The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[Rudy65]

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?

He did play Mark as a number 10 to start with.

Marks best game was West Ham home in the second half

[Rudy65]

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.

Agree. His unavailability has increased his ability tenfold

[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.

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.

In hindsight of course some players shouldn't have been bought, but the world doesn't work like that. And we still needed a squad.

Someone like bent was (is) costing us £3.5 million a year on wages. Bowery, on perhaps 5k a week?, is costing the club maybe 260k a year, so it is a huge difference. We've still needed a squad, and ALL the players, bar Helenius Tonev and Steer have made a contribution to the squad and results over these past two seasons.

[olaftab]

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.

I think you have destroyed the logic of your own argument here. As a competent manager if he does something 3 times and it results in failure than he is no longer fit to do his job. Same will apply to me at my work place. So rather than signing 3 left backs at £2m each he should have signed one good one  costing £6M. Job done but he didn't do that and wasted money on signing hit and miss players  who have been miss and miss. The two year assessment on his capability is damning without doubt.

[Rolta]

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.

I think the form of Baker these last few months puts that in context, so you'll see it's not funny.

[olaftab]

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.

Agree. His unavailability has increased his ability tenfold

Yes this always happens but in reality even Vlaar is not that great.

[Rolta]

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.

I think you have destroyed the logic of your own argument here. As a competent manager if he does something 3 times and it results in failure than he is no longer fit to do his job. Same will apply to me at my work place. So rather than signing 3 left backs at £2m each he should have signed one good one  costing £6M. Job done but he didn't do that and wasted money on signing hit and miss players  who have been miss and miss. The two year assessment on his capability is damning without doubt.

MON did it with right backs and then put Cuellar there. If you throw in Shorey, then he made the same number of dodgy full-back signings. It sounds good to say "he bought three left backs, therefore he is incompetent," but that's just stupid. You're also using hindsight, which I'm pretty sure makes running a football club much easier. Also, MON did it with full backs we've all heard of, and while spending loads of money – he spent about £5million on each of them!

[Rolta]

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.

I think you have destroyed the logic of your own argument here. As a competent manager if he does something 3 times and it results in failure than he is no longer fit to do his job. Same will apply to me at my work place. So rather than signing 3 left backs at £2m each he should have signed one good one  costing £6M. Job done but he didn't do that and wasted money on signing hit and miss players  who have been miss and miss. The two year assessment on his capability is damning without doubt.

MON did it with right backs and then put Cuellar there. If you throw in Shorey, then he made the same number of dodgy full-back signings. It sounds good to say "he bought three left backs, therefore he is incompetent," but that's just stupid. You're also using hindsight, which I'm pretty sure makes running a football club much easier. Also, MON did it with full backs we've all heard of, and while spending loads of money – he spent about £5million on each of them!

Also, I don't think it was failure three times as Bertrand is pretty decent.

[Rudy65]

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.

I think you have destroyed the logic of your own argument here. As a competent manager if he does something 3 times and it results in failure than he is no longer fit to do his job. Same will apply to me at my work place. So rather than signing 3 left backs at £2m each he should have signed one good one  costing £6M. Job done but he didn't do that and wasted money on signing hit and miss players  who have been miss and miss. The two year assessment on his capability is damning without doubt.

MON did it with right backs and then put Cuellar there. If you throw in Shorey, then he made the same number of dodgy full-back signings. It sounds good to say "he bought three left backs, therefore he is incompetent," but that's just stupid. You're also using hindsight, which I'm pretty sure makes running a football club much easier. Also, MON did it with full backs we've all heard of, and while spending loads of money – he spent about £5million on each of them!

But that doesnt make it right

[citizenDJ]

Rolta, I think most people would agree with your point that cheaper players are usually of a lower quality, and that by buying those types the squad would be weaker. However, the criticism of Lambert runs, I think, further than that.

He just hasn't coached them very well. They haven't shown signs of improvement and in some cases have got worse.

The team does not look organised. If you have a squad of limited players, you need to at least get them drilled and organised, find a system to help them make the most of their assets - just look at Pulis at Palace.

His tactics at times have been almost absurdly inept, frequently naive. The endless hoofball, the tendency to simply throw on more strikers if chasing a game….

He may well have had a limited hand to play with, but he has played it really badly.

[Holte L2]

I just want to hear good takeover news now. My train from London to Manchester feels like it's never going to stop! Thank god for Neil Young for company on the I pod.

[Ron Manager]

Back on topic I hope Brian Doogan slept well last night because he will be waiting for Randy to instruct him to push the red button sometime during the early hours. I reckon it will be around three o'clock when most of us have long given up staring at our computer screens.

Good luck to all that stay up though, I hope it's worth the wait.

And well done to one and all for getting through another dreadful season..and that includes Eastie!

[garyshawsknee]

You may need some Leonard Cohen to cheer you up.

[Rolta]

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.

I think you have destroyed the logic of your own argument here. As a competent manager if he does something 3 times and it results in failure than he is no longer fit to do his job. Same will apply to me at my work place. So rather than signing 3 left backs at £2m each he should have signed one good one  costing £6M. Job done but he didn't do that and wasted money on signing hit and miss players  who have been miss and miss. The two year assessment on his capability is damning without doubt.

MON did it with right backs and then put Cuellar there. If you throw in Shorey, then he made the same number of dodgy full-back signings. It sounds good to say "he bought three left backs, therefore he is incompetent," but that's just stupid. You're also using hindsight, which I'm pretty sure makes running a football club much easier. Also, MON did it with full backs we've all heard of, and while spending loads of money – he spent about £5million on each of them!

But that doesnt make it right

Rudy, your post is entirely pointless.

Citizen DJ, that's fair enough. I'm like everyone in being disappointed the season has been this way again. I've said my piece, and I'm off now!

[Louzie0]

You may need some Leonard Cohen to cheer you up.

That would do it for me, actually.