We are just a cash cow for RL, Ellis sold us out, just enough £ investment to stay in the league and no more. Actions/Or non actions speak louder than words and I think Villa have shown the league their intent with their spending which is another decade of stale football.

PS Excellent and comprehensive post.
I believe what the comedian Jerry Seinfeld said about sports is more and more true, that we just support the club strip and not the players as they have no loyalty and are not from the area and once they move you boo them so unless someone is in our strip we don't like them, basically I just support claret and blue.

Interesting. I'm reserving judgement for now but I genuinely appreciate reading ALL sides of the debate. Thanks to all involved, Up the Villa

Aint had any beef with Lerner yet its just O'Neill am kinda falling ut of love with

tinfoil hat time.

i think you need to be very sure of where you stand from a legal perspective if you intend to continue publishing articles of this nature in the future.

If this comming summer transfer window the club dose not speand big then i can see a lot of bad things happening like fans booing o neill and wantning randy lerner OUT..These are the sort of things that will happen this is why its iportant that martin signs some big players because he will be the first one to get the stick

Its not as if they could complain either considering we have waited and waited and waited

Instead of the words we will TRY to sign players in the summer use the words we WILL sign players in the summer martin

Shame we can hire o leary for the summer he will soon splash the cash

Very informative, totaly agree with you. No investment means no players, means no Europe. Even "I" knew we should have bought someone in January. And what about the rumours of Defoe's mrs looking for a house near Birmigham, soumds like we could of had him! Wish we did!

Some of this post is highly flawed, IMO.
I agree with parts, but MON has consistently said he will not pay money for tripe (and rightly so).
Enquries have most definitely been made, but the players are not interested, simple as. This has been intimated on numerous occasions.
But it's correct to say that MON has to break his "golden rules" and get a grip of reality, come the summer.
If RL backs him up or not not will be the proof of the pudding, IMO.

'm real angry Damien, i'm not going to beat about the bush, O'Neill should resign, he's the reason why we are on the decline, HE should have brought in players in January....and don't give me this bullshit that no players are available, rubbish...MON go......for god sake go...he's only signing in Jan was Routledge...wow...how many games he played??......i see Defoe scored AGAIN..........

You can taste the conspiracy-theory paranoia behind this poorly written piece. O'Neill has been brilliant in the transfer market -just look at the money he's made on the following: Davis - can't get into the Fulham team, so is on loan to Rangers; Ridgewell and Cahill - both with relegration strugglers; Moore - at a team with playoff aspirations in the Championship; McCann - an occasional player with a bottom 3 team. And why is it "frightening" that Richard Fitzgerald left Villa - did he achieve so much? In the corporate world, CEOs come and go all the time. I think the writer should concern himself with alien abduction or Iraq war invasion conspiracy theories, rather than write about Aston Villa - a subject he clearly does not understand.

what a load of pap (the article and comments)

we've just lost to the best team in the country, away from home. Playing against some inform players and possibly the best player in the world, Ronaldo. Its hardly a surprise. Us villa fans seem to think we can beat anyone. However we do need to push on tho and get 6th.

As for transfers would of loved cahill to have stayed, but he wanted to go and he wouldn't have made any difference today. Heard he gave away another penalty today.

So come on get some balls if you're not happy don't just say it, be constructive. Who is better than o'neill? I'll answer that for you cos most aren't capable, there is no one available better than o'neill. If so who?

Which world class signing will sign for us when only a couple seasons ago we were flirting with relegation. Its completely unrealistic. Are you gonna link us wesley sneijder again only to be angry with the club and manager when he signed for real madrid. Get a grip. We can't sign world class players yet.
We have a very good backbone of players at the club, and we have a few knight, harewood, salifou, routledge etc who will end up being fringe players next season. Who exactly did you expect us to sign who is world class. There were alot of villa fans on here in october saying sign scott carson asap. Well o'neill was right about that one wasn't he

I honestly do not believe that you understand the huge task o'neill and randy have. Remember we are only 2 years into this theres along way to go. So if you'r gonna whine everytime we loose then maybe o'deary was right you are fickle.

thats my rant over with, you made me do it

Very good article, and whether some of the points are true will be seen in the summer in the investments made (or lack of). Also, in response to Badger, yes oneill has said he wont invest in tripe, and that is a good thing if you stick to it. However, the signings of Harewood, Knight, Routledge, Salifou kind of indicates that he is signing tripe. His insistence that he is waiting to sign big players is simply an excuse for his inability to get these big players in. Look at the players other clubs have bought and ask yourself why we didnt buy them; Elano, Petrov, Muntari, Defoe, Yakubu, Diarra, Hutton, Woodgate. These are all players that have been bought for reasonable money and would certainly improve our team. This summer is MON's last chance.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ....... ???????? ........... !
a bit of bad form and then an article like this...unbelievable. MON is just doing it his way, building gradually, fostering team spirit. honestly villa doesn't need supporters like you

aron_c

anthony is driving at the moment so i'm going to defend him a little; it's not about who is better than o'neill ..

rich112

its not just about bad form. anthony is asking questions about the bigger picture and i'm sure, that if we spend the huge sums of cash in the summer and end up with a bigger and better squad of players than we have now, he'll be the first to say he was wrong.

Jack Lowe

you talk about 'looking at the money he has made' - but i think thats is one of the points; it shouldn't be about, or at the very least we were led to believe it's not about that having to break even or balance the books .. i think anthony is suggesting that we've gone from one penny pincher to another.

anthony has, for me anyway, opened up a debate: what exactly has our owner said to us? what exactly are his intentions? what exactly are the goals of this five year plan? when exactly are we going to try and compete?

like it or not, we are yet to see some real action that suggests we want to compete. in fact, some would say the actions we have actually seen are those of a club that are happy to finish top 10 each season

Badger

where is it flawed?

@ aron c, Mourinho is available and @ jack lowe you really think MON has been brilliant in the transfer market? who would you say is his best buy then apart from young?

I don't entirely disagree with everything, but it is rather reactionary. I think if you look at the team from the perspective of an investment, most of the moves MON has made or hasn't made make perfect sense - very little spending on players who don't contribute, no buying of mercenary type players, a lot of young players with potential who could play for England. You don't become a millionaire by throwing away millions.

I know the fans expect more, but I still strongly believe that a year or two years ago we'd have been overjoyed with competing for a Champions League spot for half the season, then finishing in the Top 8. Is it good enough? Well, I think we'd all like the team to be a bit stronger. Regardless of where we finish this year, I don't think you can make the argument that this exact squad won't be in at least this good of a position next year.

Regardless of whether the fans like it, they're building a team that is a solid, profitable mid-table club. Whether or not MON and Lerner have aspirations beyond that remains to be seen.

As speculation, the article can presume whatever it likes. But I do think it's a bit unfair.

To recap: RL and MON inherited crap. MON cleared out a bunch of the crap and made a commitment to bringing along promising youth. It's certainly debatable whether MON and Villa should've have spent more. But there are two schools of thought on that, and I don't think MON has been that caught out.

Moyes and Hughes have been at their jobs much longer. Man City splashed the cash, but don't have anything more to show for it. Portsmouth have a couple more points.

I do think MON has wanted to establish a new ground floor, and has been committed to giving these players a year to see exactly what he's got in terms of potential. Living in the States, we see this sort of thing all the time, teams either going after free agents or building around youth. When there's patient ownership, the teams usually build around youth. And generally, that approach yields better results over the long term.

So I'm not particularly worried. Villa were dismantled by what is, on their day, probably the best club in the world. And it was most definitely Man Utd's day. I seem to remember them putting 7 past Roma last year. Villa were dismantled because they didn't sit back and play for 0-0 or 1-1, or even a 1-0 loss.

If improvements aren't made in the summer, I'll be concerned then. But right now, Villa and MON are not in crisis.

8 mill on reo coker
9.5 mill on young
6 mill on petrov
10 mill curtis davies
4 mill harewood
1 mill maloney
1 mill Routledge
carew-swap good bit of business
Salifou- £500k
carson- £2mill loan

Thats £42 million. he has spent £42 million. not £17 million.

selling cahill for £5 million is good business too. hes not a superstar. yes that bicycle kick against the blues was priceless but that is good money for a player who is under developed.

the money is clearly there to see. you need to look harder instead of worrying so much.

however i recognise we have spent 42 million under MON and RL. However for 42 million i wouold have expected some better quality of player.

so i think you worrying for the wrong reasons. RL is here with money, thats for sure, the worrying thing is this: who is it being spent on.

keep the faith. dont worry, things are getting better.

Brilliant stuff and don't worry about speaking the truth. People who are afraid to speak out shouldn't even be here as anyone can hide. Truth is this. Compare when a billionaire took over Chelsea to when one took over Villa and the difference is obvious. Sure, they both want to make money, but world force in London, and a cash cow in Brum! O Neil is the worst judge of a player to buy EVER at Villa Park. I challenge anyone to defend his signings so far. Sad thing is, I think we are realising we've been had again!

This is fantastic, can Anthony please tell the truth every week so that others can really se what is happening?? this is at RL not MON. The key for me is the fact that RL has not delivered on promises made as he would have made more money available for signings - I feel sorry for MON as he does spend money when it is available like the 17m on petrov and Young, he definately wanted defoe in August and January!

"O Neil is the worst judge of a player to buy EVER at Villa Park. I challenge anyone to defend his signings so far"

Right...

I thought the problem was the players he HADN'T signed, not the ones he did sign? Me for one is pretty impressed with his signings. He has proved pretty much everyone wrong on Harewood, he has proved many people wrong with Young, would anyone seriously swap Carew back for Baros?, Knight was not the lame duck defender we all thought he was (at least in the first half of the season), he DIDN"T sign Carson for 10 mill which seems a wise choice, NRC has been solid. Who have I forgotten?

I'm as frustrated as anyone with the current slump in form, but I think in the long run we may be thankful for the careful approach. Just remember that two seasons ago we were like this the whole season.

I disagree with the conspiracy theory about RL, but I do agree that if MON fails to sign a number of quality players in the summer he has lost the plot.

Been reading this site for a while now and this topic has made me post my first comment. I cant believe some people on here. MON and RL are the best things to happen to our beloved villa for a long long time what more do you want? Granted MON isnt the best in the transfer market, but you say he was wrong to let go Davis and Cahill, fair enough Cahill is a decent youngster not world class but will improve. However he wanted first team football and we couldnt give it to him and he WANTED to leave while MON would have liked him to stay but in my opinion we have a much better player in Davies who will admit when he plays badly and critasise himself. THis is a rare thing in football players today and will only help him become a great player for us. Davis for me wasnt good enough. He shone in a rubbish squad but made it clear he didnt like playing anywhere but CM and again he left. But can any of you say he would be in our team now if we hadnt have sold him, to light weight for the prem, will be good in scotland.

Like many people i will agree Petrov was over priced but MON didnt have much time to scout people he wasnted in and so he went for someone he had worked with before which was a sensible idea but he just hasnt been able to find his feet yet which would be hard after playing in scotland for so long and it wont help if hes booed by his own fans.

I for one am proud to have MON and RL with our club, 3 seasons ago you would have alughed at me if i told you we would have those to. I would love to be in europe next season but if were not moaning about it certainly wont get us there quicker. Look at man u and to some extent everton both are doingvery well and they have stuck with there managers through the bad times and are getting the rewards now.

I do think we have the money there if we need it but MON is careful (maybe a little to careful) when it comes to transfer fees and wages and i think in years to come it will pay off.

WE are all entitled to our views as am i but i just cant see how moaning about it will change things.

Were all villa fans and we should be supporting our club through it all, were in a much better position than when we were when DOL was here and we have a alot to look forward to.

Anyway each to there own

UTV

Surreal is the word I'd use.

I think MON speaks loads of sense. He has taken us forward on the pitch - more than he's given credit for to be honest - under DOL we were odds on to go down had he have stayed in that regime. But to think about top 6 in 2 years still seems surreal and too soon. I'd take it, I was delighted when we were then..but I sense that there's a load of rebuilding to do. In some ways it feels as if on and off the pitch, we are a new club starting from scratch.

MON reminds me very much of Graham Taylor. He will not sign people who seem like obvious signings from a fans point of view (i.e defoe) - and seem to sign players who are either untried in the premiership or who are players with a point to prove. Even when he spent quite big on ashley young, some fans questioned that too saying we'd payed over the odds..so we can't have it both ways (and if he did sign Crouch for example for £10M in the summer, watch the backlash of many who will say it should've been spent elsewhere..).

I'm not really sure what Villa fans want. We've been largely mid table for years and years. Talk of MON resigning is just really worrying. It seems every manager we've had we have turned on at some stage - even when the 'crisis' has been less than a year - and we'll win nothing changing managers all the time. Not getting into Europe (and let's be honest it wont happen now this season) is disapointing but I bet MON will bust a gut to try and make it happen next season.

Is the money there? Do you honestly think MON would've have gambled his reputation on taking on the shambles we were in at the time unless he was guaranteed new funds from his new owners. I have no doubts that the funds are there and ready to be spent. And I believe they will be in the summer. Whether they are the superstars fans seem to want is another question..not likely. But he will make us stronger.

he's said it wont happen overnight and he's right saying that because it wont.

Why are posts removed?

i've read this article several times and researched a lot of it's claims and i'm pretty disgusted you chose to publish this damian.

at first i though it was harmless nonsense, but i could hardly verify a single claim. what is said isn't harmless nonsense though, it's serious stuff. so much so i've written a rebuttal on half of it and posted it to the forum.

think about who your audience is damian, it's your blog mate, but this is a real shame. i don't always agree with you, but i have a lot of respect for what you've created here and visit most days. don't ruin it by publishing crap like this dressed up as educated opinion. it might please you enormously to hear, but i for one won't keep coming back to read BS like this.

and to Anthony, whoever you are, nothing personal, just do some research next time.

this is the best thing I have read about the villa since lerner took over!!!!!!!, however i have a feeling that Antony is an alias..........? excellent - lerner out and o'neill sort it out quickly as I am eating humble pie

Villafanden or whatever

i have been a season ticket holder for the last 12 years and people like you make me laf. you have said that this is serious stuff and mentioned a letter that nobody understands that makes you look like you are ahead of the game but you havent mentioned anything that requires some research?

also please do not insult others on the forum who believe that this is valid with your aducated opinion, this is a blog not an election!!!!!!!! you could on the other hand wake up an small the coffee?
Brumdig

What a pile of crap.

Hands up who thinks

a) Villa are going to be able to sign Kaka, Ronaldinho and the like, and

b) that during the transfer window, clubs put all their players onto the market for any club to buy - especially their rivals in the Premiership ?

That's right - no hands.

Whether MON had 2p or 60 billion quid available makes not the slightest bit of difference. Our image to players looking to move has been tarnished by two decades of Doug the Miser, and that won't be repaired overnight. And no club really wants to let *any* players who are performing well leave, especially when that club may end up stealing points off them in the league. Just doesn't make sense does it ?

And before anyone says "we should be buying from Europe", see point A (related to the unattractive image) and also ask yourself, does every player from other European leagues fit into the Prem ? Course not. Look at Petrov.

"I challenge anyone to defend his signings so far"

Young - great player
Carew - great when he's match-fit
Reo Coker - decent enough
The Hare - has scored a few goals for us from the bench, has he not ?
Getting rid of dead wood - priceless

I'm not about to throw my lot in and proclaim MON and RL's regime to be the greatest thing since sliced bread just yet, but given that we've gone from 16th before MON took over, to 11th in his first season, to an almost certain top 10 this year - just what else do some of you guys want ? Isn't this progress ?

Give the new guys time and support our team FFS.

to be honest i believe that post to be utter bollox lol im sorry but its a joke, hardly into 2 years of his job and he has massivly overachieved and you are pretty much calling for martin oneill and randy lerner's head. we are doing better than what we have been doing in a long while and martin oneill actually said at the start of the season that he didnt expect us to qualify for europe. big woop we have lost a few games get over it every team goes through a bad patch, im not happy with the results at the moment but no need to try and turn people against the club, i think you should get some sense, and everyone get together because the club is nothing without us. guarentee when we are back to our winning ways it will all be praise for oneill

This is spot on Anthony although you appear to have focussed on the wrong area - MON is working to instruction and that is what the Villa supporters as you know appreciate, the issue here lies with Mr Lerner who you have correctly exposed as a potential fraud, this based upon the fact that we have not been given the opportunity as expected to really grow.

here is nothing wrong with some healthy debate about the clubs current situation. However I think we need a reality check. Villa are not a big club at the minute if you take the definition of a big club being successful ie competition wins. There is a huge disparity between the top four and the rest of the league. This is due to the money the clubs get from their position, Europe and competition wins. You have to get into Europe to get the cash and the players but you have to spend big to get into Europe in the first place.

I am a huge MON fan. He has increased our profile immensely, just look at how many times our matches have been shown this season, and when was the last time Villa had potentially 5 players in the England setup? MON is an excellent man manager and I would argue one of the best in the league.

The one area I am disappointed is in the transfer market. I actually don't have any problems with his current signings and I agree with the others that say we should manage our expectations.

The one big thing we missed was depth of squad. We need players like Harewood for the depth although I would be disappointed if we had to rely on him as our main strike force!

We didn't go for Defoe because he is too similar to Gabby and we also have a very exciting young striker who I expect to break into the team next season.

We have missed a big opportunity to get into Europe this season, but at the end of this one, Man City, Newcastle, Spurs, Everton will all spend big and we need to match them. I am not interested in the big four at the min because realistically they aren't our competition, yet. It's the teams below we really have to worry about.

MON has got his transfer policy wrong this season, but I am still prepared to look at the bigger picture. We are far better off now than we were a couple of seasons ago and I think sometimes we are our own worst enemies.

Let’s not hound out our manager at the minute as I think he is the right man for the job.

This season we have seen how close we came to doing it, but next year is the middle of the five year plan and if we aren't in the top six next season, then I might start to worry.

it is an opinion and in the summer, martin o'neill could go out and spend £60mn on ten players and then in january he might spend another £20mn and anthony will, i'm sure, come on here and say he is very surprised

but what exactly have we been told; champions league football in 5 years. is that really what this club has come to?

european football in 5 years!

at the start of the season supporters of liverpool, chelsea, arsenal and manchester united go into the season with a belief that they can win the league.

thats what i want and if randy lerner is only here to get european football and make a profit then it's not good enough for our club. but, actions speak louder than words - we'll have to see what happens

having spent 64 million buying the club, 10 million on the training ground plus the 31 million on players, thats 105 million, and the 5 million on the national gallery, 110 million. he has about 600 million POUNDS (not dollars) left. so im not expecting millions n millions to be available for transfers.

just typing sumet for the sake of it hear, im depressed were now 8th which isnt even good enough for the intertoto cup!!

WOW! this is really a 50:50 split debate and to tell you the truth guys i dont know where i stand on this i think were in a better postion than last season and i think if your making progress year by year then your doing ok the thing is too many fans got excited about 3 figure million sums that was never promised from randy's mouth only from press sources who cling onto anything they can grasp.

Even if we did have 100 mil who could we attract at the club realistically without europeon football you cant promise it to players without actully getting there!

i still have faith and believe the season wont fade away we gotta stay positive for now then if the season does fade out with nothing to show for it then we can look at the possibilites in the summer (not like we havent got time lol) but for now i belive we are still better off than last season and for me thats progress!

UTV-Keep the faith we cant have a split when the whistle blows at villa park Vs the scum

Damian is there any way for you to recognise the postings by Villa's PR and remove them because it seems that someones job yesterday was to make up names and post on here as genuine fans pretending to be happy with the club and dismissing the post. I can't believe that any Villa fans could have been happy enough to defend them yesterday.

Apparently RL is being investigated for his involvement in hiding Aliens in Area 51 and MON is thought to be a clone!!!!

For gods sake get a grip.... MON and RL are the best thing to happen to this club we love for a very long time.

Yes we are light in the playing staff department but that will improve with time and time is what MON needs. Some of the acquisitions are short term but as has already been said this is a five year plan, don't burn your lottery ticket before the results have been announced.

I have been supporting the villa for nearly forty years and have seen the highs and plenty of lows, the signs are there if you care to look, performance has improved even if the results haven't. 2 or 3 games do not decide a season, any fool can scream and shout when they are winning, but a true supporter screams and shouts when they are losing too.

I will be disappointed if the season fizzles out but i certainly won't lose the faith in the man at the helm, shame on you!!!

it is split and that surprised me. i really did think it would be more saying anthony was a raving lunatic but i think everyone sees what he is saying ..

only time will tell but we should also not forget that this is his opinion and we all have them

I think the comments here are mainly bourne out of frustration with little 'concrete' evidence to hold to the claims. Had we beaten at Portsmouth and Sunderland, we would not be having this debate.

My 10 cents for what it's worth tells me that there is money available on players, but we have a manager who will only spend it the way in which he want's which is fair enough, as it's his job, and fans generally assume that if you offer a club £10m that he'll jump into the pan. Sadly in the real world it doesn't work like that as players are human beings too, and have circumstances, much like we do.

I've read several reports that we tried to sign Benfica's Nelson during the summer for our right back position, the fee offered was £7m, and in today's Observer, he's apparently keen to join, and would have done if it weren't for the fact that Benfica couldn't sign a replacement in time, and changed managers.

I don't remember a summer where we were collectively able to spend £8m on one player (Reo-Coker) and offer another £7m for another. So just because the players aren't here it's unfair to question and speculate about things that people don't really have first hand experience about.

Sorry to say this just seems like mudslinging for mudslinging's sake.

I've got to say, this sounds like a conspiracy theory with no real evidence. Wait until this summer before you judge Randy Lerner. If he doesnt spend big then, then fair enough you were right, but its too early to pass judgement. Im sure if we can make a final push and clinch that intertoto spot we will be able to sign some real quality, but until we qualify for europe we have to be realistic, signing players with potential from smallers clubs eg. Young from Watford.
Another point to consider, did we really expect european football next year and the start of this season? I think you would have to be pretty biased to have done so, but we all hoped. It seems like MON has made some bad decisions not spending in the summer, but i would like to see what effect it has in the long term before i criticise.

Agree with a lot that has been wrote. I will keep it short and just say that the funds are not there to the degree we were led to believe. RL has the club at heart but primarily is a business man. I also have started to have serious doubts about O'Neil's concept of the mondern game and his knowledge of the foreign market.

Anyway, as I always say Keep the Faith..... What else have we got!!!

What a load of rubbish this article is, this is all just rumours and hear say and I feel just a conspiracy theory knee jerk reaction.

Having O'Neill and Learner is far better than Ellis. Think - if they hadn't come in we'd have been playing Scunthorpe or Bristol City on a wet tuesday night this season I'm sure of that. Taking a team of the quality that we were under Dolly to europe takes time more than anything else, be patient, this isn't football manager.

UTV

I think everybody needs to calm down abit. I mean yes RL is a buisness man and yes he is probavly going to make s**t loads of money but football is a buisness. Learner's team is tryig to make Villa a more attractive place to come and has raised the clubs profile look at Tom Hanks, Winehouse all pretending to support Villa thats shows how the marketing is working. We have made progression and im sure that deep down Oneil knows that he F***ed up the last transfer window but everybody makes mistakes lets just hope we can get it right next time!

This article is so naive it has inexplicably attracted 41 comments, Randy Lerner has made the money available to Martin O'Neill, he is just old fashion and does not want to spurn it on players that could upset the dressing room. Martin is not that type of manager! Why is everyone forgetting that a five year plan was put in place to be in the champions league? It is year two and a top half finish is more than on target!

Excellent post - the truth is not out there - it's right here!!!

Paranoia-Well what can i say Villa fans in mutiny and some even believing that the nasty evil Villa empire have been using nazi style propaganda in having the audacity to actually praise what is going on at Villa park in some of the responses to this blog! Ive never always been a fan of this blog but I respect the freedom fans have to air their views, such as Damian himself who has in the past said that he doesn't rate Barry. But as i say all views must be aired.

Disharmony- So Mon and rl are evidently conning us? Well i would say look at the club now on and off the pitch compared to the basket case it was two years ago and you will find A state of the art training ground, massive improvements at Villa park and a number of quality plyers. Some have impressed-eg Young, Reo-coker (in the main),davies, maloney(for what we paid) and even carson before the croatia nightmare. Clearly Petrov and knight have been mistakes.But most importantly who hasnt left? Barry and laursen notably. Why? because they believe in MON

Realism- We are 2yrs into a 5 year plan and we are hovering on the fringes of top 6, that is an improvemnt and there is a goal at the end of it. We have played the top 4 this season and with the exception of man utd we have gained some outstanding results and/or performances. We are respected again in the media and being someone who lives in london i can tell you that we are not laughed at any more. Ok we didnt get defoe but can anyone blame defoe going to play for a previous manager he trusted? isnt that what petrov has done?

I certainly believe in MON-the progress and the style of football has been noticeable. As for those people slating R.L what can is i say? if you think he is at villa for a cash cow then i am afraid you are the type of whingers that made villa park such an unpleasant place to go pre MON/RL. But as i say we are all free to air our views so please rebuke me.

Keep the faith

Actually I'm pretty certain that Cahill, Moore and Davis DID request to leave. MON made it pretty clear he didn't want to sell Cahill or Davis so that obviously means they asked to be shown the door.

In response to some of your comments...

"On 31st January 2008, I was, along with many other Aston Villa supporters, excited at the prospect of who Martin O'Neill would parade as the latest new additions to a squad that looked like a Champions League challenge was a distinct possibility."

Did you really think the Champions League was a possibility? If so, that's probably why you feel you've been mislead. We were never going to qualify for the Champions League this season. Did you think Man City would too? They were way ahead of us. That sort of aim would have been pure fantasy for this season.


"This (January) was time for Martin O'Neill to dig deep in to the millions of pounds that has been burning a whole in his pocket since the arrival of Randy Lerner and we all expected it."

Even if he had made signings in January, they probably wouldn't have settled right away. Ashley Young looked poor in his first few months for us. Making signings in January doesn't always have the effect of sustaining a challenge for the rest of the season and it could be a big risk to spend a lot of money here if the only people who are available are not the manager's first choice. That's panic-buying.


"He didn't talk to the media, as he was too shy and was happy for the national press to print figures that in excess of £100m was available for team investment alone."

I think this is a bit unfair. If you want to avoid letting every selling club know how much money you have to spend, you have to keep quiet (just look at the inflated prices Chelsea were paying when Abramovic took over). That means you can't say when a newspaper has over-estimated the size of the kitty either - the papers would just reduce their estimate until Villa stopped saying "that's more than we have".


"...this didn't stop him splashing out £17m on two players within the first 5 months in Young and Petrov.
Carew and Maloney followed which virtually wiped out all year one contractual funding.
This on 4 players with no Premiership experience whatsoever..."

Do you think they were bad signings? Do you think we should only buy players with Premiership experience? Ronaldo didn't have any when he joined Man U. Torres didn't have any when he joined Liverpool. Carew, Young and Maloney have all turned out to be exceptional value for money (£10m and a donkey for all 3).


"I find the quote "grateful for the Chairman's patience" hard to swallow considering that over the last 12 month period Randy Lerner has invested £14m, compared to the £16m invested by Mr Ellis within the final 12 months as Chairman."

This statement doesn't make sense. O'Neill is implying that the Lerner is kindly waiting for him to find the right transfer targets before spending his money. It is O'Neill that has chosen to only spent £14m of Lerner's money, not the other way around.

"Can someone please tell me why we still talk of major signings when Lerner has not only invested less than Ellis (like for like over 12 months), but has in-fact over the last 2 years at the club invested as a combined total, less in team restructuring than 13 other premiership clubs?
Yes, that's unlucky 13 and to really put this in to perspective the clubs that couldn't match us were Birmingham, Sunderland, Derby, Wigan, Bolton and Reading. "

I think you'll find that we'll still end up finishing higher than about 6-7 of the clubs that have spent more than us, implying that we do have the right strategy. It makes no difference how much money you spend if you don't spend it wisely. As for 'major signings', that really depends more on whether we qualify for Europe or not.


"This gets worse when you consider that four home-grown players under the age of 23 have been shipped out - Davis £4m, Ridgewell £2.5m, Cahill £5m and Moore £3.5m. Isn't this unusual for a manager under no pressure to sell who has players wanting to play for him, and is thought to believe in youth?
It is also worth noting that none of these players asked for a transfer and very few fans could honestly say they were happy with this."

I think you'll find that they all wanted to leave. Young players want first team football and none of them were getting it. Martin O'Neill does not want players who aren't willing to buckle down and earn a place in the first 11, which is fair enough in my opinion. I'm sure Man Utd sell most of their academy prospects and they're not in a position where they need the money.


"These are not the only casualties of erratic looking outbound activity - Aaron Hughes was gone overnight for £1m leaving us totally exposed"

Aaron Hughes was one of the worst fullbacks we've ever had, rivalled only by J'Lloyd Samuel. Gardner, Cahill, Mellberg and even Reo-Coker have all done better jobs at right back than Aaron Hughes ever did. The guy was anonymous. He had to go.


"I have also wondered this season as to why Sorensen has been demoted to 3rd choice keeper."

Because he thew his toys out of the pram when we signed Carson. Sorenson was injured at the time and wouldn't have played anyway. He was causing trouble so O'Neill froze him out, just like he did with Berger. We don't need trouble-makers in the squad. He wasn't that good either.


"The upshot is the squad inherited by Martin O'Neill has decreased in numbers with little or no competition for places"

But our first 11 has greatly improved it's quality! That's why we're going to finish higher than last season, which in turn was an improvement on the season before that.


"when I look at a squad of 19 players inclusive of Taylor, Knight, Harewood, Salifou, Osbourne, Berger and Routledge, we look not too dissimilar to a Championship side. "

I think this is an unfair statement. Firstly, if you look at the squad list of any premiership side outside of the top 4, there will probabably be 5-10 players you've never even heard of. The ones you have heard of may also not be considered true premiership material. However, this is not really true of Villa. Taylor is thought of by many Villa fans (me included) as our best 'keeper and easily good enough for the Premiership. Berger provided a lot of class at the end of last season. Knight helped us beat Chelsea (not bad for a back-up defender). Harewood has been on form lately, contibuting a few goals including a peach of a finish against Reading. None of us know anything about Salifou so give the guy a break. Osbourne is showing signs of developing into a very good player (he's only 20 - didn't you say we should keep our young players?). Routledge - who knows. He has a little over a year to prove if he's good enough.


"During the transfer window Randy Lerner processed the biggest ever single charity donation of £5m to the national gallery"

What Randy Lerner chooses to do with his own money has nothing to do with our club. My hope is that he is going to turn us into a self-sustaining business with plenty of cash being generated by the club to fund transfers and wages in the coming years. THAT is where his value to us is - good business skills, not his personal chequebook.

It's easy to get angry after we've just been stuffed 4-0 by the best team in the world, but let's just sit back for a moment and fairly judge what has happened over the last couple of years. It's all going in the right direction and I think things will get a lot easier for us in the transfer market when we do qualify for Europe, whether that be this season or next.

There's no point trying to guess what the motives of our chairman might be. It's pure speculation and it won't get us anywhere.

There's only one constructive thing we can do to help our transfer dealings, and that is to support the lads for the remaining games and roar them on to 6th place and an Intertoto slot. It is still there for the taking. Let's leave transfer talk until the window opens, at the very earliest.


P.S. Sorry if the triple post was too long!

@ PaulE I am not supporting a bunch of spoilt rich footballers that gave f all against man utd and rolled over to sunderland they need to gain rspect like proper men by doing what they are overpaid to do. ps do you work for Villa PR?

After reading all the posts, I am willing to make a u-turn. In hindsight I was just upset to loose again to Utd.

We have made progress and we need to realise that the crop of players and structure inherited by Mon and RL was not of the standard we wanted or deserve. However, it is getting there.

Off thge subject, any chance of getting Sidwell in the summer??

Keep The Faith.

Damien

Whats wrong with champions league football in five years. I'd bite your arm off for that. I think that once MON has been in charge for five years than we will be equipped to not only get into the CL, but actually compete in it. To get into the champions league takes time and patience, arguing that we should be thinking about champions league football for next season is far to unrealistic.

This post makes me sick, where is the support for the club, we have a couple of bad results and people are calling for the manager and owners head. Are you stupid. We are a team pushing forward, and there still is a real chance of europiean football next season through the intertoto cup, which will be an achievement who wouldnt have taken that at the start of the season?

I dont see whats wrong with someone making money from the club as long as we are going in a forward direction improving season by season, yes we have had some bad results but we are still up there, its not as bad as some of you are making out. So many negative comments, wise up lads we are not Newcastle or Leeds, times are still exciting at VP.

Get off the managers back and start supporting him and the team, we need it at the moment.

Go support Birmingham City - thats my advice. All this negativity would fit in well at a shit hole like St Andrews >:( >:( >:(

It is easy to roll with the regime as if you are totally comfortable, had this really been the case then I doubt whether you would have posted at all - to step forward and say that this is crap takes some b******s and all I see is Villa supporters sitting on a fence knowing deep down that they havent got a clue what the f**k s really happening.
Sure we have made progress but the season is not over and the squad is totally stripped to the core, who are the jokers still saying that MON didnt buy due to the fact that the right players were not available? Pathetic- everyone including him knew that the squad was far too small for a complete season- we are not talking BIG SIGNINGS but a good solid squad, this should have been the minimum requirement so dont give me any sh*t to the contrary, also can we stop this line that the young Villa players wanted to leave the club for first team fotball - THE SQUAD IS SO SMALL THEY WOULD HAVE PLAYED!!!!!! Also can we cut this line that they were not good enough - THEY ARE BETER THAN F*****G NOTHING!!! even if they did want to leave he didnt have to sell them did he?
MON's transfer dealinings have been crap demonstrating little or no stratergy whatsoever with some of deals - Harewood was having a medical at Wigan when MON called, Knight come to Vila after Davis went the other way, why were these not part of the same deal, Salifou was picked up at the 11th hour for nothing and hasnt played so Im not even gonna go there and Hughes was released without a replacement (thanks to somebody earlier for educating me to the fact that he was shit so no problem)
I have seen Vila win champonships and european cups whilst travelling in europe for the UEFA cup ties during the 80,s 90,s and 2000,s and therefore this to me is normal - what I dont need is is people talking to me about (we are 2 years in to a 5 year plan) - everybody else has a 5 year plan so wake up and small the coffee for gods sake, when a billionaire takes over the club I dont expect champions league football but what I do expect as an absolute minimum is the tools to be provided to have a crack at a UEFA spot within 2 years, com on lets cut the crap!

Thanks tony for your comments but I think you were wasting your time kid,
Brumdig

taglor -why dont you copy and paste the quotes you think have been posted here by undercover agents of villa and email them to the club.Oh and dont forget to check your phone for tapping devices as well. After all how dare people who proclaim to be supporters of avfc have the nerve to actually post messages in support of the club? Who do they think they are?

" taglor said:
@ PaulE I am not supporting a bunch of spoilt rich footballers that gave f all against man utd and rolled over to sunderland they need to gain rspect like proper men by doing what they are overpaid to do. ps do you work for Villa PR?"

That's right, Taglor. I am an undercover Villa agent. As c.b said, check your phone for bugs.

If you don't want to support the team because they're 'spoilt' and 'rich', I suggest you find a local pub team to give your valuable 'support' to.

Being a fan is about supporting them even when they're playing crap. That means cheering them on. They're having a bad run - get over it.

Anyway, that's another matter.

were better placed than any other midlands club.and any north east club.they would give there right arm to be where we are to day .our cups half full not half empty. up the villa

Great post and there are a lot of points that the fans may be aware of deep down, but choose to ignore. For example, Lerner's vision for the club and his real reasons behind the deal. He is a businessman at he end of the day and with a club like Villa, he's on to an earner.

The lack of transfer activity this season has been so disappointing because of the expectation around the club. With a stronger squad, I really do think that we would have been right up there with Everton. We're not far off, but on the same token, we've still got a long way to go.

I sincerely hop that we do see substantial investment in players this summer because we must in order to compete otherwise we'll fall behind again. The whole 'small squad' excuse is getting a bit tiring now! We need at least 5-6 players in, just like Man City did last summer. In addition to our squad, we would have a great chance to progress.

Finally, regarding our slump in form, it's strange that since Curtis Davies has been injured, we've been awful! After that draw against Arsenal, life was great but now we're back down to earth with a bang! Does anyone remember the 98-99 season when we were top of the league until February? I remember Ehiogu picking up a major injury and after that we were shocking for the next 10-12 games!

Haha there's no rules for being a fan maybe I will stop and when they are winning I will come back and enjoy the glory and annoy you by doing so because there is absolutely nothing you can do it's all subjective. I want MON out and I only like a couple of the players but if they do well I will be a fan just the same as you haha

The whole '5 year plan' thing is interesting to consider because will O'Neill still be with us then? Only if it's year by year progress. One bad season and he might be out the door O'Leary style! But I think O'Neill will sort us out in the long run if he adds to the team and takes the club forward.

taglor is usually one of the best posters on here,his sarcasm and witt have me rolling round the floor.get off his back.
BLOG = YOUR OWN OPINION

I've just read this and I found it really interesting, even if not accurate Anthony sure is exercising his freeedom of speech and has given us all something to think about. Villa int exactly doing fantastic are they? I'm surprised at how seriously some people have taken the issue.

Villafandan-i noticed you mentioned about Anthony's legal position-the amount of time it must have taken you to post an analysis of Anthony's article, you might as well get studying for a law degree and then you'll be able to know his legal postition. You certainly have a unhealthy attention to detail :P

At the end of the day we all want to see the rise of villa and Anthony has done his best to raise issues that could be leading to their fall. Well done Tony for writing a piece so brave and allowing himself to be criticised by his fellow supporters. People should follow Anthony's lead !! :)

Quick Question Dose anyone no if scott carson has a deal in his contract stateing that if he is fit he must play ? Im sure i heard this when we signed him but cant remember for the life of me ?

This is I have to say a very well structured article, I do not doubt the detail at a glance but even if this does contain minor flaws it does not in any way detract from a clear communication on the running of the football club, from where I am sitting the running of the club is OK based upon that of two years ago but the writer is correct in the sense that we all did probably anticipate slightly more terms of capital investment but hopefully this will come in the summer.

I also feel that there are posts on here making a joke of a conspiracy edge but I do not see it that way at all - the writer is highlighting that there are many factors surrounding the club that we do not look at - well I certainly dont anyhow, whilst we consider what is beneath the detail I can tell for sure that whoever pulled this together will have the ability to equally defend the current regime when required, thats what I like about this article.

In MON We Trust! 8)

Cheers ste23 :) can't believe that I actually got a bit wound up about it all today I usually just find it all funny as it has no bearing on life really, still got to go to work tomorrow morning lol

i got bored reading that post .. dol was right , villa fans are fickle. i cannot believe the crap that some people are saying.

lets start with the players sold. davis, moore, ridgewell , all not good enough and wanted first team games. cahill should of stayed but if the manager does not want him then so be it.

as for the money spent, young, nrc maloney, all good buys who will get better as the team does, only petrov knight and routledge need to prove themselves

so why didn't he go and spend big in january?? well he has a 5 yr plan and maybe we are ahead of where he wanted us to be, so he will see where we finish this year and then take stock in the summer and go for the players to get us that european spot. if we are still sitting here in yr 4 with no big signings a small squad and not in europe then you can question the manager and chairmen, i find it so frustrating that villa fans, when we are having our best season in years are on here moaning like this.

i am ashamed that your a villa fan

What a load of bulls**t. A conspiracy story full of utter boll**ks! I have got a conspiracy story for you: This site has been infiltrated by blue noses writing articles and comments to stir up s**t and try to get Villa fans to be taken in by this nonsense!

PS. The players that have left wanted to leave so that they could play first team football. The players that have come in are all pulling in the same direction and are happy to do as they are told, play their hearts out when asked to play and when they are left out they are hungry and want to do better and don`t moan, sulk and kick up a f