MikeMcKenna

Once they are gone they are gone. I doubt many players give a damn once they have left their former club and I for one will not lose any sleep if Bent does us over in the Press. But to be fair I don't think he will. He kept relatively stum when he left Sunderland.

Whichever way this is going it needs to be resolved ASAP. Clearly Lambert is getting sorted early so that he can coach his players during the break, which represent a huge change for us! Over the years transfers/new contracts have been strung during the close season and it would be really good if we could start a new season with a squad that has got to know each other without waiting till it kicks off. Sort out Benteke now, get at least one more experienced defender, conclude the Helenius and Okore deals , throw in Belhanda for good measure (as if!) and we are sorted for next season :-) :-) FWIW I think Benteke will sign a new contract and that ATM his agent is probably trying to dictate future clauses for his release and other ways to line his (the agents) pocket! Haven't been this excited since the summer of 2006! Bring it on!

And the worst then must be appointing him and allowing him to spunk millions of pounds on crap players and build up a wage bill the club couldn't sustain. was it not Doug that appointed him? whatever it was giving him all that cash was a horrible idea but if he didnt people would be saying he never backed him It's all very boring but as has been said many times Ellis appointed him on Lerners behalf - but who gives a **** anymore? Everybody needs to move on!

Apologies to Iron Maiden! A Norseman is coming A Norseman is coming The warnings are given A Norsemen is coming :-)

It never particularly bothered me back then but despite having the most England caps in history, around that time (mid 70s on) not many of our players were picked. From the 82 team the likes of Swain, Mortimer, Shaw, Morley and Cowans should have been in with a chance but looking at the England squad then Mortimer was never going to oust Brooking. Personally I think Swain was a better player than Mick Mills, but he player for Media favourites Ipswich and Swain was never going to get the place. Shaw was never going to displace Mariner - another Ipswich player. Cowans imo should have been a regular England player but was always overlooked tragically like Little before him (except for a cameo). Morley also imo would have done well. But England selections were very predictable and Ron Greenwood the England manager like many before and since was very conservative. 1 GK Ray Clemence Tottenham Hotspur 2 DF Viv Anderson Nottingham Forest 3 MD Trevor Brooking West Ham United 4 DF Terry Butcher Ipswich Town 5 MD Steve Coppell Manchester United 6 DF Steve Foster Brighton HA 7 FW Kevin Keegan Southampton 8 FW Trevor Francis Manchester City 9 MD Glenn Hoddle Tottenham Hotspur 10 MD Terry McDermott Liverpool 11 FW Paul Mariner Ipswich Town 12 DF Mick Mills Ipswich Town 13 GK Joe Corrigan Manchester City 14 DF Phil Neal Liverpool 15 MD Graham Rix Arsenal 16 MD Bryan Robson Manchester United 17 DF Kenny Sansom Arsenal 18 DF Phil Thompson Liverpool 19 MD Ray Wilkins Manchester United 20 FW Peter Withe Aston Villa 21 FW Tony Woodcock 1.FC Cologne (GER) 22 GK Peter Shilton Nottingham Forest

I'm not 100% convinced on that Mike. I know what you mean about usual suspects but I do think there maybe one or two names that we will have at least heard of! For example I would have thought Shawcross would have been a very reasonable shout. Not saying I know we are in for him before anyone jumps on me, just using his name as an example of maybe names we could have heard of and that players we maybe after might not be totally unknown Richard I dont disagree he would be a good shout, in fact I think he is very much what we need, however imho PL will continue in the same vein bring in lower league players and the odd overseas players who he thinks will develop. I hope I am partly wrong and that he knows we need a few strong players with PL experience, but i doubt it. ha ha, give over

Are you the same Mike McKenna who was giving Kendrick the low down on Tonev? No, I have no idea who that guy is and until I saw the link here I had never heard of Tonev. Methinks something fishy is going on here. What you think there is only one "Mike McKenna" and that I am lying?

Are you the same Mike McKenna who was giving Kendrick the low down on Tonev? No, I have no idea who that guy is and until I saw the link here I had never heard of Tonev.

The Tonev link is evidence that like last close season we will not be chasing the "usual suspects" and therefore talk of Shawcross, Huddlestone and Defoe is a waste time and wide of the mark.

Andi Weimann is not a £40k a week player yet. He might be soon, but he's not there yet by any stretch We have actually no idea what he wants, but on what basis is he "not a £40k week player" if that is the number? Have you an extensive knowledge of what the going rate is for a 21 year old with 12 goals last season in the premier league/cup or is it just your unqualified opinion? IF he leaves it will be because some other club thinks he is worth more than we do. IMHO as a 21 year old he has had a very good season and 12 goals is not to be sniffed at. He may not be our main striker and we have to keep players like Wiemann if we are to build for the future. IF we cannot paying the going rate this will be a recurring problem in the future with other players.

Obviously we don't know whether the demand is for £40,000 but if Wiemann leaves for someone like Norwich, IMO it should set the alarm bells ringing. Whatever we think, as mere fans, of the Premier League crazy wages they are driven by supply and demand. If Lerner has set an unrealistic wage cap we are going to struggle year in, year out to keep anyone half decent.

Don't think we have really gone off topic. Thank you for the spelling correction. You will have to forgive the Donny lingo. YOU'RE lucky I don't put 'ya'. I think he had a poor season overall but improved towards the end with the team. Hopefully he can improve next year. For a guy that stepped up from Crewe in Division 1 to the Premier League, I think he did well most of the season and got better as it went on. To say he had a "poor season overall" IMO is very negative.

I agree and apart the managers of the top clubs who couldn't/wouldn't do it on a shoestring, I wouldn't want most of the others either who managed last season: Di Canio, Pardew, Pochettino, Hughton, Redknapp, Pulis??? Rogers, Martinez and Laudrup maybe but for me Lambert can match and outperform most of our immediate rivals given what he has to spend. I will be interested to see if he can put one over on any of the leading clubs next season. Wouldn't it be nice to beat Man U again?

Agree with most of that other than top 2 and think Stoke will go down. As for Villa's position, it's possible that Everton may have a blip for a season of two and I wonder if Swansea can maintain their impressive form. I think we are on for a top 10 position but would be more than happy with 7-8 as it would be indicative of our progress. As I have said elsewhere, if we were able to also get a result against United especially and a few of the other leading teams it would make my season. I would love it if we could put one over on Man u at a rammed Villa Park !

Funnily enough I was thinking about how Lambert and Saunders compare. While there are absolutely fundamental differences between the make up of the squads in terms of age and experience then and now, Saunders always advocated the importance of "the team". He didn't tolerate Prima Donnas well, expected the players to work hard and press constantly. The style of play now is very different but the notion of building a "team" reminds me of Saunders approach. Like Lamberts, Saunders team were high scoring but he also had a much stronger defence. Lambert's challenge is clearly to shore up the defence. Sort that out and next year could be very interesting. I think the gap between us and the top clubs is too great now (and maybe forver) to challenge for league honours or even a CL place but I am definitely excited by the development of "the team" and with the addition of a couple of solid defenders and maybe a couple of midfielders I think we could give more that a few teams the run around next season. We can but dream!

You've already been proved wrong. You just won't look at the proof. 1st half of season, we were 16th. 2nd half we were 9th. Improvement? 1st third, we were 18th. 2nd third, 17th. Final third, 8th. Improvement? And that team we lost to on the first day was not Wigan, it was West Ham. Guess what we did to them when we met them next? We beat them. Look, everyone uses the stats available in order to justify their own stance, but objectively we have improved. Whether you choose to see it or not is completely up to you. Like I said " there is nothing I would like better than to be proved wrong" but I still think we have not improved enough. Remember this post when we are 5-6 games into next season ! You really haven't got a clue , you are totally wrong and we are undoubtedly improving! In the final ten games of the 11/12 season we lost 5 and drew 5 - we didn't win one game and got 5 points In the final ten games of the 12/13 season we won 5 games, drew 2 games and lost 3 (to Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool) and got 17 points. We are now a far better team than last season, we finished a far better team in 2nd half of this season than in the first half and all the statistics prove it. What part don't you understand? It's like pushing water up an hill Ok so, we have had our fair share of false dawns. My worry mike is the lack of visionaries on here. For those that can' t see improvement..... Give it 12 months and see the difference. TRO In fairness I think most here and in the fan base at large are excited by and believe in Lambert's strategy as was evidenced by the support he has received all season and pointedly by the surge in home support towards the end of the season. I seriously believe he has a "vision" that we can progress without huge transfer spending. Whether he can deliver remains to be seen but I am really looking forward to next season to see how we progress.

I would disagree - The Manu's Tottehams, could blow us out of the water. But not west ham, southampton, sunderland So West Ham, Southampton and Sunderland have out flanked us in terms of the transfer market, despite us signing sunderlands prized asset Darren bent against their will and Southampton selling their prized assets in Walcott, bale and chamberlain, don' t remember lambert being a record breaking transfer fee despite his prolific scoring rate. Would you really hold those teams up as the testimony to big Money signings being the holy grail ? Or am I misunderstanding you. It's about prudence, not how deep your pockets are. I think you are right, but rather than use the word "prudence" i prefer pragmatic. The likes of QPR, Southampton, Stoke etc splashed the cash this season. QPR are gone. Southampton and Stoke finished poorly and are candidates for the drop next year. Lambert had to be (and still has to be) pragmatic as he is not going to get big bucks to spend. For better or worse if we are ever going to achieve anything it has to be his way as we are never going to do a QPR. If Lambert ever achieves a modicum of success for AVFC by finding and nurturing talented low cost players it will be a revolutionary achievement that will be the model others eventually follow. It may not be the strategy the "results now" fans want but for now that's it!

There has been some debate about how often RL has been to VP this year. I was told by one of the Villa execs at the weekend that the last game he attended was the 0-3 defeat to Wigan but he couldn't recall if/when he had been to another game during the season. He said that Lerner was coming over sometime in the next 1-2 weeks. IMO all the signs are that he would sell but due to the financial situation that is not going to happen in the next few years. In terms of whether he is good/ bad for Villa and whether a new owner would make a difference, for now I think it totally academic as it isn't going to happen. Now that we have a manager with potential and a plan based on tight financial controls, beyond giving PL reasonable backing in the summer I think RL's role as the owner of our club is effectively to take an even further back seat. I doubt we will see much of him again next season UNLESS we start to excel. I think he now has a manager that he trusts and will let him get on with it - within set budgets.

You've already been proved wrong. You just won't look at the proof. 1st half of season, we were 16th. 2nd half we were 9th. Improvement? 1st third, we were 18th. 2nd third, 17th. Final third, 8th. Improvement? And that team we lost to on the first day was not Wigan, it was West Ham. Guess what we did to them when we met them next? We beat them. Look, everyone uses the stats available in order to justify their own stance, but objectively we have improved. Whether you choose to see it or not is completely up to you. Like I said " there is nothing I would like better than to be proved wrong" but I still think we have not improved enough. Remember this post when we are 5-6 games into next season ! You really haven't got a clue , you are totally wrong and we are undoubtedly improving! In the final ten games of the 11/12 season we lost 5 and drew 5 - we didn't win one game and got 5 points In the final ten games of the 12/13 season we won 5 games, drew 2 games and lost 3 (to Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool) and got 17 points. We are now a far better team than last season, we finished a far better team in 2nd half of this season than in the first half and all the statistics prove it. What part don't you understand?

I would call the fact that we were NOT relegated a success as we live to fight another day. After the Wigan home defeat I thought we were dead and buried and saw no way back. There were some terrible lows but thankfully a number of highs when we needed them. Lambert undoubtedly made big tactical mistakes but he learned from them and turned it round.We all remember times under MON when he dogmatically stuck to his plan - thankfully Lambert is not dogmatic, recognised his errors and given the stress he must have felt I am certain he will get better as a manager. In terms of his signings, given the constraints he was under I would definitely say he was successful and did very well with some exceptions. Whether he can do it again this close season remains to be seen, but we can expect to see more of the same. If he is able to sign 6-8 players of whom 3/4 can fit in immediately and have potential I will be happy. As it stands I think there are more reasons to be cheerful than the reverse and for the first time in several seasons I am optimistic if not wildly so. As for the past, ultimately what is done is done (but the debate will boringly run and run) - I am positive for the future and intend not to stress one iota over the summer!

Can't really complain about him today and hope he gets more confidence in the summer. Need to be positive now and stop knocking the lad!

Great that they let Petrov and Lambert onto the pitch before they paraded the FA Cup. Great applause for Stan from all ends as he walked round the pitch. As an aside one of the funniest thing about today was that loads of Villa fans missed Wigans second and i pointed a bunch of my mates at the scoreboard as they were walking back to their seats and the were amazed a goal had been scored and they hadn't heard the Wigan fans cheering downstairs!!!

Weimann? Shop window? Could be Lambert has his own ideas about what we need next season. Maybe Weimann is not among them? Well he hasn't played well for a while - how many goals over the last 10 games. Has one season wonder written all over him Weimann, one season wonder? FFS. I think it's a valid concern at this stage. Wiemann has had a great season but that doesn't make him a great player and we've all seen lots of youngsters have a great year only to fade away. I still fear Benteke could suffer from second season syndrome next year and then we would be in serious trouble. FFS end of the season thinking positively

Literally just got home! what a cracking day that was. Left Bournemouth at 5.30 this morning and nearly 19 hours later we got back happy. Wasn't expecting a great game typical end of season stuff. MOTM Vlaar for his goal! The best part of today was the crowd - the atmosphere at the Villa end was fantastic and I have lost my voice now! We don't care about Wigan, they don't care about me, All I care about is A.V.F.C! Next season looking forward to singing: We don't care about Blue Scum, they don't care about me, All I care about is A.V.F.C!

Aston Villa 3 Manchester United 2 would be nicer. Not for my nerves it wouldn't :-)