As a Villa fan I loved MON, we were on the verge of champs league with him. Only the fickle fans wanted him out! I also couldnt care less than he spent to much money etc, you have to if you want success.....look what happens when you don't!

Massive error by Lerner not to give MON money in the transfer market, its been downhill ever since that day, which was only a few years ago I might add!

wd struggle in league 2 imo

Plenty of threads on here from when MON went saying to Villans to be careful for what you wish for! However, his legacy at the club and reputation amongst fans was massively tarnished by the timing of his exit. It was apparently all over the James Milner transfer and him being told he wouldn't be able to instantly reinvest the money received. The transfer was never in doubt and if he felt so strongly he should have left much sooner.

I certainly don't see any sense in ditching Lambert - certainly not yet. His vision is obvious. He's just tried to implement it all in one go and not gradually over a couple of seasons. I was glad to see the back of James Collins clearances bringing down planes over Villa Park, and his sometimes questionable attitude, but how they could have done with him recently. Seems obvious that Lambert needs an experienced Prem' centreback - a Micheal Dawson or even a Matt Upson, but they don't seem to be linked with any. The same goes for Petrov in midfield - no world beater but you don't know how well off you are til' it's gone. I'd love to have Gary Barry back there to steady the ship, a Tom Huddlestone or more realistically even a couple of Championship players like Pedersen at Blackburn with plenty of recent Prem' experience, but nothing seems to be happening.

Hope Lerner doesn't press the panic button. No idea what his long term intentions are. It could look like he was hoping to get them back to mid table security as cheaply as possible to make them a viable investment for a takeover, but who knows? The worst thing he could do would be to get in an Allardyce/Megson type.

I have watched his career from his Paisley days and am truly amazed he is currently in the job he is in.I dont know him however his interviews from years ago and up to present day show a serious lack of a good proper grasp of the English language with his almost primary school type vocabulary.This may be totally different to the way he speaks to the players in training however if it is not I cant see how players can be harmonised and inspired by someone who talks in this manner.

If we kept spending at the rate we were under mon incuding wages, the club would be no more by now. MON is a knut

apart from benteke and vlaar, lambos signings are yet to impress me.......MON bought old mediocre highly paid players, lambert is buying young mediocre poorly paid players

not saying its ALL his fault. But at the time the chairman was throwing so much money at the club and mon started wasting it on wastemen.IMO sixth was the very least we should have done at the time, drove the same 11 players into the ground and they were fecked by march and all his sh it expensive signings were sat on the bench not being used

You do realise the manager after O'Neill was allowed to go and spend £24m on ONE player don't you? You do realise Lambert has spent £24m this summer don't you? Houllier and Lambert have done far more damage than O'Neill, Villa fans never had it so good under O'Neill.

wages crippled us, 10 or so players on massive wages under mon that weren't being used

No manager will have anything to do with wages, you best start pointing the finger at whoever your Cheif Executive is, and allowed those mad wages to happen.

maybe, but mon was still bringing in people like shorey,harewood, sidwell etc and not using them. Because there sh it and then we were stuck paying them

Mate had a spare ticket so went to the game tonight, my god Villa are bad. I don't know if it was the atmosphere, a game too much at the end of a tough week or whether they don't want to play for Lambert but Villa just were not interested. I support Charlton so i see a lot of dross week in week out and i can honestly say that Villa tonight were one of the worst teams i've seen this season. Too many kids and no leadership whatsoever. Millwall are a pretty average side at best but they wanted it far more. Lambert needs to sign a no nonsense centre half to get stuck in.

The only consolation that a Villa fan could take from that, is that going by the team Lambert selected, he obviously would rather be out of the cup.

Also, i expect a heavy fine coming Millwalls way, i've never seen so many bottles thrown on the pitch in one game. Game had to be stopped so the police could form a barrier to protect the lino. No way will they get away with that.

In the unlikely event Celtic and Neil Lennon came to the Premier League, their is not a chance they could come with their present team and survive on a £10m expenditure. Not a chance.

Celtic are playing in a truly woeful league and getting results in a cup competition by raising their game against far superior opposition, much like Bradford City are doing.

I'd pay to drive McClean to Celtic mate!! Fletcher would walk into your team mate. End of story.

No, not saying we would qualify for last 16 of CL at all. I'm saying teams against far superior opposition raise their game. I'm not putting Celtic down, I'm praising them for raising their game, but in Premier League they'd have to raise it every week with current squad.

I wouldn't read too much into the loss to Millwall, the loss to Bradford was bad but not the end of the world. Villa are better off out of these cups now given their position in the league.

There is no point in getting rid of lambert unless it's done immediately and the incoming manager is given funds to spend before the end of the window - not going to happen. Lambert is not going to get funds either and that is not his fault. If the story re Bent's appearances is true then Lerner is the problem, not the manager. I find it hard to believe that he would drop a record signing to save a few million and risk 10 times that in going down, unless they simply don't have the cash to pay it?

But Lambert was a winner on the field and has a very good managerial record in and out of the PL, it has been a difficult club to work for the last few years and I think he deserves a full year in charge. You will never progress if you don't give a new manager more than half a season. Even if you go down he is a good man to take you back up. But I don't think that will happen, I think he will keep villa up and there will be huge optimism at villa park going into next season. Around the time of the loss to Man U, draw with Arsenal, win at anfield I thought the team was playing v well. They have lost their way in the past few weeks but there is plenty of time to turn it around. You have had two bad losses to lower league teams but that will hopefully snap the players out of it without any more points being dropped.

Well done Paul. Stuck to his guns and proved to be  correct.

Turned the season around. On to next season. I just hope he re-signs all the young stars on long term contracts.

they're not safe and could still go down

ham, you cant be a real fan to not realise what your club is doing at youth levels.

I think you were correct with your original title now