Kendrick Says It's Time To Ask Questions

[dave.woodhall]

I have a sneaking suspicion that When Randy sells up he will have made a very tidy amount of money out of us...

I don't see how anyone can possibly suspect that.

Have you seen how much he has had to inject into the club? The loans he has written off?

Loans to himself.  I wonder how much he has taken out in wages and management fees.

You've been told more times than I can remember. Find out for yourself from the published accounts and let us know.

I wouldn't know where to look, but he is either a very astute business man or as inept at finance as he is at running a football club.

Try googling Aston Villa accounts for a start and he doesn't have to be either.

Googled it, as far as I can see he has spent a fair few million on players and their wages that even the most frivolous on here would have sanctioned.  According to what I have managed to look up, nothing concrete since 2012, our wage bill was at 85% of our turnover and we were losing money like water through a sieve. Randy did put off the interest payment on the loan for one year.
Still it looks like we have been very poorly run, during the reign of MoN and every other manager since.
Like I say I am no accountant and don't really know anything concrete but I have a gut feeling we don't know all there is to know about our clubs finances. 
I am not saying Randy is doing anything dodgy. 

So might that possibly be the last time you ask variations on the same question?

Don't know, depends on if it's relevant to the discussion, unless I am not allowed to ask questions on a thread entitled Kendrick Says It's Time To Ask Questions.  I am very concerned about the clubs finances, as should we all, let's face it we don't want to do a Leeds do we?

Oh good, the "I'm not allowed to..." approach. Which is of course particularly ironic as it relates to a question you ask regularly and always get answered.

[rob_bridge]

I think the one thing most of us agree with is that he has not got a clue how to run a football club.

Speak for yourself. I might not agree with a lot of what he has done but I wouldn't just use a broad brush to describe his ability to run a football club. He's done good things, he's invested heavily and the club has represented itself well outside of the on field events. He appointed a manager that you, me and many others approved of. That it hasn't worked (yet) doesn't make him a bad owner or show an inability to run a football club. There are plenty or worse examples out there of exactly what you are trying to describe and Randy would be a long way down that list.

The decision making since O'Neill walked out has, on the whole, been shocking.  And at times absolutely inexplicable.

Yup and er who was made CEO just before he left? And who is still there? Learning his role 4 years later? Potentially likely to hire his 4th manager soon?

There is no reason why Faulkner should not be employed by Aston Villa. There are too many reasons why he should not be CEO.

[Irish villain]

Randy and Faulkner have their supporters on here. It is a debate that will only intensify. We have seen cogent arguments put as to why those who run the club have made a bit of a pig's ear of it.

I would like somebody to write something up illustrating why they believe the club is in good hands and has been run reasonably well since 2006. We don't see that thrashed out enough in my view and I would like to see that position outlined.

And,if possible, without the 'we would have been relegated in 2006' line. We all know Villa were a mess back then and Doug was well past it by then and a change had been needed for sometime. Also, the parallels with our current status are too discomforting.

[Toronto Villa]

this bit "That whole situation is a stone cold example of a club not being run properly".

You've made a strong suggestion that he doesn't know how to run a football club and I countered that by saying it is overly simplistic and that there are other factors that need to be considered before making such a sweeping statement.

That whole situation IS a stone cold example of a club not being properly.  It can't be construed as anything else when you spend hundreds of millions of pounds and the net result is a financial mess that takes three years (and counting) to address and the club drops down the arse end of the table to fight relegation battles year after year.  That's bad management in anyone's book.  Which is not to say the Acorns deal wasn't an extremely generous gesture on Randy's part, because it quite obviously was but I defy anyone to look at the Villa since Lerner took over and say 'Yep that man sure knows how to run a football club.'

what exactly is running a football club? Because again, by your very last statement you are saying he doesn't know how to run one, yet there is evidence to the contrary that he has got some things right and some things wrong. You are failing to accept that there is a middle ground. You have put all of your eggs in the financial side of things which are partly to do with his backing of the manager which is part of running a football club. He could have had a shirt sponsor but took Acorns for a year - part of running a football club. He's improved the stadium - part of running a football club. He appointed two managers that were popular choices - part of running a football club. It hasn't all worked out - again part of running a football club. That's why in a league of multi millionaire or even billionaire owners not everyone finishes top, and 3 get relegated.

[villajk]

Just found this posted on Facebook.

http://avillafan.com/site/11469/the-hodgson-report-on-aston-villa-11-years-after-the-original/

Back in 2003, my father and I compiled a report, having been commissioned by Villa Fans Combined, on the running of Aston Villa PLC. It was well received and we believe it led to the eventual sale of Aston Villa in 2006. It was clear then that the club desperately needed new direction and funding and it’s very clear now that we are back to those days so I have compiled another report, albeit in less detail and more to the point. It’s written with the best interests of Aston Villa in mind, as always.

The Board

The main Aston Villa board members are Randolph Lerner, Paul Faulkner and Robin Russell, with General Charles Krulak as the one non-executive board member.

It’s become very clear that this is a board ill-equipped to run a football club successfully. The knowledge simply isn’t there regarding football in general and Aston Villa as a football club in particular. There is a very long list of expensive mistakes made – too long to list – but proof is in the pudding: we are struggling to match Doug Ellis and David O’Leary last season’s (2005/6) points tally (42) for the third season running.

Off the field activities are run well, including an excellent hospitality division and good work in the community with charities like Acorns. However, Aston Villa is a football club, not a hotel.

This means the club relies solely on the football manager for leadership and direction on the football pitch – a dangerous scenario as an air of invincibility starts to surround this one individual. This was very apparent with Martin O Neill and is evident again with the current manager, Paul Lambert.

Until recently, I had a reasonable relationship with Paul Faulkner and always tried to advise from afar where possible. It was becoming more obvious to me and several others every week that despite our fairly comfortable position in the Premier League we were digressing in our playing style, which would lead to big problems not too far down the line.

I took the time out to write to Randy Lerner about my concerns and made some suggestions as to how we could improve things.

Suffice to say, the reaction I got was not expected and led to me being told I was no longer welcome in the Aston Villa directors’ box/restaurant. The reasons given? I was informed in writing that I had infringed on Mr Lerner’s privacy by discussing his attendance record (hardly a secret) on Twitter and was told in person by Paul Faulkner that it was for not being supportive, his exact words being:

“What were you trying to achieve in writing this letter to the owner? The manager has seen it and is not happy. We would not want you to outlast your welcome here, Howard.”
I found his behaviour incredible: he was talking to me like an employee when in fact I was a customer who had spent a great deal of money over the last two years on match sponsorships and directors’ memberships, not to mention being a season ticket holder for thirty-six years and from a family that has had long-standing relationships with many of the previous owners (Ellis, Bendell, Kartz).

It’s very sad that constructive criticism is just not allowed at Aston Villa these days. The press also have to tread very warily for fear of being banned if they print things not to the liking of those in power at Aston Villa Football Club. How can that be right?

We have been failing for four consecutive years and yet all we are told by the board is that a long term plan is in place and they are satisfied with the progress being made. What progress? We had bad seasons under the Ellis regime but never four in a row! Even when we went down in 86/87, by 89/90 we almost won the league, as we did in 92/93. What do we have to show for Lerner’s regime? Three top six finishes and a Cup final, which all seems to have happened a long time ago.

The Manager – Paul Lambert

£40 million has been spent by Paul Lambert on sixteen new players yet we remain on course for another struggle, with the same low points achieved by his predecessor and the style of football hardly having improved. That is not my idea of progress. When money is not unlimited perhaps bringing in three left backs and four big centre forwards is a tad misguided, especially when the spine of central midfield, central defence and wingers remains woefully inadequate. The fact Lambert seems so obsessed with big strikers tells you a lot about his thoughts tactically.

He is primarily a ‘behind the ball’ manager: get men behind the ball, soak up the pressure, let the opponents have the ball and then hit them on the counter attack. This can work away from home, as we have seen, but at home counter attacking opportunities are rare except against top sides that will dominate. Most sides sit back and say, “You have the ball Villa. You are at home. Break us down”. Sadly, we don’t have a clue how to do that and other teams now know this.

Our only plan is to go sideways, backwards, opt for a long ball as we don’t commit men beyond the ball or run enough off the ball for the man on the ball to have options to pass to in front of him. Movement draws opponents out of position and creates space. We just don’t do this for fear of – you’ve guessed it – being hit on the counter attack! We hold position far too much. Even our full backs haven’t been getting forward this season so the man on the ball at Villa Park, literally, has nowhere to go but sideways, backwards or long. This makes it very easy for away teams to defend. Added to this, they know they don’t have to create much for us to concede a goal as we nearly always have a lapse in concentration, particularly when Vlaar does not play.

Lambert is the manager and he is paid a lot of money to do far better than he is doing. I see the same turgid stuff week after week, with no attempt to change or improve. He has openly admitted he doesn’t know why we play so poorly at home but surely he realises it comes down to what I have just outlined? People tell me he has made us more solid. Well, so what? It’s not paying dividends with the results. It did perhaps when we were sitting on nineteen points after fourteen games but negative, long ball football always gets found out in the end, much like it did in the McLeish season, and we now have amassed just nine points from the last thirteen games, failing to score in our last three games against teams around us or out of form. It’s no wonder he spends so much time chasing big strikers as our whole home strategy appears to be hitting long diagonal balls to a big man for others to feed off. It’s a tactic that is out of date and in any case the big number 9 is too often isolated anyway.

I must confess to being supportive of Paul Lambert’s appointment. I honestly thought a bright, young manager like him would be just what this club needed after the disastrous appointment/reign of Alex McLeish. He came with a reputation of having his teams play attractive, attacking football and first and foremost we’d try and win games regardless of the opposition. He made a point of addressing the home form himself when he first arrived, saying it was about time the Villa fans started enjoying their team’s football at Villa Park again. Well, thirty-two games on and with only eight wins registered and some of the worst, most aimless football I have ever seen at Villa Park in thirty-six years of attendance, I am still waiting to enjoy myself, Paul.

I did think we were on to something positive between February and May of 2013. We played positively and even found some form at Villa Park. The QPR game (second half) and Sunderland games were big highlights, as were the first sixty minutes against Chelsea when, until Benteke was sent off, we were the better side. I went into the summer feeling we had a real chance, if we kept playing in that manner, of achieving fifty points this season. Those thoughts were strengthened by the win at The Emirates and the strong performance against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Sadly, since that second game we just haven’t performed with the exceptions of a bright second half against Manchester City and an excellent first half against Liverpool. We have had some narrow wins against Southampton and Sunderland but, overall, it’s been regression all the way. I honestly don’t think we have put one consistent ninety minute performance together – a feature of Lambert’s reign – and I believe we have only won two games by a two goal margin and none by three or more.

Lambert has proved to be a major disappointment. His tactics, as outlined, are one dimensional, predictable and far more negative than I ever imagined they would be. Tiote made a telling comment on Sunday after the game, claiming he never felt Villa came to win the game. That mindset has been too apparent in recent times and it’s a mindset I would never have associated with a Lambert team before he came here. Also, the same mistakes are made week after week, indicating the work on the training ground simply isn’t working.

He has bought some good players who have done well but also bought a lot of average players who just seem to be making up the numbers. Perhaps trusting a few more of the ‘bomb squad’, some of whom we are still paying fortunes to every week, or the NextGen winning squad could have allowed him to buy less quantity and more quality.

I was invited to Bodymoor Heath at the beginning of the Lambert reign and the strategy of buying young, talented players who were going to grow as a team together was explained. Henke had been appointed as head of scouting and he would ensure we were first in line to capture hidden or undiscovered gems in Europe. However, Henke was gone by January 2013.

This sounded like a good plan as long as the young players targeted were good enough to play in one of the toughest leagues in the world. Whilst some, like Benteke and Okore, are, too many are substandard, especially as we had not targeted any proven, experienced players at this level until this January window, which represented a big shift in strategy by Lambert, who had previously been quoted as saying: “This club tried the experienced footballer route and it didn’t get them much success.” It was therefore a surprise to hear him say he now did want experienced players at the beginning of January. Brett Holman must have had a wry smile on his face when he heard Lambert say this as he had suggested the same thing a year earlier much to the annoyance of Lambert, who made sure Holman wouldn’t have a future at Villa following that comment.

Conclusion

It is my opinion that Aston Villa Football Club is in a bigger mess than it was in when the original Hodgson Report was written in 2003 when fans were at the end of their tethers with the previous owner, Doug Ellis. We had just finished on forty-five points under Graham Taylor, which was deemed totally unacceptable. We then had three seasons under David O’Leary with fifty-six points, forty-seven points and forty-two points being amassed with limited transfer funds. It was clear by 2006 that the club was indeed crying out for a takeover and up stepped Reform Acquisitions LLC and Randy Lerner.

Everyone was so excited. Doug Ellis and David O’Leary were finally gone and we had a bright new era ahead with Lerner and Martin O’Neill that would take us back to the top.

Whilst no one can say Martin O’Neill wasn’t given fantastic backing in that time, the lack of a football man on the board to control the type of players brought in, to make sure we could always sell players on for a profit and not keep buying players at the top of their value was badly missing and blew such a hole in Lerner’s plan that we have since been slowly sinking like the Titanic.

Even after Martin O’Neill, Paul Faulkner, McLeish and, to a lesser degree, Houllier burnt serious millions on crazy deals for Ireland, Bent, Makoun, Hutton, Given and N’Zogbia. Hutton alone will have been paid £4 million in wages since he last played for us! You would have thought we would have learnt our lesson from another right back who hardly ever played for us but got paid £7 million in wages – a certain Habib Beye! I say Houllier was wasteful to a lesser degree as Bent was primarily a Lerner signing plus he did almost single-handedly save the club from relegation in 2010/11.

The irony is it’s the Lerner family’s money that has been blown but he continues to back people like Paul Faulkner religiously. Faulkner, as Chief Executive Officer, is responsible for these day-to-day business decisions like what people get paid and for how long their contracts run. As I mentioned earlier, Paul Faulkner relies far too heavily on the football manager as he simply doesn’t have the knowledge that someone like Daniel Levy does to make these decisions himself. Surely that can’t be right? He is Chief Executive of a big football club.

Ultimately, Aston Villa deserves far better. It is very unfortunate that Randy Lerner has lost the money he has but that comes with the territory and if you make bad decisions and don’t appoint the right people these things happen in business.

Aston Villa needs to move on. Randy Lerner either has to sell the club at the earliest opportunity as Doug Ellis did when it became apparent he couldn’t fund it satisfactorily or provide more finance to rebuild the club properly and return it to its rightful place as a big six player.

This meandering in the lower reaches of the Premier League has to stop. Frankly, I am extremely worried that we may not even be a Premiership club next season because our form and play is so bad.

You have to hope that, like in that final Ellis/David O’Leary season, we do survive and a clean sweep is made of the people in power at Villa in the summer and lessons are learnt if a new owner does come in, the biggest one being get Aston Villa people who understand the club, the fans and the game on the board – people who will have a burning desire to return the club to the top. That,combined with the necessary funding and appointing the right manager, will mean happier times are not far away.

If we continue with Lerner, Faulkner and Lambert indefinitely, I fear years of pain and unsatisfactory results unless they have a major rethink and change their attitudes and strategies.

[Fergal]

I have a sneaking suspicion that When Randy sells up he will have made a very tidy amount of money out of us...

I don't see how anyone can possibly suspect that.

Have you seen how much he has had to inject into the club? The loans he has written off?

Loans to himself.  I wonder how much he has taken out in wages and management fees.

You've been told more times than I can remember. Find out for yourself from the published accounts and let us know.

I wouldn't know where to look, but he is either a very astute business man or as inept at finance as he is at running a football club.

Try googling Aston Villa accounts for a start and he doesn't have to be either.

Googled it, as far as I can see he has spent a fair few million on players and their wages that even the most frivolous on here would have sanctioned.  According to what I have managed to look up, nothing concrete since 2012, our wage bill was at 85% of our turnover and we were losing money like water through a sieve. Randy did put off the interest payment on the loan for one year.
Still it looks like we have been very poorly run, during the reign of MoN and every other manager since.
Like I say I am no accountant and don't really know anything concrete but I have a gut feeling we don't know all there is to know about our clubs finances. 
I am not saying Randy is doing anything dodgy. 

So might that possibly be the last time you ask variations on the same question?

Don't know, depends on if it's relevant to the discussion, unless I am not allowed to ask questions on a thread entitled Kendrick Says It's Time To Ask Questions.  I am very concerned about the clubs finances, as should we all, let's face it we don't want to do a Leeds do we?

Oh good, the "I'm not allowed to..." approach. Which is of course particularly ironic as it relates to a question you ask regularly and always get answered.

Oh good, the "sarcastic put down approach..."  You do seem to get very defensive about this, and no I don't always get an answer I am looking for.  This club is being run into the ground and I am worried for the future.
Do you think it's been well run or poorly run?

[Dave]

The cynic in me says that it doesn't really make any difference who the manager is provided they have experience of professional footy and an understanding of coaching. It's all about money.
The emergence of Man City killed us when they took our two best players. After that Randy was unable to out spend the others into 4th. He is out of his depth against the rest of the Premier Leagues big clubs. The owners of Everton, Spurs and Newcastle regularly run rings round us off the pitch in commercial terms and in recruitment. Should Everton really appeal more to a Wigan manager than us?

Take away Randy's money then what does he bring to the table? Less than a Doug/Stride combo I'd say.

The above said, although the team is everything, I can't help but like Randy even though I know little about him. The Acorns thing alone makes everything else irrelevant really. That is a more important legacy than footy. I get the feeling with Randy that he has one of those moral compasses that people born into wealth can afford to have, and there is nothing wrong with that, but footy is a ruthless industry that requires sometimes spiteful decision making. Perhaps it's just not his bag.

I like this post.

I was just thinking it was a candidate for Private Eye's OBN section.

OBN?

Text speak for Obi Wan Kenobi...

Old Brown Nose

Erm... Order of the Brown Nose, surely?

[hilts_coolerking]

what exactly is running a football club? Because again, by your very last statement you are saying he doesn't know how to run one, yet there is evidence to the contrary that he has got some things right and some things wrong. You are failing to accept that there is a middle ground. You have put all of your eggs in the financial side of things which are partly to do with his backing of the manager which is part of running a football club. He could have had a shirt sponsor but took Acorns for a year - part of running a football club. He's improved the stadium - part of running a football club. He appointed two managers that were popular choices - part of running a football club. It hasn't all worked out - again part of running a football club. That's why in a league of multi millionaire or even billionaire owners not everyone finishes top, and 3 get relegated.

I'm quite plainly not putting all of my eggs in the financial basket; there's a good few in the footballing basket too.  I think you're conflating Randy's wealth and altruism with skill at running a football club.  He's got bags of the former and very little of the latter.

[dave.woodhall]

Oh good, the "sarcastic put down approach..."  You do seem to get very defensive about this, and no I don't always get an answer I am looking for.  This club is being run into the ground and I am worried for the future.
Do you think it's been well run or poorly run?

Of course you don't get the answer you're looking for. The answer you want is that Randy is some sort of financial leech taking a fortune out of the club every year when in fact the reverse is true. You get told that every time you ask the question, but it isn't what you want to hear so you go off on  another tangent until it's time to ask the original question again.

I'll repeat what Toronto said - in some ways the club are being badly run, in others they are doing well. Unfortunately the most important aspect isn't right at the moment. 

[Witton Warrior]

Just found this posted on Facebook.

http://avillafan.com/site/11469/the-hodgson-report-on-aston-villa-11-years-after-the-original/

Can this response be verified as genuine?

Because if it is I may have to adjust my position on the Board being in any way approachable and get the bed sheet out of the washing and start photocopying the £ signs...

[Fergal]

Oh good, the "sarcastic put down approach..."  You do seem to get very defensive about this, and no I don't always get an answer I am looking for.  This club is being run into the ground and I am worried for the future.
Do you think it's been well run or poorly run?

Of course you don't get the answer you're looking for. The answer you want is that Randy is some sort of financial leech taking a fortune out of the club every year when in fact the reverse is true. You get told that every time you ask the question, but it isn't what you want to hear so you go off on  another tangent until it's time to ask the original question again.

I'll repeat what Toronto said - in some ways the club are being badly run, in others they are doing well. Unfortunately the most important aspect isn't right at the moment. 

I can agree with that statement, except for the 'at the moment' bit.  The football side has been run horrendously for years, and there seems to be no sign of improvement.

[pauliewalnuts]

Just found this posted on Facebook.

http://avillafan.com/site/11469/the-hodgson-report-on-aston-villa-11-years-after-the-original/

Can this response be verified as genuine?

Because if it is I may have to adjust my position on the Board being in any way approachable and get the bed sheet out of the washing and start photocopying the £ signs...

"The Hodgson Report"

What a self important twat.

[villajk]

I think this was written by the chap that used to sit in the Directors Box until recently but was removed for various comments he made.  He could have an axe to grind.

[Dave Clark Five]

Just found this posted on Facebook.

http://avillafan.com/site/11469/the-hodgson-report-on-aston-villa-11-years-after-the-original/

Back in 2003, my father and I compiled a report, having been commissioned by Villa Fans Combined, on the running of Aston Villa PLC. It was well received and we believe it led to the eventual sale of Aston Villa in 2006. It was clear then that the club desperately needed new direction and funding and it’s very clear now that we are back to those days so I have compiled another report, albeit in less detail and more to the point. It’s written with the best interests of Aston Villa in mind, as always.

The Board

The main Aston Villa board members are Randolph Lerner, Paul Faulkner and Robin Russell, with General Charles Krulak as the one non-executive board member.

It’s become very clear that this is a board ill-equipped to run a football club successfully. The knowledge simply isn’t there regarding football in general and Aston Villa as a football club in particular. There is a very long list of expensive mistakes made – too long to list – but proof is in the pudding: we are struggling to match Doug Ellis and David O’Leary last season’s (2005/6) points tally (42) for the third season running.

Off the field activities are run well, including an excellent hospitality division and good work in the community with charities like Acorns. However, Aston Villa is a football club, not a hotel.

This means the club relies solely on the football manager for leadership and direction on the football pitch – a dangerous scenario as an air of invincibility starts to surround this one individual. This was very apparent with Martin O Neill and is evident again with the current manager, Paul Lambert.

Until recently, I had a reasonable relationship with Paul Faulkner and always tried to advise from afar where possible. It was becoming more obvious to me and several others every week that despite our fairly comfortable position in the Premier League we were digressing in our playing style, which would lead to big problems not too far down the line.

I took the time out to write to Randy Lerner about my concerns and made some suggestions as to how we could improve things.

Suffice to say, the reaction I got was not expected and led to me being told I was no longer welcome in the Aston Villa directors’ box/restaurant. The reasons given? I was informed in writing that I had infringed on Mr Lerner’s privacy by discussing his attendance record (hardly a secret) on Twitter and was told in person by Paul Faulkner that it was for not being supportive, his exact words being:

“What were you trying to achieve in writing this letter to the owner? The manager has seen it and is not happy. We would not want you to outlast your welcome here, Howard.”
I found his behaviour incredible: he was talking to me like an employee when in fact I was a customer who had spent a great deal of money over the last two years on match sponsorships and directors’ memberships, not to mention being a season ticket holder for thirty-six years and from a family that has had long-standing relationships with many of the previous owners (Ellis, Bendell, Kartz).

It’s very sad that constructive criticism is just not allowed at Aston Villa these days. The press also have to tread very warily for fear of being banned if they print things not to the liking of those in power at Aston Villa Football Club. How can that be right?

We have been failing for four consecutive years and yet all we are told by the board is that a long term plan is in place and they are satisfied with the progress being made. What progress? We had bad seasons under the Ellis regime but never four in a row! Even when we went down in 86/87, by 89/90 we almost won the league, as we did in 92/93. What do we have to show for Lerner’s regime? Three top six finishes and a Cup final, which all seems to have happened a long time ago.

The Manager – Paul Lambert

£40 million has been spent by Paul Lambert on sixteen new players yet we remain on course for another struggle, with the same low points achieved by his predecessor and the style of football hardly having improved. That is not my idea of progress. When money is not unlimited perhaps bringing in three left backs and four big centre forwards is a tad misguided, especially when the spine of central midfield, central defence and wingers remains woefully inadequate. The fact Lambert seems so obsessed with big strikers tells you a lot about his thoughts tactically.

He is primarily a ‘behind the ball’ manager: get men behind the ball, soak up the pressure, let the opponents have the ball and then hit them on the counter attack. This can work away from home, as we have seen, but at home counter attacking opportunities are rare except against top sides that will dominate. Most sides sit back and say, “You have the ball Villa. You are at home. Break us down”. Sadly, we don’t have a clue how to do that and other teams now know this.

Our only plan is to go sideways, backwards, opt for a long ball as we don’t commit men beyond the ball or run enough off the ball for the man on the ball to have options to pass to in front of him. Movement draws opponents out of position and creates space. We just don’t do this for fear of – you’ve guessed it – being hit on the counter attack! We hold position far too much. Even our full backs haven’t been getting forward this season so the man on the ball at Villa Park, literally, has nowhere to go but sideways, backwards or long. This makes it very easy for away teams to defend. Added to this, they know they don’t have to create much for us to concede a goal as we nearly always have a lapse in concentration, particularly when Vlaar does not play.

Lambert is the manager and he is paid a lot of money to do far better than he is doing. I see the same turgid stuff week after week, with no attempt to change or improve. He has openly admitted he doesn’t know why we play so poorly at home but surely he realises it comes down to what I have just outlined? People tell me he has made us more solid. Well, so what? It’s not paying dividends with the results. It did perhaps when we were sitting on nineteen points after fourteen games but negative, long ball football always gets found out in the end, much like it did in the McLeish season, and we now have amassed just nine points from the last thirteen games, failing to score in our last three games against teams around us or out of form. It’s no wonder he spends so much time chasing big strikers as our whole home strategy appears to be hitting long diagonal balls to a big man for others to feed off. It’s a tactic that is out of date and in any case the big number 9 is too often isolated anyway.

I must confess to being supportive of Paul Lambert’s appointment. I honestly thought a bright, young manager like him would be just what this club needed after the disastrous appointment/reign of Alex McLeish. He came with a reputation of having his teams play attractive, attacking football and first and foremost we’d try and win games regardless of the opposition. He made a point of addressing the home form himself when he first arrived, saying it was about time the Villa fans started enjoying their team’s football at Villa Park again. Well, thirty-two games on and with only eight wins registered and some of the worst, most aimless football I have ever seen at Villa Park in thirty-six years of attendance, I am still waiting to enjoy myself, Paul.

I did think we were on to something positive between February and May of 2013. We played positively and even found some form at Villa Park. The QPR game (second half) and Sunderland games were big highlights, as were the first sixty minutes against Chelsea when, until Benteke was sent off, we were the better side. I went into the summer feeling we had a real chance, if we kept playing in that manner, of achieving fifty points this season. Those thoughts were strengthened by the win at The Emirates and the strong performance against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Sadly, since that second game we just haven’t performed with the exceptions of a bright second half against Manchester City and an excellent first half against Liverpool. We have had some narrow wins against Southampton and Sunderland but, overall, it’s been regression all the way. I honestly don’t think we have put one consistent ninety minute performance together – a feature of Lambert’s reign – and I believe we have only won two games by a two goal margin and none by three or more.

Lambert has proved to be a major disappointment. His tactics, as outlined, are one dimensional, predictable and far more negative than I ever imagined they would be. Tiote made a telling comment on Sunday after the game, claiming he never felt Villa came to win the game. That mindset has been too apparent in recent times and it’s a mindset I would never have associated with a Lambert team before he came here. Also, the same mistakes are made week after week, indicating the work on the training ground simply isn’t working.

He has bought some good players who have done well but also bought a lot of average players who just seem to be making up the numbers. Perhaps trusting a few more of the ‘bomb squad’, some of whom we are still paying fortunes to every week, or the NextGen winning squad could have allowed him to buy less quantity and more quality.

I was invited to Bodymoor Heath at the beginning of the Lambert reign and the strategy of buying young, talented players who were going to grow as a team together was explained. Henke had been appointed as head of scouting and he would ensure we were first in line to capture hidden or undiscovered gems in Europe. However, Henke was gone by January 2013.

This sounded like a good plan as long as the young players targeted were good enough to play in one of the toughest leagues in the world. Whilst some, like Benteke and Okore, are, too many are substandard, especially as we had not targeted any proven, experienced players at this level until this January window, which represented a big shift in strategy by Lambert, who had previously been quoted as saying: “This club tried the experienced footballer route and it didn’t get them much success.” It was therefore a surprise to hear him say he now did want experienced players at the beginning of January. Brett Holman must have had a wry smile on his face when he heard Lambert say this as he had suggested the same thing a year earlier much to the annoyance of Lambert, who made sure Holman wouldn’t have a future at Villa following that comment.

Conclusion

It is my opinion that Aston Villa Football Club is in a bigger mess than it was in when the original Hodgson Report was written in 2003 when fans were at the end of their tethers with the previous owner, Doug Ellis. We had just finished on forty-five points under Graham Taylor, which was deemed totally unacceptable. We then had three seasons under David O’Leary with fifty-six points, forty-seven points and forty-two points being amassed with limited transfer funds. It was clear by 2006 that the club was indeed crying out for a takeover and up stepped Reform Acquisitions LLC and Randy Lerner.

Everyone was so excited. Doug Ellis and David O’Leary were finally gone and we had a bright new era ahead with Lerner and Martin O’Neill that would take us back to the top.

Whilst no one can say Martin O’Neill wasn’t given fantastic backing in that time, the lack of a football man on the board to control the type of players brought in, to make sure we could always sell players on for a profit and not keep buying players at the top of their value was badly missing and blew such a hole in Lerner’s plan that we have since been slowly sinking like the Titanic.

Even after Martin O’Neill, Paul Faulkner, McLeish and, to a lesser degree, Houllier burnt serious millions on crazy deals for Ireland, Bent, Makoun, Hutton, Given and N’Zogbia. Hutton alone will have been paid £4 million in wages since he last played for us! You would have thought we would have learnt our lesson from another right back who hardly ever played for us but got paid £7 million in wages – a certain Habib Beye! I say Houllier was wasteful to a lesser degree as Bent was primarily a Lerner signing plus he did almost single-handedly save the club from relegation in 2010/11.

The irony is it’s the Lerner family’s money that has been blown but he continues to back people like Paul Faulkner religiously. Faulkner, as Chief Executive Officer, is responsible for these day-to-day business decisions like what people get paid and for how long their contracts run. As I mentioned earlier, Paul Faulkner relies far too heavily on the football manager as he simply doesn’t have the knowledge that someone like Daniel Levy does to make these decisions himself. Surely that can’t be right? He is Chief Executive of a big football club.

Ultimately, Aston Villa deserves far better. It is very unfortunate that Randy Lerner has lost the money he has but that comes with the territory and if you make bad decisions and don’t appoint the right people these things happen in business.

Aston Villa needs to move on. Randy Lerner either has to sell the club at the earliest opportunity as Doug Ellis did when it became apparent he couldn’t fund it satisfactorily or provide more finance to rebuild the club properly and return it to its rightful place as a big six player.

This meandering in the lower reaches of the Premier League has to stop. Frankly, I am extremely worried that we may not even be a Premiership club next season because our form and play is so bad.

You have to hope that, like in that final Ellis/David O’Leary season, we do survive and a clean sweep is made of the people in power at Villa in the summer and lessons are learnt if a new owner does come in, the biggest one being get Aston Villa people who understand the club, the fans and the game on the board – people who will have a burning desire to return the club to the top. That,combined with the necessary funding and appointing the right manager, will mean happier times are not far away.

If we continue with Lerner, Faulkner and Lambert indefinitely, I fear years of pain and unsatisfactory results unless they have a major rethink and change their attitudes and strategies.

Interesting post by someone who has fallen foul of people in the Inner Sanctum.

[hilts_coolerking]

I'll repeat what Toronto said - in some ways the club are being badly run, in others they are doing well. Unfortunately the most important aspect isn't right at the moment.

I think it's a bit more serious than "at the moment" to be fair.  The most important aspect hasn't been right for at least a couple of years.