Terry Jones has submitted the following.
Now after yet another home defeat at the hands of the Hammers is it not the time Randy to start and make decisions for yourself and not listen to those who know sweet fa about football?
New Contract or P45 for Lambert a decision needs to be taken.
How many home games have we won? is it three?
Is this what we want for our great club or do we want to see a club that is challenging?
We have been in the premier league since day one of it’s formation and have only been top of the table for brief periods.
But is this not better than what we have now, a team made up of players who would struggle to beat an under 10s team?
Now some say Lambert has not had enough money to spend. In my opinion he has but he has wasted it.
In two summers he’s bought (is it eleven?) players, most from the lower leagues home and abroad instead of bringing in four or five half decent players.
Since he has been in charge we as a club have broken some very unwelcome records and if he is allowed to carry on will only break more and even end up being relegated.This in my mind will be a disaster for the club and fans.
So now the time has come to make the ultimate decision Either Lambert has to go, the club has to be sold else our great history will count for nothing when we are struggling in the lower leagues of English football.
Come on you fans, let’s hear what decisions you want to see made not only to keep our club where it is but to take this club forward. As for myself it would be a disaster for not only Villa but for the many fans old and young to see a great club die because of bad decision making by the owner and more so by a manager who is the worst in the clubs history.Does not Englands second city deserve a top football team?
I say yes, so Randy Lerner, time to make the right decisions.
Comments
157 responses to “Decision Time.”
We are all suffering as Villa fans but what pisses some of us off (me included) is the ones on here that seem to relish our shortcomings and come on to tell us how right they are when we play crap, and disappear when we put in the odd decent performance.
TBH I don’t really give a shit whether you are right or wrong. I want to believe in the possibility that we might break the trend of he who spends the most wins everything that sees a small number of Prem clubs dominating in all domestic competitions. Every team (pretty much) seems to unearth talented players from overseas, lower divisions and even their youth systems. I like to imagine that we will be able to build a competitive team made up mostly from that mix. Lambert may not be the man to deliver this (though I am prepared to give him some more time) but I will salute him for trying. If we can maintain our position in the top division and steadily add quality we could still build a sustainable team that is competitive to the point that Everton for example have reached after a number of years.
And Amen to that
DS….well said mate. We can only judge Lambert when he is given ‘reasonable funding’. Its been so tough because of Lerner cutting back so harshly instead of taking his time and giving managers a ‘sporting chance’. A more gradual approach would have been a far better option IMO. As it is, its Randolph who is playing russian roulette with the club…….so Lerner, fuck off sharpish, the Villa is ours!
DS –
I want to believe in the possibility that we might break the trend of he who spends the most wins everything that sees a small number of Prem clubs dominating in all domestic competitions.
no chance at all and if you believe the tosh about being a Dortmund then that misses out on so many points. The major point being German football was bankrupt and no one even Bayern had that much money. English football is a totally different situation.
I think you have just backed DS’s argument instead of your own.
The team that spanked Real Madrid 4-0 and reached the CL final was put together for around 40 million Euros, in fact, Lewandowski and Kagawa were bought for a combined 5.1 million Euros.
The Dortmund model can work, if the manager can buy the right players.
Wether German football was bankrupt or not is neither here nor there but if you are going to use it as a an argument then it will only back up DS’s viewpoint.
I’d stick to trying to make sense of that Annual Report if i were you.
The problem is Dortmund are full of footballing brains at board level and we have the Chuckle brothers of Lerner and Faulkner, both from similar banking backgrounds, which is why O’Neil was allowed to spend spend spend, as they didn’t have a clue what was going on…Now they have gone to the other end of the spectrum and tried to save save save…. They need to get a director of football and then find a philosophy, let the fans know and stick with it…..
The point is, success can be had if you spend the money wisely, unfortunately Lambert is pretty rubbish in the transfer market.
praise the lord,we have a believer ~ i agree with most comments, for and against ~ also most important iam open minded.
i most definitely believe we can survive this season ~ then wot happens is anybody guess. but Lerner can’t continue asset stripping,
everton just survived one year, by the skin of their teeth, not sure if that was moyles first year. but they never changed a squad and paid less wages. they simply stopped investing in transfers.but hats 2 them they got the rite man in and on shoestring budgets they av constantly over achieved
“but they never changed a squad and paid less wages. they simply stopped investing in transfers.”
The first part is correct and that’s my biggest single complaint. We went too far, too fast.
I question the second part though.
They have spent mate. Fellaini wasn’t cheap, as an example.
The Everton example is interesting, they did spend and their wages are not 10K a week. Fellani though was brought with the incoming money, wasn’t he (Rodwell) ?, with the Milner we got Ireland … it is the choices made that was the difference.
Felliani was at Everton before Rodwell broke into the first team, jesus.
they stopped spending 🙂 i mean they spent alot less then they used 2 do. but they still continued 2 spend on wages, villa totally ripped up a squad of players paid low wages all in one season and everton was a gradual decline
Times have changed since then. Bottom line is they won fuck all when even teams like Swansea, Portsmouth and small Heath won a trophy ffs
on the whole asset stripping thing.
Lerner has spent money on infrastructure and commercial deals that add to our balance sheet in terms of assest.
whereas a young promising footballer in his prime is an asset its one with an expiration date.
as well as tat, it has to be realised. Ie sold at high profit.
I count young, milner and dowining that would fall under that category.
compare us to other clubs compare the spending on infrastructure( training grounds, stadium/facilities commercial exansion investment etc and their relative sales of their top players ..
it doens’t really come near the financial process of “asset stripping” for me
I think that term is being bandied about but its not accurate.
So be it nath, get it? No? Thought not.
could u expand on wot i don’t get
the fickle thing is a tough one especially in todays game with todays fans, hering arsenal fans yesterday for example(not all arsenal fans btw)saying get rid of wenger(again!)is just embarrassing.
but fans, especially our long suffering home fans have every right to complain, what we are seeing season in and out for the last few seasons is really, really poor and unacceptable.
unacceptable but understandable considering we are playing in the premiership with a championship squad and money(and by that I mean a mid table championship squad).
but shouting lambert out and learner out every time we loose is equally ridiculous, we know what it is we are trying to do and its a long game not a quick fix and seriously who the hell do we think we’d get in to get our squad to play better than they are now?
west brom sacking clark doesn’t seem to be doing them any favours at the moment does it? and our so called competiors that some so often allude to the fact of how they are streets ahead of us, Southampton, spent and wasted a fortune this season, their 20mil marquee signing Osvaldo is out on loan altready. swans have been utter shite, mediocre at best, sacked manager and everton, playing well but 3 of their most important 1st team players are loans and probably on big wages considering they play for barca, man city and Chelsea. spurs spent 120mil+ and were tipped for the title in the summer, currently struggling to stay in touch with the top four and sacked the manager. I could go on but you get the picture.
I do think we are a couple of players away from a decent squad and ethic but I fear more of the same in the summer(if we stay up)more of everything on the cheap although learner will have to do something as season ticket sales will be well down, very few are going to invest in one unless something major happens closed season.
Bent was just another quality player destroyed by poor managers at Villa. This list is endless.
Unfortunately Terry Lambert stays and so does Lerner.UTV
I never agreed with the treatment of bent but it has to be said he has failed to shine at Fulham, in fact he has failed to get in to the starting 11 almost every game which says a lot.
I wanted lambert gone before the window opened and then shut, i felt we could get in a manager who would brinfg in a few players and give the place a lift. This did not happen, i now see no point in sacking a manager a nd then replacing him with someone who does not know the players and has not or cannot sign anyone. I am not Lamberts biggest fan but i think replacing him at this stage in the season would do more harm than good.
I think i read a stat on twitter from an unreliable source that we have not won a single game when Vlaar has been injured, i am too lazy to google can anyone verify this stat?
We really should have signed a CB and at leat 5 new centre midfielders, our midfield is shocking, I fell for the Delph illusion and lapped up the bullshit but now on closer inspection he is in fact a terrible player who runs down blind alleys, gives the ball away and beats the same player 4 times before losing the ball. i have also noticed our players are very slow at switching flanks and that not one of our players can make a run in the box to meet a FORWARD pass.
Has Benteke turned up yet the bloke needs to stay on his feet and we need to stop hoofing it to him so he has his back to goal, the hoof ball happens more when Vlaar is not playing as nobody has confidence in Baker or Clark to pass the ball
5 new centre mids and a CB?
on our budget?
Blimey, that would have been pushing the boat out mate.
Most of us would have just liked one decent mid, imo.
As for Delph, he’s not that bad.
In fact he’s been a shining light overall in this season, if you think about it.
Not that that’s saying much.
I jest, i thought Delph was good but i am beginning to have my doubts about him, how many times does he need to beat a player. Nolan outplayed him yesterday, Shelvey outplayed him, as have many others this season.
agreed delph is the best we av , admittedly he was dwelling against hammers but thats life.last time we won without vlaar was pool last season 1,3 i believe just b4 we got hammered 3 games chelsea spuds and wigan
In my view this window we needed one big signing (hate loans but Betrand OK) to show future intent, whether a CB, a CM or whatever a signing for proper cash and proper wages. A signing to lift the club.
Instead we got Holt, Betrand on loan and tried all window for Hoolahan and failed
The signal was clear enough then
Totally agree (and no I’m not sucking proverbial BWS, it’s just correct, imo).
It’s why the £40 mill in the summer really makes me laugh.
As much as I’d love it, I really can’t see it happening.
Lerner has set his stall out and if he isn’t looking to sell (which I don’t really believe he is, contrary to Ian’s opinion, BWS ;-)) we’re just going to see more of the same.
With most of the extra £30 mill a season stuck in his arse pocket.
Question is, is it Lambert or Lerner?
Is Lambert the type of manager like O’Neill or Redknapp who will spend every penny they can, cry about wanting more and spending even when they don’t need too, or is he Wenger? Money’s there, but he won’t spend it unless he finds a player he can control completely and won’t question his theories or tactics?
Your average fan will forgive any signing or manager/chairman if the performances, effort or results are good.
Next season i can see a huge dip in season ticket sales, i have sat in three stands this season at VP and the general feeling is not great. Project or no project if you dont entertain you dont get an audience as people will not want to waste money and time on something that is just dire to watch.
Where i sat on Saturday i could hear a few saying they are not renewing next year unless Lambert is gone or we buy proven quality, these are not fickle fans but fans sick of watching shit football and i bet they are not the only ones feeling like this
The only decision is do you go to Villa Park or not. Neither going nor staying away is wrong, but ultimately the only thing that will have any impact on Lerner’s decision making is if the attendance levels drop. With McLeish we were in the high 20ks, with Lambert there are still 35k turning up.
agreed guys.
the good attendences this season are solely down to pre season season tickets sales which were bought on the wave of optimism following the run in and keeping hold of tekkers, with out this id say by now we’d be seeing more like the mid/low 20k’s.
no improvement and/or spending in the summer will see sales drop significantly so I feel we will see some spending if for that reason only, either that or lambert being fired.
personally if it was the end of the season now and I had the ability to get to home games regularly I would not be buying a season ticket and I don’t think anyone would blame me?
living in the north west I could’ve gone to the recent games at everton and Liverpool, I chose not to, the same with trip to brum to see home games, I haven’t been since everton and I doubt I will make another this season.
an away trip even relatively locally for me and home games always cost me in excess of £100 with ticket price, travel and spends, this is a significant portion of my disposable income. when I see learner is not parting with anything near a significant portion of his disposable income to support the club he owns and supposedly cares for I feel why the fuck should I?
if he honestly thought he was going to make money from owning a PL club he must have rocks in his head.
I understand and support the philosophy but we are too extreme, we should have invested more significantly in the summer and in jan, the excuses from the top at villa are just getting boring and insulting.
TJ said in the article we’ve spent 40mil on 10/11 players(I think its more than 10/11)if that is anywhere near correct that puts our spending as an average of less than 4mil per player in the English premier league!.
I think that says it all
I agree with you there NM. I’m also around £100 to £150 away for each home game and with the odds heavily stacked towards a loss from negative or clueless tactics and no possession, I can’t afford to take off a whole day and spend that much money. Away matches are a different matter, I’m off to see a couple more this season. And at least Lerner doesn’t get the extra attendance figure.
Agree NM as u rightly say when STs are up for renewal we will start being linked with good players wev fuck all hope of getting. Then when they his 20,000 STs bought by 20,000 gullible muppets the truth starts coming out as we get one shite million pound signing after another with £10m tops spent. Benteke will be gone next season as well and lamberk will see only a fraction of that money if he’s lucky
That’s a great post mate and if it wasn’t too similar to the topic in hand, I’d have put that up as an article in it’s own right.
The only part where I disagree, is where you think he isn’t/was never looking to make money.
Many will probably disagree, but I think that’s exactly what he wants to do.
And with the extra £30 mill a year that I (boringly) keep going on about, it’s why he won’t sell, imo.
He can give us an extra £15 mill spends over and above the average £20 mill, but he’ll still be pocketing £15 mill.
Which is on top of any savings we’re already making.
Slight aside, but FFP?
You have to qualify for something for that to kick in and we ain’t nowhere near, imo.
Lerner just looks at the club from an accounts point of view now, he doesn’t want cup runs as they are too risky with injuries, and wants to stay in the middle of the table reaping the sky money, he gets all his direction and news from Faulkner who just looks at our position in the table which is an improvement from this time last year…. The £40m in the summer just will not happen (but i am sure we will be linked at season ticket renewal time), its said but as fans I just think we are going to have to live with this mediocracy for the foreseeable !!
cheers badger.
as for FFP, I admit im no where near 100% on this but as I understand it they ability to spend money is based on the clubs income.
this means that global brands like united, chelsea and Liverpool will laways continue to be able to spend big while clubs say like everton if they qualified for CL would be severly hampered, it was for this reason that us and I think man city voted against(man city are loaded but they don’t have the income of man utd, Liverpool and Chelsea although give it a few more seasons for the uk and worldwide glory hunters to catch up)
like I say I really don’t know the full details so I could be talking shite there.
Why is Lambert being offered a new deal ?
Surely it has to be performance related. He says that Lerner has bought into his long term vision but you have to show progress. We may be higher up the league at the moment but that is down to luck. We are not playing any where near the level that we were toward the end of last season and that wasn’t great just an improvement on what had gone before.
Also if Lambert was charged with bringing the wage bill down and has been scouring the lower leagues and abroad for talent why isn’t looking on his own door step for free. Our youngsters won the NextGEn competition and not one of them is on the fringe of the first team squad. Carruthers could have been given a chance ahead on Tonev, Robinson ahead of Helenius and now Gardner is back from injury he should be given the opportunity at least to stake a claim because Westwood this year has literally gone backwards.
could AGREE more steve
i can’t understand that conundrum. seems like he doesn’t trust um or thinks they aren’t good enough. but albrighton was by far the best player against hammers, carruthers seems 2b very gifted,blessed with sumat we lack intelligence and vision, i bet he could do a fine job on the left and albrighton on the rite.
Grealish and Carruthers are out on loan though, getting some good competitive match time. There’s an argument that you can’t rush in players, especially if the team is in a downward spiral. I hope they’re in the main squad next season and players like Tonev are sent off on loan somewhere…
You’ve got to hit rock bottom before you can move on.
Lambert came to Villa knowing the Randy wanted to trim the wage bill and out the over paid players.
Culling a premier league squad is no easy feat.
If Villa don’t want the players, then surely its going to be difficult to get others to want them too. Hence why some of them are still on our wage bill.
Lambert had to rebuild, that much we all know but to the extend we didn’t until the last 7 months.
Its great ppl saying he needs to buy Player A for def, Player B for Midfield etc etc etc but what if player A & B don’t want to sign for Villa? What if the players we’ve bought were the best players available to Lambert & Villa? Why is no1 mentioning that? Players know we are trimming the wage bill so they aren’t getting the wages like we paid before. They know we’re only after players that want to play for Villa not an easy pay day.
Wind you neck in and look at the bigger picture!
Yes staying up is what it is all about this season yet again, that wasn’t the plan but how often do things go to plan at Villa?
Get on the managers back as other managers are still have a say on what goes on at Villa? We must be the biggest bunch of fickle morons to support a club.
Wes H wanted to play for Villa, he wanted to play for PL but the fans were outraged……
Why would any player want to subject himself and his family to us?
Get your heads out of the sand.
We are not the Villa of the 80s or even the mid 90s.
We are not the Villa of the Mon days.
PL has a job to do and we make it worse.
We don’t sell out VP.
We don’t support our players.
I for 1, support PL.
I’m just as depressed as anyone but I truly believe that after the summer, a lot of ppl will be eating humble pie.
I think you will be eating championship pie mate we are our way down stupid lemmings believing pr bullshit I would mind doing this way its the shit football that piss me off plus I know this team can play better thats what hurts the most lerner and lambert legacy is the worst in the clubs history so no one can defend them so stop with these bullshit posts
We want lerner out we want lerner out
why should ppl stop posting , anything that differs from ur narrow minded views . the guy has a rite 2 post wot ever he likes. come 2 morrow god 4bid villa win, will u not be allowing villa fans ~ space 2 post praise 4 good performance and win
This is a forum, why insult people and tell them to wind there necks in. I am a season ticket holder so i am very far from fickle. If i am not happy because the football is shit i am going to moan, if you dont like my moaning dont read my posts.
Intelligent people have a way to post a view point without insults, morons throw insults to win an argument because they have no valid points to make because they are to thick to come up with a simple argument in a simple discussion
Are u lamberks love child. It’s because of the likes of lamberk apologists like u he is still here. We didn’t want holt either but he still came. The real reason he wouldn’t come is because he had to put in a transfer request to come to us and he refused to do so for financial reasons nothing to do with the fans. And if he was worried about fans then he’s a wimp and we wouldn’t want him anyway. Why would the players we bought be the best players lamberk could get. Dont u mean the best players he could get for £1m. Yes we are in a relegation battle yet again and I’m sick to death of it tbh. A club like ours should be at least where Newcastle are. Lerner said if he couldn’t make it work he’d fuck off yet another lie. Lamberk out
Please, not another person that thinks were are all going to eat humble pie because the club are going to spend loads in the summer… Its nonsense we will be fed the bullshit around April/May/June about lots of class players then it will go quiet and lots of excuses about why we didn’t get them in…… we are kept in the dark and fed on shit…We are the Villa mushrooms !
Save your breath fella, you’ll only be shot down, called a lemming, sheep etc. You won’t be taken seriously unless your negative.
such a refreshing post, hats of to u :)i think hoolahan would av been a instant hit. shame that Norwich wasn’t adult enough 2do business
Two Nutters don’t make it right,ffs you’ll never learn, both in cloud cuckoo land.
you should know this billy, respect were respects due ~ getting personal doesn’t prove me either rite or wrong ~ only proves ur not man enough 2 allow ppl 2 vent their angers or views that differ 2 urs ~ the site is full of it ~ gets rite up my nose
Nath just making sure you go down the right path, to many young ones need help by us wise ones. 🙂
Two true bill some people cant see the truth were crap we deserve to go down some fans are like junkie’s don’t realise they got a problem until its too late lerner has fucked the club were worse than when eillis was there at least under eillis we won at home and didnt get tonke 8 0 and 7 1
No under Ellis we got relegated….
Still early days.
Bill….my good man. Your as loyal and passionate about the Villa as I and many others are. If things are not changing, as we are led to believe then the only 2 options are support the team or turn your back on them. We all love the Villa so lets get right behind them for the remainder of the season. I will be outraged if quality players are not bought in the summer. But thats irrelevant for now. Lets ensure we stay up. Thats the most important thing for now is supporting the club we love. Relegation would be disastrous for us.
i don’t mind either way, relegation mean nothing 2 me. i still get paid my wages, i can cope with villa goin down, i av live long enough 2 see us play in lower divisions. infact made me enjoy premiership or division 1 football all the more.
trouble is some fans, think we have a god given rite 2 win a league titles, cups etc ~ truth be known we are at best top 10 the owner knows he can’t carry the club any further than top 10, like the newcastle owners realised the premiership goal is just below europa qualifcation
the year villa went down last ~ doug ellis wouldn’t release funds 2 buy a striker ~ of the top of my head we lost 6 nil 2 spurs and notts forest ~
Onwards & upwards 3 points at Cardiff see us in 10th place a loss may see us back in the shite UTV