Lambert gone

[Comrade Blitz]

The only part of that statement from the LMA that was Lambert's was his name. The rest was LMA PR speak.

[bridgwater villa]

Nicely put

And this is my first post- after years of lurking.

Thank you to the Gods That Be.

We couldn't make the Norwich game, so we weren't among the happy throng who sang his name - but if we had been, we would have sung it out as well.

We can all be wrong along Life, and I don't wish Paul any ill-will.
My feeling is that Paul was an "internal-politics" guy..to put it crudely - a brown-nose.
Stuck very close to Randy and praised him at every turn.

My hero manager has always been Clough, and he treated owners and Directors with the contempt their ignorance deserved.

Paul, to me, was the extreme opposite of Brian Clough, and I felt a few doubts within a couple of months - why did he keep praising Mr Lerner? What for ?

Then he starts calling him 'Randy' in the pressers, then he reverts to "owner", then back to 'Randy'- but always with praise for him.

OK..I bear no ill-will to Paul Lambert, he was a man of straw, who changed opinions, tactics and beliefs with the wind.
But his limited 'nous' has dropped us in it - big time.

As has Mr Narrative and Mr Lerner.

I won't post much, and this is basically to say hello.

 
[/quote]

[Dave Cooper please]

Hi *waves*

[cdbearsfan]

The only part of that statement from the LMA that was Lambert's was his name. The rest was LMA PR speak.

As an ex-Union rep, there's no way I'd ever have put out a statement in a member's name without, at least, consulting them.

It may have been ghost-written, but Lambert will have read it and agreed to its contents.

[mr underhill]

of course he would and would have agreed to say anything that maximised his chances of another gig by appearing generous and magnanimous. I suspect making sure the compo cheque landing on the doormat asap  was also a factor.

[adrenachrome]

YAHOO!Sport

Paul Lambert had to go but Villa shambles down to Randy Lerner

Paul Lambert had to go but even Pep Guardiola or Sir Alex Ferguson would struggle at Villa Park

Jim White


After an uncharacteristic lull, the Premier League sack race is back in full flow. To the pile of shattered egos in the out-tray has been added this week the name of Paul Lambert. He joins on the naughty step Neil Warnock, Alan Irvine and Harry Redknapp (though obviously Our ‘Arry resigned due to a dodgy knee rather than receiving a dodgy bullet). The only surprise this week is that Nigel Pearson somehow managed not to be admitted to their increasingly less exclusive club.

In Lambert’s case the news – as it so often is in the business – was delivered with a brutal lack of respect. He was fired by phone call from the Aston Villa chief executive Tom Fox on Wednesday night. Which is marginally more dignified than David Moyes, who learned he had been given the heave ho from Manchester United last March when a journalist rang him for a comment on his own demise.

Mind, Lambert must have known it was coming. Villa have been a side in decline almost throughout his tenure. In his first season, he remained in the club of Premier League managers largely thanks to the goals provided by Christian Benteke. Once the Belgian’s ability to score was compromised by injury, however, he had no plan B. The wretched defeat away at Hull on Tuesday - a performance utterly bereft of hope, heart or chutzpah - was hardly a calling card for him retaining his job. For many a Villa fan – including Stan Collymore who had remained tight lipped in his loyalty longer than most – that was the game that signalled change had to be made. A fresh approach was needed. Otherwise Villa were going down.

And that still might happen, even if Pep Guardiola were somehow persuaded to take control of the club (which is about as likely as Alex Ferguson stepping into the Villa Park technical area. Or Alex McCleish). Whoever comes in will be expected to work with the same lacklustre group of players Lambert assembled. While there is often a dead cat bounce effect with a new man in charge (as has happened at QPR and West Bromwich) it will be some task for whoever comes in to affect significant change. Villa’s collective spirit looks woeful in comparison to that of Burnley, Leicester, or indeed QPR. The signs are ominous. This weekend’s FA Cup tie with Leicester, far from offering welcome distraction, is likely only to compound the collective misery.

If Villa are to slip down into the Championship just as the money clouds are about to rain cash on the heads of those still in the Premier League there will be only one man to blame. And it is not Lambert. As terminally down beat and uninspired as the Scotsman may have been, the real responsibility for decline lies upstairs, in the office of the club owner Randy Lerner.

The American has had an oddly self-destructive reign of control at Villa Park. After buying the club in 2006, it didn’t take him long to discover that, as a business, football was a basket case. If Lerner were going to make a profit out of his new property – which he intended to do – he soon decided that there needed to be a drastic reduction in outgoings. Which is why he and Martin O’Neill – his first and most successful managerial appointment - fell out. Which was a remarkably silly thing to do, to lose the most significant and talented executive he had.

So when Lambert came in – following the disastrous short lived reigns of Gerard Houllier and Alex McCleish - he did so under the instruction that he had to bring down the wage bill, ship out the big earners, and develop his own talent rather than spend in the transfer market. Lerner told him that he was going to face the toughest job of his life. And he wasn’t wrong. Though he did manage to compound the difficulty by the frequency with which he shot himself in the foot. First ostracising, then shipping out a proven goal scorer like Darren Bent at the precise moment he needed someone to score goals was not the mark of a man in search of job security.

Now, there is nothing wrong with running a tight ship. Swansea City have managed to turn a handsome profit every year they have been in the Premier League by the not exactly complicated process of ensuring costs are lower than income. But Swansea have always operated in that manner, long before they reached the top flight. It means there are no expectations or assumptions among players or fans. It has allowed them to grow and develop into the Premier League, increasing their spend as more money became available thus enabling them to buy more talented players. Since the expectation at Villa has always been so much greater it has made such prudence a less viable approach. Lerner’s attempt rapidly to right a culture of ambitious purchasing destabilised things. It did not allow an alternative methodology to grow. The lack of investment became very quickly all too horribly evident on the pitch.

And Lerner has paid the price of his impatience. Villa look nailed on candidates for Premier League eviction, just at the moment that the increase in 70 per cent television revenue promises to cover up all but the most profligate of spending plans.

The very fact that Lerner waited until after the transfer window had closed to fire a man who was clearly floundering was indicative. He knew full well that if he were to attract in any sort of decent candidate while the window was open, the new man would demand a budget to buy the club out of trouble.
So he preferred to wait. Which means, with a demoralised workforce who can only turn things around if corralled by a top drawer motivator, he is now obliged to try to attract someone into the club without any prospect of buying in some help. The queue of suitable candidates is unlikely to stretch round the car park.

Thus it is that Lerner is likely to find his parsimony punished by losing his place at the table at the precise moment the dosh is being handed out. And they say Americans don’t do irony.

[Damo70]

Nicely put

And this is my first post- after years of lurking.

Thank you to the Gods That Be.

We couldn't make the Norwich game, so we weren't among the happy throng who sang his name - but if we had been, we would have sung it out as well.

We can all be wrong along Life, and I don't wish Paul any ill-will.
My feeling is that Paul was an "internal-politics" guy..to put it crudely - a brown-nose.
Stuck very close to Randy and praised him at every turn.

My hero manager has always been Clough, and he treated owners and Directors with the contempt their ignorance deserved.

Paul, to me, was the extreme opposite of Brian Clough, and I felt a few doubts within a couple of months - why did he keep praising Mr Lerner? What for ?

Then he starts calling him 'Randy' in the pressers, then he reverts to "owner", then back to 'Randy'- but always with praise for him.

OK..I bear no ill-will to Paul Lambert, he was a man of straw, who changed opinions, tactics and beliefs with the wind.
But his limited 'nous' has dropped us in it - big time.

As has Mr Narrative and Mr Lerner.

I won't post much, and this is basically to say hello.

 

[/quote]


I am a big Clough fan too but his contempt for the owner is why he left Derby and his contempt for the directors and club in general is a major reason why he was sacked by Leeds. The reason he lasted so long at Forest was they were run by a committee with an elected chairman and he was able to influence, divide and rule. Currying favour with Cloughie tended to get you and keep you in the chair.