Are You Ready?

Hmmmm indeed.

It's been said before but clearly we have a better squad than a number of our rivals but in Lambert we have, without doubt, the most incompetent manager.
I did the predictor thing as realistically as I could and that took into account the tough run-ins of Burnley et al. It still had Villa going down on 29 points, on goal difference from Hull.

Any way more will be revealed after Tuesday night. Meanwhile I take a lot of comfort from Kimbo's post about players who may stay if we are relegated. We may have a rare old time of it in the Championsip. Much better than the misery of the last few years any way.

The financial side of relegation nowadays is the main reason that worries me of relegation, £100 million to the likes of Baggies whilst we are cutting back in the championship would be horrendous, but then again even if we do stay up unless a takeover comes along in the summer we will all be right back here saying the same thing's if Lerner is still owner here, so maybe it doesn't really matter it is just a matter of when not if we go down anyway.

I must add facing the likes of Bristol City and MK Dons does not phase me the slightest as i will support us and go to games regardless of opposition, i prefer to avoid the top four teams coming to Villa Park if i'm honest as i do not enjoy watching us outplayed.

Thinman wrote:Hmmmm indeed.

It's been said before but clearly we have a better squad than a number of our rivals but in Lambert we have, without doubt, the most incompetent manager.
I did the predictor thing as realistically as I could and that took into account the tough run-ins of Burnley et al. It still had Villa going down on 29 points, on goal difference from Hull.

Any way more will be revealed after Tuesday night. Meanwhile I take a lot of comfort from Kimbo's post about players who may stay if we are relegated. We may have a rare old time of it in the Championsip. Much better than the misery of the last few years any way.

Off topic but which predictor thing? The BBC one has gone hasn't it? Or is it back?

kimbo wrote:

Thinman wrote:Hmmmm indeed.

It's been said before but clearly we have a better squad than a number of our rivals but in Lambert we have, without doubt, the most incompetent manager.
I did the predictor thing as realistically as I could and that took into account the tough run-ins of Burnley et al. It still had Villa going down on 29 points, on goal difference from Hull.

Any way more will be revealed after Tuesday night. Meanwhile I take a lot of comfort from Kimbo's post about players who may stay if we are relegated. We may have a rare old time of it in the Championsip. Much better than the misery of the last few years any way.

Off topic but which predictor thing? The BBC one has gone hasn't it? Or is it back?

No I don't think the BBC are doing it now. I just Googled Premier League Predictor and picked the first thing listed. It works quite well, except the result. Brace yourself!

Thinman wrote:Hmmmm indeed.

It's been said before but clearly we have a better squad than a number of our rivals but in Lambert we have, without doubt, the most incompetent manager.
I did the predictor thing as realistically as I could and that took into account the tough run-ins of Burnley et al. It still had Villa going down on 29 points, on goal difference from Hull.

Any way more will be revealed after Tuesday night. Meanwhile I take a lot of comfort from Kimbo's post about players who may stay if we are relegated. We may have a rare old time of it in the Championsip. Much better than the misery of the last few years any way.

I think only forecasting us to get another 7pts is bordering on moronic to be truthful mate. Sorry if that comes across as harsh and rude, but it's the truth.
The spirit shown against Chelsea, and some of our play at times, told me that the players are 100% with the manager still (dunno why by the way!)...I left the ground on Saturday more confident of survival than when I went in...the players will know the next 6 games are make or break for us, I am confident we will have accumulated more than your 7pt forecast before we play Man Utd in April.....then there are home games v QPR and Burnley to come.
Did you watch WBA yesterday? they could and perhaps should of been 5-0 down before they got their goal before halftime....they are in far more trouble than us.

I don't think we expect anything other than harshness and rudeness from you Mardy.

We'll see who's a moron by the end of the season.

Thinman wrote:I don't think we expect anything other than harshness and rudeness from you Mardy.

We'll see who's a moron by the end of the season.

Why not do the predictor yourself and share the the outcome with us all. Who knows, it might cheer us up. It's all about balancing opinions.

Regardless of any predictor, if we only get 29 points we'll go down. The lowest points, that a team who stayed up have got, I believe is 34, by West Brom a few years back when they were bottom at Christmas.

Thinman wrote:Why not do the predictor yourself and share the the outcome with us all. Who knows, it might cheer us up. It's all about balancing opinions.

I think we will pick up 9/10 points over the next 6 games. I fully expect us to beat WBA at home, I am more than 50-50 that we will win tomorrow, but a draw is not the end of the world. I can easily see us picking at least up a point in each of the Newcastle, Stoke, Sunderland and Swansea games, in fact I fancy us to beat Swansea at home. 2 wins and 4 draws returns 10pts.

We have a really tough April, so QPR will be a must win at Villa Park, as it was 2 years ago. Then a point from any of the other 3 in that month would be huge.

3 home games from the last 4, inc. Burnley should see us pick up another 5/6pts in May. I don't see Everton as the tough game it was 12 months ago, they could be deep in the mire by then aswell.

So I would calculate us getting 17-20pts over the remaining 15 games.

We currently have 22 points from 24 games. If we carry on at that ratio we'll get another 12-13 points from the last 14 games.

(It's about 0.916 points per match)

kimbo wrote:We currently have 22 points from 24 games. If we carry on at that ratio we'll get another 12-13 points from the last 14 games.

(It's about 0.916 points per match)

If only football was as predictable as a mathematical equation eh mate?

I am pinning my hopes on to the fact that with Gil and Sinclair now involved, our points return ratio will increase. If Benteke ever gets going this season, then that adds further fuel to my fire.
Benteke has the ability to get 12 goals in the next 15 games....he'll probably get 1 or 2!

Gil will save our season. I know it's shit pinning so much on 1 player but it's not just 1 player really, it's the lift he brings to the others. Gil is creative and inventive, he finds space and makes space for others. His attacking influence is infectious and it brings more out of Delph, Hutton, Gabby etc, I'm sure it'll drag up Benteke and Sinclair too and both could reach the previous highs of their forms

Done the predictor, I've got us finishing 15th on 34 points. Which unintentionally maintains our points ratio. I have Burnley, Leicester and QPR going down, with Albion and Hull in-between us and the drop zone.

Could be miles off, of course!

I agree with those 3 Kimbo. Hull will scrape into the league by a sugarbag's hair.

QPR are in dire straits, Austin has scored more than half their goals and is out for 2 weeks, Dunne is now out for pretty much the rest of the season and they've still not got a manager. Sherwood? Can't see him saving them. He managed a Spurs team who had spent £90m replacing 1 player, QPR simply haven't got the squad. Burnley, as I've said before, simply didn't strengthen enough. They saw keeping Ings as a big enough achievement but he won't keep them up IMO

Looking back over previous seasons some of the relegation threatened sides put on a real spurt and gained points that they weren't expected to get. We have to be one of those teams this season, but the problem is that it take "GOALS" to do it. We may think that we can rely on three teams continuing to be crap, but it doesn't always work out like that. If we survive it has to be by scoring goals, and that could be a real problem.

Lambert has achieved almost exactly a point a game in his time here. If he maintains that record, which I think he will, then once again we should just fall over the line.
Then the people who make decisions at Villa Park need to realise the this is Aston Villa, and a point a game over 3 seasons is not good enough.

DaveAV1 wrote:Then the people who make decisions at Villa Park need to realise the this is Aston Villa

This, this, a thousand times this.

DaveAV1 wrote:Lambert has achieved almost exactly a point a game in his time here. If he maintains that record, which I think he will, then once again we should just fall over the line.
Then the people who make decisions at Villa Park need to realise the this is Aston Villa, and a point a game over 3 seasons is not good enough.

The problem is that Tom Fox has already erected a glass ceiling for Villa, so that we can look upwards to the top five or six, but he's already said that we cannot afford to join them. When  Paul Lambert talks about Villa, you would think that he was referring to a small time struggling club, rather than a malfunctioning and totally underachieving potential giant.

We're constantly being told that the problem with Villa is the fan's  high expectations, but when Aston Villa is the sole Premier League representative of the UK's second city with the huge catchment area that provides, the scope is enormous .... the message to RL/TF/PL should be, don't talk us down .... Build us up!

I'm all for being realistic, but as fans we SHOULD have high expectations. All clubs should, even if they are just high relative to their current standing. It should push clubs on to achieve them.

Villa fans should expect us to be competing at the higher end of the division. Not winning the league, but not clinging to it by out finger nails.

Not bragging here, but I have seen us win the European cup, the old First Division, the Third Division (In style full grounds wherever we went) League cups etc, so I am not used to the kind of rubbish from my team. To the younger members I say going down is not nice, I like lots of others had to take the stick from the noses, the baggies with even the dingles pitching in when we went into division 2 and then 3. It was only the fighting spirit and nice football that made it palatable, but we got back up and kept on going up to what is now the Premiership, we should have won that in the early days too if Deadly had just backed us a bit more, he never quite did enough but not like this clown we have now. So don't even think about what could happen if....... we NEED to stay in the prem and we NEED to build and get back to where we want to be, and soon.......

Premier League money is going up again next year, 2nd most valuable sports league after the NFL. Going down would be financially retarded

Lerner has shown no evidence that he has any understanding of the consequences of relegation. He's shown no evidence that he has any real interest. He's shown no evidence that gives me any hope for the club's future.

One decision could change all of that. But it's the one decision that seems the unlikliest to happen.

In the past I've said I'll accept a hammering from the opposition if it means Lambert getting the arse (1 step back to start moving forward again and all that). But we can't afford that now. That horse has bolted.

Villa_Dan wrote:Premier League money is going up again next year, 2nd most valuable sports league after the NFL. Going down would be financially retarded

Good post.

"Financially retarded" is the most accurate description I've heard of our present plight. Before the word "retard" was highjacked and used to describe people with low IQ's, it meant to "hinder or impede or delay the development of".

That is exactly what Randy has done to AVFC, and it has been done deliberately. He thought he could cut off the finance and get away with it, which brings us to the currently more usual definition of "retarded'!