Southampton vs. Villa Post Match Thread

[Villa in Denmark]

Wage bills for 2014/15, teams we should be competing against

Newcastle £78.3m
Sunderland £69.5m
Everton £69.3m
Aston V £69.3m
West Brom £65.4m
West Ham £63.9m
Stoke £60.6m
Southampton £55.2m
Swansea £48.1m
Crystal P £45.7m
Leicester £36.6m

You looked at the team sheet yesterday and almost to a man Southampton had better players 1 for 1 yet they're wage bill is £15m smaller. Our recruitment policies have been shit.

How much of a chunk of our wage bill (and pay offs) contain money to players on older contracts (when we paid big wages) who contribute next to nothing to the first team, i.e Bent, N'Zogbia etc (even Gabby these days).

Isn't that a bit wanting it all ways round.
We don't spend enough money because the chairman's turned into a tightarse bastard.
But we spend more than teams we should easily be competing with so maybe we do spend enough.
Er no, we can't because we spent too much on overvalued players when our tight Arse chairman was spending money.

Points 2 and 3 ironically being pretty much what some of us have being saying to you whenever the subject of expenditure comes up to be met by pretty much "Lerner should just spend more" without ever quantifying how much "more" should be.

[Villa in Denmark]

On Westwood I actually shouted loudly at the TV when he blazed that chance over.  A cultured player would have bought that down, thus wrong footing the defence and hit it in with his right foot.  A cultured player he isn't however.

And never will be. He has been a stain on this club since the day he signed.

I'm no great fan of Westwood, he's had plenty of chances to prove that he's not going to be consistently good enough (although occasionally you can see what might have been), but that's a bit nasty.

It's not his fault he was given a chance to play for us when he would have been thinking that a transfer down the M6 would have involved getting off at junction 9 instead of junction 6, nor is it his fault that 3 managers have now seen fit to give him game time for whatever reason.

You might view players of Westwood's abilities as a sign of "how far we have fallen" © pissed off fans everywhere, but calling him personally a stain on the club?

[saunders_heroes]

Lerner's Villa budget dictates our ambition and the fact that he's hacked away at our transfer and wage budget over the last 6 seasons proves it. We don't buy players on big wages anymore and that's one of the main reasons we've been in a humiliating decline for the past 6 seasons.

[saunders_heroes]

On Westwood I actually shouted loudly at the TV when he blazed that chance over.  A cultured player would have bought that down, thus wrong footing the defence and hit it in with his right foot.  A cultured player he isn't however.

And never will be. He has been a stain on this club since the day he signed.

I'm no great fan of Westwood, he's had plenty of chances to prove that he's not going to be consistently good enough (although occasionally you can see what might have been), but that's a bit nasty.

It's not his fault he was given a chance to play for us when he would have been thinking that a transfer down the M6 would have involved getting off at junction 9 instead of junction 6, nor is it his fault that 3 managers have now seen fit to give him game time for whatever reason.

You might view players of Westwood's abilities as a sign of "how far we have fallen" © pissed off fans everywhere, but calling him personally a stain on the club?

I'm sure he'll recover from my nastiness, bless him.

[Villa in Denmark]

Lerner's Villa budget dictates our ambition and the fact that he's hacked away at our transfer and wage budget over the last 6 seasons proves it. We don't buy players on big wages anymore and that's one of the main reasons we've been in a humiliating decline for the past 6 seasons.

So how does that square up with us spending more than teams such as Swansea and Southampton who've outperformed us over that time period?

[itbrvilla]

Lerner's Villa budget dictates our ambition and the fact that he's hacked away at our transfer and wage budget over the last 6 seasons proves it. We don't buy players on big wages anymore and that's one of the main reasons we've been in a humiliating decline for the past 6 seasons.

So how does that square up with us spending more than teams such as Swansea and Southampton who've outperformed us over that time period?

Is that net spend? I heard it was 6m a season over the last 4 years.

[saunders_heroes]

Lerner's Villa budget dictates our ambition and the fact that he's hacked away at our transfer and wage budget over the last 6 seasons proves it. We don't buy players on big wages anymore and that's one of the main reasons we've been in a humiliating decline for the past 6 seasons.

So how does that square up with us spending more than teams such as Swansea and Southampton who've outperformed us over that time period?

And earlier on I commented it could have something to do with the hangover from the days when we did pay big wages. i.e older contracts that hadnt run out yet.
Try and keep up for goodness sake.

[Villa in Denmark]

Lerner's Villa budget dictates our ambition and the fact that he's hacked away at our transfer and wage budget over the last 6 seasons proves it. We don't buy players on big wages anymore and that's one of the main reasons we've been in a humiliating decline for the past 6 seasons.

So how does that square up with us spending more than teams such as Swansea and Southampton who've outperformed us over that time period?

Is that net spend? I heard it was 6m a season over the last 4 years.

No this is wages.

[PeterWithesShin]

Lerner's Villa budget dictates our ambition and the fact that he's hacked away at our transfer and wage budget over the last 6 seasons proves it. We don't buy players on big wages anymore and that's one of the main reasons we've been in a humiliating decline for the past 6 seasons.

So how does that square up with us spending more than teams such as Swansea and Southampton who've outperformed us over that time period?

Is that net spend? I heard it was 6m a season over the last 4 years.

Last 4 seasons, including this one, we've spent approx £56m. 2011/12 we made approx £22m profit because of Downing & Milner.

[Villa in Denmark]

Lerner's Villa budget dictates our ambition and the fact that he's hacked away at our transfer and wage budget over the last 6 seasons proves it. We don't buy players on big wages anymore and that's one of the main reasons we've been in a humiliating decline for the past 6 seasons.

So how does that square up with us spending more than teams such as Swansea and Southampton who've outperformed us over that time period?

And earlier on I commented it could have something to do with the hangover from the days when we did pay big wages. i.e older contracts that hadnt run out yet.
Try and keep up for goodness sake.

Oh so the wages we're still committed to from 3-4 years ago don't count really then and should be deducted to only show what we're paying recent signings?

Or alternatively, the budgets have been adequate but badly utilised?

[saunders_heroes]

Mostly those players were bombed out, so how can you utilise players that are bombed out?
Na, it's pretty clear to me Randy wants a squad on championship wages. Trouble with that though is that it usually means having a championship team.
Let's hope they prove him wrong, eh?

[old man villa fan]

When buying players on relatively high wages you want them to maintain their form or improve.  What you don't want are players on the way down, where they cannot command a place in the team and you cannot sell them because their wage demands are too high.  We have had too many of those type of players over the last 5 years.  It is this, just as much as a string of average to poor managers that has left us where we are now.

[oswald funkletrumpet]

our club is rotten to the core from top to bottm

owner doesnt give a shit
horrendous managerial appointments
no coaching - any other team would have sussed after a game that westwood was shit on corners, we let him carry on for 3 seasons
shit signings - joe fucking cole costing 2 million plus for fuck all apart from his pension pot
shit scouting - see joe cole. we should have at least two scouts watching every league in the uk, then pick up the top players if it doesnt work it is still less than we have spunked on joe cole
shut the academy - barring grealish who has come through in 4 seasons?

chuck all of the above shit in a pot and you get get a shit stew

[oswald funkletrumpet]

On Westwood I actually shouted loudly at the TV when he blazed that chance over.  A cultured player would have bought that down, thus wrong footing the defence and hit it in with his right foot.  A cultured player he isn't however.

And never will be. He has been a stain on this club since the day he signed.

but its all the stuff you dont see him do that makes him so invaluable

stuff like tackling, tracking back, scoring and delivering set pieces

Those magnificent corners...

aahh the corners

any other team would have sussed after one game that they were shit

it took us 3 seasons

says it all really

[brontebilly]

thought former Villa man Steven Davis was man of the match, MON rated the likes of Sidwell and Gardner better players