The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[brian green]

We had Benteke for the most of the season.   The period when he was missing was no better or worse than when he was available.   I have seen nothing in Okore of Kozak which justifies their being regarded as missing Galacticos.   Okore may be a good centre back.   Kozak may be better than Helenius or Holt.

I feel no sympathy for Lambert's plight and I regard him as every bit as flawed a manager as Alex McLeish.

There comes a time when all the polemic about managers' relative strengths and faults has to be put aside and subjected to the single acid test of what was their football like to watch?  TSM and Lambert served up utter garbage and that outweighs all the hard luck stories.

Whenever this topic of Lambert being cut some slack is raised I am reminded of the Monty Python parrot sketch.

[Chris Smith]

http://www.astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=7516668

This is a summary of the latest accounts. Doesn't include the extra £40m from the new Tv deal.

As I suspected that covers the period 2012-13, so only covers the first year of Lambert's time. It's not an accurate picture of how things stand today.

[aj2k77]

The most exciting thing about this season is a takeover rumour. Say's it all. I hope we hear some news tomorrow. I have a genuine dread though that The chuckle brothers Faulkner and Lerner have conjured up another shit plan.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'd say we had a fit Benteke for about half the season. He's missed 12 league games and didn't look fit in quite a few others after he came back from his first injury.

[aj2k77]

http://www.astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=7516668

This is a summary of the latest accounts. Doesn't include the extra £40m from the new Tv deal.

As I suspected that covers the period 2012-13, so only covers the first year of Lambert's time. It's not an accurate picture of how things stand today.

I didn't say they were for this season.

[Rolta]

I also meant to say, whilst Lambert has successfully brought down the wage bill, he has also successfully lowered the quality of the playing squad. How many of the current squad other than Benteke, will survive a cull? We are in a very dangerous position unless something drastically changes.  I appreciate that Randy wanted lower wages but surely the money could have been spent better.

The quality of the playing squad being lowered is debatable as we have just today equalled our finish two seasons ago and last season finished in a better position. If you went by the league you'd say he's maintained the quality of the playing squad whilst lowering the wage bill.

I don't think Lambert has signed anyone on long contracts like Given/Bent/N'Zogbia, and surely not on such high wages either, therefore the players filling up our squad now (Sylla, Bowery, Luna) won't be so difficult to move should they need to move. We are in a much better position to move forwards providing we now get some proper investment.

[pooligan]

Good post as usual Brian

[Steve67]

It is a point. We needed money spending on the squad and buying three players for one position is the managers fault. How can that not be a point?

As for being angry. I doubt I'm alone there.

If we spent £40million over 2 seasons, we've still signed 19 players in that time, and not all of them have been left backs – that's 16 non left backs we've signed! That's almost an average of £2million for every player, and those kinds of players are inevitably hit or miss.

We needed to build a squad. There is no way we were in the position yet to spend all our budget on one or two players – although, if you consider Kozak and Okore as two of the higher budget investments, along with Benteke, for some select players we have been willing to pay more. Shit for us that those three have been our most significant injuries. It's not like we've spent £20million on some proven player who turned out to be a dud. 

I think people are in danger of over estimating Okore. He only played a few times before getting injured. Why do we think he is THAT good?  Then we sign a left back, the third left back, instead of signing another centre back. Poor judgment IMO. 

[steffo]

Forget the transfer crap. It boils down to the managers football nous. It is sadly lacking.

Defenders defend. Strikers strike and score goals.

So many players play out of position to suit HIS system and not what is suitable for the team and club. He is a defensive manager playing 4-3-1-1.

I have to laugh when so called journalists call Villa playing 4-3-3 it has never happened and never will with this manager. Like TSM1 he is narrow football without the players to do it. How on earth can you justify bringing 11 players back to defend a corner every game?

We beat Chelsea at home because we could go toe to toe - playing the same system, we got lucky with the sending off.

We play on one of the widest pitches in the PL - v Hull where did Albrighton play? Centre Mid?

Enough P45 please

[Rolta]

We had Benteke for the most of the season.   The period when he was missing was no better or worse than when he was available.   I have seen nothing in Okore of Kozak which justifies their being regarded as missing Galacticos.   Okore may be a good centre back.   Kozak may be better than Helenius or Holt.

I feel no sympathy for Lambert's plight and I regard him as every bit as flawed a manager as Alex McLeish.

There comes a time when all the polemic about managers' relative strengths and faults has to be put aside and subjected to the single acid test of what was their football like to watch?  TSM and Lambert served up utter garbage and that outweighs all the hard luck stories.

Whenever this topic of Lambert being cut some slack is raised I am reminded of the Monty Python parrot sketch.

Therefore the last good season we had was when we had the likes of Petrov, Downing, Ashley Young – and the season before that with Milner, etc.. There is no coincidence that we've been shit since Lerner pulled the investment – that goes for Mcleish's season too. Or, if you put it another way, it is no surprise that we were only actually any good when we were spunking money up the wall to try and get in the top 4.

Before and after that kind 3/4 years we've been bad.

If you want to blame Lambert for that then you're missing a pretty big part of all this – for me the biggest part.

You get what you pay for in football.

[Rudy65]

I'd say we had a fit Benteke for about half the season. He's missed 12 league games and didn't look fit in quite a few others after he came back from his first injury.

Nor did he look interested in some of the games he played

[aj2k77]

I also meant to say, whilst Lambert has successfully brought down the wage bill, he has also successfully lowered the quality of the playing squad. How many of the current squad other than Benteke, will survive a cull? We are in a very dangerous position unless something drastically changes.  I appreciate that Randy wanted lower wages but surely the money could have been spent better.

The quality of the playing squad being lowered is debatable as we have just today equalled our finish two seasons ago and last season finished in a better position. If you went by the league you'd say he's maintained the quality of the playing squad whilst lowering the wage bill.

I don't think Lambert has signed anyone on long contracts like Given/Bent/N'Zogbia, and surely not on such high wages either, therefore the players filling up our squad now (Sylla, Bowery, Luna) won't be so difficult to move should they need to move. We are in a much better position to move forwards providing we now get some proper investment.

Pretty much the only positive from Lamberts reign, we are still as shit as when he took over but now Income is up and wages will be down.

[Rolta]

Forget the transfer crap. It boils down to the managers football nous. It is sadly lacking.

Defenders defend. Strikers strike and score goals.

So many players play out of position to suit HIS system and not what is suitable for the team and club. He is a defensive manager playing 4-3-1-1.

I have to laugh when so called journalists call Villa playing 4-3-3 it has never happened and never will with this manager. Like TSM1 he is narrow football without the players to do it. How on earth can you justify bringing 11 players back to defend a corner every game?

We beat Chelsea at home because we could go toe to toe - playing the same system, we got lucky with the sending off.

We play on one of the widest pitches in the PL - v Hull where did Albrighton play? Centre Mid?

Enough P45 please

Everyone loved the 433 when it worked for the second half of last season – back then posters were coming out with things like "I've been saying we should have done that all season" and now in your rewriting of history that formation has always been a failure.

And we beat Hull 3-1, so what are you on about! Is it just me, or was that Albrighton's best performance of the season?

[Steve67]

I also meant to say, whilst Lambert has successfully brought down the wage bill, he has also successfully lowered the quality of the playing squad. How many of the current squad other than Benteke, will survive a cull? We are in a very dangerous position unless something drastically changes.  I appreciate that Randy wanted lower wages but surely the money could have been spent better.

The quality of the playing squad being lowered is debatable as we have just today equalled our finish two seasons ago and last season finished in a better position. If you went by the league you'd say he's maintained the quality of the playing squad whilst lowering the wage bill.

I don't think Lambert has signed anyone on long contracts like Given/Bent/N'Zogbia, and surely not on such high wages either, therefore the players filling up our squad now (Sylla, Bowery, Luna) won't be so difficult to move should they need to move. We are in a much better position to move forwards providing we now get some proper investment.

Hugely arguable points. Equalled the points total but broke several records in the meantime. I don't favour one over the other but if the points total wasn't deemed good enough two years ago, consistency is required now too and Lambert must suffer the same fate. As for moving on those players, we are unlikely to make any profits are we? Yes, they might be easier to move on as they are not expensive. Surely we agree that they should never have been purchased in the first place? Cheap buys or otherwise.

[Goldie.7]

I laugh when people brand Okore as some super solid defender, reality is he played ok for one and a half games in which we both lost. Yes the barcodes we winning before he went off.