So that’s it then, not a single player signed in a window that has to rank as the worst ever for Aston Villa FC.
And while most of us knew we wouldn’t be pushing the boat out because it doesn’t make financial sense, I doubt anyone thought we wouldn’t sign anybody.
Least of all the manager Remi Garde.
I’ve seen people commenting that they thought Garde was complicit with Lerner and the board keeping the purse tightly shut, with words such as “puppet” being used, but that’s a viewpoint I can’t subscribe to.
I’m confident that even though he knows the true situation better than any of us fans, he must surely have thought he would get some money to play with.
Not serious money, but at least enough to get a couple of players in; enough to try and convince the players he’s called out that they have competition.
Enough to at least let him be able to do his job and show the current players that they might not necessarily get a game.
And it’s not just that.
What message is this sending out to everybody?
I can’t see any other than we’ve 100% accepted defeat and
relegation.
Which we all know is happening anyway, but that’s not the point.
A club of our stature should not be holding it’s hands up and surrendering meekly the way we have and as much as certain ex assistant managers might call us fans deluded, it’s simply true.
No, we don’t have a divine right to be in the Prem, but we do have a right to expect the club to at least try and remain in it.
Which is where the finances comes back into it.
The simple comparison is this;
The club spent around £7 million in the summer.
Yes, I accept Lerner has actually laid out more (Benteke staged payments etc), but he’ll get it back, so it doesn’t count as a net spend.
Whereas Middlesboro have just laid out around £11-12 million for Jordan Rhodes. I don’t have a clue what Boro spent in the summer, but that one player alone has easily beaten our spend for this season. And he’ll be on realistic wages.
Which all makes me feel embarrassed, as a fan of one of the richest clubs in the world.
And then there’s our new chairman.
Anybody who knows anything about the game would know that you need signings to inject some hope into the club and it’s fans.
And while it might not exactly be prudent, sometimes it’s more than just about the pound notes, hence you’d have thought he might want us to at least sign someone too.
But no, he’s now proven what we all thought, in that he’s come in with a pure remit, which is to maximise the shareholder’s return.
There’s a very valid argument that says you have to pay inflated fees and more importantly, the inflated wages that goes with them, in the winter window. Hence, any money spent might be wasted if we were to get relegated, especially where we’re already trying to cut costs.
And it’s an argument that I can’t disagree with.
But one thing I do know.
Two other clubs who go down with us, will have tried.
Even the next lowest spenders at the bottom of the league spent £5 million.
Christ, even Bournemouth have spent £17 million from what I’m seeing!
Are we really saying we can’t compete with the likes of them?
It would seem so.
Whichever way you look at it, that’s simply not good enough and I don’t believe it’s something Garde signed up for.
So while I’m not Garde’s biggest fan, I have a lot of sympathy for him at the moment and it really wouldn’t surprise me if he walks, as it seems to me he’s been totally mis-led.
But at the same time, I have a lot of respect for the man in the way he’s handled himself whilst slating the board as much as he reasonably can.
So I’d expect it to happen at the end of the season.
Eric Black as the next manager, anyone?
At least he’ll be cheap, won’t he?
Comments
74 responses to “The transfer window; A damp squib and will Garde walk?”
How low can we go?
We haven’t seen the depths yet, is my answer.
Not spending anything in the January window also sends out the message that the board have zero faith or trust in Garde. Never in a million years would he or anyone else of taken the job of manager without certain reassurances that money would be made available, and spent.
I personally want Garde to walk, not because I don’t rate him, because given the same funds as previous managers have had I’m convinced he’d be a success, but because he doesn’t deserve to be treated the way he has been.
He has been hung out to dry. He has had to constantly answer questions on things that the board should be answering and he is fighting a losing battle with no support whatever from the board or owner.
I have one simple message for Garde that will be shared by most Villa fans. FOR YOUR OWN SANITY AND SELF RESPECT…..WALK….NO ONE WOULD BLAME YOU.
I have no doubt that AVFC will one day be back in The Premier League supported by a board and owner who genuinely have the clubs best interests at heart. Maybe that’s when Remi Garde should return to manage our great club.
Yes, very good point Stubbs (the lack of trust and faith) and one I meant to include, but forgot.
Which all makes me wonder if Garde has already said he wants out.
As I suggested, Garde has practically outright slated the board and you have to suspect there’s been rows behind the scenes.
There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s been totally stitched up.
The other interesting point is where Garde said that if we did get anyone in, they basically wouldn’t have been his choices.
Which suggests he’s blocked them by making the point 100% clear.
I now have to suspect we were trying to play moneyball again and Garde wasn’t having any of it.
That has to undermine his position even more, as he isn’t playing the game the hierarchy want.
It’s only a matter of time now and if Garde doesn’t resign, he’s a dead man walking, imo.
That’s it for me, Garde in my mind was told on appointment there would be money in January’s window, yes its plain to see they have stitched him up, its just on the news Garde saying he’s looking at his position over not able to sign players Like a goalkeeper, striker, and defender’s, I don’t Blame him, he may not walk, but I will, not another penny will go into Villa from me, you might not agree but its my way.
Local news saying REMIs reassessing his position in the summer basically it’ll FUCK you Aston VILLA.
Not the club Giddy the owner and the board and he’d be bang on.
Sherwood was bang on when he said the club was in a hole. Remi’s version of that assessment was that half the issue was the finances. Even with past spending I fail to see how we’re so fucked. I just don’t believe it. It’s not so much a matter of ‘cant’, but ‘won’t’.
I f***ing hate those guys. If Lerner lived in the UK we’d be tearing his house apart just as he’s tearing our club apart. ****. ****. ****.
Why wait until the summer – he should resign now and let everyone know what a load of absolute to**ers are in charge of OUR club. Hollis is there purely to increase the payout to Lerner so that he can drop the price of the club and still walk away with £millions and mark my words he will sell to anyone to get out and we’ll be left with a broken club and another owner with no money just looking for a fat payday. Those saying we’ll be back in the premiership need a reality check. We are going to be in the nether regions for a long time.
Hope randy losers all his money the fucking piece of shit am so heart broken now not one signing in one month.
Now garde questioning his future cos are owners & board haven’t a clue how to run a football club. He randy appoint a new chairman just before transfer window open so he didn’t have to be the one that takes the flack and the backlash for fans!
Its bullshit how all the players we was link too not one come in!!! Not fucking one.
Randy the worst person that Ellis could of sold us too and he found the yank bastard some how!!! Hope he suffers a slow painful lose just like we have for the last 5 year watching u kill and drain are beloved villa
Did you mean a slow painful death? A bit like the one he’s putting our club through?
Paul Merson gave us a Z- for our transfer dealings. That’s about right.
I switched off completely from deadline day yesterday as I had a feeling it would be a complete non-event for us…….reading the round-up this morning just not surprised – not even a Salifou (the Togolese Zidane apparently) type of signing at midnight.
I’ve always tried to be optimistic but I am done with the club I love(d) under Lerner. My kids want football kits but I’m not prepared to pay in to this regime. Also, it’s a bit cruel to let them walk round oblivious to what a laughing stock the club has become.
If Garde walked, he’d have my full backing. Totally stitched up. Apparently there’s a game tonight – have never felt this disinterested.
http://www.teamtalk.com/news/garde-considers-aston-villa-future-after-making-no-signings
Interesting the “maybe it was not as clear when I signed” comment. Speaks volumes.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3427674/Rock-bottom-Aston-Villa-just-one-signing-January-new-chairman-absolute-disgrace.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Lerner’s behaviour is unavoidable in the media bow thank God!
‘…it looks like too many people in key positions at the club have given up on the Premier League, and to make it worse, they don’t seem to be making any preparation for life in the Championship.’
That last bit is the key. We’ll hit the Championship with no manager and a depleted team as anyone half decent will be long gone. Anyone taking bets on us going straight through to Div 1?
You think things are bad and then it just gets worse…
Have any other premier league club ever appointed 4 long term managers in 12 months ,Lambert was sacked almost a year ago
We are all guilty of blaming a succession of managers even but they all did the job that Lerner required of them – keep us up, spend f**k all and we have turned on most if not all of them when it appears they deserved our sympathies.
Surely by now it must have dawned on the most ardent Randy supporter that the manager is irrelevant, that you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, Lambert came out and openly admitted he was happy to be sacked and added “Villa have a great fan base and brilliant facilities – but there’s definitely something wrong with them, that’s for sure.”
At the end he looked a spent force, totally drained by the impossibility of the task.
Garde deserves our 100% support regardless of the results has he’s just another whipping boy in a long list of whipping boys for Lerner’s failings.
I mostly agree with that, BWS, but there’s a point I feel you’ve missed.
If you get the same type of pragmatic manager in, who will resort to trying to minimise a loss, as opposed to trying to turn a game around, you’re always going to get the same results.
Bringing Okore on, when we were losing, is a typical example (although in fairness, I didn’t see the game).
It’s why I wasn’t as quick as many to call for Sherwood out, as at least it seemed he might try to do something different.
McLeish was always a defensive type manager.
Lambert totally bottled the job, imo.
And Garde is doing the same, in that he won’t go for a game, even when it seems we have a very decent chance of winning.
That said, I doubt many will agree with my opinion.
And you’re still ultimately right.
We could get Pep in and the hierarchy would still mess it up.
Because they don’t know what they’re doing.
You’re spot on Badger but it’s not going to happen can you imagine a man with a plan, a football man, a Clough or a Fergie getting through the door at VP?
No chance mate, it’s never going to happen with this lot in charge.
On the other hand if he talked the talk, wore the right suit and was a whizz with a power point presentation and an excel spread sheet, now that might be different matter.
I agree entirely Badger. Sherwood was the one ray of hope in the past 4 managers, someone who could, given backing, have brought in the durable experienced pros needed to make sure they did not get relegated this season.
Instead we went for the Ligue 1 farce. Just a look at their league table should have rung alarm bells, they only have one good team – PSG. The rest are selling-platers. Even Arsene Wenger’s key players are not French. No – we decided to follow blindly the path Newcastle have trodden and managed to be much worse than the Ship of Fools.
Where will we finish in the championship next season? The current squad and coaches would finish in or near relegation. However I expect most to jump ship and it depends who we appoint – I would go for the crew from Peterborough.
I couldn’t disagree with you more; Sherwood had little to no experience at top level management and came across as a bit of a chancer who talked a good game.
Garde has a solid pedigree and reputation and actually has won something (French cup 2012). Add to that he finished fourth, third and fifth at Lyon despite having to work on a tight budget and that’s no shoddy record regardless of how you regard the standard of Ligue 1.
I also think you have to respect the way the guy handles himself with class and dignity, imo the polar opposite to his predecessor.
Sorry OLL but I’ll take Garde all day and every day over Sherwood.
Me too I like Garde right manager but the wrong time for us
Remi Garde
“Maybe it was not as clear when I signed, but it’s something that I don’t want to discuss too much,” Garde said.
“I understand that you cannot carry on doing the same things when you have not been as successful as you have wanted.
“I cannot say the club hasn’t done everything they could. It wouldn’t be fair.
“I’m not happy about this situation. I am not stupid and saying we need nobody.
“Some people have to be brave enough to say what have we done wrong in the past and what we should be doing now to stop that and to be better, maybe not in the next months but the next season or in two or three years.”
OUCH!
Fair play to Garde. Can’t see him being in the job much longer but at least he says more about the state of the club (from an internal point of view) than anyone else has for a long time.
https://t.co/109AhUEOty
Stan isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but it’s difficult not to agree with this.
I agree with Stan. All you can do is vote with your feet. I shall not be making the short trip to Upton Park tonight, even if it is the last time Villa will play there.
The one glimmer coming out of certain relegation is the fact that most contracts at the club are then effectively broken and up for renegotiation. The players will have a choice of staying on wages probably one third of what they are getting now or insisting on a transfer with a tribunal-fixed fee if one is not agreed. The club should have the option of firing 1st team coaching performance and scouting staff.
Top of my chop list would be Paddy Riley and the performance geek, then all the first team and reserve coaching staff. I would expect Garde to want to quit rather than run a Championship side.
Players? Well the only two I intend to pay money to watch in future are Traore and Amavi. I might make an exception for Bunn but everyone else who has pulled on an outfield shirt will be gone before I set foot in VP again.
Sunderland, Newcastle and Aston Villa were 15th, 16th, and 17th in the Premier League last season, since then, over summer and winter windows, they’ve spent £31.m, £70.1m and £9.9m net
Excuse cut and paste from another site, but if these numbers are anything like accurate that shows the policy in a stark light. Lerner is simply trying to recover his losses. The parachute payment will get swallowed up in that exercise. I doubt that he will sell as the price will have dropped by as much as he can extricate so he is no better off. He will hope that we get promoted quickly, but that will require an investment that he clearly doesn’t want to inject. We are hardly more attractive in the Championship even at a lower price.
All the doom mongers were right all along.
That’s exactly as I see it panning out – He’ll sell any asset we have player wise, pocket the parachute payment, Hollis will have the books in order and Lerner will sell the club for around £50m.
Problem there BWS is that it is easier for some chancer to get backing at £50M. The likelihood of getting an ambitious owner with pure intentions and substantial wealth has diminished considerably, if not disappeared altogether. An owner with no love for the club and just a get rich plan is the last thing we need, but is even more likely now.
Guys I posted exactly that on the last thread. Hollis is masterminding a restructuring of the club which basically means lots of money will go to the owner in the form of debt repayment and dividends and he’ll then sell the club for its asset value at between £50 and £75m which leaves it open to being bought by another bad owner. We are really in trouble and not just on the footballing front. I really fear for our club and I don’t believe that’s bring melodramatic
Math we won’t be in administration under Lerner as Incan’t see how that benefits him and there is certainly enough cash and assets to avoid that. Under a new owner of the type identified by BWS / DSVilla – well that’s another story
DS I’m not saying it will a good thing or in the clubs best interests,it’s simply as I imagine things will go and lets be honest when as our Glorious Leader ever done anything with AVFC’s long term interests at heart?
Thing is, under MON he did. Clearly something changed. OK we missed Champs League and he had to reign in spending, but it is the relentless underinvestment since that doesn’t make any sense. He has been damaging the value of the club, and risking Prem status which is an even bigger drop in value. I can’t make sense of that however long I scratch my head. It is almost like he is deliberately ruining the club, but I can’t see that would be his motivation. It’s like we were his favourite toy and then he bought himself a Buzz Lightyear and discarded us.
To the Championship and beyond!
bws is spot on
managers have all been lied too, all been hamstrung, basically we have the worse squad in premiership. i love football and villa. but i dare anyone to watch any other team,premiership or championship and compare us to them.
we blame managers cause we think they pick wrong players. or tactics are wrong. like we know best. i know if a player like bacuna or Gil can not cross a ball, its not the manager fault. both cant ever cross a dead ball. we dont have one or two below standard player, we have a whole squad of um
our squad is devoid of skill. defenders that cant defend, midfielders cant pass the ball to a team mate, lets not bother about the ability to see a opening. strikers that cant make good moves and actually score. all this blamed on succession of managers.
sherwoods and gardes both stressed the inabilities of squads they inherited, the answer was to spend as little as possible in summer. on players with no real experience of english game. we since learned that the manager didnt actually pick these players. that the board came up with a lucky dip method to recruitment.
i think we are doomed to relegation, i thought this before the season. next season will be the same. struggling at the foot of the division. up against better sides than us. lerner will escape with the parachute and we will end up in administration, sooner rather than ltrs
Sorry above post should say Nath and should have been in answer to your post above – iPad problems!
Lerner won’t give a toss who he sells to either as long as he gets his reddies.
That’s about the long and short of it Stubbs.
I hope Lerner gets kidnapped by isis.
Interesting but depressing listening on 5 live last night, Pat Murphy said that Remi was particularly depressed about the failed signing of Khazri from Bordeaux. Remi knows the player and was very keen to get him but, according to Pat, the Villa board refused to stump up the £9 million. He his now at Sunderland!
Remi also said he spoke to a striker twice [but refused to name him], but he chose to sign for another club.
All the panel, including Andy Townsend were very sympathetic toward Remi, especially David Pleat who thought he had shown great dignity during which as been a disastrous transfer window.
Depressing times indeed.
We are beginning to see the hand of Hollis here that doesn’t believe in investing in players. He’s like the accountant who came up with a plan to raise cash and reduce costs in a manufacturing business by selling all the machines – then wondered why he had no product!
He’s just a glorified number cruncher not his fault he’s just doing as he’s told and being paid a fortune doing it. We’d all do the same thing
Would I? So if you knew something was in essence wrong, totally unethical and morally reprehensible, you’d still do it if the money right?
Lerner is a poisonous snake who hides behind others, he has shown his true colours now… I have never seen a club destroy managers and players like Aston Villa have done recently.. Decent players who have served us well being demoted to a ‘bomb squad’ and Managers who look nothing short of poorly, due to the way the club treats them…
The way the club is run, I cannot see the slide ending next season and think us fans are in for one very rocky road !
Saddened, that’s how I see the twat, he’s now he’ll bent in destroying Villa, for money, Cameron being a Villa man should look into his dealing in our country, I just wish I never get near the prick.
What’s going to be LERNERs aim next season???championship survival???
With no investment Giddy, I can see us getting spanked in the Championship
I think we’ll possibly win more than 2 games by this time next year but I’m not getting carried away just yet that we’ll reach double figures for wins.FUCKall to look forward to.
If we get beat tonight which is very likely Garde will walk I think. Bookies are making him odds on to walk out with Black and Pearson waiting in wings. Dear oh dear
Pearson anyday over black.they could already be looking into this after REMIs comments.
What’s the point Giddy of favouring one manager over another – it’s Lerner and the Board that are destroying the club and it’s got worse since the new bean counter chairman was appointed to oversee Lerner’s Kingdom.
Garde, through his carefully worded comments is pleading with the Board to grow some and tell the fans the truth instead of PR spin. What more can Garde do or say to try and get the Board to actually communicate in a meaningful way with all the fans through the media and not at staged meetings and not meaningless press releases either. Hollis and Fox should support Garde or they should p**s off and take Lerner with them.
No way I’m taking the job, not so daft as the others,
Oh I believe that Randy has finally miscalculated. He’s just realised that there’s no parachute payment when we go down into Div 1