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

[PeterWithesShin]

Hoolahan had nothing to do with money, everything to do with Norwich hating us.

[tomd2103]

If we hadn't signed Kozak we'd almost certainly be in the Championship next season. The injuries to Benteke this season have shown why we needed a good backup, just our luck that he ended up with a long term injury as well.

He has had 45 million ish. Plenty to get to mid table even with wage restrictions.

It is, if the major purchases are playing - unfortunately we haven't been able to put them on the pitch often enough this season. We've got a mid table first team but a bottom 6 squad.

i agree but its a squad he has built

And the opportunities that he has missed in the Transfer windows, especially the January ones.

The Kozak signing still puzzles me.  It's not that I don't rate Kozak (didn't really get to see enough of him to form a definite opinion) it's just that it was so obvious that there were other areas of the team that required that type of investment. 

Factor wages as apposed to price as the overriding factor in the equation and your puzzlement may well reduce somewhat.

So Kozak, a Czech international signed from a top Italian club, is going to be on peanuts is he?  You telling me there isn't an attacking midfielder out there we couldn't have signed for £7m+ and the wages Kozak is on?   

Yes. I read it in an interview with the man himself. "Fell off the chair" when he heard the terms, he said. This was moments after saying there was no wages cap BTW. "No,there is nothing like that".

The Wes Hoolahan fiasco provided further cause for concern,

Then, a week or so ago, Charlie Nicholas provided further confirmation in info that was clearly leaked by PL. If that was not enough, Randy popped up last week to put the icing on the cake, as it were.

Oh there is no doubt that there are tight financial restrictions in place at Villa Park, but I still think the outlay on Kozak would have been better spent on a midfielder.   

[Mister E]

Here's some sympathy for our beleagured manager from the gRauniad:

Aston Villa exemplify the unrealistic expectations of most clubs and their supporters in the modern era. With precious few exceptions, they are never happy. Under Martin O'Neill, Villa finished sixth in the Premier League three seasons running, yet the fans wanted him out. The cliched talk was of "underachieving".Under Gérard Houllier they were ninth but he was not good enough either. Now they stand a perilous 16th with three matches to play and it is Paul Lambert's turn to be raucously informed that he has to go. Patience? That's a card game isn't it? Lambert proved his worth at Norwich, winning successive promotions before finishing 12th in the Premier League – and would not East Anglia's finest settle for that now.
Yes, Lambert is having a chastening time at Villa, who have taken only one point from their last six matches, but they were 10th as recently as last month after beating Chelsea 1-0 and there are mitigating circumstances for their plight. They were again without their main strikers, Christian Benteke and Libor Kozak, at Swansea on Saturday yet played well for all but the last 20 minutes, before conceding twice and subsiding to a 4-1 defeat.
The absence of Benteke, their leading scorer with 10 goals in 26 League appearances, was highly significant. The Belgian international is their talisman; without him they do not win. Benteke was signed by Lambert in the summer of 2012 and has repaid his comparatively modest £7m transfer fee with 29 goals in 60 League appearances. Kozak cost the same last September and looks promising with four goals from his first eight starts, plus six as substitute. Lambert's critics should remember that £7m is the most he has been able to pay for any player in nearly two years in charge.
Last summer he spent £17m, which does not buy you much these days – certainly not the European place the supporters covet. Norwich forked out twice as much and look at them. At the Liberty Stadium, against a Swansea team also fighting for, and gaining, Premier League security, Villa got away to a discouraging start when Jonjo Shelvey took their central defenders out of the game with a through-pass that enabled the increasingly prolific Wilfried Bony to run on and score from the edge of the penalty area.
To their credit, Villa fought back well, matching the Welsh team's renowned passing and utilising the width provided by two wingers. They deserved their equaliser midway through the first half when Marc Albrighton's cross from the right set up Gabriel Agbonlahor for a close-range sidefooter. Lambert felt the "turning point" was the stunning goal from the centre circle with which Shelvey punished Brad Guzan for dithering in possession, abrogating the responsibility for clearing to Ron Vlaar and then getting back on his line too slowly. The Villa manager said: "He [Shelvey] could try that 50 times and he'd do it once, and the wonder goal had to be against us."
Again Villa responded well and it was anybody's game until the 73rd minute when Shelvey's right-wing cross picked out Pablo Hernández beyond the far post. The Spaniard stepped inside two defenders before shooting across Guzan and into the far corner. Villa were spent now and in added time Bony scored from the penalty spot – his sixth goal in the last seven League games – after Nathan Baker had flattened Marvin Emnes.
Of the abuse he received from the fans, Lambert said: "Criticism is not nice but I've had it as a player and as manager. I'll take it. I've never shied away from it. I'm the manager and it's my job to protect the players. They are the ones who play the game.
"I totally understand the supporters' feelings. This is a huge football club and expectation levels are so high because of what has been achieved in the past. The club should never be in this position, that's the bottom line. I'll take the criticism, but if there was ever a game where the supporters need to get behind the team it's next Saturday."
He accepted that the threat of relegation was real but added: "We'd be more worried if our fate wasn't in our own hands. We've got three games left, others have got two. One win will do to keep us up and next week's game [at home to Hull] is now a cup final."

[Mister E]

Oh there is no doubt that there are tight financial restrictions in place at Villa Park, but I still think the outlay on Kozak would have been better spent on a midfielder.   

This week we'll have seen what £3-5m could have got us in terms of MF - Shelvey, Huddlestone and Livermore will all have had a chance to outshine our current MF.
Easily said in hindsight, but each of these players would have done okay for us had they joined last summer.

[Damo70]

Without dragging up the times under MON, Houllier and TSM maybe the guy who wrote that article should have had a season ticket at Villa Park for the two years under Lambert. Okore and Kozak were hardly ever presents in the side so whilst injuries are a factor they are not a reason to give him another season.

[Meanwood Villa]

I'm fed up of journalists writing patronising bollocks criticising us for being unhappy at our team being totally crap. Dealing with injuries is part of the game. Making your team so reliant on one player is poor managment. The writer criticises Norwich a couple of times in the article. I bet he/she was slagging off their fans for wanting Hughton sacked as well. Just when is it OK to be pissed off? Please tell us so we don't upset you any more, ever so sorry sir/madam. Wankers.

[Stu]

Joe Lovejoy can fuck off. We should have more patience should we? Bit of a hatchet job on the fans there, and he's basically calling us deluded for being upset at lying 16th in the table after 1 point from the last 6 games. I know who is deluded, Joe, and it isn't us; Lambert has to go.

There's a lot of opinion there and events being taken out of context for a pretty shoddy piece.

[Damo70]

Forget the ninth place finish under Houllier, we are now in our fourth straight relegation battle and he is having a go at moaning Villa fans. He obviously thinks Spurs, Everton and Newcastle fans would be a lot more patient than us in the same circumstances.

[Malandro]

If he'd said that to me after the final whistle on Saturday I would have struggled to be polite

[Jimbo]

Fans always get the blame, and Villa fans are a particularly easy target for the media.

[Ad@m]

It's an old set of poll options. I did suggest a new set but no-one replied so I did not bother changing it. You can always re-vote.

I posted that it should be reset a few pages before you suggested Legion, so go on go on go on. Reset it.

Sack him now.
Sack him as soon as mathematically safe.
Sack him end of season.
Keep him.

Aren't options 2 and 3 the same?!

[dekko]

That article is really irritating, especially as the Guardian's coverage of Villa specifically is usually very good.

[Legion]

Poll reset. I hope I have covered the main options adequately.

[Ads]

Something has clearly being going on behind closed doors, more than just the coaches and bullying business to have caused such a decline.

You do not put in a performance like we did against Chelsea and then crumble as we have. It's far more than Benteke's absence.

[Damo70]

Fans always get the blame, and Villa fans are a particularly easy target for the media.

Especially since some pillock told the world we are fickle and expect to be champions of Europe every year.