. That all said, I have always been of the belief that every new season is not an extension of the previous one. Otherwise the worst teams from each prior year would go down. We all know that isn't how it works.

Last year the season could not have ended soon enough and there was clearly things happening behind the scenes that derailed what appeared on the surface to be a good or improving situation. I'll always remain my optimism going into a new campaign and while we absolutely must strengthen we have the basis of a team that can finish mid table. If the ownership situation resolves itself it will either confirm my beliefs or strengthen them with or without Lambert.

[RussellC]

Last season's struggle was more of an exaggerated version of Houlliers

I don't see the comparison to Houllier's season to be honest. Houllier came into the club with the season already underway and had a rebuilding job on his hands from the moment he came in.

Yes, we struggled at times, but tactically and in terms of our style of play we were much more advanced than we are now. We played some pretty decent possession football at times that season and actually finished it looking like a very good team. To me, that's miles away from the Villa Team I watched last season, where it very much looked like our Manager and Coaching staff had regressed from the previous year.

I didn't particularly like Houllier (whilst I actually do like Lambert) but the comparisons to his Villa Team and Lambert's just aren't accurate IMO.

[hilts_coolerking]

I hesitate to make such a glib statement as "At least we're not Coventry or Leeds (or Hereford or Salisbury...or many others)" but, well, we're not are we?

We're not Stoke, Palace or Swansea either.

[Chris Smith]

I hesitate to make such a glib statement as "At least we're not Coventry or Leeds (or Hereford or Salisbury...or many others)" but, well, we're not are we?

We're not Stoke, Palace or Swansea either.

You say that as though those teams finished totally out of sight of us, whcih just isn't the case.

I'm not going to get into an ifs and buts argument but the line between 9th and 16th is a fine one, where a couple of results going the other way makes all the difference.

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Last season's struggle was more of an exaggerated version of Houlliers

I don't see the comparison to Houllier's season to be honest. Houllier came into the club with the season already underway and had a rebuilding job on his hands from the moment he came in.

Yes, we struggled at times, but tactically and in terms of our style of play we were much more advanced than we are now. We played some pretty decent possession football at times that season and actually finished it looking like a very good team. To me, that's miles away from the Villa Team I watched last season, where it very much looked like our Manager and Coaching staff had regressed from the previous year.

I didn't particularly like Houllier (whilst I actually do like Lambert) but the comparisons to his Villa Team and Lambert's just aren't accurate IMO.

I am not comparing styles, I am making a comment on struggling and how close or not we have come to being relegated.

[RussellC]

I hesitate to make such a glib statement as "At least we're not Coventry or Leeds (or Hereford or Salisbury...or many others)" but, well, we're not are we?

We're not Stoke, Palace or Swansea either.

You say that as though those teams finished totally out of sight of us, whcih just isn't the case.

I'm not going to get into an ifs and buts argument but the line between 9th and 16th is a fine one, where a couple of results going the other way makes all the difference.

The inference being that Stoke, Palace and Swansea "not finishing out of sight of us" made it an acceptable season?!

I don't get this line that "we were never going down" last season. I refuse to believe that anyone who's used it was at the Fulham game, because it certainly felt like we were in the shit then.

As for the comment about the line between 9th and 15th being a fine one and "a couple of results going the other way" making a difference,  then by your logic the line between finishing 15th and 18th is half as thin, no?

[RussellC]

I am not comparing styles, I am making a comment on struggling and how close or not we have come to being relegated.

Either way, I don't see the comparison. Two completely different seasons to me, not least because the one just passed was Lambert's second season, and almost completely his own squad.

[Dave]

The inference being that Stoke, Palace and Swansea "not finishing out of sight of us" made it an acceptable season?!

No, the inference that the fact that we finished behind those three teams doesn't mean that they light years ahead of us.

[hilts_coolerking]

You say that as though those teams finished totally out of sight of us, whcih just isn't the case.

I'm not going to get into an ifs and buts argument but the line between 9th and 16th is a fine one, where a couple of results going the other way makes all the difference.

No, I say it as examples of teams that outperformed us last season.  More relevant, in my opinion, than comparing us to Coventry or Leeds.  Palace in particular were dead and buried and yet finished 7 points ahead of us. 

A couple of results going the other way would have seen us relegated.

[RussellC]

The inference being that Stoke, Palace and Swansea "not finishing out of sight of us" made it an acceptable season?!

No, the inference that the fact that we finished behind those three teams doesn't mean that they light years ahead of us.

The fear being that those 3 clubs will be investing heavily in their squads this summer while we don't.

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Palace will probably go down, while Swansea may recover from not having European football, or alternatively, sack Monk before Christmas and struggle again.

I don't understand the logic that 19 other clubs just get stronger and stronger, while we get worse. We've got better if anything in terms of players we could put on the pitch tomorrow compared to what we had in the last few weeks of last season.

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You say that as though those teams finished totally out of sight of us, whcih just isn't the case.

I'm not going to get into an ifs and buts argument but the line between 9th and 16th is a fine one, where a couple of results going the other way makes all the difference.

No, I say it as examples of teams that outperformed us last season.  More relevant, in my opinion, than comparing us to Coventry or Leeds.  Palace in particular were dead and buried and yet finished 7 points ahead of us. 

A couple of results going the other way would have seen us relegated.[/b[

You've made Chris' point for him. A couple of results either way and you can be relagted. Or finish 9th. Small margins in this poor, poor league.

[Chris Smith]

The inference being that Stoke, Palace and Swansea "not finishing out of sight of us" made it an acceptable season?!

No, the inference that the fact that we finished behind those three teams doesn't mean that they light years ahead of us.

The fear being that those 3 clubs will be investing heavily in their squads this season while we don't.

Actually, that's got the makings of a good chant, "We're Aston Villa, Swansea, Palace and Stoke aren't light-years ahead of us" ;-)

Another poster mentioned those clubs, not me. I just tried to add a little perspective rather than the doom laden hysteria that seems to have stricken a few of you.

It's the first week in July and you've already written off the season, don't you think even by the standards of Internet hysteria that is a little bit premature?