The Paul Lambert thread - poll reset after our capitulation to Hull

[Jon Crofts]

I doubt there's a real fan out there who wants Lambert to fail, same applied to McLeish, nobody wanted him to fail because of what it would have meant for Aston Villa.  The simple fact is, Lambert hasn't improved, either week on week, month on month, year on year or for that matter on McLeish.  People talk of a lack of consistency, but weve been consistent for months, consistently woeful.  He's assembled the poorest, weakest set of players in living memory and has a team of coaches that seem equally inadequate at coaching them in the basics.  There are bright spots, Benteke, Vlaar & Okore in amongst a sea of El Ahmadi, Bennett, Lowry & Tonev dross.  You can't afford to get it right 50% of the time either at this level or with the funding he gets and I doubt if you were honest, his transfer dealings are anywhere near 50% right.  You could argue some of his signings have potential for the future, Westwood & Lowton for example, but in the hands of Culverhouse are they progressing? 

But it's all about managing the wage bill down and he's done that.  Really, has he?  How many high earners has he managed to move on?  One.  Stephen Ireland, he can't even get that aspect of his job right.

If and it's still an if, he really is being offered a new contract, then it really does beggar belief that they would reward his ineptitude with improved terms.  By doing so we'd be saying to all and sundry, this is what we have become, we are happy with our lot, we aren't even going to try any more just bob along with the dregs of the Premiership, scraping 40 points together somehow, year on year, cup exits to plucky lower league opposition, take the TV money and hope for the best.  Because at the moment that's all we have, hope.  Hope that someone at B6 wakes us up from the sleepwalk weve been in for the last 4 years, hope that someone recognises that Paul Faulkner isn't the man for the job and hope that Paul Lambert does the decent thing at the end of May, Premiership status secured or not.

[Monty]

Exactly, Jon - I don't want Lambert to fail, I just don't expect him to succeed.

[*shellac*]

I don't think he can lead us to the promised land of mid-table obscurity, when we normally achieved around April. 

[Chico Hamilton III]

Anyone know what Lambert's salary is?

[Richard E]

Anyone know what Lambert's salary is?

Undeserved.

[Ron Manager]

Lambert is mediocre. Some of the players are mediocre. The club owner is apathetic.

The club itself is magnificent. The away support is magnificent.

Some time, in the future, this club wlll rise again like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes.

I hope I'm still here to see it.

[MarkM]

Just posted this in the transition thread, but thought it was worth posting it here as well...

To compare against the same point last season:

                          2012/13          2013/14
Played                     27                   27
Won                         5                     7
Drawn                      9                     7
Lost                         13                   13
For                           26                  27
Away                       52                   37
Pts                           24                  28

So we have scored less, conceeded less and turned 2 draws into wins

Not sure if that really counts as improvement as our play at the moment is bloody awful

Just for balance here is our position in the two preceeding seasons:

                          2011/12          2010/11
Played                     27                   27
Won                         6                     7
Drawn                      12                   9
Lost                          9                   11
For                           30                  31
Away                       35                   46
Pts                           30                  30

Se we are worse in terms of points than in 2010/11 and 2011/12

[NeilH]

You know what I truly can’t stand about all of this, it’s not the defeats as I am used to them as a Villa fans, it’s the fact that the last four years have sucked every single ounce of hope out of my system. When I first moved overseas and naturally had to give up the season ticket, I genuinely thought I would not be able to let go. I imagined myself coming regularly to VP and having a deep sense of regret when I missed big matches and cup finals. Since the tenure of McLeish and Lambert, I’ve been twice. I am not proud of that, but I simply cannot justify the expense when the experience of going to VP is just one of frustration and resentment. I have not been this season and I am now finding myself not even listening in to matches anymore because I am sick to death of the empty and frustrated feeling it leaves me with. I am a supporter and I do my best to support, but the last few years have just been too much for me.

All I want is the club to give me one single strand of hope. I want someone at the club to actually behave like they give a damn about our situation. I want a Villa player to react like Graziano Pelle did after Feyenoord blew two points at Twente yesterday; instead they skulk off the field or smile at a fluffed chance or misplaced kick.

Should we stagger once more over the finish line, then if the club fail to see the blindingly obvious and offer Lambert a new contract, then they are fools of the highest order and worse still are abusing the hard earned money of fans, who have been utterly magnificent this season in the face of some of the worst football I have ever seen us play in my 30 plus years watching us.

Should the people running our club have a moment of clarity and sack Lambert, then be under no illusions that the job of his successor will be no mean feat at all and it will be a very long way back to where we once were. However, like most I would prefer to see us slowly climbing the ladder back than cope with one more season of this dross.

[eastie]

Also last season  we had played more of the top clubs at this stage - this season we still have several of them left to play.

[eastie]

You know what I truly can’t stand about all of this, it’s not the defeats as I am used to them as a Villa fans, it’s the fact that the last four years have sucked every single ounce of hope out of my system. When I first moved overseas and naturally had to give up the season ticket, I genuinely thought I would not be able to let go. I imagined myself coming regularly to VP and having a deep sense of regret when I missed big matches and cup finals. Since the tenure of McLeish and Lambert, I’ve been twice. I am not proud of that, but I simply cannot justify the expense when the experience of going to VP is just one of frustration and resentment. I have not been this season and I am now finding myself not even listening in to matches anymore because I am sick to death of the empty and frustrated feeling it leaves me with. I am a supporter and I do my best to support, but the last few years have just been too much for me.

All I want is the club to give me one single strand of hope. I want someone at the club to actually behave like they give a damn about our situation. I want a Villa player to react like Graziano Pelle did after Feyenoord blew two points at Twente yesterday; instead they skulk off the field or smile at a fluffed chance or misplaced kick.

Should we stagger once more over the finish line, then if the club fail to see the blindingly obvious and offer Lambert a new contract, then they are fools of the highest order and worse still are abusing the hard earned money of fans, who have been utterly magnificent this season in the face of some of the worst football I have ever seen us play in my 30 plus years watching us.

Should the people running our club have a moment of clarity and sack Lambert, then be under no illusions that the job of his successor will be no mean feat at all and it will be a very long way back to where we once were. However, like most I would prefer to see us slowly climbing the ladder back than cope with one more season of this dross.

Great post.

[Tuco Salamanca]

Lambert doesn't seem to have a plan. At various times this season we have played 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 5-3-2, 5-4-1, 4-4-2 diamond. He's winging it from game to game, making it up as he goes along.

The team has no distinctive or coherent style of play. We play the long ball game most often but we're terrible at it. Terrible. All our decent little pockets of play recently (few and far between, admittedly) have come when we have tried to play a bit of football.

And if he actually believes what he says to the press then there really is no hope whatsoever.

[Gareth]

For me I'd roll the dice & get rid of him & his staff now - let Sid run the show until the summer - sure there are enough ex-Villa players out there who can help.

The main reason is that we need to ring out any quality that he has in the squad, unfortunately he is going to continue picking his favourites in a one dimensional, no invention, no width snoozefest!  Something that 2/3 months ago might have been just about have ground us a way to stay in this league, now we've stopped scoring he seems clueless to change.

I found myself laughing when Newcastle scored yesterday, not because I wasn't gutted, I was BUT there was a shocking inevitability about it....we are a soft touch, managed by a stubborn dinosaur who is in no way up to managing a club whose fan base expect more than survival.  All due respect to Norwich who are still trying to re-establish themselves but the expectations of a club that have been securely in the top division for 20+ years has to be more than mere survival....

Norwich fans are likely to get their day next Sunday, they will come, frustrate & very likely beat us...then they'll get the joy of watching 30k+ fans turn on their version of Judas

I was one of those stood on the North Stand car park when he came on the stage at the kit launch weekend, energised that we had got rid of AMc had a bright, young vibrant manager who would take our club forward...it's a shame but he has failed on all counts!

I also bought into the vision that he came with a scouting network led by Henke who would identify good quality players ie Bundesliga not the tat from the Dutch league...has he found any quality since Henke went? Hopefully Okore will prove that but after 3 games we can't say that.

[Lee]

I doubt there's a real fan out there who wants Lambert to fail, same applied to McLeish, nobody wanted him to fail because of what it would have meant for Aston Villa.  The simple fact is, Lambert hasn't improved, either week on week, month on month, year on year or for that matter on McLeish.  People talk of a lack of consistency, but weve been consistent for months, consistently woeful.  He's assembled the poorest, weakest set of players in living memory and has a team of coaches that seem equally inadequate at coaching them in the basics.  There are bright spots, Benteke, Vlaar & Okore in amongst a sea of El Ahmadi, Bennett, Lowry & Tonev dross.  You can't afford to get it right 50% of the time either at this level or with the funding he gets and I doubt if you were honest, his transfer dealings are anywhere near 50% right.  You could argue some of his signings have potential for the future, Westwood & Lowton for example, but in the hands of Culverhouse are they progressing? 

But it's all about managing the wage bill down and he's done that.  Really, has he?  How many high earners has he managed to move on?  One.  Stephen Ireland, he can't even get that aspect of his job right.

If and it's still an if, he really is being offered a new contract, then it really does beggar belief that they would reward his ineptitude with improved terms.  By doing so we'd be saying to all and sundry, this is what we have become, we are happy with our lot, we aren't even going to try any more just bob along with the dregs of the Premiership, scraping 40 points together somehow, year on year, cup exits to plucky lower league opposition, take the TV money and hope for the best.  Because at the moment that's all we have, hope.  Hope that someone at B6 wakes us up from the sleepwalk weve been in for the last 4 years, hope that someone recognises that Paul Faulkner isn't the man for the job and hope that Paul Lambert does the decent thing at the end of May, Premiership status secured or not.

Post of the day, month and year for me.

[Irish villain]

See that 2010/11 column in Mark M's post. And there are still posters who will argue we were not in a relegation scrap that year. Four in a row people. That trap door has been waiting for us and we have been inching closer and closer under the clowns who have failed to take decisive action to save us.

[richard moore]

Fantastic post Neil, I haven't been many more times than you because I feel exactly the same way. Villa are rapidly being replaced in my life by things that give me a lot more pleasure for a fraction of the cost. I'm just waiting and hoping for the big buy out now, nothing else will sadly change the apathy and mediocrity pervading every strand of the club. Yes, that could be very risky but it's the only way we'll get to see some entertainment and excitement back at VP, whatever form they take