Turning Points

[tomd2103]

Week beginning 23rd February 2009.  Things have gone downhill ever since then.

[Dave Cooper please]

many turning points , beating liverpool at wembley last season , not taking full allocations for away matches , closing the adventurers and not giving albrighton a new contract

Half and half scarves, the banning of conkers in schools, the demise of white dog poo and Coldplay.

[Clampy]

many turning points , beating liverpool at wembley last season , not taking full allocations for away matches , closing the adventurers and not giving albrighton a new contract

Yep, not taking an extra 1,000 to away games is where it all went wrong.

[Villa in Denmark]

The turning point was when Randy Lerner turned up at Ellis's office with a shiny Cleveland Browns helmet. Only now do we understand the symbolism in that gesture.

Not being funny, no-one can deny that Randy has proven to be a disaster, but which of the alternatives would you have gone for?

Ray Ranson? The man who facilitated Ridsdale bankrupting Leeds so he could earn a few quid, then pitched up at Coventry and helped drive them almost to extinction?
The 50 year old lawyer still living at home with his mother?
Doug who'd run out of money that wasn't his own, and had recognised that he couldn't really hack it in the jungle of modern football anymore?

[saunders_heroes]

Another landmark of shitness was Lambert's first transfer dealings when he signed the likes of Westwood, Lowton, Bennett, Bowery etc and classed them as "young and hungry"in a desperate PR move. Went to see them at a pre-season friendly at Forest and I recoiled in horror at just how shit they were. I just couldn't believe we signed so many players who'd be clearly out of their depth in the Premier League and I think that's the very moment I started to worry about relegation.

[oldhill_avfc]

I do think Leicester was a big turning point though

No it wasn't - the natural rules of statistical variation produced a performance that flattered a very poor team which was patently a relegation candidate from day 1.

[oldhill_avfc]

Hollis is an accountant malc.  He would have been at the centre of the decision to force Remi Garde to carry the can.  One of the most insightful comments made in this forum over the relegation year was when Ads described Steve Hollis as our de facto Administrator.  Look at the last five months through that lens and it all becomes much clearer.

Brian

Hollis might be an accountant and he maybe our de facto administrator too.  But in that role he's realised what most of us know, that the virtually everything in the management of the club was broke when he pitched up.  He correctly realised that the whole structure needed sorting before we could move forward. 

Things were simply so far gone, that just about the only decision the club got right in the past few years was not to spend massively in January. 

[kippaxvilla2]

Also, the Macron curse....Bolton down this season plus Villa!

This year's Henson.

[Brend'Watkins]

I do think Leicester was a big turning point though

No it wasn't - the natural rules of statistical variation produced a performance that flattered a very poor team which was patently a relegation candidate from day 1.

We'd played reasonably well for a side trying to settle in up to the Leicester game. The Leicester game was the catalyst for this season's progressively poorer form.

[rob_bridge]

Turning point.

If I was to pick one I'd say that Stoke game in 2009 when we were 2 nil up and got pegged back. We would have been 8 points ahead of a mentally fragile Arsenal and may have had enough momentum to take us through. 

Thereafter a litany of errors. Not sacking O'Neil at the end of that season and giving him another huge pot of money for transfers and wages.
This is something I would never have advocated - the ultimate wise after the event.
Not binning him at the end of 2009-10
Having Faulkner as CEO
Not picking Hughes as replacement manager  in 2011 summer
Picking the one we did who's player recruitments is probably the worst of all time in terms of bang for buck (I include his own recruitment, wages and severance pay on top).
Not sacking Lambert at the end of 2013-14 or even before the end of the season and then seeing his signings that summer.
Giving him a new contract in Sept 2014 - he'd done nothing to warrant it.
Having Fox as CEO and his False Narrative crap

The rest Sherwood, Garde etc.. are the symptoms of the utter shiteness. I'll cut Sherwood some slack in retrospect, though his mates in the media talk utter shite about his involvement in player recruitment

[Chico Hamilton III]

It's got to be selling Benteke for me. Selling a goalscorer who had kept us up for 2 seasons and not replacing him with an established striker sealed our fate. What everyone said would happen to us happened to us.

[cdward]

Turning point.

If I was to pick one I'd say that Stoke game in 2009 when we were 2 nil up and got pegged back. We would have been 8 points ahead of a mentally fragile Arsenal and may have had enough momentum to take us through. 

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12799/10236123/aston-villas-fall-and-fall-from-top-four-challenges-to-premier-league-relegation

[PeterWithe]

Signing Darren Bent to keep us in the top division rather than signing him to get close to winning it.

[rob_bridge]

Turning point.

If I was to pick one I'd say that Stoke game in 2009 when we were 2 nil up and got pegged back. We would have been 8 points ahead of a mentally fragile Arsenal and may have had enough momentum to take us through. 

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12799/10236123/aston-villas-fall-and-fall-from-top-four-challenges-to-premier-league-relegation

The fees were big but it was more the wages and the fact most of them had much lower or zero sell on value.
Downing, Young, Milner, Barry we got good money for. The others not

It was very much Gregory Mk II with better (alebit limited) style of football.

[not3bad]

The TSM Mk 1 appointment. Our stocks were still high but that appointmentset a tone. Then not sacking Lambert sooner. They had numerous opportunities. That's when this squad came together and this attitude of accepting defeat and unwanted records was forged.

I would agree with this one. It's the point where Villa declared to the world what the level of their ambition now was.