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

[Exeter 77]

I think Lambert has done what he was told to by reducing the wage bill. The fact he is tactically naive at best has not helped his cause. I liked the idea of young and hungry but the swing to younger and cheaper players was too drastic from a playing point of view. If Randy Lerner is selling (and it is still 'if') Paul Lambert has gone too far down the wrong path with some players and fans to prove a success under a different owner. He had some good ideas but has, under the restriction placed on him, executed them very poorly. A shame, because I wanted him to succeed.

[silhillvilla]

His record was good at a lower level but he had just 1 season of PL experience .
Nowhere near enough calibre to be manager of villa, I was angry at the time about the clamour for him and I think much of it was misguided due to the McRelegator mess.

[adrenachrome]

I'm waiting for a few to come on here later and say that we are all doom-mongers. It ain't going to happen though. Surely, there can be no defenders of this regime now. I don't thrive in it. We are an unhappy family travelling back tonight. It doesn't normally get to me like this but it does now. When you have devoted so much of your time and money on the club, then think of the rich fuckers dining out at our expense, not giving a toss, then it does piss you off. We are unlikely to go down but the league should make a special case for us this year. Put the bottom three down plus us and let someone else take our place who gives a fuck. Fuck off Lambert and fuck off Lerner!

Pretty much how I feel about it all.

I remember in the early 80's John Peel used to play a song by  Linton Kwesi Johnson which started:

The Eagle and the Bear
Having people living in the fear
Of impending nuclear warfare
But as a matter of fact
Believe it or not
Plenty people don't care whether it is imminent or not

[myf]

I think Lambert has done what he was told to by reducing the wage bill. The fact he is tactically naive at best has not helped his cause. I liked the idea of young and hungry but the swing to younger and cheaper players was too drastic from a playing point of view. If Randy Lerner is selling (and it is still 'if') Paul Lambert has gone too far down the wrong path with some players and fans to prove a success under a different owner. He had some good ideas but has, under the restriction placed on him, executed them very poorly. A shame, because I wanted him to succeed.

Everyone bangs on about our lack of quality in central defence and midfield which is clearly true but I also think we have massively lacked a captain for the past two years.  Vlarr is a poor captain, and makes too many errors himself to set any examples to the other players.  Gabby can hardly speak english.  I'll never understand why we never brought in an experienced and solid midfielder or defender (or both) who could captain us and stop us getting pummelled so regularly by just controlling a game. 

We have looked soft as shite, error prone and scared of the ball for most games throughout the last two years and I think a lot of it has to do with the lack a leader on the pitch to motivate/bollock the players as appropriate.

[Lee]

Not trying to start another fight but his signings have been bollocks. If they had been decent we wouldn't have been in 2 relegation fights in a row, broken so many bad records I cant be bothered naming them and look like the version of Wimbledon that got relegated. £43m and most of it pissed away, saved by the Benteke find.

It's ok, I can take that people don't agree with me. I have no particular interest in defending him or trying to be argue with those who think he is shit. But he seemed to be a decent choice when we got him, and I struggle to understand why he has been so poor. Maybe he is an awful manager, but his record when we got him (and a few matches at Villa) tells me that maybe he isn't.

I find it hard to understand how he has been so poor, too, but that doesn't change the fact that he has been precisely that.

I was strongly in favour when he got the job, too.

I even managed to remain in favour throughout last season - which was awful, despite us remembering mostly just the decent run in - because I could see mitigating circumstances and improvements beyond results.

This year, though, I can't think of a single reason for him not to get the sack.

It's not even that we need to think of a reasons to give him the bullet - try writing a list of reasons he should keep his job. It's difficult.

Exactly. I cannot think of one single reason.

The only performances of any note were Liverpool away and Chelsea at home, everything else is lost in the malaise

[pauliewalnuts]

Not trying to start another fight but his signings have been bollocks. If they had been decent we wouldn't have been in 2 relegation fights in a row, broken so many bad records I cant be bothered naming them and look like the version of Wimbledon that got relegated. £43m and most of it pissed away, saved by the Benteke find.

It's ok, I can take that people don't agree with me. I have no particular interest in defending him or trying to be argue with those who think he is shit. But he seemed to be a decent choice when we got him, and I struggle to understand why he has been so poor. Maybe he is an awful manager, but his record when we got him (and a few matches at Villa) tells me that maybe he isn't.

I find it hard to understand how he has been so poor, too, but that doesn't change the fact that he has been precisely that.

I was strongly in favour when he got the job, too.

I even managed to remain in favour throughout last season - which was awful, despite us remembering mostly just the decent run in - because I could see mitigating circumstances and improvements beyond results.

This year, though, I can't think of a single reason for him not to get the sack.

It's not even that we need to think of a reasons to give him the bullet - try writing a list of reasons he should keep his job. It's difficult.

Exactly. I cannot think of one single reason.

The only performances of any note were Liverpool away and Chelsea at home, everything else is lost in the malaise

I'd add Arsenal away and Chelsea away, but they were the first two games of the season.

Even a good result like Man City at home - the first half was the most one sided game of football I've seen in ages, and the second half we were saved by a fuck up and a stroke of genius.

[peter w]

As a fan of Lambert's approach to his time under Lerner it is sad that he has not really been able to spend more on players. Yes, there have been £7m signings but they would have been on low(ish) wages so not really a sign of splashing money around. Lerner gave him a challenge and one that up until Stoke all would have said that we have been largely poor but ended up in mid-table where we thought we would have been this season.

But the last 6 games have been unbelievable. Totally out of our depth and 5 losses and one draw, shipping 4 3 times, losing to teams around us, suspending backroom staff, talk of dressing room strife, Lerner's strange announcement about no announcement until the summer, Given being promoted to a kind of assistant after being dumped, Lerner praising Lambert, etc etc it's all imploded. No-one seems to know what to do or how to get us out of the situation.

Lambert won't be sacked that much is pretty certain. At least not until we know about any possible ownership change. Nor would I particularly want it now. Given and Cowans? I can't seeing the players rrsonding any more to them and in this time of bizarre goings on and major upheaval, the last thing we need now is to have the players more unsettled and more confused about off the field activities.

I'd leave things as they are. But, come the summer, I'm more concerned about who is owning the club because even if Lambert were to be sacked I wouldn't expect Lerner to put us in any better shape with his and Faulkner's recruitment decisions. Ever since he came here its is one bad financial decision after another and one-by-one his board appointees have gone. He's left with a CEO that is thankful to be appointed above his ability suggests he deserves and no other noticeable board members who have said anything or shown their faces, never mind whether they have got anything to say or not.

I don't trust Lerner to get the next major decision right and despite what I think are his genuine best intentions. He has to go. The Lambert decision will look after itself thereafter. One way or another.

[aj2k77]

I don't rate Lambert, never have done, I was massively disappointed when we got him because I think a club of our calibre stuck in the rut we were would take more than a 1 season veteran of top league experience unless they were exceptional.

The thing that baffles me the most is why we have changed our style from the last 10 games of last season.

[pauliewalnuts]

But the last 6 games have been unbelievable. Totally out of our depth and 5 losses and one draw, shipping 4 3 times, losing to teams around us, suspending backroom staff, talk of dressing room strife, Lerner's strange announcement about no announcement until the summer, Given being promoted to a kind of assistant after being dumped, Lerner praising Lambert, etc etc it's all imploded. No-one seems to know what to do or how to get us out of the situation

This is exactly it.

Imagine being told, after we beat Chelsea, that all this shit was going to happen.

[brian green]

I have had some horrible football experiences over the years but standing in a Newmarket pub with a mob of baying plastic mancs wanting the red filth to beat humble little Norwich was one of the very worst.

By God Lerner Lambert and Faulkner you have got a lot to answer for.

[Toronto Villa]

But the last 6 games have been unbelievable. Totally out of our depth and 5 losses and one draw, shipping 4 3 times, losing to teams around us, suspending backroom staff, talk of dressing room strife, Lerner's strange announcement about no announcement until the summer, Given being promoted to a kind of assistant after being dumped, Lerner praising Lambert, etc etc it's all imploded. No-one seems to know what to do or how to get us out of the situation

This is exactly it.

Imagine being told, after we beat Chelsea, that all this shit was going to happen.

The Chelsea game would have given anyone not close to the situation the impression that we were a tight knit club, players playing hard for the fans and manager, all moving positively in the right direction. Solid tactical performance all round, a brilliant goal to win it. What could possibly go wrong for us the rest of the season?

[mr underhill]

but what is really worrying is that all this shit  was going on; the situation with the Tweedles isn't new, rumours have been circulating for a while, and now we know that similar things are alleged to have gone on at Colchester, again under Lambert's stewardship. The miracle is we got any sort of result against the Chavs. We now know it was an aberration, and normal service was very quickly resumed.

[ChicagoLion]

There has been no justification for keeping him in his job for months now. He is a chancer and now finally everybody has woken up to the fact, there has been some pretty horrible finger pointing from the pro- Lambert camp though.

We can not fire this bloke soon enough, every minute we keep this idiot is another minute lost before we start the recovery process.

[Percy McCarthy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27173708

Lambert's post match interview

Well I certainly 'got inspired'.

[Louzie0]

Maybe time for gardening leave till the end of the season.