Simple poll - OGS vs Lambert

[N'ZMAV]

I just think that people would get bored with Lambert very quickly.

I think Lambert has a touch of MON about him in many ways, he's far from my first choice.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Knowing that he would be looking at the Northern European transfer market helps, there are some good players in Norway, Sweden and Denmark*


* I am not John Blackwell

[Toronto Villa]

Thish

Lunch time drinking?

it's Norweigan isn't it? We should all be practicing.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I just think that people would get bored with Lambert very quickly.

I think Lambert has a touch of MON about him in many ways, he's far from my first choice.

I would say he's more tactically astute than O'Neill.
Doesn't resort to hoofing if things don't pan out.

[pauliewalnuts]

I just think that people would get bored with Lambert very quickly.

I think Lambert has a touch of MON about him in many ways, he's far from my first choice.

I would say he's more tactically astute than O'Neill.
Doesn't resort to hoofing if things don't pan out.

I always thought the hoofball thing re MON was pretty unfair. I wouldn't say his teams played the long ball any more than other sides.

My main concern was he only had the one way of playing, and would do that with the same players week in, week out, regardless of whether it was working or not.

He over-relied in balls in from the wings, which is similar to the long ball game, as it too is a percentages game (whack enough in, and someone is bound to get on the end of them), but I wouldn't call him a long ball manager.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Thish

Lunch time drinking?

it's Norweigan isn't it? We should all be practicing.

I wanted to hack a minky whale to death as a sacred ritual to speed up OGS' appointment.
Sadly there are a lack of them in Great Barr, so I went down to the canal and set fire to a shopping trolley.

I'll download some Norwegian Satanic heavy metal as well.

[tomd2103]

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.

Anyway, where's the risk, really?  Is he going to be as fundamentally awful as McLeish?  Doubtful.  Might he take a couple of years to find his feet?  Probable, but if we get some good football along the way, then a season or two of midtable finishes won't hurt.  Could he possibly be a masterstroke - unknown, but the chance that he might is what's so exciting.

I am not against the appointment of OGS, but do have some concerns.  The risk for me is that he comes and it soon dawns on everyone that he is way out of his depth.  He doesn't seem to have too m uch experience in his coaching staff either, which again is a concern.  I go back to Arthur Cox's words to John Gregory when he was appointed Villa manager "You've not just been handed the keys to a corner shop, you've been handed the keys to a bloody megastore.  Can you handle a megastore?".   

[mr woo]

I just think that people would get bored with Lambert very quickly.

I think Lambert has a touch of MON about him in many ways, he's far from my first choice.

I know it's not very politically correct to say so but do you know, despite his faults, I  quite enjoyed the Martin O Neill years.

[Monty]

I just think that people would get bored with Lambert very quickly.

I think Lambert has a touch of MON about him in many ways, he's far from my first choice.

I would say he's more tactically astute than O'Neill.
Doesn't resort to hoofing if things don't pan out.

I always thought the hoofball thing re MON was pretty unfair. I wouldn't say his teams played the long ball any more than other sides.

My main concern was he only had the one way of playing, and would do that with the same players week in, week out, regardless of whether it was working or not.

He over-relied in balls in from the wings, which is similar to the long ball game, as it too is a percentages game (whack enough in, and someone is bound to get on the end of them), but I wouldn't call him a long ball manager.

Whereas Lambert's Norwich finished top of the long-ball charts last year, comfortably beating Stoke. They also had that trait which, under MON, became a problem for us, namely that a huge proportion of their goals from open play came from crosses.

Like I've said before, Lambert is a good manager but too pragmatic for our wishes at the moment. Even his European training was under arch-pragmatist Hitzfeld, playing that old, awful to watch 5-3-2 with the sweeper, defensive, behind the two centre backs, wing backs essentially playing as full backs and players like Lambert himself in a very strict holding role, while they counter-attacked to often massive and physical players like Carsten Jancker. It can be effective, but it ain't pretty, and we need entertainment back at VP to get some momentum going as a club.

Essentially, for next season, I'd rather finish 10th playing entertaining stuff than 8th playing dull stuff, and OGS looks more capable of delivering that than Lambert.

[olaftab]

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.

Youth, intelligence and expectation of success?  Why not Neil Lennon?  There's quite a few managers out there that have these qualities and they all have the one thing OGS lacks - experience.

Absence of baggage?  If you thought Houllier had Liverpool baggage, OGS's man utd baggage seems ten times worse.  I watched the mutv film of him last night and he is totally immersed in all things man utd.  His kid supports man utd, his dream is to manage man utd, his coaching staff are all man utd.  Yes, I know it was a man utd film, but that doesn't take the baggage away.  We will have a walking, talking advert for man utd strolling along the corridors and green fields of Bodymoor should we lose all sense of proportion and common sense and appoint the man.

I have seen absolutely no evidence to suggest OGS has the credentials to turn around a huge Premier League club.  Posters on forums have argued the point that they can't explain why OGS would be a good appointment and they base their view on it being a "hunch" or that it "feels right".  Well, I'm not sure that is reason enough to make an absolute novice our manager. 

People have also suggested that appointing a novice didn't exactly do Arsenal or Barcelona any harm.  Wenger was a manager for twelve years before getting the Arsenal job.  Guardiola, though a novice, was totally immersed and up to speed in the club he was taking over.  Not only that but the club he was taking over was full of some of the world's greatest players.  Guardiola also lives and breathes Barcelona, they are his club.  None of these factors would apply to OGS if he were to get the Villa job.

For me - and I'm a glass half full person, believe me - OGS would be such a naive, horrifically poor appointment that I seriously question whether we would be a Premier League club come this time next year.  My hunch and feeling is that we are pinning our hopes on a man who has less senior managerial experience than a certain Graham Turner all those years ago.  Imagine Graham Turner infused with the man utd/sir alex fixation of a Steve Bruce and I believe you will get some picture of the carnage that I believe awaits us.

For me this OGS episode highlights the dangers of the internet(!) when it comes to opinion forming and group concensus.  I remember reading early polls asking Villa fans who they wanted to succeed McLeish and Lambert was way,way out in front (on something like 30%) with a whole load of other runners and riders nipping at his heels.   OGS was featured on the poll, too, and could be found lurking near the bottom on about 3% with Curbishleys of this world.   

It strikes me that so desperate are we for hope and a new, dynamic figurehead to lead our club, that as soon as "The Trees" let us all know that Randy's plane was off to Norway, people simply let out all their emotions and frustrations and piled them onto a fantasy figure.  This outpouring of hope has snowballed and ballooned in such a way that I believe many of the things being said about OGS are beyond the realms of rational thought.  (I was reading last night on another forum that the appointment of OGS would guarantee full houses back at VP, for instance.)

I really don't quite understand what is happening here.  It's as though a mini cult has formed around an infant-faced Norwegian; an infant faced Norwegian who has achieved pretty much the square root of bugger all in top class football management.  Smile, don't worry,  all you have to do is believe.

People point to the mutv video which highlights the views of football sages such as rio ferdinand and say, "Look, look, everyone thinks Ole is ace!"  Dear Lord.  This is an mutv documentary designed to make their former son look a world beater.  Think the Villa promotional videos of Downing booting balls into a wheelie bin and you'll understand why I am totally bewildered at how so many people seem to have lost all sense of proportion.

 I have seen nothing - absolutely nothing - to suggest OGS can turn our club around.  He has no experience of handling senior pros with big egos; he has no track record in the European/world transfer market.  In Norway he is a huge fish in a small bowl.  He will not have such a  pull, such gravitas in England or at Villa.  Making him manager would be like handing over the keys of your prized vintage car to your next door neighbour's eight year old son. 

Exciting?  Oh yes.  Exciting in a good way?  I'm not so sure.
 

Top post BW.

[littlevillain]

"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.

All 11,000 of them

[Risso]

"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.

All 11,000 of them

That's 10,999 more than thought that Villa played good football last season.

[damon loves JT]

"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.

All 11,000 of them

The fact that Norway has a population of slightly less than five million, spread over a vast area of small isolated towns, may have something to do with attendances at domestic games.

And makes it all the more remarkable that their international side is at 24 in the FIFA world rankings: above the Czech republic, USA, Japan, Turkey, Hungary and the Ukraine.

Scotland is at 48.

[littlevillain]

All these young coaches are a risk but for me it has to be someone with more experience than united reserves and the Norwegian league.

[mr woo]

Well, according to both Sky Sports and this twattery Fouth Official bloke , who they tell me is a reliable ITK, Villa have not made any contact with Norwich about Paul Lambert.

IF this is true, I will concede defeat and join the OGS camp as I can't stand Martinez and his mythical footballing genius.