John

To an extent RunRickRun but it is not all about money and I think it would have been nice to have had some Olympic sport in Birmingham. It was an opportunity missed for me and the reason given for pulling out never really stood up to close scrutiny.

Pity he put money first villanfromluton. He will claim he has a medal now but he is and was always going to be a bit player up there. Our wage structure does not match his wage so he will not be coming back until they no longer want him and nobody else will pay him a fair bit more than we would and the same applies to Barry although he is getting games with them. But, briny-ear is right we should never go back unless we can clone some of our past players. :winkold:

:winkold: Add Eric Houghton, Danny Blanchflower, McParland, Hitchens, Rioch, Little, Gray, Platt, Gidman, Macca & the 82 team to that and we have a squad rjw63!

I think we might have taken him off their hands if they were prepared to be realistic about a fee (which I consider should be no higher than £4m) and surely they should offer us a discount if not for what we gave them for Hutton for what we paid them for Jenas! :winkold: If they are looking to take us for mugs again, I think we will move on because Lambo will have a value in mind for the player and will need to take into account the impact that paying any more than that might have on his being able to bring in other players.

Oh behave Jimmy, it will be Dr Evil's original $1m! :winkold: Or £8m netto...

I thought we were linked with Rooney when I read "Balde". :winkold: Looks like an agent trying to drum up some more clubs to add to those mentioned who might not be acting quick enough or acting at all folllowing enquiries.

Nor money daggy-333 so both keepers will be sold if they can get in say around £5m & £2m for each to leave them with Doyle and some money to put towards Carson's legal bills. :winkold: As for Ruddy as has been said it is The Mirror and we have other areas to look at ahead of Shay who will again be solid for us next season and I think we should take those last 3 Ireland games with a pinch of salt as I doubt he was 100% fit for the Euros.

It seems the promoted teams are often fed to the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea and now I would guess Manchester City on the first weekend. I would guess we will get Norwich away if not first up very soon after SKY have had their fill of the promoted teams. Wigan at home to start with possibly?

Given he is in his early 50s it seems a little late to seek a job as a manager and I am not sure how much more money if any he would bring home as a manager in the lower leagues than he did in his job for us. It did seem he had a job with us for as long as he wanted one but has now decided he no longer wants the job that is on offer. It is a high risk for him as he would not be given a lot of time to prove himself elsewhere. I just think he may have got a taste for management in his brief times spent in more elevated positions at Villa Park and might not have wanted to return to working below first team level which is the role he is best fitted for at our club. He would know that the Villa job would be too big a step up for him and have therefore decided he wanted to try his luck somewhere else before it was to late to do so. Whatever the reason for his departure might be I would have liked to see him stay but wish him luck for the future and thank him for the service he has given to our football club over the years.

These are very well produced, make a great looking gift and John gives us some superb detailed information on our club's proud history. £7.99 represents a bargain!

I think it is all about the backing that he gets terrytini. With the right backing he would be expected to do more than secure 14th and without it yes I think he would still be likely to do better than 14th. But what I am saying is 14th would be a minimum objective to aim for as things currently stand. I hope that clarifies how I see it.

Thanks for the information Seat 68 and for that photograph briny-ear.

It may take more than 44 points next season terrytini and that along with playing decent football and going for wins would be a bonus after what we had last season. Yes, but it is not him or the new manager that is saying it. :winkold:

It depends on the backing he gets and we do not want to make the job more difficult than it already will be by setting what would be unrealistic expectations before we know what that backing will turn out to be. I would like to see us trying to play some football and trying to win rather than draw games particularly at Villa Park. I also want to be outside of the bottom 6 at the end of the season anything more than that would be a bonus.

Its great news that Lambo wanted the job to the extent that he would resign to talk to us. Martinez wanted it in the end as well but we were not going to flirt with him again after last year and when he had talked to Liverpool first in the way that happened. I think he will regret at leisure being swayed by Whelan last time around which is a pity as he could have done well for us from last season onwards. I would have been happy with either manager as would many of us but the job is Lambert's to take now and I really think he has it in him to progress us as a club to the extent that if the likes of Liverpool wanted him in 3 - 4 years he would see that as a step down. :winkold: The club just needed to make the offer a good one to seal the deal. How much that would represent in cash for players is something for when the ink is dry on the contract. I thought when they appointed the previous manager they would have to back him in the transfer market to give him any hope of doing anything but this time I think that sort of transfer budget would be needed (say around £20m net) to seal the deal. Anything more would be a bonus as would be the appointment of a manager of this calibre given some of the names we had been fearing.

I would be happy to say welcome Paul but if (and it remains a big if) he has quit Norwich had Mark Hughes doing the same thing at Fulham not been said to be a reason we did not go for what appeared to be the obvious candidate then? I would not be shocked if we did not give Martinez the opportunity to turn us down again and it seems he only had eyes for Liverpool under his terms but it would be hard to take us appointing as manager someone who could be easily argued to be below the status of the present Wigan and Norwich managers.

It is in The Mirror and "significant funds for signings" makes me wonder how much of this is speculation rather than a scoop. If Liverpool are going for the Swansea manager it may be that Martinez is looking to "consider us" as he did last season and then once again be wooed by his current chairman and turn us down if he was made an offer by us after Whelan has got his digs in again. I would be very happy for this to come off and it does represent a "twist and a turn" :winkold: but I would not want to lose other potential targets such as Lambert because they might then see they are our third or lower choices so I would look to be sure Martinez was serious about taking the job under the terms he will be asked to work before we show our hand again. It als looks like Rodney Marsh has ruled himself out of contention with his comment.

I think if they were looking to take us over or invest they would tell Randy who they wanted and he would get them in as did our former chairman when appointing MON for Randy. Nice thought though 260582! :winkold:

So if we accept that OGS backed out because he was not our first choice (although we may never know until he writes his book or someone at Villa Park or his present club does does) then what are the odds that Lambert would feel the same way about us not making him an offer that he may have been expecting whilst 2 managers who did not want to take the job last year (Rafa & RM) wait to make sure Liverpool do not want them and RDM does the same at Chelsea? But, if OGS pulled out due to the constraints he was told he was to work under what are the odds that the likes of Lambert or RM or RDM would find the same constraints acceptable? Swansea will also be likely to keep their boss having all but done a big deal for Sigurdsson to prove their intent and we may find it difficult to get one because we may not be prepared to make the funds available that are needed to give a new boss realistic hope of turning things around. Or we may be waiting to make the appointment we have already decided upon after the ST deadline has passed to maximise ST income for whatever reason that appointment may influence sales either way?

RDM would be a better bet than some of the names already mentioned. But his stock is high now and if he does not stay with Chelsea in some capacity for next season he may well get other more tempting offers abroad. But if he really wanted to prove Abramovich wrong what better way than trying to make us into a top half team again (we might even get a couple of Chelsea rejects if we act quickly)?

Maybe we're not in for anyone Mantis. We seem in little hurry and if we are not waiting for Liverpool to take their pick what on earth are we waiting for (someone's contract to expire at the end of the month or the end of the play offs or the end of the Euros or even the end of the transfer window)? Today would have been a nice day to have made an appointment 30 years on from our ECF triumph. Not anywhere near happening is it?

I wonder who nicked it? Seems he may have picked up something during his time at Liverpool already.

Shocked they would do this in public and over take away coffee if it is real which the second picture suggests it might be. I guess he is just letting him down lightly and telling him we are his choice. If not our list of potential managers is getting shorter by the day. What next Poyet for WBA?

That has cracked it Craigy1874 it is a fake beyond reasonable doubt and as Villaninoz has said take away coffee is a give away as they would not be talking over things in public. :winkold: If he wants the job he can have it for me. We could do a lot worse (as we have done previously) and I am not sure we could do any better. Keeping Wigan up for as long as he has and getting them playing like they were at the end of last season has sold him to me it might just be the start of something special.

So if as it seems this does not happen we need to appoint a a manager who would be accepted as being on a par or better suited to the job than OGS. Anything less would not be acceptable. I am concerned that if we do not have such a manager already in the bag then when this news comes out our decent options will be much reduced. Why it happened we may never know. It may be that OGS was pressured by his present club or was not happy (as Rodgers was not when he took himself out of contention for the Liverpool job) when asked to interview and then to wait around whilst others were interviewed for the job or he was unhappy when details of the constraints he would be expected to work under were made clear to him later. Or he could be trying to force us into making a decision now one way or the other. This next appointment has to be a good one. I would have taken Martinez, Lambert, Rodgers or OGS and would not say no to Poyet. I would also take a manager like AVB or someone else who has done things abroad. I just wonder whether we are looking for a manager we will not have to pay anything to a club for (given we have paid so much to recently departed bosses) because he is either not tied to one or is at the end of his contract with one.