Lerner/Lambert v Ellis/O'Leary

[Leighton]

In your opinion, do you think that the club, as it stands right NOW both on and off the field, is in any better state than the final days of the Ellis and O'Dreary era?

[Fin Feds Dad]

In my opinion , it's time for you to get down to brownhills market and invest in another orange bed sheet, Leighton.

[Leighton]

That was the finest cloth that the Hole in the Wall at the top of Walsall market had to offer, plus- it was cheap.

[Toronto Villa]

If we only Lerner's personal investment during Doug's era we might have won many more titles.

O'Leary is a complete wanker

[Des Little]

Right at this moment it feels like we are comparing differing shades of shit. I'm sure in the long run we'll be all the better for these dark days but at present it's pretty similar as it was back then.

[supertom]

Under Lerner/Lambert we've got no chance of getting close to top 6. O Leary finished his first season 6th (joint 5th) with 56 points. I don't think under the current budgetary restraints we'd ever see Lambert getting anywhere close to a points tally like that (even if he had the money O Neill had to spend, he'd struggle to achieve that) and these days you need comfortably over 60 to finish top 6 too. It's unlikely this season that Lambert will even match O Leary's worst haul of 42 points.

Even comfortably mid-table seems beyond us at the moment.

[ChicagoLion]

Doug would not have put up with the record breaking achievements that Lambert is responsible for.

The situation is worse now because at least you knew with Doug that he would not tolerate epic failure and for all his faults at least he cared.

[dave.woodhall]

Doug would not have put up with the record breaking achievements that Lambert is responsible for.

The situation is worse now because at least you knew with Doug that he would not tolerate epic failure and for all his faults at least he cared.

Would that be the Doug Ellis who was chairman during 40% of the relegations in our history?

[pauliewalnuts]

Doug would not have put up with the record breaking achievements that Lambert is responsible for.

The situation is worse now because at least you knew with Doug that he would not tolerate epic failure and for all his faults at least he cared.

Would that be the Doug Ellis who was chairman during 40% of the relegations in our history?

In fairness, when he did get us relegated, he at least got really angry about it. One assumes.

[brontebilly]

Doug would not have put up with the record breaking achievements that Lambert is responsible for.

The situation is worse now because at least you knew with Doug that he would not tolerate epic failure and for all his faults at least he cared.

revisionist nonsense

Were in a mess when Lerner took over but in a worse financial position now and probably have a worse squad now too.

Ellis put the breaks on spending at the club in order to maximise the personal profit he was going to make from a sale. Whether Lerner is at the same game remains to be seen. Will only know when he sells up I guess.

[Monty]

For all that he apparently cared, does anyone really think Doug would have given GH all that money to go out and sign Darren Bent to keep us in the league? He didn't care that much.

The funny thing is that, if it is worse now, it's worse because you just can't doubt the good intentions of the folks at the top, you just can't. Their off-the-pitch stuff has been immaculate, really. It's just that they don't appear to understand the first thing about on-the-pitch stuff, which is still an apparently fashionable gauge of the success of a football team.

[OzVilla]

This is a bit like asking which would you prefer to eat - Cat shit or Dog shit.

[adrenachrome]

Doug would not have put up with the record breaking achievements that Lambert is responsible for.

The situation is worse now because at least you knew with Doug that he would not tolerate epic failure and for all his faults at least he cared.

revisionist nonsense

Were in a mess when Lerner took over but in a worse financial position now and probably have a worse squad now too.

Ellis put the breaks on spending at the club in order to maximise the personal profit he was going to make from a sale. Whether Lerner is at the same game remains to be seen. Will only know when he sells up I guess.

Correct about HDE, I would say.

On Randy, he has already demonstrated that he is not in it for the dosh, or he would have set up things differently by now. What he is doing, in my opinion, is setting us up to be self sufficient by the time he sells us on. This is not entirely altruistic, because he has a reputation to maintain. Cynics would use the term "brand", but this would be difficult to justify in purely commercial terms. More likely, he would like to be known as the person who did things the correct way and maintained his  integrity, while the various oligarchs of various oil based denominations broke every rule to demonstrate their power.

In PL, he has found a football man who has convinced him this can be done. I was convinced we would drop last year after the Wigan game at VP; PL was never in doubt that we would survive. For all we know, PL and others have told RL, it would be rocky for a couple of years, but we will stay up, then consolidate in the 3rd year. Or the 4th or 5th year. We know there is  plan, but we do not know what it is.

What we do know is that visits to our home ground are becoming a chore and when football is marketed as entertainment, there are surely many attractive alternatives for the man on the terrace who wants a bang for his buck.

[Mister E]

HDE presided over mediocrity at a time when a balanced but more ambitious investment approach would have comfortably propelled us into the Top Four and the Chumps League.
Lerner has the mega-rich to contend with - Citeh, Chelski et al.

Not that this excuses L&L from the shit that is currently being served up.

[Dave Clark Five]

Ellis was prepared to face the wrath of the supporters. Lerner is never seen.