Villa's unambitious history repeats itself

What puzzles me is why is it acceptable now? It's a disgrace.

BillyBleach wrote:What puzzles me is why is it acceptable now? It's a disgrace.

That's the million dollar question. Fans expectations are probably lower than at any time in the past twenty years?

Maybe it's the sad inevitability that, unless or until there is a change in mindset as far as the clubs financial attitude is concerned, where we are is where we are likely to stay. Stagnating.

Firestarter wrote:Maybe it's the sad inevitability that, unless or until there is a change in mindset as far as the clubs financial attitude is concerned, where we are is where we are likely to stay. Stagnating.

We won't stay here for long, sooner or later we will go down.

Holtender1982 wrote:

Firestarter wrote:Maybe it's the sad inevitability that, unless or until there is a change in mindset as far as the clubs financial attitude is concerned, where we are is where we are likely to stay. Stagnating.

We won't stay here for long, sooner or later we will go down.

We are lucky to have gotten this far without dropping.

Firestarter wrote:Maybe it's the sad inevitability that, unless or until there is a change in mindset as far as the clubs financial attitude is concerned, where we are is where we are likely to stay. Stagnating.

It's the financial attitude that baffles me. What is it? We've been through boom and bust cycles and are going nowhere but down.

It seems the flow of money and the direction of football is so one dimensional.

Randy---->£xxm---->manager. And that's it. Give the money over and hope.
Granted that's all we see and you'd hope there's more to it but the evidence on the pitch and in the accounting says otherwise.

How hard is it for Randy to sit down with a DoF, an accountant, the CEO, the head of marketing, the youth team manger and maybe even a fans representative.

Randy asks the DoF to bring in a projection of where he sees football going (tactics, finances and the plans for things like the Fair Play rules and how they will affect the club). With that info and an idea from the youth team manager, he should have an idea of what players might be needed, what we have coming through that has potential and from that can say that we need £x pounds per window over the next x years.

He bounces that off the accounts people to see how big, if any, the shortfall is. Randy either dips into his own pocket or gets the marketing manager and CEO to drive income (sponsorships, hospitality, ground naming, whatever).

So now we have a rough plan as to where we think football might be headed and how we can keep up or maybe get ahead.

He asks the fans rep what the fans expectations are so they can be managed and, hopefully, exceeded.

Those details are nailed down to within a fine degree and then a manager is interviewed who is put in charge of making those expectations happen within the budgetary constraints provided

In a nutshell, that needs to be happening. Not "oh shit, I'll just throw some money at it and hope it works, oh no it hasn't I'll throw some more, oh shit that hasn't worked either so let's stop all spending and maybe we loan some players to replace the ones that haven't worked out or use the youth team, oh fuck me we're in the relegation zone again and the fans are pissed off so do we spend money or don't we and hope for the best again?"

That Lambert got rid of a left back, replaced him with Bennett, didn't fancy him, bought Luna, realised he was a bit ho-hum, tried Baker, back to Bennett, let's get a loan in tells me that there are absolutely no guidelines, no restraints, no budget, no vision, nothing. And that's just what we can deduce from the fiasco that's happened over the left back slot without even looking at the scattergun approach of buying players with no experience from all over town and then reinforcing them with over the hill mates from the lower division.

Where we need brains, we have none.
Where we need experience, we have none.
Where we need insight, we have none.
Where we need accountability, we have none.
Where we need communication, we have none.
Where we need a plan, we have - it would seem - no fucking clue at all.

Trotters wrote:

Firestarter wrote:Maybe it's the sad inevitability that, unless or until there is a change in mindset as far as the clubs financial attitude is concerned, where we are is where we are likely to stay. Stagnating.

Where we need brains, we have none.
Where we need experience, we have none.
Where we need insight, we have none.
Where we need accountability, we have none.
Where we need communication, we have none.
Where we need a plan, we have - it would seem - no fucking clue at all.

That sums up how I have felt since Houllier was appointed to be honest.