Well, I don’t know how the protest went as I unwillingly took part in it myself, because I missed the first ten minutes of the game due to me being collared to look at something on the way out of work.
From what I gather though, it was pretty ineffective, just as I thought it would be.
I’ll leave you to enlighten me on that, but I just hope it wasn’t so bad that it made us fans on the whole, look daft.
As for the important stuff, what to say?
Things looked like I pretty much expected they’d go before the game, in the first half.
Liverpool looked the total opposite of us, in that when they break forward, their attackers are all over the place and offer plenty of options, whereas we just don’t.
That said, I thought we sat back far too much and allowed them to come at us, which didn’t allow us to put any pressure on them. For me, that was a mistake, as Liverpool do look susceptible at the back.
Which co-incidentally, is something I noticed about us today.
I’m no defensive tactician. Indeed I don’t profess to know much about tactics at all, but I just hate the way we were lining up in defence in the first half. Watch the goal and there were three defenders all chasing the same player.
Surely that can’t be right?
We just looked totally out of shape at the back.
The long and short description of the first half is that we could easily have been 3 down, but only went in losing by a solitary Liverpool goal.
The second half started brighter, but not massively different from memory.
And then came the interesting part, where on the hour, Lambert took the utterly ineffective Cleverley and Westwood off to be replaced by Andi Weimann and our new signing, Carles Gil.
I see some complained that Delph stayed on, but for me it was a case of perm any two from three.
Gil’s introduction straight away massively raised the fan’s spirits and the difference was amazing, as the atmosphere and our play instantly improved, with Gil playing a great, actually threatening, “give and go” that stood out and immediately caught my eye. What a pleasant change that made.
It just goes to show, that if you give the fans something to hope for, they will strongly support the club and indeed get behind the players.
The worrying thing for me though, is that this was proof that the players are feeling the malaise that runs through the club just as strongly as we do. Even they’re hoping that Carles Gil can improve us.
And at first glance, it looks like he at least might.
The important part is that we truly put Liverpool under the cosh for a 15-20 minute period and probably could have had a couple of goals, if Benteke was in better form and we had a bit more luck.
Ricky Lambert ruined things though in getting a well taken second which took the wind out of our sails.
Yes, it’s a bad result, but not one that was unexpected really.
There are strong positives, in that Gil, (if it wasn’t a total fluke and I know it’s too early to really judge) looks a very good player who will give us options and put the likes of Cleverley and Richardson (who are far too average) under serious pressure.
And there was proof that if we can get at least another more attacking, wide player in, to give us and the players something to be encouraged about, we might still have something to cheer about this season.
I know we lost, but this was a more entertaining game today.
Man of the match?
Sanchez again, as I thought he broke up play brilliantly, even though he constantly sailed close to the wind with some of his tackles. He linked up very well with Hutton, who again was solid and often our most threatening player.
Hutton’s unlucky not to get the call, but there you go.
I’d even put Gil in with a shout, just for the impact he made.
I shouldn’t be happy and indeed I’m not, because we lost at home.
But after seeing Gil, I’m at least encouraged.
IMO Lambert took the job on knowing the financial conditions. Unlike O’Neill who had the job spec changed and walked away. Therefore it is fair to judge Lambert by his success or failure under those conditions. You can say, and it is a good point, that nobody could succeed in Prem survival with so little to spend. In hat case – it is up to the incumbent manager to quit and others refuse to come in. Lambert came in, and financially he is in no worse a position than Burnley, Leicester, Palace or Hull.
Pulis at Palace last year had to make do with what he found, no transfers. Dyche this season is inspiring a dreadful side who can be seen giving their all. Lambert is a match for Rednapp, looking for excuses but not in the mirror.
OLL well-put.
In Lambert’s case I think he simply lacks the managerial experience to find the answer to the team’s present problems. In many ways he does remind me of MON – the same limitations, but without the gift of the gab that MON used to charm some of the media and deflect attention.
Don’t you think Lamberts reign and outcome similar to Mcleishes.Arnt we developing a pattern here.Both managers were successful in their own rights before coming to Villa now how many clubs would touch them with a barge pole.How can you judge a manager when there is no method for success with restrictions given.Both men doomed to fail as a club the size of Aston Villa has expectations.They were never going to win anything or even get close to anything because the chairman does not want to spend money to fit those expectations.
What I don’t get is how Villa fans made the effort and drove mclown out yet can’t be arsed to protest over lamberk who is arguably a worse manager and had 3 seasons ffs!! Something is seriously wrong here.
Everybody knows deep down now that it’s mostly Lerners crappy investments in Lambert mate.Lambert has been a successful manager at other clubs just like Mcleish yet they meet the same fate it’s not coincidence mate.If you look at Lamberts other squads they had flair,experienced players,youth a good mix make no bones Lambert had to buy into Lerners Young n cheap plan so Lerner didn’t have to spend much and Lambert hoping he could work a miracle.Lerner is a nasty bastard and has no problem in ruining managers reputations so he doesn’t have to spend he wants lynching.He knows the fans will turn on the manager he doesn’t give to hoots.
You can play the manager blame game but every manager will have the same outcome until Lerner goes.We will never win or get close to wining anything while the Pansy clown Lerner is at the helm because he doesn’t want to win anything he doesn’t care about AVFC anymore or whether the club wins anything because on his restrictions he knows it is not going to happen.He doesn’t care about the football either and 1st off we are a football club.
I do wonder whether someone like Pulis would have taken the job if Lambert had jumped or been pushed a few weeks ago?
I couldn’t give a crap because Pulis would be no different as he would have to live within the restrictions to.Lerner needs to be pushed to sell then things will change.He is never going to spend money that represents a club of our size and will eventually relegate us so he can cut the price and still make a small profit on his original 60millz as he’s probably clawed a lot of his money spent back through TV money’s and interest.
Jay Dee, I can see where you’re coming from but not the logic. If RL has indeed recouped a significant amount of his investment then he would still be better placed to sell a club in the Prem at a knockdown price than the Championship. I’m more inclined to the view that he’s a loser in business – is indecisive when he needs to show leadership and then panics making poorly informed, bad decisions. I don’t have faith in Lambert but I dread what RL might do in replacing him! Are we stuck with the ‘devil you know’?
What we have is a man who is recouping his losses since 2010
We’re all talking about the problems but as Oohah saying nothing done, yes Lerner is the major factor of Aston Villa’s plight, he found a twat in Lambert to do his dirty work, You will have to hurt the club in sales protests, just stay away, I’m going to do just that, its hard but its got to be done , Lerner is a ruthless man in business he’s only after money ,our club is no importance to a Yank, their attitude is you don’t like it tough. The estate he bought over here been abandoned by him plus his interest? Yanks employ people to do dirty work ,he’s no exception. We have to do it for the good of Villa’s history, Doug Ellis let the club down in selling it to him, and saying I wanted a man with assets, he should have looked at the man in person.
what’s the world coming too when Bournemouth are offering scum 5 (five) million for a young player and villa can’t afford 2~3 million under this current regime
seems like we are giant killing this saturday not the other way around, is this a sign of things to come
keep us posted on transfers if any news happens 🙂 have a good day apart from lerner
Todays headline news.
VILLA NEED TO BE DOING WELL BEFORE LERNER WILL SELL.
Its really that simple. The club has a value based on its assets and income. If either are affected then there will be an reaction. Knocking a few thousand off the gate is nothing compared to an couple of percent off the value of the club. Think about it and have a good day.
Never be sold then Gerry will it, plus emotional blackmail to the fans, but answer this, if the club wasn’t getting corporate money ,fan, and sponsor, what good is that to someone having to shelve out thousands? As I’ve said yanks are good at digging in,but shit at going forwards.
Morning Bill as you’ve probably noticed I’m a little dubious about these here Lerner Lovies and their concern for Randy’s financial welfare, all a bit iffy imo.
Bill seen the guy with his charming ways, believe or believe it not been in his company when he first came to this country, bought property need to me, he first got the local people in a pub drinks,joked with them as if one of the lads, one young lad sporting a tattoo of Villa was made to envy Lerner’s tattoo of an eagle across his back, saying call that a tattoo, he bought property by flying a helicopter over an estate local to Bodymore heath, ,knocking on door saying I’d like to buy your property, giving that person 1 month to vacate, and twice what they would sell for, how do I know that? My sons wifes relatives owned it, he’s a typical Yank ruthless.
Fair play to them, at least someone did alright out of him, more than can be said about AVFC.
Put your fucking hands in yer pocket then Lerner,if that what it takes to see the back end you.the fans have been there from the start you can’t say the same.
Hey Giddy here’s a crazy stat – Bournemouth have scored more goals in Birmingham than we have this season.
I heard that a few weeks ago on the football league show,they’ll more than likely double it this weekend.
I think Lambert chasing Sunderland’s record of ten games without scoring to go with the others on his long list of dubious unwanted records.
Bill, Villa will be sold but the longer it goes on the uglier it will be for the football side of the company. I remember a good few years we had a bid from a couple of chancers who had done their homework on the asset value of the club. I dont remember the finer detail but then we had a fair bit of property and the like. A desperate Lerner could take a hit and sulk back to the States. His investment in Villa has none of the emotion that we fans have. We talk of Villa as our club, simply it is not. We don’t even have customer rights. Can we complain that the team is “not fit for purpose”.
The results will improve and although I dislike saying we are unlucky you have to believe that we will at least fluke a goal or maybe even get an own goal at some time. There, how much hope can I give you.
Cheers for that Gerry now would you pass me a bottle whisky, some paracetamols and a rope for good measure.
I suppose your right in that sense, but didn’t Ellis stipulate in selling club that selling off assets could not be done, remember Holte pub and sports ground, and the new pub is Villas plus land adjacent to the ground is all Villa .
Hi Bill, Deadly could have included covenants to that effect but they are quite difficult to enforce in perpetuity. More likely any such covenant would be time restricted or include a clause to the effect that they can be sold if in the interests of the club i.e. To avoid asset stripping.
That was my take on that, yes possibly correct Hitchens 60.
Just hang on till April when we have QPR and Richard Dunne. There there
I take it as meaning the game, I still maintain not going is worth a go at Lerner.
A couple of chancers?
Like RL is the epitome of every thing that’s good in the owner of a football club? I don’t think so.
This better the devil you know thing be it owner or manager is the only argument put forward by the ‘everything’s rosy in the garden brigade’ and is imo simply scaremongering and to be honest, is wearing a little thin.
Any chance you could name any lifeform on the face of the entire universe that thinks it is “rosy in Villa’s garden”
A ‘scum’ 🙂
I remember Ellis saying that but surely Lerner would also have a clause to say that in certain trading circumstances he could appeal it. Would you really pay 62mil to have your hands tied. Or, Bill, you might just have hit the nail on the head as to why Villa has not been sold. Manchester supports two teams with combined gates of just under 120,000. Birmingham, same ish population manages 60,000. So the potential is there for an investor so why no sale?
Probably because the missing 60,000 in Birmingham support Manchester Utd that’s why!!
Council have always been a stumbling block to Villa Park, a curtain person has a dislike to Villa, they put walls up for any proposed changes, Villa for some reason is the councils second choice club. BWS I’m with you all the way on Lerner he should be hung drawn and qutted. The prick of a yank.
Alan Shearer slates Lerner for Villas decline calling the shit out.Ide love to slap that prick Lerner for how he’s turned us over.
Alan Shearer yawn remind me again why he’s being paid millions to state the bleeding obvious.
Yes but it shows the media are against Lerner to giving him bad press.
I don’t think its the case being paid millions Oohah with Shearer, its obvious to all and sundry, so you cannot knock him , you’re right in saying Villa fans are sitting back and allowing a Yank to dominate us, I given up on today’s fans at Villa ,headless chickens spring to mind, you voice sanity on the issue on here so do I , but we still have some that don’t see the writing on the wall, 70s you had fans fighting for rights of our club, today its like ho well never mind.
Times,rules & laws change ultimately Lerner is untouchable and we all “Today’s Villa supporters”know it & he knows it to that’s why he’s absent know where to be seen.He knows we know what he’s up to so he stays away gutless twat.Hes copping it now though from the press and media.All we have to do is call him out every game as loud as possible ie We don’t care about Lerner he don’t care about me………..Lerner out banners everywhere…make it a big deal every game see what happens that’s all we can do as far as we can go…utv
A lot of good points have been made this morning. I agree with the assessment that Lerner is a poor businessman. His father is the one in the family that made the fortune (out of MBNA credit cards) and Randy has tried and failed to be a successful sports franchise owner in 2 different versions of football in two continents (Cleveland Browns/Villa).
I also agree with the comments made querying whether Villa were ever properly for sale. I have a friend at a Merchant Bank (not the one Lerner chose) who says that bank did not try to market the club outside a small group of people known to Lerner. My friend says their are foreign investors looking to buy a Premiership club – partly for the Abramovich reason, the spotlight makes it more difficult for their enemies to touch them. And party to get their money out of Eurozone banks, but they cannot withstand the scrutiny involved if they transfer the cash to US.
Where did Bournemouth get the money? From a similar person to those still out there looking for a Prem club. They may not be the type of person Lerner wishes to trade with. Consider one of the few facts, a consortium offered with conditions £1 Billion to buy Spurs, a club who will have to shut their old stadium in order to construct the new one, ground-share for a season, and still face court action from a neighbour. So I refuse to believe Villa have been offered to anybody who has £200M and there were no takers.
Deadly sold Villa for c. £60m which, on reflection, was a very good price for Randy. I wonder whether there are covenants within the Sale & Purchase Agreement which originally led to the (relatively) low price but are also now making it more difficult for Lerner to sell? I have no sympathy for Lerner but it doesn’t help us as Villa fans and would also reinforce his poor business strategy.
I don’t know why Villa hasn’t sold but I doubt it’s because Lerner hasn’t tried to sell it. Everton and Newcastle haven’t sold either, and owners of both clubs want to exit. I don’t think there is anything in the covenants that would really stand in the way of a sale either. I’m not saying that because I have any knowledge there, just that rich people tend to get their own way on things like that.
Aside from laundering money or a vanity project, maybe the attraction isn’t there. To get into the Champions League you would need to displace City, Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea. That is almost certainly going to take a huge sum. FFP will make that harder to do even if you have the readies.
If Lerner has had a billion dollars invested over the past couple of years he should have earned enough to cover his investment at Aston Villa. OK he had an expensive divorce (is there any other type?) but I find it hard to believe he can’t afford to take a bit of a hit here. I have to say it looks like he is trying to recoup some of his losses first. Like a few have said, that could be another in a long line of poor business decisions if we get relegated.
Why buy a football club in decline that’s going to cost multi millions just to have a chance of winning something not very attractive offer is it unless you’ve got spare money to splash out and burn
DSVilla, you make a good point. It wasn’t really difficult to invest in a Premier club when you could pretty well buy one of the four places. You were almost certain to keep it as well (unless you shot yourself in the foot like United) but now its like having a mini league within the premier with qualification as the prize. That might explain the lack of interest in Everton, Spurs and of course Villa. Liverpool have tried so already its any 4 from 5. No financial investor would take that risk and it will probably have to be someone who actually cares that buys Villa. As Originallondonlion says some good points today. Shame we have not got the answer to the no goals problem….yet
Villa hasn’t been sold becuiase we’re in Birmingham. No attraction to this city whatsoever. With investment into the City you’ll likely start seeing investment into business’.
The truth often hurts
Have you been to Liverpool recently? Manchester isn’t that great either.
DS In reality it’s probably a combination of all the various very good points made today. This is a really good debate although finding a solution evades us all. In truth we probably have to hope that RL invests more, Tom Fox knocks some business sense into him and Lambert rediscovers the all out football he played so successfully at Norwich with (and I think we forget this) no better squad than he has now. The difference – he’s trying to re invent a major club’s fortunes as against a club with little or no expectation (with all due respect to Norwich)
I suspect the expectation at Villa is a large part of the problem. I think that weighs heavily on Lambert’s shoulders. Maybe it did on Mcleish too. Thing is, playing a defensive game goes completely against what the fans are looking for. Lambert either needs to embrace that or get out.
I can’t see Lerner investing any substantial amount without some “success” ahead of that. I think there is very little sign of this happening.
As for Fox, who knows? Apart from the odd speech it’s impossible to see what he is doing. Let’s hope he has some positive effect.
Liverpool is a dump Manchester slightly better. A lot of it is because utd are there
man city owners have spent loads on city training grounds and schools and the surrounding area, man city will be the dominant force in manchester if they aren’t already.
Comparisons. Birmingham Liverpool Manchester.
My nephew a 19 year old Thai, came here to improve his English, and while with us decided to visit each of these cities for a few days. I made no comment before he set out and listened to what he had to say on his return. Liverpool impressed him most with its regeneration of the waterfront. Manchester he hadn’t a good word for, and in neither of these cities could he understand the locals until they repeated it. In Birmingham he could at least understand everyone perfectly, but he thought the city a bit run down, and thought more people on the streets seemed menacing.
I then let him make his own way to White Hart Lane, that quickly proved to him there are scary areas of London.
Good point OLL, I grew up in London and yes, there are scarier places but the point I’m making isn’t about scary, it’s about the City itself, London is untouchable in comparison to most cities in England. That’s why there is so much attraction for players to go to clubs like Palace, QPR etc etc, they shitty small clubs with shit grounds in horrible parts of the capital, but it’s the capital. Players fom foreign countries only know Manchester and London (and I’ll squeeze Liverpool in there as well because of the European dominance amongst us English clubs), wasn’t it Benteke himself who thought the Villa were a London club or something silly like that…
he thought it was arsenal, wot about unsworth wife, didn’t she think villa was near bolton lmao
you would think they would google it or check a map before signing away
Lerner has had his fingers burnt and wants out.
But i still believe we have a team that should at the very least under a decent manager be comfortable mid table.
Lambert out.
Guzan
hutton okore clark Cissoko
Bacuna Sanchez Delph
Gil
Weimann Benteke
seven of them players are lamberts players, 2 are home grown and other two cloned
Now would that team beat this one: Friedel / Bennett Dunne Cahill Bertrand / Young Maloney Bannan Downing / Bent Milner ?
Or would it depend who manages the exiles?