Kendrick Says It's Time To Ask Questions

[Sexual Ealing]

It's not like Houllier came here straight from a hospital discharge.

He'd worked for several years before coming here, including managing Lyon.

And yet within seven months of taking charge here hospital is exactly where he ended up.

It's not them, it's us.

[pbavfckuwait]

So we want someone from the club to tell us whats going on, the answers we want and the truth.

"What are the clubs ambitions"
"Well we are looking to go into the Championship as we have no ambitions and there are a few grounds that Randy hasn't been to"

"Have we cut back the wage bill"
"Not enough yet, we are still on the lookout for players who want to pay the club for playing for Aston Villa , then we will be happy"

"Are you happy with the performance of the manager"
"Tricky one that, Randy has the letter from Matt Busby telling us what a great kid at school wee Lambo was, but he still manages to win the odd game here and there, you know like Man City, Southampton, we didn't see that coming, so maybe he is not taking us as fast as we would like, you know we have worked hard for the last 4 years to get in this position, he may just be slowing down the regression a bit, so we may have to look at other options, you know Holloway just might come to this small time club"

Is that we want to hear, all I want to hear from the club is Lambert telling it like it is, when we are bad, tell us he is not happy and intends to do something about it, dont just try to kid us that we were great when we can obviously see we were not, no need to slag individuals, but when as a team we do not perform address the issues with some degree of honesty, dont take us for mugs.

[pbavfckuwait]

Should have added to the last post, anything else coming out of the club will just be corporate bull shit, you can ask as many difficult questions as you like, it does not mean the club officials will answer them.
What has surprised me is that nothing has come out this week or indeed been asked by us the supporters, what happened after the Newcastle game, Vlarrs tweet and Westwoods interview hinted at a bust up after the game, but nothing ore heard or asked!!

[Dave Clark Five]

Should have added to the last post, anything else coming out of the club will just be corporate bull shit, you can ask as many difficult questions as you like, it does not mean the club officials will answer them.
What has surprised me is that nothing has come out this week or indeed been asked by us the supporters, what happened after the Newcastle game, Vlarrs tweet and Westwoods interview hinted at a bust up after the game, but nothing ore heard or asked!!

Because all is well now, supposedly, according to Ron Vlaar (he has to say this).

"First off, I want to tell you that the mood in camp at Bodymoor Heath is very positive ahead of our remaining 11 games.

"We lie in 13th, which is four points above the bottom three but, importantly, three points off 10th - and it's fair to say we're looking up rather than down."

By the way, I have a lot of time for Ron Vlaar. He seems to speak from the heart.

[Mazrim]

Ron is a top man, but it sounds like Faulkner's holding a Luger to his head there. Somebody run this by the folks at Bletchley for hidden messages.

[Toronto Villa]

Ron is a top man, but it sounds like Faulkner's holding a Luger to his head there. Somebody run this by the folks at Bletchley for hidden messages.

He's also stating the facts. What's the point mentally of looking down when it is far more positive to look up? How would we all have felt if he'd said, "yeh, we've lost 3 straight, and the mood around the place is terrible. Everyone is scared to death of the possibility of relegation".

[pbavfckuwait]

Toronto fair enough, but that was the point I was making earlier on, how about "We are not happy with where we are, we know the last 3 games hav'nt been good enough but we are working hard to get it right".
Do not expect them to slate the club, but just more corporate bull, lets see a bit of wake up and smell the coffee matter of fact.

[mr woo]

I know we're all unhappy with the clubs state at the minute but sometimes I wonder how much influence an owner has with the playing side of things. Surely it's not Lerners place to get involved with the dressing room and yet so many seem to find him directly responsible for the teams results.

McLeish was a mistake. We knew that from the start and perhaps by the time our feelings were known to Lerner he had already made a commitment he couldn't go back on, but let's be fair, after 12 months he acknowledged his error and acted accordingly.

Lets not also forget his next move was to appoint a man the MAJORITY of us wanted and he then backed that man in the transfer market with 20 million pounds a season.

What more would you want an owner to do? Using hindsight as a stick to beat him with strikes me as a little unfair. Ask yourself what you could have done differently were YOU the owner. I doubt he's happy with the situation, whether he states so publicly or not.

Now on the other hand....if something plainly isn't working, and the man in command doesn't act....I think it's fair to say criticism is absolutely justifiable.


One final point though.

I am absolutely convinced it was the faith of the Villa Park crowd that kept us up last year. If we'd have turned on the players and manager with ten games to go we'd have been relegated.

That considered, is this really the right time to be preparing reports, writing articles, holding inquests or lining up firing squads....

[not3bad]

(Lerner's) next move was to appoint a man the MAJORITY of us wanted and he then backed that man in the transfer market with 20 million pounds a season.

Good thing to take note of before having a go at Lerner.

[Toronto Villa]

Toronto fair enough, but that was the point I was making earlier on, how about "We are not happy with where we are, we know the last 3 games hav'nt been good enough but we are working hard to get it right".
Do not expect them to slate the club, but just more corporate bull, lets see a bit of wake up and smell the coffee matter of fact.

There's nothing corporate about it. He's the captain of the football club answering questions on the official website. What did you expect him to say? And even if off the record he's a little concerned, there's no point as an athlete developing that frame of mind and letting it influence not only his own game but those who is leading.

This is exactly what I've been saying and Chris recently. No matter what an official employee of the club says, even if it is true and as close to "from the heart" as possible, some people are simply going to watch it through cynical eyes. For that reason I don't care what is said, I just care about the what I see. If the team is doing well, almost everything else is irrelevant.

[eastie]

(Lerner's) next move was to appoint a man the MAJORITY of us wanted and he then backed that man in the transfer market with 20 million pounds a season.

Good thing to take note of before having a go at Lerner.

Although Lerner has made mistakes its lambert who I blame more for the state of the team - he has spent over £40m on players and we have a very poor team indeed .

He carries the can for coaching, tactics, motivation , etc and I think the club would be better off without him .

[dekko]

I know we're all unhappy with the clubs state at the minute but sometimes I wonder how much influence an owner has with the playing side of things. Surely it's not Lerners place to get involved with the dressing room and yet so many seem to find him directly responsible for the teams results.

McLeish was a mistake. We knew that from the start and perhaps by the time our feelings were known to Lerner he had already made a commitment he couldn't go back on, but let's be fair, after 12 months he acknowledged his error and acted accordingly.

Lets not also forget his next move was to appoint a man the MAJORITY of us wanted and he then backed that man in the transfer market with 20 million pounds a season.

I'm more or less agreed, but I think Lerner and co needed to either give him more money to spend (given the size of the rebuilding job he was required to do) or set more lenient budgets so he could phase out the highly paid players more gradually.

One final point though.

I am absolutely convinced it was the faith of the Villa Park crowd that kept us up last year. If we'd have turned on the players and manager with ten games to go we'd have been relegated.

That considered, is this really the right time to be preparing reports, writing articles, holding inquests or lining up firing squads....

I'm 100% agreed with you on this one though.  If the Norwich game does turn out to be 'Lambert's Bolton' as some are predicting, I can't see how thats going to help matters.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I know we're all unhappy with the clubs state at the minute but sometimes I wonder how much influence an owner has with the playing side of things. Surely it's not Lerners place to get involved with the dressing room and yet so many seem to find him directly responsible for the teams results.

McLeish was a mistake. We knew that from the start and perhaps by the time our feelings were known to Lerner he had already made a commitment he couldn't go back on, but let's be fair, after 12 months he acknowledged his error and acted accordingly.

Lets not also forget his next move was to appoint a man the MAJORITY of us wanted and he then backed that man in the transfer market with 20 million pounds a season.

I'm more or less agreed, but I think Lerner and co needed to either give him more money to spend (given the size of the rebuilding job he was required to do) or set more lenient budgets so he could phase out the highly paid players more gradually.

On that last point, I don't see Lerner dictating which players should be kept or sold. That would have been Lambert's call and his alone.
Regarding additional funds, apart from the 20m, I'd imagine Lerner was willing to give Lambert all the additional money from player sales. The fact that he chose to let them rot in the 'bomb squad' turned out to be a very expensive exercise both for the squad and the club.

Overall, Lambert has been given a free reign over the footballing side of the club and as Mr Woo points out, he has been supported by Randy Lerner but as Eastie says Lambert "carries the can for coaching, tactics, motivation , etc and I think the club would be better off without him".

[SashasGrandad]

Should have added to the last post, anything else coming out of the club will just be corporate bull shit, you can ask as many difficult questions as you like, it does not mean the club officials will answer them.
What has surprised me is that nothing has come out this week or indeed been asked by us the supporters, what happened after the Newcastle game, Vlarrs tweet and Westwoods interview hinted at a bust up after the game, but nothing ore heard or asked!!

Because all is well now, supposedly, according to Ron Vlaar (he has to say this).

"First off, I want to tell you that the mood in camp at Bodymoor Heath is very positive ahead of our remaining 11 games.

"We lie in 13th, which is four points above the bottom three but, importantly, three points off 10th - and it's fair to say we're looking up rather than down."

By the way, I have a lot of time for Ron Vlaar. He seems to speak from the heart.

Wish he could talk from the heart to his team mates and make them follow his good example more often.

[silhillvilla]

(Lerner's) next move was to appoint a man the MAJORITY of us wanted and he then backed that man in the transfer market with 20 million pounds a season.

Good thing to take note of before having a go at Lerner.

Although Lerner has made mistakes its lambert who I blame more for the state of the team - he has spent over £40m on players and we have a very poor team indeed .

He carries the can for coaching, tactics, motivation , etc and I think the club would be better off without him .

Yes that's where I am too. I've been going since 78 and this really is an awful villa squad and management team and playing style. Really bad.