Simple poll - OGS vs Lambert

[mr woo]

Spot on Aftab. Once you get over the euphoria you realise how crazy it is.

All he has won is a reserve league and a (with respect) lower class title in a country where anybody walking in with a coaching staff that had premiership experience would have a distinct advantage anyway.

Besides, its really no big deal to win the league with Man U's stiffs, they virtually get the pick of the talented kids anyway. They won it this year too. Without OGS.
I hope people realise the most successful Man Utd reserve team manager of recent times was NOT Solskjaer at all. No, Ricky Sbragia won more, and we all knew how naive Sunderland were by making him first team manager.

So what if Ferguson bigs him up, we've fallen for that one before.
Some of you may have seen Molde play. I doubt any of you have seen enough of them to be speaking with the certainty I've seen posted lately.

"he plays good exciting football" ...... Does he? How do you know? A YouTube video produced by MUTV where they are nailed on to show their favourite son in a good light anyway?


I hope Randy makes this decision on cold hard facts, and not hopes and dreams.

Dreams have a habit of turning into nightmares very quickly.

[willywombat]

"he plays good exciting football" ...... Does he? How do you know? A YouTube video produced by MUTV where they are nailed on to show their favourite son in a good light anyway?


Might be something to do with the amount of Molde supporters who have said so.

[PaulWinch again]

Spot on Aftab. Once you get over the euphoria you realise how crazy it is.

All he has won is a reserve league and a (with respect) lower class title in a country where anybody walking in with a coaching staff that had premiership experience would have a distinct advantage anyway.

Besides, its really no big deal to win the league with Man U's stiffs, they virtually get the pick of the talented kids anyway. They won it this year too. Without OGS.
I hope people realise the most successful Man Utd reserve team manager of recent times was NOT Solskjær at all. No, Ricky Sbragia won more, and we all knew how naive Sunderland were by making him first team manager.

So what if Ferguson bigs him up, we've fallen for that one before.
Some of you may have seen Molde play. I doubt any of you have seen enough of them to be speaking with the certainty I've seen posted lately.

"he plays good exciting football" ...... Does he? How do you know? A YouTube video produced by MUTV where they are nailed on to show their favourite son in a good light anyway?


I hope Randy makes this decision on cold hard facts, and not hopes and dreams.

Dreams have a habit of turning into nightmares very quickly.

Sometimes you need a bit of a leap of faith to make progress. Also I assume they haven't just gone, 'well he was good at Man Utd, that'll do.' They've probably talked to him and looked at tapes of his Molde team.

[Risso]

Youth, ambition, intelligence, freshness, expectation of success rather than mediocrity, total fucking absence of baggage.

Lambert is a good manager, but not an exciting one. I want following the Villa to be exciting, I don't think it's too much to ask

I think that sums it up for me.

And me.  I don't  think anybody is naive enough to believe that Solskjaer is going o be a huge hit just bcause he's won the league in Norway.  But he does have all of the traits that Damon suggests, and I'd rather have a crack at something new and fall short, than continue on down the usual well-trodden path.

[paul_e]

Spot on Aftab. Once you get over the euphoria you realise how crazy it is.

All he has won is a reserve league and a (with respect) lower class title in a country where anybody walking in with a coaching staff that had premiership experience would have a distinct advantage anyway.

Besides, its really no big deal to win the league with Man U's stiffs, they virtually get the pick of the talented kids anyway. They won it this year too. Without OGS.
I hope people realise the most successful Man Utd reserve team manager of recent times was NOT Solskjær at all. No, Ricky Sbragia won more, and we all knew how naive Sunderland were by making him first team manager.

So what if Ferguson bigs him up, we've fallen for that one before.
Some of you may have seen Molde play. I doubt any of you have seen enough of them to be speaking with the certainty I've seen posted lately.

"he plays good exciting football" ...... Does he? How do you know? A YouTube video produced by MUTV where they are nailed on to show their favourite son in a good light anyway?


I hope Randy makes this decision on cold hard facts, and not hopes and dreams.

Dreams have a habit of turning into nightmares very quickly.

The thing is, he's entered 2 competitions as a manager and has won them both playing good passing, high tempo football.  His experience is small, but it's experience as a winner.  He was also a winner when he played, as I've said before being able to regularly come on and change a game takes a very specific skillset which, for me, translates well to management as well (I'm basing this more on rugby than football but it's a similar concept).

Aside from all of that it's the thought that he might be great.  I can't think of another manager we've got a realistic chance of getting who is genuinely spoken about as having the potential to take on one of the biggest jobs in the sport.  Yes it's a risk but it's one worth taking because the potential rewards are huge.

[Meanwood Villa]

The thing is, anyone's a gamble. I'm sure you can undermine Lambert's record if you wanted to. What's he actually won, League 1? Promotion from the Champ? McLeish had done the latter. Norwich only finished 11th, is that good enough for Villa? They got tanked 6-1 at home by City  late in the season, is that lying down for the bigger clubs?
Incidentally I honestly don't mind which one we get as I think they've both got plus points. It's easy to be negative, let's be positive about whoever it is.

[themossman]

That's a good point. It's nigh on impossible to know for definite which players will make good managers, but one whose specialism was observing the game critically as a sub and changing the outcome in 10 minutes can be assumed to have a lot of what it takes.

[Monty]

That's a good point. It's nigh on impossible to know for definite which players will make good managers, but one whose specialism was observing the game critically as a sub and changing the outcome in 10 minutes can be assumed to have a lot of what it takes.

Very true, and Lambert was a very tactically aware, read-the-game type of defensive midfielder, so it stands to reason that they'd both end up better managers than, say, Ince or Bryan Robson, whose particular brands of charging, while great to watch, didn't always involve much thought.

[mr woo]

P_ole ae (sorry I'm losing track of these names- not even sure who you used to be !)

I accept he has been relatively successful thus far and I see why people hold great hopes for his progression. But both times you could argue he has had the odds in his favour. As i already mentioned, he did nothing with Man U that Sbragia didnt. His legendary status in his home country gave him an instant respect amongst his players and my understanding is he was well backed financially. People were critical of MONs transfer dealings, how do we know Solskjaer is a good judge of talent? How do we know what his policy would be?

I would dismiss any talent or honours he won as a player out of hand, it's irrelevant when it comes to management (with the exception of the respect aspect). There far better players than OGS that have come up short as managers.

Again, I can't accept he does play high tempo, attacking football. Not saying he doesn't, but I've not seen his sides play. I dont really like taking other peoples opinions as fact. And even if YOU guys have seen Molde play, I'd ask to to take into consideration the standard of opposition.

Finally, I'm pleased the majority accept it's a risk, because that's precisely what it is. As I've said before , we can't afford to drop two places from last year, this is not the time for experimentation. I wouldve given this a crack last year, but not now.

[Monty]

The risk is hardly that he'll take us down though. He's not going to do worse than Alex bloody McLeish!

All of the managers in the frame will improve us as a club, and take us to a higher position than the previous disaster of an incumbent. The question then is, how far can they take us? For me, Lambert will take us into a position of mid-table security and no further, and there's a good chance he'd do it playing pretty unappealing football. Pragmatism and midtable obscurity are a hopeless mix in the long run.

Solskjaer, though, may take us a bit lower than that, further from the European places, though almost undoubtedly still secure. However, because of the football style he espouses, there is a greater chance that he can actually achieve something real and lasting with our football club. Either way, it's likely to be more entertaining around VP with him than with the man 'Only an Excuse' fans will know as 'Obmal - the Quite Man'.

I'm not saying that Lambert is a bad manager, nor even that mid-table is his limit - it's simply a case of which hand fits the glove better. Lambert will take us so far, but only so far. With Solskjaer, the facts (even if you don't know them, that's no reason for you to disbelieve them) suggest that he might have greater potential with us.

[olaftab]

Why are so many people so wrong about this.  Solskjær is not ready.  He can go and get ready somewhere else for his future coronation at Old Trafford.

Bloody hell, you couldn't be more wrong if you tried.  How many years off being ready for the Man U job do you think OGS is?  That's IF Fergie steps down any time soon, which he shows no sign of doing.

This is the point Ole would have to do an incredible job with us to land the Man Utd job. In the process of the incredible job he'd instill a passing and exciting football style at Villa Park, which we are desperately in need of.

"wrong" was a bit inflammatory  and yes if he comes to us and eventually goes to manu he would have to  do some stuff  and great stuff at VP however ...big gamble.

[mr woo]

But Monty, blind optimism isnt a 'fact' at all - that's my point. I want to make my decision based on evidence, and unfortunately with Ole there isn't a lot to go by.

[damon loves JT]

It's not exactly blind, there is evidence of his abilities.

The difficulty I foresee is not so much him leaving for Newton Heath: it's journalists making an issue of the 'Fergie Succession' as soon as he gets a few wins under his belt, or Man U suffer an unexpected exit from the champions League.

That will become pretty annoying for all of us, I think, and will get worse the more successful he is.

[Monty]

But Monty, blind optimism isnt a 'fact' at all - that's my point. I want to make my decision based on evidence, and unfortunately with Ole there isn't a lot to go by.

The way he plays football is a fact, you tried to denigrate such a status by saying that you hadn't seen it (also, you mention the standard of the opposition to Molde - don't forget the standard of refereeing in a country historically in favour of more physical football, and the standard of Molde themselves).

Lambert has done well in one Premier League season, but so did George Burley or even Alex McLeish. Now, Lambert's better than those, but here are some facts: Norwich played more long balls than anyone else in the Premier League last season; Norwich scored the 7th most goals from open play, but played the 16th fewest through-balls and the 7th most crosses; they scored the 5th highest number of goals on the break and the 4th highest from set-pieces, and considerably more away than at home.

We've seen that sort of football at VP before, albeit a less sophisticated version, and it wore us out, as we know its limitations. It's time for a change.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

We've seen that sort of football at VP before, albeit a less sophisticated version, and it wore us out, as we know its limitations. It's time for a change.

Once we get it, we'll wonder why it took us so long to change it. Twelve years too late but better late than never.