Terry Jones offers us the following;
Now in my last offering, I compared the progress of Lambert & Rodgers.
Now let’s compare teams who apart from us have made any real progress apart from the newly promoted teams.
Well you only have to look at the table to see that teams like Swansea & Southampton have moved forward. Those clubs bought in only one or two players while Lambert bought six or seven.
So why do we seem to be so poor? Quite simple really.Lambert bought quantity over quality and to say we are not a one man team, it’s as plain as the nose on your face that we do not have anybody to fill Bentekes boots.
Another thing is his injury. I thought he was only going to be out for a few games and was going to be back to face spuds?
Well my question is this injury seems to be hanging on longer than we were led to believe or is it he does not want to play? or that Lambert won’t play him as not to affect his sell on value?
As some will say in Lambert’s defence, Rome was not built in a day. Well Lambert has had twelve months and yet progress is running at a snails pace. Even McAlpines fusiliers & Wimpeys marauders in that time could have built a motorway.
Now who is up next? Ah, Everton. Another three points lost and probably more steps backwards.
Your opinions please.
Comments
68 responses to “One Step Forward Ten Backwards”
“Another three points lost and probably more steps backwards”
Don’t be to sure about that, remember we took 3 points against City and Arsenal, totally unexpected. I bellieve we can take a point or three
You are such a negative prick at times. Spurs first goal was a fluke which shifted the momentum. A match fit benteke would of buried 1 of those chances a draw would of been fair. He didnt buy quantity over quality, these lads will be sensational, in a seaaon or two’s time our young side will have matured and learned how to win matches and u will see us in the top 8 again. Dortmund went through a similar change they acquired young players with potential and last season it came to fruition. Get behind the team or just stop writing pointless posts, you clearly know very little about football in general
Rubbish another lamberk apologist who says give em time. The players we have will never be good enough. For starters benteke will be of within the year we all no that and Okore the only other decent signing lamberk has made is injured. But will fuck off to Chelsea if he does well for us. You forget this team can’t grow together if they become good players they go elsewhere and if they stay crap then we will always struggle
Rubbish, another post claiming someone’s a Lambert apologist when he didn’t even mention Lambert. However he’s correct, the players aren’t dross, they all have quality, and potential to grow. I’d go as far as claim the tactics are the things that are killing these players. These players bought are coming from Countries where tactics mean everything, technical ability shows and relying on a kick and run style fails.
Also, when they become good, they leave. United fans hate Young, Pool fans hated Downing. Few to 0 City fans disliked Barry or Milner, but they actually showed themselves well enough (until last season for Barry anyways). These players went to 2 far more successful clubs than Villa, and then the latter a far richer club. Sorry but no matter if we were challenging for a top 4 spot or in a relegation battle, playing for United or Liverpool is a dream to most players and City were always going to win a trophy with the talent they had and quality of manager they were attracting. We however haven’t lost our players to the likes of Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, or even the smaller clubs you compare us to like Southampton or West Ham. We’ve sold 4 big players in years. Shit happens like that. Pool will eventually lose Suarez to a bigger and better club, could lose the likes of Agger, Skrtel and Lucas, and even Johnson who wants to leave on a free, Spurs will eventually lose Townsend, Lamela, Paulinho, Sandro and anyone else if a bigger club want them, they just sold Bale who they didn’t wanna lose. Two clubs you claim are miles ahead of us are in the same boat as a selling club. They also make more money than Villa do, have a better scouting team, Liverpool are far bigger than Villa and Spurs have AVB, one of the most respected manager’s going. Lambert’s not a big name, despite his decent season at Dortmund and in Scotland.
You miss an important point Andrew when a team like Liverpool or spurs lose a star player they replace that player with similar quality player/players. We don’t. When we sell Benteke for £40m do you seriously think we will spend £40m on 2 or 3 quality players to replace him? No chance. Lambert will be given another £10m for the summer and told to make do with that. It wasn’t that long ago we sold southgate ego and boeting to Middlesbrough ffs. Southgate quoted as saying they had more ambition than us. Yes they have died on their arse but shows teams like saints have more pulling power than us like boro did back then
Meh, players say a lot of things as does the media. Benteke’s an Arsenal fan and the media made it out that he’d push a move to their closest rivals. Will we spend 40m on 2-3 players? probably not, though 13m-20m per player could take Villa far. Do i think that would happen? No, but then would I want Lambert spending that much? Debatable. As next season he’ll probably change tactics again.
A bit of positive new that has gone under the radar http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3505099,00.html?
What an utterly pointless article, 12 months is not enough time to turn a team on the brink relegation into a top 8 team.
Lambert has had to replace the overpaid chaff we were left with once we sold our best players, and since we can’t go out and buy 10 players for £15m each he has bought younger cheaper players (who may or may not get better, time will tell) to create a new Villa.
If you expected instance success you are a complete idiot.
All lambert has done is replace overpaid dross with underpaid dross. Saints sacked their manager last yr look where there are now Ffs
Underpaid dross that have us in a better position despite tactics played by McLeish. A genius post as ever. Lol
Ha ha ha ha ha….we took 7 points in the 2.5 games that Benteke missed through injury. That obviously proves we’re a one man team. 🙂
Man city was a fluke we all no that hull we would never have scored if we were playing today and spurs we never looked like scoring either
Southampton in particular have come up from the first division (where the investment started), through the Championship and into the PL. Their squad arrived in the PL nicely settled and working together. They finished last season a position ahead of us on goal difference, I’d say mostly down to our defence when Vlaar was injured. They were in the situation we see ourselves in now, with a starting 11 picking itself, and subs mostly picking themselves too, and players ready to come in to cover in case of injury. They were then able to spend some money on two or three quality players, which is what we need to be doing in the summer (I can’t see it happening in January, only one or two more young and hungry try outs). We should be compared to the likes of Fulham, Stoke, West Ham, Sunderland, West Brom and Newcastle, the teams that have been around in the PL for a while and aren’t riding on lots of new investment or momentum from promotion. Newcastle are a point ahead of us, Fulham and West Brom on the same points, West Ham and Stoke a couple behind and Sunderland heading for the Championship. Aside from the teams challenging for the top six places, I can see Everton finishing ahead of us, but Hull, Newcastle, Southampton are in the mix with the rest of us.
So you think its acceptable that we should be comparing ourself with teams like west ham instead if say spurs which is where we should be money Lerners spent. We were light years ahead if west ham and Southampton not that long ago now your saying its acceptable to be as ambition less as they are. People like you are pathetic to be happy and accept the dross that’s being served out to us. Shane on you !
Who the hell is Shane?!
I’m comparing us to teams that either a) haven’t had a shed load of money thrown at them and b) aren’t enjoying the momentum of recent promotion. I was pointing out how we’re doing in comparison to the established but normal spending teams. I’m sorry you couldn’t understand that and I’ll try to make my posts clearer in the future.
Of course if you’d like me to compare Villa to Spurs I can, we don’t have as expensive, highly paid and successful team as them, so 0-2 results like the one at the weekend are inevitable, although I think we played ok to contain them for a lot of the match. Since we’re here, why not compare us to Leeds or Portsmouth?
For as much change as Villa’s gone through, it is semi-acceptable, no? O’Neill gone, Houllier sick, McLeish gone. Of course McLeish was a stupid signing but then again, no one was coming in to sell for fun unlike the idiot who just wanted a big club on his resume.
Terry share your worries mate we have had no hope given to us up till yet, I know this we have a lot of sheep supporting Villa my words are get that back bone back us fans and make a noise we are not happy for fucksake, wake up.
Why are we sheep to support Villa Bill ?
I’d far rather we were challenging for a top four finish, and buying £20-£30m players each transfer window, but where’s the money Bill ?
Did you go on Sunday ? Did you contribute towards a January transfer signing or did you watch on TV and add your negativity thereafter ?
Nobody’s happy with us struggling in midtable, but I think that we will improve under Lambert.
We’ve played Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and Man City in our first eight games and are ahead of where we were last season.
We haven’t been embarrassed by anyone, even that’s improvement if that’s what your yearning for.
Vaze I have seats at Villa 4 spend more money than you would imagin , cars with Villa plates, I won’t go there, the meaning of sheep is people acting like sheep, wondering and going nowhere, and Vaze flown with the team twice, I love that club and i am a person that will not let it be fucked up, we have a prat from America living the good life on you and me I will do things to help, other just take it.
What exactly do you plan on doing?
Fans don’t contribute to players nowadays most income is from sky. If you seriously believe the propaganda from vp that we can’t even afford to compete with the likes of Southampton then you are a fool!
Adam, posts like this diminish the credibility of your website.
I’m sure that Terry believes the points that he’s making, but anyone with a scant amount of football knowledge can’t take them seriously.
To intonate that Benteke didn’t start on Sunday is because he won’t play for Lambert, would surely be to suggest that he presumably took the same stance with Marc Wilmots the previous Tuesday. Ridiculous.
A player that has been out of action for a month will not be match fit to start a Premiership league game.
It was disappointing to lose to Spurs in that manner, but as has been mentioned, the first goal was a fluke, and we had our best spell of the game before they hit a clinical second on the break against the run of the play.
We bought quantity as we had to release players on huge wages who were not good enough, and our squad required several players coming in.
Benteke is sure to start against Everton barring setbacks in training, and I’ll look forward to giving them a good game.
Bill mate every fan should be worried how much longer is this so-called transition period going to last.We are now into the forth year and as you rightly say the sheep keep following in the hope of a miirical that fans in our age group know is never going to happen while we follow this path.
Which path do you suggest Terry ?
Let’s hear your realistic blueprint to success for the current financial situation.
He’s deaf to reason!
Haven’t been on for a while.. see its the same sh!t just a different day..
1 step forward and 10 back would mean we would be bottom and worse than Palace..
TJ you are a tool…!
Lionheart a tool am i well i am the sharpest one in the box mate don;t follow Lambert like a lemming.
Terry a few months ago, you and Oohah I thought right pair of prats, I take my hat off to you both, some people cannot see the woods for the trees, unless Lambert gets his finger out in January with proven midfield players we at in the shit again. I for one thinking Saturday sod all in points again for us after what I witnessed Sunday gone, I just hope I’m wrong.
” i am the sharpest one in the box mate”
Hahahaha!
Things aren’t that bad. I’ve said before the reality is we’re a lower mid table side. Is it tough to accept- Yes, am I happy about it- No.
We’ll pull of the odd shock like we did v City and Arsenal and lose games we expect to win like Newcastle at home. We’re exactly where you’d expect us to be given Lerner’s lack of significant funding.
And how exactly have we takem 10 steps back. We’re better defensively than last season
Couldn’t be any worse defensively coukd we. Mainly because lamberk is doing a mcleish and putting 10 men behind the ball which has hampered us going forward
That’s very true. Though a few players put that down to Marshall, who’s focused far more on defense in training than last season as he was himself a known defender. But totally agree that we’re far more defensive than we should be.
Last season:
ARSENAL A 0 PTS
CHELSEA A 0 PTS
LIVERPOOL H 0 PTS
NEWCASTLE H 0 PTS
NORWICH A 3 PTS
MAN CITY H 0 PTS
HULL CITY N/A
TOTTENHAM H 0 PTS
TOTAL = 3 PTS
This season:
ARSENAL A 3 PTS
CHELSEA A 0 PTS
LIVERPOOL H 0 PTS
NEWCASTLE H 0 PTS
NORWICH A 3 PTS
MAN CITY H 3 PTS
HULL CITY 1 PTS
TOTTENHAM H 0 PTS
TOTAL = 10 PTS
If you replace Hull with QPR for last season where we gained a point too away from home we re currently 6 points better off than last seasons corresponding fixtures! How is that 10 step back?????
Means nothing I bet we don’t beat Liverpool 3.1 an anfield again
It’s very possible. Liverpool haven’t had 1 single good game yet. They’ve had very, very good halves, like the first halves of the Villa and United game, 2nd half of the Sunderland game, however they’re defensively solid, with playing 5 defenders most of the time, so they’ve gotten off, but they’re very there for the taking if going off the Newcastle game says anything where they were outplayed. Of course the game isn’t until January so the form of either two clubs could change/injuries/buys in January.
Do u seriously think we can go there and beat them now they have courtinho and Sturbridge and beaten us the last 2 games. No chance
Again, it all depends. Coutinho could get injured, Sturridge’s form could massively dip. A few of our players could come good, Lambert might finally wake up and play a couple of the new players like Helenius who could come good. We don’t know what’s going to happen January 18th. Hell, we could sign an AM by then and win.
Terry I think that the sheep you speak of could be people who jump on a bandwagon that they fall part of and believe in even when the facts say otherwise.The facts I speak of are games and points last season compared to this.So who is the sheep….UTV..
i remember the majority of us agreeing at the start of the season that we expected improvements on last season but at the same time we understood it would be another season of highs and lows, the good, the bad and the ugly.
id say that’s just what we’ve got so far, I didn’t expect us to win on sunday tbh spurs are title contenders on the back of a 3-0 loss where they were just too complacent, they were well up for this believe me.
everton are playing very well but I fancy us to have a good game and 3pts is definitely not out of the question, it could go either way that one.
we’ve had 2 poor games against spurs but we’ve beat arsenal and citeh and kept a couple of clean sheets so ‘1 step forward and 10 back’ is not only a ridiculous thing to say its just plain wrong.
I am still deeply concerned about out midfield, we have essentially the same player in four of our 1st choice players, delph, kea, sylla and westwood, all are 100% ball winner get stuck in type players but none seem to have the capability to hold, control, create and sometimes make a simple pass.
that said we are a work in progress, people talk about transition ‘how long is going to take? how long are we going to wait? ect’ I don’t know but to put it into some perspective I do know man city took several seasons get going with totally unlimited funds.
Worst article I’ve ever read. Not surprised a few on here are actually in agreement with this. As I claimed, absolutely clueless.
First, lets just start with Benteke. We were led to believe he’d be back by either Spurs or Everton, few if any manager’s ever bring back a player from such an injury as a starter, due to the fact that he could aggravate it against a fit Spurs, instead of against a tired Spurs. To even claim that it’s because Lambert doesn’t wanna diminish his price tag or Benteke doesn’t wanna play is the dumbest thing you could post.
Second, SWANSEA ARE 11TH ON POINTS WITH VILLA. They’ve played United, Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal and Southampton of the “big teams” or the latter of a club in great form. And guess what, they lose 4 of the 5 and only drew Liverpool. They’ve then faced West Bromich, Sunderland, Crystal Palace, 2 of which are the bottom 2 and West Bromich’s first 3 games they didn’t score a single goal. So to even claim they’ve upgraded themselves is simply idiotic.
Now the only thing you’ve gotten right, is that Lambert should in fact take a fair bit of blame. His tactics are that of a Division 4 side with far better players. The fact he changed, then changed back after buying his own players goes to show he’s tactically inept. However the above 2 points are simply idiotic.
ooooo!
so summarise .. a clinical comparisons to other teams with absolute diagnosis that we are rubbish!
injury conspiracy theory’s!
time has run out on the latest manager after another year of failure to qualify for the Champions league!
3 points already dropped on Saturday …. on Tuesday ..!
controversial stuff
you might as well walk into a feminism rally holding up a sign saying suck my **** ..
let the heated debate ensue!
There seems to be a split on here between those who carry the the FT under their arm and those who have their chips rapped up in it.
The former have the accounts at VP close to their hearts and their fundamental worry appears to Randy’s financial well being (the cost of everything and the value of nothing springs to mind), whereas the latter appear to (and I chose my words carefully) give a fuck and don’t buy into this Lerner austerity bullshit.
Why is this still being debated. We are a mid table team fact. We havent spent millions and millions so there is no way we are just going to go from bottom 5 to top 7 within a year! You are deluded if you think that. Terry, your acting like were chelsea or united! we cant and wont win every game. We will have wins, we will have loses and we will have draws. WE ARE A MID TABLE TEAM! this is normal! The season is 38 games long we dont have to debate this same topic after every match. The same people bang on about progression. progression isnt defined by 1 game or even 10 games. Progression is based on the end of the season results plain and simple. Can we please just give this a rest until the end of the season. If we finish anywhere from 9th – 13th then we will have deffinitley progressed no matter who we lost to and no matter what the score line.
But you make it sound that mid table mediocraty is acceptable Adam
Well put BWS, I’m now at a loss as to understand fans that don’t look no further than the end of their nose, I can see players not giving a toss soon what happens to the side, they don’t remember the first game where players died for the side, now complacency crept in.
I think we look far more organised and solid at the back than last season, so we’ve made progress there.
However, we’ve looked quite toothless in attack, which is disappointing, as Lambert seemed to be looking to bring in mainly attack-minded players in the Summer.
I think the main cause of this is that we are still weak in midfield. El Ahmadi, Westwood and Delph were all guilty of giving the ball away cheaply on several occasions against Spurs. We also had several opportunities to create chances from set pieces, but simply ended up giving possession away.
Also, I think Weimann is suffering from being played too wide. I would prefer to see him through the middle, as I think he is a poacher and will score goals if he gets in the box. From a wide position his chances of doing this a limited.
The reason for this is because lambert hasn’t got a clue about defence he has strung 5 across middle to protect back 4. Problem with that though is it hampers is going forward
Plus his first team coach as been said by a few players has really knuckled them down defensively. It is showing though as we still sucked defensively under the likes of McLeish despite him being so negative.
Vaze, I feel I should just make a small point.
I can’t speak for Oohah, but I suspect he thinks the same.
I don’t particularly care if people think the site is credible or not, because it’s all about views, whether we like them or not.
The fact is we get a lot more debate when somone comes out with a more extreme opinion, whichever side it comes from and to me that’s just healthy.
It’s also quite noticeable that the views are somewhat polarized and Terry does have at least some supporters of at least some of his views.
It could be worse, to my mind, where we’re all batting from the side and any dissent is frowned upon or even just plain and simply not allowed.
I feel the OS has that well and truly covered.
Agree Badger the whole idea of this site is that people can write what they think whether you me and other posters agree with it is irrelevant. As long as they are football related everyone is entitled to their say. We rarely police this site in comparison to other sites where they have to tow the corporate line or editors will ban you. As long as there is no racism or abuse etc then everyone is entitled to put their view forward. It would be a boring site if everyone one of us shared the same view football is all about opinions that’s whats so good about it.
Submitted an article lads, let me know if it flies or not, similar theme to start discussion really.
Mdn8, read it, liked it as it addresses all the concerns in one article.
It’ll be up tomorrow morning mate.
You are, you’re a 100% right Badger, but then 95% of the negative people on here don’t back up a single thing they type. That’s the problem. You get a fair few of the “Lambert apologists” as is loved to be claimed on here (despite few if any actually backing Lambert, but the players), back everything they type with actual examples and whatnot. Claiming “he’s shit, they’re shit, we’re all shit for shit shit” “He’s dross, they’re dross, garbage players, crap crap crap” makes you look like a complete idiot. Now if you actually made a real claim of why, then there would be more of a positive argument, then the name calling that there is on here.
thats the nail on the head for me ..
I didn’t really chime in on this one because i didn’t think it was a serious article.
i look at the disparaging comments about villa, the players, the coach the performances, owner the club basically. It makes me think about it and we should be able to question everything and point out potential mistakes
but this article is just a random shit stirring piece designed not so much to debate villa as to gain reaction and promote debate for the sake of the site more than anything particularly villa.
it reminds me of the 606 days a little. these kind of .. we are shit anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded .. or they are sheep etc without any solid argument behind it ..
its just name calling and usually devolves into petit rivalries.
I might be just ignorant of what it takes to run a site like this maybe you need to throw in pieces like this to keep it going between games or news
If that is the case who am i to say otherwise
Ok lambert is crap because he is tactically poor, most of his signings are poor, most of his substitutions are poor, he lacks charisma, he lacks nous, we only just escaped relegation and the biggest proof of all is he has given us more unwanted records than any living manager in the history of the club including mcleish. I rest my case
haha ooahh It would be premature to rest your case .. you have only just made a short opening statement and not endured any the opposite argument yet.
let me have a go first!
“Ok lambert is crap because he is tactically poor, most of his signings are poor,…”
We have beaten Arsenal and man city and have taken 10 points from an opening fixture list that included, arsenal, city, chelsea, liverpool, and spurs ..
if he was tactically poor then the players must have been good enough to win those games despite the tactics… if most of his signings were poor .. then the tactics must of been of been good to win in spite of the poor players …
it can’t be both. Teams with poor tactics and poor players don’t win games. unless you think you can turn out any 11 players against premiership opposition and expect them to win 3/8 games through luck ?
“Most of his substitutions are poor. ”
very subjective statement neither here nor there.
I remember at least one sub coming on to win a game this year already against Norwich
Substitutions are are 2 way streets. how are you deciding they were poor.
the most obvious way is to see the impact they have on the game versus the player they replaced. sometimes they replace better players and they always have less time to provide impact .. . ie fitness, form, or the quality of the direct positional competitor.
Subs are subs for a reason.
“he lacks charisma . he lack nous ..”
What in the feck does charisma have to do with it? I would hardly describe the most successful manager in the era of modern English football alex ferguson as .. “charismatic” ..
And that is leaving aside the subjective opinion that he lacks charisma…
i have seen interviews and end of year norwich parties that suggest otherwise.
he lacks nous –
well i don’t have a working nousometer to gauge that but lets take a general interpretation as you believe he lacks the niche and special know how or understanding of the game.
For a man who lacks the understanding of the game he has done awfully well to win a champions league medal as a player.
How does someone who lacks the intellect to process the modern game neutralise zinidan zidane in a champions league final exactly ?
how does he oversee a clubs promotion from league one to the premiership and stay there comfortably in the first season?
unwanted records ?
OUT!! is the only unwanted record that i want changed
He just avoided relegation?
in his first year … with a team who just avoided relegation the previous year?
what does that exactly prove?
What was an acceptable target for last year?
You may have loftier expectations than i and you may expect them to be achieved in a shorter term .. but that doesn’t make a manager crap..
But mcleish only just avoided relegation in his first year and did it more effectively than lamberk IMO.
The wins over arsenal and city mean nothing it just papers over the cracks as shown in spurs game. By all accounts arsenal could have been 3 up before we even crossed halfway line but yes that was a good win but we wouldn’t do that now. I take ur point v city but remember when they were 2.1 we were only half hr away from the worse start since 1946 lamberk would of been sacked if we had lost IMO as he very nearly gave us another unwanted recorded. It does not mean lambert is a good manager because we beat these teams lucky yes. Remember Cardiff beat city 3.0 more convincingly than we did and WBA beat utd away and saints drew. It means nothing. When wolves went down some years ago they beat champions utd at home. When we went down in 87 we drew 3.3 at home with Liverpool and utd. And Liverpool were good then. You are basing this season on 2 games v arse and city. Against Norwich lambert had no choice to bring Kozac on even we could have seen that. Yes he scored though made it look more difficult as he’s no left foot but has done sfa since
I still have to strongly disagree oohahh.
“..But mcleish only just avoided relegation in his first year and did it more effectively than lamberk IMO…”
I don’t understand that statement.
Are you saying that winning less games drawing a whopping 17 times while finishing with 5 points less and being literally mathematically closer to relegation is a more effective way to …avoid relegation ..?
Thats not even accounting for the the days of 6 defenders against spurs and making statements along the lines of they are too good to try and play to win against …?
I didn’t enjoy the spurs display the last day- we were toothless pretty much all game until we threw a few crosses into benteke when he came on. but … compare that to Mcleish’s 6 defenders we can’t win anyway approach?
puke..
if wins against arsenal and city are flukes …
and wins or draws against the top teams are indicative of a poor season, i am not sure what you want to see happen should all your dreams come true tomorrow?
imagine Lambert is sacked.. lerner sells to a sheik, an FSG or a russian oligarch
whoever the new continental big reputation manager that then gets hired …
He should know that beating top teams is not progress.
that any signing he makes that scores as substitute for an injured player has nothing to do with him.
I understand that the results so far do not mean we have finished in the top 4 already.
I understand that some of our games were poor this season, ie newcastle and the spurs game in particular.
But we are a team that try to win now. that plays to win.
We are a team that has significantly more points against significantly better teams than last year..
We are a team that scores more and that has conceded less comparatively speaking.
we are not world beaters
we are no where near European qualification
but under Lambert we have improved..
both in results ..and in approach ..
Is it simply that we haven’t improved enough for you? you think we should be higher up the table?
Didn’t we beat Chelsea away 3.1 under mcleish it means fuck all. Beating arsenal and city was great but all it’s done is paper over the cracks. We have had more unwanted records with lamberk than any other manager I care to remember. And fwiw how many defenders did lamberk have back defending against arsenal, Liverpool man city and spurs.
McLeish apologist
I find it amazing when people compare villa to Dortmund. Does anyone seriously think villa are a Dortmund in the making.
The midfield run around like small terriers , snapping at the oppositions heels but have no idea what to do with the ball when they win possession. Why lambert chose to spend 7 m on a striker when what was needed was an attacking or defensive midfielder is mind blowing. Particularly when we have Helenius, who hasn’t bend given a real run. Kozak, may have been the highest scorer in the Uefa league last year but this years highest score in the same league is Defoe. Truth is it’s an easy league to score in, so no real pedigree.
We may end up mid table, and this is an improvement. But we play low possession , hit and hope football and his doesn’t a Dortmund make.
Except Kozak scored 2 against Panathanaikos, 1 against Maribor, 2 against Monchengladbach, 3 against Stuttgart. Defoe’s scored against Anzhi who’s sold most of their first team to make a youth team, 2 against Tromsø, 2 against Dinamo Tbilisi. You can’t compare those 2 as Lazio played much, much harder teams.
Where as we are light years away from where Dortmund are as a club today .. i dont think its all that amazing to make some comparisons.
Dortmund ..
one time European cup winner that has since faced relegation in the face and had to cut the playing staff for financial reasons. sound familiar?
They also invest and emphasise on buying youth players or developing them and they have sold them on at huge profits.
There are of course massive differences as well.. but thats not the point. no two clubs are identical. but some do share a similarity or two.
Have you seen Dortmund play any time over the last year or so?
they don’t play a possession game .. they play a high tempo more direct style
counter attacking at times too ti could be said.
They have won a comparable number of titles and trophies but the main difference is they have done it more recently.
we are further and further from the halcyon days of the early 80’s
Another big difference is the support Dortmund has in Germany.
their stadium – Westfalenstadion or signal iduna stadion holds 80 thousand and at a glance on wikipedia they hold the highest average attendances in Europe.
although they don’t own this stadium outright anymore.
we can’t seem to fill a stadium half that size in a city with twice the population.
although they don’t have the inner city rival villa does. Their bitter and nearest rivals are schalke.
all in all .. there are similarities .. and couple that with Lamberts former association with the club and his affiliation with German football (appointment of Henke as European scout) and his contacts there.
Is it still so amazing to compare the two clubs approach to club football?
I think there could be a solid case for Lamberts influence on Aston villa meaning some of Dortmund practices or policies becoming part of Villa’s way of doing things.
We are just miles away from the end result and may never get there.
I think you’ll find the reason they fill their place to the rafters is cost, reduce ours and mirror the German model and I think you’d find attendances on the up at vp.
Watching Dortmund last night and comparing them to our shower of shite the only thing we have in common with them is that we both wear glow in the dark shirts. We will never be as good as them
Ah shit I posted a long considered answer and my poxy tablet froze and I’ve lost the lot.
Suffice to say, we are nothing like 606 and don’t pick and choose the posts we put up.
The fact is, we get very few positive submitted entries, simple.
We really don’t need to be deliberately positive or negative, as I can assure you we haven’t earned anything since we moved away from the Google ads or adsense, or whatever it was.
We lose money to run this site, because we love the club and it’s in our blood. Hence we like to talk about it.
We just don’t believe that everything is automatically all rosey.
And if people want to moan, they’ll be allowed.
That said, we’ll be happy to publish any positive posts, so send them in.
Fair point about options when it comes to moaning though.
The truth is with a tightarse like Lerner in 100% ownership of the club, it means there are none.
But does that mean we should meekly accept it?
Which is where I suspect the “sheep” comments stem from.
We’ve supposedly had a scout at the Hearts v Hamilton Scottish youth FA Cup and supposedly especially watching Dale Carrick but I guess a host of others.
We’ve also supposedly stepped up our interest in 16 year old Italian Left Back, Marco Cestagalli who plays for Milan’s Primavera side and hope to sign him to the academy.
Oh and Delph supposedly wants to end his career at Villa.