Transfer Fees Received

http://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=154&teamTabs=transfers

Am I right in thinking that the only transfer fee we have received under Lambert is £2,500,000 from West Ham for James Collins?

lol...

Makoun
Bannan
Ireland
Bowery
Carruthers
KEA
Graham

We got fees for all of these, they just were not disclosed to the press. It's not how we do business.

And in the same time frame he has spent £50,500,000.

I am not surprised Randy won't give him any more of his hard earned, I wouldn't.

South London Villan wrote:And in the same time frame he has spent £50,500,000.

I am not surprised Randy won't give him any more of his hard earned, I wouldn't.

I'm not a Lambert supporter by any means, but transfer fees don't represent the whole picture. Wages are what seem to be our biggest stumbling block in signing better players. Sissoko, Holtby, and soon to be Sinclair are out of our price range, so we need to buy players who are the next tier down and hope they turn out good. Also, Lambert has mentioned in press conferences/interviews that some of the transfer fees reported by the media are way off the mark. He has mentioned that Bacuna, Lowton, and Westwood all cost less than £1 million each, which makes them even more of bargain.

It's things like this that make me question why people are blaming Lerner over Lambert! If I'd given 50 million pound to somebody and saw absolutely no progress I'd think twice about giving him any more too. I'd probably bring in a man to oversee and decide on transfers.

Oh, exactly like Lerner has. A man who identified Carles Gil. A player who got people in Villa Park on their feet for the first time in years. In Lerner we trust!

Lambert hasn't wasted money per se, he's had to gamble on cheap players in the hopes they come good because Lerner won't pay for proven players anymore.

I think Lambert and Lerner share the same problem. Neither of them have a proper infrastructure of top quality people around them. Tom Fox appears to be trying to address this on the none playing side at least.

Soon after RL arrived I read somewhere that our back room staff had swelled dramatically. Even the tea lady had assistants. However at the top there's been virtually nobody. PL is the same. He can't seem to find any really top quality assistants to help run the first team. My theory as to why, is that neither RL or PL have the belief that they really know what they're doing. So they don't have the confidence to employ top people around them for fear of being exposed and embarrassed by their own short comings. Successful people, in all walks of life, surround themselves with talent and have the self confidence not to be intimidated by it. Neither men have that level of self confidence or charisma to dominate and inspire those around them.

I'm not sure it's true that Lambert *had* to gamble. I think he chose to gamble to fill out the squad, but the truth is that he would have been better off buying less players but more of the Vlaar/Benteke/Okore price + quality, and letting some of those already at the club play. You know, like Alan Hutton, who has picked up more in the last two years for doing fuck all than some people will probably make in a lifetime. Or Shay Given - was there really any need for more wages on Jed Steer? Maybe he'll turn out to be a great keeper, but when taking Given's wages into account, I'm sure we had bigger priorities.

Had Lambert simply opted for a quality over quantity approach, we'd have probably finished higher up the league and that would have brought in more money for the club too.

I know we're all looking for positives anywhere but this great record that Lambert has in the transfer market is becoming as big a myth as Stephen Ireland's 'wasted ability' - Ireland is actually just quite shit.

Lambert has done well when spending a bit more money (although let's not give him too much credit on Benteke, it's widely believe that he was already being scouted by the club when McLeish was here) and Gil seems to be another example of that. 

Is it Lambert? Is it scouting? Who knows. But I don't believe that he needed to buy some of the players he decided to, and I can not believe he a) Thought Bennett or Luna were good enough; b) allowed the utter embarrassment that was the bomb squad to even happen; and c) has been unable to identify players that are more capable than Gabby and Weimann. Even on a fucking budget.

Whether the fees received/ paid is right I can understand Lerners reluctance to invest more money. I am in no way trying to defend him, but MON spent much and always needed more, his last batch of quality players were not quite quality enough, Bent gets bought and helps keep us up then in no time at all he is in the bomb squad with a bad attitude and lacking in quality. Is it no surprise he is confused, the football experts he keeps employing keep teling him just one more boss. It is like watching the kids at the amusement arcade wanting another £1's worth of 2p's to push 50p over the edge and into the tray.

I think one major reason why our expenditure totally out weighs our income re players transfers is that we don't improve players at Villa. Our football and coaching has been so bad over recent years that players visibly regress while wearing a claret and blue shirt. Add to that the amazing failure to extend our top players contracts at the right time, and the equation becomes obvious : mismanagement + poor coaching = huge player revenue losses.

villabromsgrove wrote:I think one major reason why our expenditure totally out weighs our income re players transfers is that we don't improve players at Villa. Our football and coaching has been so bad over recent years that players visibly regress while wearing a claret and blue shirt. Add to that the amazing failure to extend our top players contracts at the right time, and the equation becomes obvious : mismanagement + poor coaching = huge player revenue losses.

Sums the club up perfectly at the moment.....Clueless.