I´ve read two or three like that during the season dave, he´s certainly far from being ´Flavour of the Month´ over there.
Any team who are not doing well will have a number of people on the managers back - look at our board over the few few months. Not too many complained at the appointment of Lambert at Villa Park and not too many complained about CH coming to Carrow Road yet both managers are getting huge amounts of flack after keeping their clubs up last season and being on course to do so again this term. Both are criticised for their style of play and for not achieving more with their clubs. Has Lambert donw a better job at Villa than CH at Norwich? We finished above them last season and are level on points currently with a lower net outlay of cash on players so arguably CH is "doing a better job". A lot of posters feel Lambert would be doing better than CH had he stayed but maybe he reached his zenith with us and will prove to be one of those managers plying his trade amoung the lower middle level clubs. Other clubs have chopped and changed their managers with mixed results. With the league being as compact at the bottom as it is any club losing two or three on the spin is being dragged down and all of the clubs in the bottom half are capable of both good and bad runs. I think that a lot of fans from a lot of clubs need a bit of a reality check on how well their clubs are doing in what is a hugely competitive premier league. For the bottom half of the division sadly the definition of a good season is survival and maybe a tilt at a domestic cup. Unless you get an Abramhovic or bought by a Saudi Prince you will not compete with the top clubs over 38 matches a year. Clubs like ours will get the odd day in the sun like last Sunday but the reality is that our squad cost a fraction of the top teams - we held our own against Chelsea until they brought on Hazard, William and E'to, the first two costing more than our entire first team squad and as the season goes on the bigger clubs with the deeper squad have even more of an advantage over the likes of us. It is very easy for any fan to blame the manager but any manager can only work with the resources he has in front of him. Villa have a pretty poor squad and by PL standards so do we. The days of a Clough-like figure carrying a provincial club to the title are sadly long gone.
It would appear that he isn't the Messiah they all thought he'd be after all. I still think Villa will be safe again this season, but it looks as though PL will have to up his game.
Come off it Dave - hardly a report is it - more a swipe from a man aggrieved by his exclusion from the inner circle of the Club!! As unofficial leader of the Paul Lambert fan club I have visited that website on several occasions over the last 18 months and suspect that Villa fans with PL are behaving the same as many City fans have been with CH - LACK OF PATIENCE!!!! Lambert was sent in by Lerner to change the Club by reducing the age of the squad, getting rid of high earners to reduce the wage bill, build up the academy to prevent reliance on inward transfers and improve results on the field. To do all of this he was given limited funds' After 18 months he has completed or nearly completed the first 3 of those tasks - no mention of that in this so called report - but still has a long way to go on the 4th. Problem is that Lerner was more concerned about the first 3 and the fans are only interested in the 4th. It will be interesting to see how many points Villa end up with this year and what progress they make next year. Same scenario at Carrow Road - forget that we look like providing a 4th year in the Premiership, forget how we have improved our squad with one of the lowest wage bills in the league, forget that the club are now debt free - just moan about the playing style and sack the Manager.
I dont like Lambert for obvious reasons by I can't deny that he has done a pretty amazing job with Villa considering the lack of funds that he has to work with! Mick is doing a similar job with us now in completely rebuilding the club on next to no funding. Lambert knew it would be a huge challenge for him at Villa and it will take time but as far as I can see he is doing very well. I have a Villa supporting mate who thinks he is the messiah!
Since when was spending nearly £42m (and net £32m) on players over the course of two years a "lack of funds"?
He's also reduced their wage bill a lot. Taking over one of the worst teams i've ever seen survive a season in the prem (Mcleish era villa). It was much more than taking over a team he's changed everything about them and is still struggling to cut all the deadwood he doesn't want (Given, hutton etc.) I'd say he's doing a more than respectable job. I do find it odd that tiote said they never seemed to want to win, as with us every game i felt like we would try to win which i dont under hughton.
OK. £36m spent and net £32m. So the same amount net, but less total purchases. There is only one response for you -
Villa fans think they should be a top 6 club and anything else is failing. The reality of the situation is that they're miles away from that position. The problem is that they were never going to get back to that position quickly which makes that job a poison chalice.
They finished 6th three years running under O'Neill not so long back so it's not that ridiculous and a club of their size and with a wage bill like theirs they really shouldn't be involved in consecutive relegation scraps.
It's funny - wage bill is an odd one - looking at the first chart here (even though it's way out of date, it will still be roughly accurate in terms of approximate ranking order): http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/apr/18/premier-league-club-accounts-debt Wage bill as a percentage of turnover almost seems to be inversely proportional to league success! So while you look at the third chart and the size of the wage bill definitely is a good measure of where a team should be in the table (and Villa's was seventh that year, which is bonkers) it should be tempered by how much as a proportion of turnover. On turnover, Villa is definitely "top of the bottom half" material. The only team really punching above their weight (in terms of turnover purely) is Everton.
It never ceases to amaze me just how high expectations are with Villa fans. Okay, they had a some League Cup wins in the past, and any self-respecting Ipswich fan will tell you that Cup is meaningless. What else? hmm...... A division 1 title in 1981, at a time when most clubs could finish top 6. Previous title wins pre-date 1910, at a time when football was in it infancy and anyone could win anything. A European Cup the following season - an admirable feat but hey, Forest won it twice too, and we don't hear them bleating about how they 'should be' in the top 6 of the PL. Villa, as with Forest, had the right manager and players at the time, as did Ipswich for a period of time. It happens, not often though, and that does not mean it is or ever will happen again for the same club - Ask Ipswich, Forest, Derby fans etc. The last FA Cup win was in 1957 - again, a period when anyone could compete - hell, we made the semis in 59, with Luton making the final! In short, most, if not all of their previous success was in periods of time when just one player, with above average ability, could make a significant difference. The history of football is littered with them. Blackpool, Burnley, Wolves, Preston - all big names in their day, with one (two at a maximum) big names players of the era in their team. It was a very different world. Sorry, but I have no sympathy for Villa fans, as with a number of clubs, their supporters are living in the past.
Thai, I agree with your summary in all things, just like to point out, you've missed the most famous "One man team" of all, Fulham with one very talented Johnny Haynes!
I disagree with you Thai (now that's a novelty) Villa are a big club and should be in the top 6 of the PL and competing for European competitions. They are on a par with the likes of Everton, Newcastle and Spurs in terms of Fan Base, History, Stadia and are founders of the Football League and Premier League. Their founder even set up the first organised League in the country back in 1888! I also disagree with your point about having just 1 individual that made the team! The 1981 Villa side had a number of England internationals the likes of Peter Withe, Tony Morley & Gordon Cowans. They had a great young midfielder in Gary Shaw, Dennis Mortimer was a giant for them in Defence, Kenny Swain I could go on! OK so we beat them 3 times that season yet they lifted the Championship because they deserved it! You also say that back in the early 1980's any team could have won the title but you conveniently forget that Liverpool were the dominant force in English football at the time and had already won the title 5 or 6 times previous to that through the mid to late 70s and then went on to win it another 4 or 5 times after Villa won it in 1981. I have always had a soft-spot for Villa eventhough they pipped us to the championship and I find the criticism you make of their fans to be pretty harsh. My Villa mates are pretty self depricating and do not have this air of grandeur that you seem to tarnish them with. Villa are a thoroughly decent club!
I was completely with you until the very last six words JWM Like I said a few posts ago, they had three successive 6th place finishes from 2008-2010 so I don't understand why Villa fans are considered so unreasonable for being unhappy with languishing in the bottom half as they currently are?
I'd still have Lambert back in a heartbeat. Not sure he'll be given long enough but I think they'll be a regular mid-table side under his stewardship fairly soon. We all know he's an excellent manager and he was given a mess there to start with.
