Southampton vs. Villa Post Match Thread

[saunders_heroes]

Are we in debt to banks like Leeds were?

We could well be, should our current owner not be our owner anymore.

So you're saying that we should be thankful we still have a club irrespective of what league we're in and whatever humiliations he's inflicted onto us?

Did I say that?

But if your defence of Lerner not spending is along the lines of "we could become a Leeds" then I think I'm within my rights to reply. That excuse was churned out when Ellis was in charge, and fans thought nothing of calling for him to borrow money from banks to bankroll spending which actually could have resulted in a Leeds like shitfest. Lerner on the other hand is disgustingly rich, so what's so wrong in fans calling for him to spend some of his riches on the club in our hour of need?

[peter w]

I'm on the train with Pompey fans, who are relieved that they've just beaten Accrington 1-0. Will this be us in a few seasons?

Would it be that bad if it was?  This is the bit that gives me hope.  Take away the ego of wanting to 'dine at the top table' and you're left with exactly the same thing.  They're still travelling by train to watch some hopeless cause, they're still posting on some random fanzine's website.  That is the fun bit, the camaraderie of sharing time with mates.

Going down doesn't bother me that much, I actually think it could be more fun in the championship, less glamour but much better away trips and more victories.  More hope.

"More fun in the Championship"?
That's the type of deluded shite Small Heath fans spout whenever they try and put a brave face on yet another humiliating relegation.

True, but how much have you enjoyed the last few seasons? this is all we're offering up. Season after season of turgid displays and displays.  i'm not sure it will be more fun in the Championship and I certainluy don't want to be relegated because we need to be aiming for the top half of the top flight. That saying it may be kinder to put as out of our misery. because this is shit.

[dave.woodhall]

Nobody talked about borrowing heavily under Ellis - on the contrary, Bruce Langham when he was briefly CEO, spoke of there being "wriggle room" in the club's finances that hadn't been utilised.

Lerner may be disgustingly rich as you call it, but as has been pointed out by several other posters, even richer owners have reined in their, far greater, spending. You can call for whatever you like, but you cannot run a football club by depending on the largesse of one man, particularly one who wants to sell it and who you want to go.

[saunders_heroes]

The championship would be absolute torture, I'm convinced of that. Villa belong in the top division and anything else would be humiliating for us. For Lerner to take us down would be a dereliction of duty in my opinion.

[saunders_heroes]

Nobody talked about borrowing heavily under Ellis - on the contrary, Bruce Langham when he was briefly CEO, spoke of there being "wriggle room" in the club's finances that hadn't been utilised.

Lerner may be disgustingly rich as you call it, but as has been pointed out by several other posters, even richer owners have reined in their, far greater, spending. You can call for whatever you like, but you cannot run a football club by depending on the largesse of one man, particularly one who wants to sell it and who you want to go.

Lerner owns the club lock stock and barrel so who else can we call on to speculate to accumulate?
Surely you'd like him to invest some serious money for a change? His 6 year austerity has been absolute torture for the club.

[Villa in Denmark]

Are we in debt to banks like Leeds were?

We could well be, should our current owner not be our owner anymore.

So you're saying that we should be thankful we still have a club irrespective of what league we're in and whatever humiliations he's inflicted onto us?

Did I say that?

But if your defence of Lerner not spending is along the lines of "we could become a Leeds" then I think I'm within my rights to reply. That excuse was churned out when Ellis was in charge, and fans thought nothing of calling for him to borrow money from banks to bankroll spending which actually could have resulted in a Leeds like shitfest. Lerner on the other hand is disgustingly rich, so what's so wrong in fans calling for him to spend some of his riches on the club in our hour of need?

There's a world of difference between spending "in our hour of need" and carrying on regardless over the last 5 years.

I've asked this now at least three times tonight and countless times over the last few months.

I've asked you this before, but I'll try again.
How much do you think Lerner should have continued to invest, bearing that the current tab is north of £250M?

Background info before answering.

1. Abramovich, a man who's worth around 10 times Lerner's personal net worth, put the best part of £1 billion into Chelsea over a 10 year period before pretty much calling a halt.  They still spend plenty "net" but it's almost all covered by CL and associated TV income.

2. The Mansoors, who to all intents and purposes have limitless wealth,  put the best part of £1.2 billion into Man City over a 5-6 year period before reigning in the chequebook. Again they spend plenty "net"  but it's almost all covered by CL and associated TV income.

3. "Enough" or similar isn't an answer. A number be it £1 or £10 billion or anywhere in between.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm on the train with Pompey fans, who are relieved that they've just beaten Accrington 1-0. Will this be us in a few seasons?

Would it be that bad if it was?  This is the bit that gives me hope.  Take away the ego of wanting to 'dine at the top table' and you're left with exactly the same thing.  They're still travelling by train to watch some hopeless cause, they're still posting on some random fanzine's website.  That is the fun bit, the camaraderie of sharing time with mates.

Going down doesn't bother me that much, I actually think it could be more fun in the championship, less glamour but much better away trips and more victories.  More hope.

"More fun in the Championship"?
That's the type of deluded shite Small Heath fans spout whenever they try and put a brave face on yet another humiliating relegation.

True, but how much have you enjoyed the last few seasons? this is all we're offering up. Season after season of turgid displays and displays.  i'm not sure it will be more fun in the Championship and I certainluy don't want to be relegated because we need to be aiming for the top half of the top flight. That saying it may be kinder to put as out of our misery. because this is shit.

I both disagree and entirely agree with this. Because of the final sentence - that's exactly it.

Relegation would be horrible, yes, it'd be humiliating, yes, but really, what kind of existence is this? It is fucking horrible.

[dave.woodhall]

Nobody talked about borrowing heavily under Ellis - on the contrary, Bruce Langham when he was briefly CEO, spoke of there being "wriggle room" in the club's finances that hadn't been utilised.

Lerner may be disgustingly rich as you call it, but as has been pointed out by several other posters, even richer owners have reined in their, far greater, spending. You can call for whatever you like, but you cannot run a football club by depending on the largesse of one man, particularly one who wants to sell it and who you want to go.

Lerner owns the club lock stock and barrel so who else can we call on to speculate to accumulate?
Surely you'd like him to invest some serious money for a change? His 6 year austerity has been absolute torture for the club.

No, I don't want him to put another penny in to the club on top of the however many hundreds of millions he's thrown away already. I don't want us to spend money we haven't got, and I especially wouldn't want us to be even more indebted to a man if I'd spent years telling the world how much I hate him.

[OzVilla]

I'm on the train with Pompey fans, who are relieved that they've just beaten Accrington 1-0. Will this be us in a few seasons?

Would it be that bad if it was?  This is the bit that gives me hope.  Take away the ego of wanting to 'dine at the top table' and you're left with exactly the same thing.  They're still travelling by train to watch some hopeless cause, they're still posting on some random fanzine's website.  That is the fun bit, the camaraderie of sharing time with mates.

Going down doesn't bother me that much, I actually think it could be more fun in the championship, less glamour but much better away trips and more victories.  More hope.

"More fun in the Championship"?
That's the type of deluded shite Small Heath fans spout whenever they try and put a brave face on yet another humiliating relegation.

True, but how much have you enjoyed the last few seasons? this is all we're offering up. Season after season of turgid displays and displays.  i'm not sure it will be more fun in the Championship and I certainluy don't want to be relegated because we need to be aiming for the top half of the top flight. That saying it may be kinder to put as out of our misery. because this is shit.

I both disagree and entirely agree with this. Because of the final sentence - that's exactly it.

Relegation would be horrible, yes, it'd be humiliating, yes, but really, what kind of existence is this? It is fucking horrible.

It's really no existence is it.  Imagine if we guaranteed survival for the next 4 years but they were exactly the same as the last 4 - barely no home wins, humiliating records set season after season, regular defeats to lower league opposition in cups, the odd fluke win to keep our heads above water and then repeat for another year. 

We need a circuit breaker to galvanise us as a club and provide some purpose. We need to get back into the habit of winning more than we lose.  I love this club but loathe the team at the moment.

[Locko]

Lerner needs to spend massively in January to give us a chance, if it's not too late. The discussion over his investment in villa is moot, such has been the haphazard, incoherent manner of his spending, that he may as well have set light to an enormous pile of twenties in the centre circle in his first game as custodian. £250m since he arrived and we are appreciably worse, that requires a special kind of stupid. The man is a fool and like all fools he should part with a significant amount of cash in January to repair some of the damage he has inflicted

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

Lerner needs to spend massively in January to give us a chance, if it's not too late. The discussion over his investment in villa is moot, such has been the haphazard, incoherent manner of his spending, that he may as well have set light to an enormous pile of twenties in the centre circle in his first game as custodian. £250m since he arrived and we are appreciably worse, that requires a special kind of stupid. The man is a fool and like all fools he should part with a significant amount of cash in January to repair some of the damage he has inflicted

he should spend whatever he wants to spend, its his money

I would like him to spend loads to improve what we have to watch every week but its his choice. The same as it is my choice to continue going and watching the crap on offer.

he knows what's at stake, he may spend to protect his product which he is trying to sell, he may decide not to spend because he has already put enough in in his opinion, his choice

[Locko]

As the purported custodian, I'd like to see Lerner make some reasonable attempt to rectify the damage he's caused, if that requires high spending in January, offering the existing squad huge bonuses for avoiding the drop, so be it. Either that or he cuts his losses in the summer and hands us on to someone competent. Lets face it he's only lost his old mans money anyway, it's not like he ever earned it.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Relegation would be horrible, yes, it'd be humiliating, yes, but really, what kind of existence is this? It is fucking horrible.

It's shit at the moment and has been getting shitter for a while but at least it'll be cheaper shit in the second division. And I could live a season or 2 without having to watch tourists at Stamford Bridge laughing at me after I've paid £55 for the pleasure. I could live without watching arsehole players ruining the game by thinking that laws don't apply to them ( Diego Costa - first example to come into my head, there are many more who I would be happy to see get a right-hander from a proper centre half). I could live without semi-coherent experts in the media, spouting ignorant nonsense about us. I'd honestly rather play 100 mile and hour pub football against Blues and Wolves than watch us play, say, Swansea or Leicester in a silent, sterile ground at 8pm on a Monday evening. And I want a manager in a sheepskin coat, sitting on a wooden bench, not in a fucking gilet in a racing car seat.

I'm ready for it

Shove your Premier League up yer bollocks. I'd rather watch a pub-rock outfit than a bloated stadium band, anyway     

[garyshawsknee]

Well said Chico. I'd rather see Chas and Dave than Coldplay.

[Skerra]

Earlier on this thread, someone commented that it was good having Gestede as our front man in away games as he holds the ball up well!! - Not the same player that I'm watching as, he couldn't trap a bag of cement and the ball always comes off his shin, knee or whatever but, holding the ball up - no way.