The Accounts are out.

[Mazrim]

I think if there is a rethink on spending its from a perspective on value for money. So you balance the books and then, to quote Lambert, you go again. The problem is though, who is deciding how the money is spent and who is to say it will be spent wisely. Otherwise you just repeat all the errors all over again. I'm concerned that a man who has bought 3 left backs in a year and a half when money is so tight might not be the man to do it. Especially without somebody like Henke lining up the targets.

The alternative is that you just spend very little, in which case you risk bring in the top flight at all which makes absolutely no financial sense. So there has to be a plan to increase spending on the squad again. I just hope we get a chance to before we are relegated.

[PeterWithesShin]

Curtis Davies for £10m must be hard to top

It was an insane amount of money, but I still think he's one player we should have kept hold of for a bit longer than we did.

While it didn't work out, you could argue that at the time of signing them it was no more of a risk than Young as they were both of a similar age. If anything it was less as Davies had played more top flight football.

[Clampy]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

[saunders_heroes]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

[dave.woodhall]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

Every indication was that we could pay for him but Norwich didn't want to sell him.

[Clampy]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

They didn't want to sell him to us. I've no idea how much we offered anyway and neither do you.

[saunders_heroes]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

Every indication was that we could pay for him but Norwich didn't want to sell him.

So why not set your sights elsewhere? No plan B. Sums up Villa over the last 4 years.

[saunders_heroes]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

They didn't want to sell him to us. I've no idea how much we offered anyway and neither do you.

What's he worth, £1.5m max? Bargain basement stuff. That's why we're in the shit. We set our sights way too low.

[Mazrim]

The problem with Hoolahan wasn't that he wasn't good enough, which I agree with, it's that there seemed to be no alternatives. Which is disappointing to say the least. We simply had to get a playmaker and sometimes, with so much at stake, you can't afford to fail. And fail we did. It's just not worthy of a club this size.

[dave.woodhall]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

Every indication was that we could pay for him but Norwich didn't want to sell him.

So why not set your sights elsewhere? No plan B. Sums up Villa over the last 4 years.

How do you know they didn't try to sign someone else?

[Clampy]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

Every indication was that we could pay for him but Norwich didn't want to sell him.

So why not set your sights elsewhere? No plan B. Sums up Villa over the last 4 years.

Who's to say that we didn't try? January was a quiet window overall anyway.

[saunders_heroes]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

Every indication was that we could pay for him but Norwich didn't want to sell him.

So why not set your sights elsewhere? No plan B. Sums up Villa over the last 4 years.

How do you know they didn't try to sign someone else?

Well if we did we didn't try hard enough.

[saunders_heroes]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

Every indication was that we could pay for him but Norwich didn't want to sell him.

So why not set your sights elsewhere? No plan B. Sums up Villa over the last 4 years.

Who's to say that we didn't try? January was a quiet window overall anyway.

Never mind the other clubs, we were desperate for quality players. What did we get, a past it striker from the Championship. Thank you Randy!

[dave.woodhall]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

One minute you're calling him 'bargain basement stuff', now you saying we should have maybe paid over the odds.

He is bargain basement stuff! We were desperate for a midfielder and we couldn't even raise the funds to buy such a cheap player. It's pathetic.

Every indication was that we could pay for him but Norwich didn't want to sell him.

So why not set your sights elsewhere? No plan B. Sums up Villa over the last 4 years.

How do you know they didn't try to sign someone else?

Well if we did we didn't try hard enough.

Maybe, or maybe the player wasn't available in January but will be in the summer. Would you want us to spend a few million on someone who will play a dozen games then not get a sniff next season, and would he want to join anyway?

[Chris Smith]

There is a difference between, for example, spending £10m on a player we think is worth £10m and spending it on a player we value at £6m. As Chris says, over paying is what got us in the mess in the first place.

But we're talking about Wes Hoolihan here, and he was hardly going to break the bank even if we offered over the odds.

There were particular circumstances there that meant that they just didn't want to sell to us. That was largely driven by the Lambert factor but I am sure they would not want to help out what they would see as a direct rival. So unless there was crazy money on the table, which would allow them to significantly strengthen, it wasn't going to happen.