As things stand, no team has survived relegation with 5 points. Can Aston Villa do the impossible and survive this season? So far, I’d say no. During the international break former defender Martin Laursen spoke out in a recent interview and said that Randy Lerner needs to to spend in order to help Villa survive. In recent years the wallet has been shut with many managers working on scraps. As a result we have seen some pretty mediocre players arrive at the club. Some proved to be a success, Benteke, Sanchez and Gil are some that come to mind. Others, less so, Senderos, Gestede and Richardson come to mind.
This season Villa have already spent £53.55 million, a net spend of roughly £8.25 million. More simply needs to be spent. The most important player Villa need to buy is a new forward. Maybe even two. Charlie Austin is a good shout, apparently Villa are interested again and Austin would command a fee of £8 million. At this stage, we can’t bargain, we need to take this price because Austin can score goals, and goals is what we need.
If we can’t spend, we need to look at bringing some players on loan. Some quality players. With Amavi out for the rest of the season, a new left-back would be a good loan addition. Or maybe recall Cissokho and Bennett, they might be better than Richardson for all we know. The midfield is currently stacked, but a good experienced and quality midfield would be much appreciated as well.
Who knows what kind of player Garde is targeting. But if reports are anything to go by, Villa will no longer out to the French League for new recruits since we have enough. We could probably see some Premier League players coming to Villa Park. But no matter who comes it, Randy needs to spend. How much? I think we should see at least 2 or 3 players arrive in January with a total spend between £20-30 million. That might seem outlandish, but it’s exactly what we need right now if Villa and fans have any hope of staying up. Because this will be the biggest challenge of Aston Villa ever. A lot is on the line right now, and if Lerner wants to sell the club, austerity measures have to be chucked out the window because it hasn’t brought us any success just season after season of misery.
Comments
58 responses to “Lerner Needs to Spend. It Needs to Be Now. It Needs to be Big”
Points wise it’s not out of our reach to survive buts that’s just on paper in reality we look SHITE.LERNER spending big we’ve got a better chance of becoming PL CHAMPS.
There are two hopes of Randy opening his wallet and letting Thomas Jefferson see the light of day and one of them’s Bob.
They speak of what he spent, but what about he’s saved.
I totally agree Adam. I think I mentioned a similar figure the other day, but now I think it needs to be more.
We need players with some real steel and grit, as the ones we have are far too lightweight for my liking.
I see Collymore came out yesterday and said that these players will probably struggle in the championship. I think he’s spot on as that’s an even more physical league.
I couldn’t bring myself to write a review of the game on Saturday because I thought it might be a knee-jerk over-reaction, but now I’ve had time to think about things, so I’m more convinced about the situation.
As things stand, we’re going down.
Because the squad just isn’t good enough, in defence, midfield or attack.
Lerner won’t spend. He’ll just expect us to magically be promoted on the first attempt. And on the cheap again.
What’s the average net spend in the Chumpionship? I bet it’s more than Lerners annual shell out…We’re down. Face it.
Iike all Villa fans I hope we can get out of this mess. The problem is Lerner given scraps to manager’s and trying to stay in the Prem. Well Lerner your penny pinching is going to bite you in the ass. It will be very interesting to see if tight ass spends in January.
At the very least Garde will be given the same war chest ever manager before him has been given which is roughly 20m + sales. How he spends that I am not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we go for another defensive midfielder as well as a proven striker. Personally I think of the press about Austin is old news and a Sherwood link – he is also still very injury prone, so while he may make a difference surely there are better options? No idea who.
Too little to late the only way Garde will get money is if we are not cut adrift by more than a few points if we are Lerner will just take the loss and go down. I think we’ve had it now not just for this season but the next 10-20 years as we will miss out on new to deal. We are the new Leeds Portsmouth
It’s not even December and Garde will have some funds. Now you could argue that the club will get the players he wants (much like under Lambert or Sherwood) but the money will be available.
To be honest, I don’t care about the Lerner/club decline argument. Clearly most on here can’t get enough of it, but it is all in the past for me. Does any owner spend enough, no. Has the club declined over the course of two owners, yes. Does this narrative help the current squad and manager going forward, no.
Personally we are far from down, Garde has had two games in charge to whom we played well against the then league leaders and poor against a very good side. Yes points are valuable but give the guy a chance. Plus 1pt in 2 games is still better than what Sherwood was getting out of the same squad. Nothing has changed me mind from when Garde first arrived and I still think we could be out of the relegation zone by February.
…club will not get the players…
Well said, Lambert got funds, but I think it’s another case of Houllier myself. One that Lerner respects, and is willing to back to get us out of the mess, and one that won’t get ill on us (which isn’t to blame Houllier of course). One that Houllier recommended.
Even McLeish was backed and I think the board quickly knew they had made a mistake. Nevertheless, I think you are right about the Houllier parallel, although there is an argument that Bent’s purchase was arranged with the the knowledge Young, Milner would be off in the summer.
I think they were more sold because Houllier had to leave. In fact Milner was threatening City to stay at Villa if they didn’t hurry themselves up and buy him.
I think they’d have both stayed at Villa if Houllier was here, or at least Milner would’ve.
Marvin, I like your optimism, butbthere is no way we’ll pull this off. We’d all love to do it but there’s no way we’ll achieve this. We don’t have enough fight or bottle. Maybe if we had eleven Marvin’s starting for us we’d have a chance 🙂
The recent and very rapid decline in our GD is adding to to the pressure and the cracks are really showing. Just before Sherwoods penultimate game we had a negative GD of just -5. Now we’ve collapsed.
It’s undeniabley the fault of Lerner and the board. Their the guys running the show and they’ve made a pigs ear out of it. Garde could well be a great manager but not under Lerner whilst he’s at Villa. Think we’ll suddenly start getting the win every other game we need?????
lol – we would be the slowest team in the league if that was the case.
I understand the worry, but like I said above I think it is to early to say we are down and out. If we are still in the bottom three come Feb – March only then I will be up in arms, but yes to your question. I would be shocked if we don’t start winning the odd game. Personally I think the team beginning to pick up points is far more believable than the board and Lerner doing nothing to change things. The money will be there – how much, well that is always up for debate.
Marvin -“To be honest, I don’t care about the Lerner/club decline argument.”
‘There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know’
Oh, fun with quotes!
“Don’t live in the past, learn from it and move on.”
Brilliant!
And just what have we learned from 5 years of decline exactly? And just what do you reckon RL going to learn from this season? Going on form (You know that thing bookies use to predict possible future events given the past) the probability is f**kall! The same as last season, the season before that, the before that and the one before that and (quote) “lest we forget” his time at the Browns before that.
So whatever Coco.
“Don’t stress over anything you can’t change.”
We need an in form and raring to go Agbonlahor as he has the pace and strength to trouble defences if he’s on top of his game. Hopefully Neville has done us a favour by calling him out – he went to US during int break out of his own pocket. However, it’s unlikely he’ll rediscover form under O’Neill but looking through squad Kozak’s the next best bet. Let’s hope he’s up for it…
The Leicester result is the one that has undone us – from 0-2 in 63rd minute to 3-2 loss has led to downward spiral. It does show that we can compete but need to rebuild the belief and cutting edge.
LOL love the username 😀
Just seen this comment from Richard Keys;
“I’m afraid I think Villa have gone. They were a shambles at Everton. More worrying for Villa fans is that I’m hearing that nobody at Villa Park seems to grasp what relegation really means this season.”
Why am I not surprised?
I wonder if he’s heard that we aren’t going to spend much?
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/11/23/richard-keys-gives-his-opinion-on-aston-villas-survival-chances/
Very worrying though I think even Lerner must know what it means
Richard Keys is an utter tool who lost all credibility years ago. He predicts that a club who are rock bottom of the league without a win in four months are going down – brace yourself for the award for investigative journalism. He doesn’t hear anything from inside the club and if you do Richard, please expand on the statement that ‘no one grasps what it means’. I remember writing Leicester off last season and thought that’s only two paces we’ve got to avoid. They were as shit as we are now. I’m normally the most pessimistic boo boy to grace villa park but I refuse to throw in the towel just yet. However, 5pm on Saturday, I may have changed my tune somewhat.
Leicester’s escape was truly remarkable last year and is rarely a feat you see repeated every year. Quite a few on here like a flutter – just look at the odds and the patterns. They’re all stacked against us.
Of course it’s not impossible for us to escape but we’d have to look at winning 13 of the next 25 matches to get 41 points. That’s a ration of roughly one in two. And our current ratio is…………… ?????????? Bollocks are we going to put that sort of run together.
…a ratio of…
Solid logic- but you are missing a piece. That points total is based on the assumption that all the teams around us will out perform us for the rest of the season.
The reality is we are 5 points from safety. The kind of run you say we need is also the run that Sunderland, Newcastle and Boutnmouth also need
Personally I can see us matching/ surpassing their form -or at the very least see it as just as unlikely those teams will achieve that kind of form also.
The other slight things I would point out is survival has been 34-36 points the last 3 or so years not 41
I would also add that points are mutually exclusive. If we any percentage of those points that percentage is taken away from the teams competing with us for the drop to an extent
Given the form the chances of us getting anything from Saturday’s game is slim at best.
it’s only Watford will be the cry but a Watford that have picked up 8 points on their travels, with a goal difference of 0.
They’ve only lost two so under estimate them at your peril and I wouldn’t be surprised if Troy Denny scores just to add insult to injury.
BADGER basically we’re fucked
i think the summer lambert signed cole,sendross,richardson was the time lerner really didnt give a fuck,only taylor last spell under ellis have we signed worse players
we had sissko who i thought was a decent defender not great going forward but hey his job was to defend yet sherwood thought richardson was a better option ? don t see a way out unless we sign 4/5 quality players in january keeper sherwood dropped guzan then released given who he had replaced guzan with and didnt sign a replacement? centre half play richards rb or bench him defintly no ch or captain,centre mid to partner sanchez westwood god love him is not pl standard and never will be how did they give him new contract ,in todays game he is too lightweight not fast enough release ball forward always back or sideways, winger why sign traore and not play him,number nine gabby neville showed world what we have had to watch for 5 years ,rudi as impact sub only and remember he only cost 6m benteke went for over 30m lualkua has went for over 45m and under 23
and why have fox german geezer oreilly not came out explained why ilor crespo traore vertout bunn other keeper not played at all ,or very much and where are okore gardner kozak we have only lost 10 matches so they couldnt be much worse than ret
the trouble with the position we have got ourselves in is it makes us targets for all the cheap shots off these so called experts, even though we are witnessing the worst form ever down the villa we are still only 5 points from pulling away from danger, i just hope that under that claret and blue shirt that there are some proper players there, even though i am like you badger cant and don’t want to talk about it there is still a tiny spark of hope there
I wonder what was in Garde mind when asked to take the job, we know now he wasn’t first choice. A few on here will say give him a f,.,ing chance, its not what I’m saying he’s an ok manager but was given no chance at this stage, if or when it happens don’t call for his head for God’s sake, Garde one of the up and coming managers in the game, The blames on Lerner he picked the pie eating prat before Fox who incidentally came recommend. Now I’ve got to keep going for another 10 years.
We need experience,commitment and quality in goal, at full back and a goalscorer.
The key is not if Learner will spend but who would want a move to Villa. I am struggling to name 1 player for any of those positions who want to risk his career by coming to us.
we are a million miles from being a mid table premier league team. Pure and simple. We don’t have a player in a single position we can say has to start every game without fail. Do We?
At least last season we new benteke had to start and we new delph had to start.
God it seems like an age since they kicked a ball for us.
We have run our luck dry, we don’t have a single player capable of lifting and transforming the team.
the twats in charge who thought it would be a good idea to bring in what 11 or twelve new players need hanging out to dry now.
What was the rush? We had an entire season to get what we needed. Why not buy 3 or 4 players in the summer and see what’s needed by January.
The best starting line up right now I believe is this.
Guzan
Hutton Okore. Richards Richardson
Bacuna Gil Sanchez Ghana Sinclair
Kozak
Theres still time to get out of the mire……..and looking at Palace/Sunderland theres some teams we should be able to get above…..Dire game.
Ha ha…I knew that would happen…Sunderland have scored while I was typing the comment.
To be fair to a number of the targets of criticism who clearly have failings to answer for, many of us (me included) felt we had bought some good players and would be OK this season. Sherwood seems to have been a bit disaffected by the transfer policy, and clearly couldn’t work out his best 11 and tactics.
Part of the problem is that we have got into a losing rut, which makes Garde’s job even harder. I think it unlikely that January will solve this situation.
It is hard to see how we will turn this around. A win vs Watford would be brilliant, but who genuinely believes we will do that? If I was manager of any team playing us I would set the team out to attack and look to score early, knowing we will crumble, the crowd will turn, and an easy victory would follow.
I really don’t know where we go from here, other than down.
And Sunderland have just picked up a valuable 3 points away from home against an in form Palace.
Doesn’t change much, other than they get 3 points. Still 5 from safety which is Newcastle. Schoolboy mistake from Palace, Sunderland won’t get an easier goal and they struggle as badly as we do for those.
But it does Andrew. For the players they’ll see that Sunderland got the win whilst we we stuffed. You don’t seem to appreciate the mental ambiguities that stress brings.
It’s between us, the two North East teams, the Cherries and Norwich. The latter two have more of an established squad and are used to the battles that the Championship brings.
I very much understand what stress brings. However the players will also realize Sunderland are still 18th, and we’re still 5 points off, whether they won or not.
Sunderland showed some real fight tonight. Can’t remember the last time I saw that in a Villa team.
We’ve seen it happen before, flirt with relegation long enough and you’ll go down.
I’ve always tried to be optimistic but finding it bloody hard right now.
Only consolation will be all that lovely TV money next season that Randy won’t be getting his hands on.
Well hopefully Garde can get them fighting soon. At least he’ll drop players who won’t fight, and tells it how it is in the media, but doesn’t sound like an egotistical man like Sherwood did.
How the hell did Sunderland get a result at in form Palace??!!
Lot of pressure now on next weeks game. Garde has had a tough first 2 games, but we just cant afford to not get a result of some kind next week. Really we need to get 3 points.
The problem is what team does he pick after the last performance? Sanchez has to play. I imagine Sinclair might come in for Grealish. Apart from that, not sure what he can really change, unless he opts for Gestede up top and Ayew on the right.
I wouldn’t normally point to the opposition 😉
But has anyone else read this;
http://www.myoldmansaid.com/what-learned-aston-villa-fans-after-everton-defeat/
It sums up perfectly where our problems are, imo.
The scum are after Kozac.
Where’s this come from?
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-striker-libor-kozak-10492432
Let me guess, 35p and a free haircut?
Pay us back in 5p installments??? sounds about right.
Imagine if Kozak helped them to promotion, and we went down in return…
there’s talk of cissiko, or Bennett, coming back off loan well get them both, cissoko is a better defender then amavi and Bennett the best crosser of the ball in the team, play bennet left side midfield he wont neglect the defensive side of that position and probably add some attacking bite aswell, this has been the problem area of the team since young pissed off, and we should get a more balanced look
Even if we have to pay a bit to get either back, it is still the best, cheap option and then money could be spent else where.
Personally I would be up for Cissokho getting a run out, or even playing them both as you suggest (similar to Hutton/Bacuna) but if the club is able to bring them back I don’t think either are really match fit right now. I am pretty sure Bennett has not played at all and I believe Cissokho has only featured a few times?
This what I don’t understand Billy Boots, we have a different system under a new manager and we hear talk of players going, players not even seen our new man not yet been recalled , what kind of club have we got. To me its ran by idiots who just know Villa is supposed to be a football club. When are they going to wake up?.
Bill – Run by idiots who sell our best players and expect to find replacements on a spreadsheet or computer programme…. None of us can say we didn’t see the big R coming !
Billy’s Boots, are you being serious about Bennett? This is joe Bennett you’re on about, the one who used to play for us? He hasn’t kicked a ball this season and I think you’re forgetting a salient point – he was just as shit, if not worse than most of the others. He’s certainly no midfielder. Apparently senderos came through ninety minutes tonight so we’ll soon start shooting up the league!!
he was shit because he was left exposed by delph (im too good to defend)and gabby(its not my job)the same problem berhino had cissoko had and whoever plays there,we don’t have someone like Barry to protect on that side or see the runner
for berhino change that to bertrand
Aren’t the club having a game against Fleetwood at BH to look at kozac & Gardner playing 90 mins.class opposition LOL
Traore apparently impressed most of all, other than that haven’t heard anything else