Former PL club Aston Villa 2-3 Watford - post mortem thread

[curiousorange]

If Lerner gave Lambert funds to supplement the decent players we had, we may have been stronger. If Lambert had been given the bullet before the malaise truly set in, we may have got a decent manager in. If Sherwood had been cannier in the Leicester game, we'd have three more points and probably more wins by now.

But basically, if we hadn't spent the last five years with the mentality of 'hopefully, that'll do', we wouldn't be a side that will be spending the summer trying to convince mediocre Championship players to join us rather than Middlesbrough or Derby fucking County.

[saunders_heroes]

The thing you can't even say (at best) we've been unlucky to find us in such a perilous position. If you've spent the last 5 years selling your best players, replacing them with inferior ones whilst promoting youth players who are simply not good enough for the Premier League then sticking labels on them like "young and hungry" to fool the fans into thinking there's something magical about to happen.
No, this is all down to Lerner not wanting to pay the going rate for PL players. Decent players go where the wages are, and all we've done for the last 5 or so years is to hack at our wage bill with a sledge hammer.
Lerner is the sole cause of our humiliating decline. You reap what you sow, and all that.

The blame is ultimately his, but if you don't blame crappy managers for being crappy then you're just being reductionist. These players are not going to win the league, but 8 defeats from 10 was a startlingly shocking return for any manager.

And who's fault is it that we can't attract a decent manager?
I've said this many times before, decent managers won't touch our club with our derisory wage budget. That's 100% down to Lerner.

[TopDeck113]

Anyone hear Pat Murphy earlier?  Said that Riley interviewed Moyes in Spain and he wanted the job but Riley had doubts that he would want too much control.  Don't know whether it is true or not but terrible if it is.

Of course it would be terrible.  God forbid that anyone at AVFC has control of anything.

[kippaxvilla2]

We are going to make a very interesting case study in years to come at some management conference on 'when things go wrong.'

[aj2k77]

Anyone hear Pat Murphy earlier?  Said that Riley interviewed Moyes in Spain and he wanted the job but Riley had doubts that he would want too much control.  Don't know whether it is true or not but terrible if it is.

How has an analyst and scout been promoted to a position where he is interviewing potential managers and deciding what players will join the club? Another numpty employed above himself.

[saunders_heroes]

The thing you can't even say (at best) we've been unlucky to find us in such a perilous position. If you've spent the last 5 years selling your best players, replacing them with inferior ones whilst promoting youth players who are simply not good enough for the Premier League then sticking labels on them like "young and hungry" to fool the fans into thinking there's something magical about to happen.
No, this is all down to Lerner not wanting to pay the going rate for PL players. Decent players go where the wages are, and all we've done for the last 5 or so years is to hack at our wage bill with a sledge hammer.
Lerner is the sole cause of our humiliating decline. You reap what you sow, and all that.

We've jumped from a summer of buying players from Doncaster, Sheff Utd, Crewe and the French second division to a summer buying semi retired no hopers like Cole, Senderos and Richardson to a summer buying players almost entirely from smaller French teams. It's been a disaster, the transfer policy has been a total failure.

Austerity stinks. Not paying the going rate has got us to the dizzy heights of bottom place. Isn't that what's called a false economy?
Cheers, Randy.

[ChicagoLion]

Anyone hear Pat Murphy earlier?  Said that Riley interviewed Moyes in Spain and he wanted the job but Riley had doubts that he would want too much control.  Don't know whether it is true or not but terrible if it is.

How has an analyst and scout been promoted to a position where he is interviewing potential managers and deciding what players will join the club? Another numpty employed above himself.

I dont think Moyes would make any difference.

[GarTomas]

Anyone hear Pat Murphy earlier?  Said that Riley interviewed Moyes in Spain and he wanted the job but Riley had doubts that he would want too much control.  Don't know whether it is true or not but terrible if it is.

Moyes would have been no better than Garde in possibly worse. I don't think, at long last, that the current manager is the problem.

Post O'Neill we desperately needed the approach we are now taking; a structure not reliant on any one person and a view to buying players to develop given the other option of hoping to win the lottery and get an owner in place throwing money around left right and centre.

I just fear that structure has come too late.

[Monty]

Anyone hear Pat Murphy earlier?  Said that Riley interviewed Moyes in Spain and he wanted the job but Riley had doubts that he would want too much control.  Don't know whether it is true or not but terrible if it is.

Moyes would have been no better than Garde in possibly worse. I don't think, at long last, that the current manager is the problem.

I will have a fiver with you that if he goes to Newcastle he will save them from relegation.

Oh he might well do, but I think Garde would have been able to save them as well. We have our own problems.

S_H, I agree, again, but it turns out that we could bring in decent managers, or at least managers with decent reputations like Remi Garde. My issue is that we kept on going for Bob British regardless of any other selection criteria - a recruitment policy we literally pursued ad absurdum with the appointment of the ludicrous Sherwood.

However, I don't want Sherwood to be absolved of any blame just because someone was stupid enough to give him a job - he's a c**t and I don't want him and his media mates slithering his reputation out of this one. He deserves to be mocked from now until the end of time.

[Billy Walker]

We can get out of this.  It's going to take something special between now and  May but we can do it.

You been drinking Thunderbirds? The only thing special we've produced the last 5 years is the incredible ability to consistently lose to whatever opposition you put in front of us.

There's still a lot of football to play and a transfer window to come.  The players are currently rock bottom but belief can  take us up the table.

[PeterWithesShin]

We looked alright going forward, played some nice stuff at times. Beyond awful defensively. Just about every meaningful Watford attack was thanks to us. And it was cold. Load of old bollocks.

[eric woolban woolban]

Anyone hear Pat Murphy earlier?  Said that Riley interviewed Moyes in Spain and he wanted the job but Riley had doubts that he would want too much control.  Don't know whether it is true or not but terrible if it is.

How has an analyst and scout been promoted to a position where he is interviewing potential managers and deciding what players will join the club? Another numpty employed above himself.

I dont think Moyes would make any difference.

I don't think a double act of Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho could save us.

[aj2k77]

Anyone hear Pat Murphy earlier?  Said that Riley interviewed Moyes in Spain and he wanted the job but Riley had doubts that he would want too much control.  Don't know whether it is true or not but terrible if it is.

How has an analyst and scout been promoted to a position where he is interviewing potential managers and deciding what players will join the club? Another numpty employed above himself.

I dont think Moyes would make any difference.

Me either, the squad is shit. Paddy Reilly should not be interviewing managers though or helping to dictate who we buy and sell.

[SoccerHQ]

Home games against Sunderland, Albion, Stoke, Swansea, Watford return 1 point.

Pathetic.

Yep no good performing for your lives and claiming a 0-0 at home to Man City if you can't do anything in the games that really matter.

[Meanwood Villa]

The only thing that keep me going is that it is still November. Outside of that little bits of my remaining hope dies weekly.

True but let's face it we'll probably be bottom at Christmas, and we all know what that means.

Based on Leicester last season, top this time next year?