Fans Worried Over Villa Future

[Drummond]

I think given the current situation we're going down.

Surely that wins an award for the most pessimistic we've had?!

Last season hasn't been over a fortnight and already we're down next season?! Seriously.

[Toronto Villa]

I think given the current situation we're going down.

Surely that wins an award for the most pessimistic we've had?!

Last season hasn't been over a fortnight and already we're down next season?! Seriously.

Views like that suggest at all will change between now and next season, which irrespective of how pessimistic you might feel now, surely you cannot believe. You might not be particularly optimistic on the back of recent events, but to say we are are going down 2 weeks after the season has ended is a little dramatic. I would say let's just see how all of this plays out between now and the start of the season before coming to such a definitive conclusion.

[brian green]

A parable.   Somebody sold me some poultry two weeks ago.   I was told they were hens and would lay me some eggs.   They have not laid any yet.   Perhaps they will lay some next week. Or the week after that.   All I know is that as every week goes by without any eggs the odds that they are not hens increases and that the odds that they will never lay any increases.   Same with selling the club.   The fact that we know of no buyer or of any negotiations does not mean that there is none, it simply means that the longer it goes on the more likely it is to become that it will either not happen or will not happen satisfactorily.   The first two or three weeks after we were formally put on sale were the most likely to yield news of a buyer.   Two or three weeks in August are much less likely to.  You are not looking at a predictable timescale.  The commonest comparison is when you sell your house.   If you have not had any interest when it is new to the market you are not likely to get any when everybody knows about it.   My money is on us still being for sale and Paul Lambert in charge at the start of next season.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think given the current situation we're going down.

Surely that wins an award for the most pessimistic we've had?!

Last season hasn't been over a fortnight and already we're down next season?! Seriously.

Views like that suggest at all will change between now and next season, which irrespective of how pessimistic you might feel now, surely you cannot believe. You might not be particularly optimistic on the back of recent events, but to say we are are going down 2 weeks after the season has ended is a little dramatic. I would say let's just see how all of this plays out between now and the start of the season before coming to such a definitive conclusion.

I wouldn't say we are going to go down this season, but what I do think is likely is that, if we are not sold, and if the spending policy of the last couple of years goes on - let alone it tightening up, which may be the case now we're for sale - then at some point in the next two or three years, we'll get relegated.

We've been 16th, 15th, 15th the last three years. In really simple betting terms, if you looked at a club which had finished in those places the last three years, you would not be taking a gigantic punt if you betted on them finishing 18th or lower. We've flirted with it so closely. Then the performances have been poor. We've focused on cheap wage players, we look like a bunch of kids, we struggle to win games, we lost over half of our matches this season.

Does it mean we're going down next year? Not necessarily, but I honestly think it is inevitable unless there is a change of ownership at the very least, and preferably a change of spending policy.

I am also more concerned now than last year that there's an air or rudderlessness about us - manager nobody wants any more, who doesn't know how long he'll be in the job, owner who has said he wants out, and is controlling the money tightly, plus some really fucked up off the field stuff (regardless of the reasons, the Culverhouse Karsa situation is just bizarre).

We've got the fucked up finances and poor squad of a relegation team, we are now acquiring the off the field circus that usually signifies that sort of team. Like Newcastle in their relegation year.

[Toronto Villa]

A parable.   Somebody sold me some poultry two weeks ago.   I was told they were hens and would lay me some eggs.   They have not laid any yet.   Perhaps they will lay some next week. Or the week after that.   All I know is that as every week goes by without any eggs the odds that they are not hens increases and that the odds that they will never lay any increases.   Same with selling the club.   The fact that we know of no buyer or of any negotiations does not mean that there is none, it simply means that the longer it goes on the more likely it is to become that it will either not happen or will not happen satisfactorily.   The first two or three weeks after we were formally put on sale were the most likely to yield news of a buyer.   Two or three weeks in August are much less likely to.  You are not looking at a predictable timescale.  The commonest comparison is when you sell your house.   If you have not had any interest when it is new to the market you are not likely to get any when everybody knows about it.   My money is on us still being for sale and Paul Lambert in charge at the start of next season.

eggs aside, we were for sale all summer before Lerner bought us in August 2006. MON joined us just before that. It's still May. Buying a house and buying a multi-million pound business where you then have to invest about as much as you initially paid to maintain it are a world apart.

[Toronto Villa]

I think given the current situation we're going down.

Surely that wins an award for the most pessimistic we've had?!

Last season hasn't been over a fortnight and already we're down next season?! Seriously.

Views like that suggest at all will change between now and next season, which irrespective of how pessimistic you might feel now, surely you cannot believe. You might not be particularly optimistic on the back of recent events, but to say we are are going down 2 weeks after the season has ended is a little dramatic. I would say let's just see how all of this plays out between now and the start of the season before coming to such a definitive conclusion.

I wouldn't say we are going to go down this season, but what I do think is likely is that, if we are not sold, and if the spending policy of the last couple of years goes on - let alone it tightening up, which may be the case now we're for sale - then at some point in the next two or three years, we'll get relegated.

We've been 16th, 15th, 15th the last three years. In really simple betting terms, if you looked at a club which had finished in those places the last three years, you would not be taking a gigantic punt if you betted on them finishing 18th or lower. We've flirted with it so closely. Then the performances have been poor. We've focused on cheap wage players, we look like a bunch of kids, we struggle to win games, we lost over half of our matches this season.

Does it mean we're going down next year? Not necessarily, but I honestly think it is inevitable unless there is a change of ownership at the very least, and preferably a change of spending policy.

I am also more concerned now than last year that there's an air or rudderlessness about us - manager nobody wants any more, who doesn't know how long he'll be in the job, owner who has said he wants out, and is controlling the money tightly, plus some really fucked up off the field stuff (regardless of the reasons, the Culverhouse Karsa situation is just bizarre).

We've got the fucked up finances and poor squad of a relegation team, we are now acquiring the off the field circus that usually signifies that sort of team. Like Newcastle in their relegation year.

My point being I'll be just as concerned as Soccer if he is writing the same thing in late July or August after we have had a summer of doing nothing at all in the transfer market and the club has not been sold. It is far, far too early in my view to have that opinion now.

[silhillvilla]

A parable.   Somebody sold me some poultry two weeks ago.   I was told they were hens and would lay me some eggs.   They have not laid any yet.   Perhaps they will lay some next week. Or the week after that.   All I know is that as every week goes by without any eggs the odds that they are not hens increases and that the odds that they will never lay any increases.   Same with selling the club.   The fact that we know of no buyer or of any negotiations does not mean that there is none, it simply means that the longer it goes on the more likely it is to become that it will either not happen or will not happen satisfactorily.   The first two or three weeks after we were formally put on sale were the most likely to yield news of a buyer.   Two or three weeks in August are much less likely to.  You are not looking at a predictable timescale.  The commonest comparison is when you sell your house.   If you have not had any interest when it is new to the market you are not likely to get any when everybody knows about it.   My money is on us still being for sale and Paul Lambert in charge at the start of next season.

I think it's already obvious lambert will be in charge come game 1 of 14/15 season. Even if a buyer made an offer tomorrow, the due diligence and transaction is still likely to take at least 3 months.

[ozzjim]

I think if we have not sold by the middle of August we are down too. The current squad are at best 12-16th with all fit and playing well. We will be missing our best 2 centre forwards at the start of the season, so goals are not going to come easy, and we conceded 3 or 4 in what - 5-6 of the last 8 games or something ridiculous. Vlaar will have a world cup behind him so is liable to break down at some point too if we are honest which would exasperate that situation. Nothing particularly positive gives me much hope for next season.

[john e]

I still think we will stay up, even if things stay the same

I'm not trying to be overly optimistic and think everything is honky dory, I think we are in a bad way at the moment, but still reckon we will be good enough to stay up

especially as we will start the season stronger than we finished it just because some of our injured players will be back, obviously if we sell a load of good ones then my prediction might change
but like I said if things stay much the same in every department I think we will make a decent fist of staying up, but it will be horrible, just like last season

[old man villa fan]

A lot will depend on whether Lerner allows income to be spent or whether he wants to claw back some of the money he has invested out of future income.

[Percy McCarthy]

I may be wrong but I think our best average was when we were in the third division!

Sell outs at Villa Park have only rarely happened.

You are wrong. Our best average for fifty years was a few years ago under MON. Over 40,000 in a 42,000-capacity stadium. Sell-outs were not rare then, obviously.

[brian green]

I think the comparison between an individual entering into 25 years or more of personal debt to put a roof over his family's head and a corporation investing in a long term sports business venture are not dissimilar. Me spending twice the amount of the state retirement pension per week to watch and follow Villa is no less a sacrifice than the owner committing a small fraction of his wealth to the club. It us only a question of scale and the owner has the chance of recouping his outlay but I don't. That is an aside. What really worries me is that the vacuum created at Villa is being filled by Any Other Business. Top of the agenda of post hand washing by the owner is Lambert taking centre stage to re morph himself from his true identity as McLeish Mk II (incompetent bungler and owners poodle) into O'Neill Mk II (good progressive young manager thwarted by tight fisted absentee owner). The only uncertain part us whether Lambert can get enough media mates in board in time to get the Celtic job. Probably not, so the vacuum will continue to be filled by trivialities about whether Gabby gets a contract extension and our next shirt sponsor. The orchestra on the Titanic will continue to play.

[adrenachrome]

Ah jaysus that's massive BG, and the tears are welling up in me rheumy orbs.

Let's have a few pints of plain porter and raise a glass to dismal damned, and the bootless and unhorsed in steerage.

Fuck me in both ears! Yosser Hughes escaped from the Back Stuff onto the Titanic, the surly scouse wassock.

[Gregorys Boy]

Didn't vote, although the poll options were very amusing

Seems like this thread could be merged with about four others at least!

Get a life people!  God knows what you will be like if we get to August still in this position.

[upset villan]

Why was Mark Albrighton let go, after being one of the best of a mediocre bunch at the end of last season, also Jordan Bowery, young player still learning the ropes but now gone elsewhere. On the opposite side of
things Phillip Senderos and Joe Cole, again we appear to be picking up other teams not wanted players, this with no insult meant to either player but age is not on their side. O K perhaps things are up in the air as far as big money signings but please losing the upcoming youngsters and getting cast odds not really going to help move us up the table is it.