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

[aj2k77]

When the chairman wants out and no longer cares about anything but saving as many dollars as he can how demotivating is it for the rest of the club? Lambert has even less pressure to succeed, he knows he will be kept on, no matter what, until Lerner has sold up. Lerner will not look for a new manager, he can no longer be bothered.

Lambert will have no pressure apart from that put on him by the fans and a few media outlets.

I fully expect another season of post match drivel from Lambert now after more beatings barely touching the ball. I fully expect to see nothing and hear nothing from the clubs hierarchy as they are all busy preparing their own personal life boats to escape the shit storm they've created. Lastly, I have no confidence Lerner will sell to anyone that will bring any good to our club.

Every worry we've had about the clubs competency over the last 4 years, all the ''surely they wont do that'' comments, all the excuses we've made for them, thinking up secret plans and ideas that will lead to better times that don't exist. The truth is we are run by idiots, incompetent idiots.

[Mister E]

I agree one hundred percent Rig. Like many on here I like seem devil-may-care but the Villa is a big part of my life and as the season limped to a merciful conclusion I took heart from personal contacts I have with posters that a deal behind the scenes was well advanced and that a sensible seamless transfer of ownership would occur once the old season was concluded. I started to realize that this was far from the case when the long awaited and vaunted statements from Randy and the General were so personal and sugar coated. They were Dear Johns. There may have been some preliminary discussions just about after the Chelsea win but that clearly came to nothing. As another poster put it very pithily  Randy Lerner bought the club on a whim and he is selling it on a whim.

yeah, I'm arriving at the same conclusion regarding the sales process that a well-oiled machine it ain't.
I look at the statement from Lambert about all squad players 'starting equal' and despair: it smacks of desperation and amateur-hour.
All it means is that it may all take longer for Lerner to sell and he'll get less for the club as a result. In the meantime, the team performances will tank.

[rob_bridge]

If we start the season with essentially the same squad as last year, minus benteke . .

You do struggle to see us staying up. And that's even with a fair wind in terms of confidence

I'm too young to remember the 86 relegation side. Was there a similar air of doom at the time? I've seen some shit villa sides, but I'm expecting to start out next season with less confidence than I've ever felt

Has someone got any dancing bananas?

Starting 86-87 no I don't remember the feeling of gloom as we had flirted with relegation but signed 2 experienced former bods in Steve Hunt and Andy Blair to drag us away and also just missed out on League Cup final.

We had on paper a fair amount of potential and existing quality - Keown, Dorigo, Evans, Walters, Spink, Hodge.

However Hogde's attitude stunk after he'd had a couple of good games in the World Cup and we got hammered early on by someone good - Everton or Forest I think

Turner, who was miles out of his depth was binned, and replaced by someone more evil, more inept, more lazy and more uncaring than either the current or the most recent incumbent. We went down with a whimper

[Ron Manager]

I know I keep mentioning this but if the Celtic job comes up for grabs Lambert will walk without hesitation. If the restrictions he has been working under are as stated I can't say I blame him.

What I find astounding is that nobody wants to buy an established club in the Premier League with a glorious past. Unless of course someone does but they are trying to get us on the cheap.

And I can assure potential buyers that there is nothing cheap about Aston Villa in any way.

[mr underhill]

I don't think Lambert would get the Celtic job and if the forced rehabilitation of the bomb squad is true, it's almost beyond parody; alienate senior players for two years, humiliate them through the equivalent of  football apartheid or loan, and then be forced to welcome them back into the fold because we don't have a pot to piss in thanks to a desperate sales process that probably did just commence nine days ago. It's no secret that I don't rate Lambert but I admire the man's fortitude, he's clearly working under intolerable conditions and circumstances far worse than the those which saw MOM walk and pick up a compensation payment. I'm probably being melodramatic but we have serious issues at the moment. The guy deserves any pay-out he might get from a prospective new owner and more. The easy option would have been to have gone the constructive dismissal route, hat's off to the guy for not doing  so as Villa's clearly injurious to his health at the moment.

[aj2k77]

Yeah, Lambert is not a good manager, but he's the only thing right now between us and almost certain relegation. If he walks, no one will come and we will sink like a stone.

We already have an AWOL, couldn't give a fuck chairman.
A CEO lining up his next career move.
0 first team coaches.

If Lambert can keep us up before a take over, he'll have my thanks.

[Matt Collins]

I think we've got a big problem in terms of fans expectations

I may be wrong, but I think we're in for a real season of scrapping for every point. Half put fans are expecting us to be a billionaire plaything. And 75% have turned on the manager

Not good. At all

[pauliewalnuts]

I dread to think what the feeling amongst fans will be if we start the season with Lerner still in place.

I am still just about persuaded that he didn't just put the club up for sale when he made that statement, but if it turned out that that was the case, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

I genuinely feel sorry for Lambert. He has clearly been sent out to bat against the press and face questions about the takeover. In every interview I've heard the last few days he sounds miserable as hell.

If it is true there is nothing imminent then he deserves a lot of praise for hanging around under conditions like these.

[Clampy]

If it is true there is nothing imminent then he deserves a lot of praise for hanging around under conditions like these.

Maybe he feels he owes it to Randy to hang around because he knows that any other manager with his record over the last two seasons would have been out of a job by now.

[dicedlam]

I don't think Lambert would get the Celtic job and if the forced rehabilitation of the bomb squad is true, it's almost beyond parody; alienate senior players for two years, humiliate them through the equivalent of  football apartheid or loan, and then be forced to welcome them back into the fold because we don't have a pot to piss in thanks to a desperate sales process that probably did just commence nine days ago. It's no secret that I don't rate Lambert but I admire the man's fortitude, he's clearly working under intolerable conditions and circumstances far worse than the those which saw MOM walk and pick up a compensation payment. I'm probably being melodramatic but we have serious issues at the moment. The guy deserves any pay-out he might get from a prospective new owner and more. The easy option would have been to have gone the constructive dismissal route, hat's off to the guy for not doing  so as Villa's clearly injurious to his health at the moment.

Very good post.

If say Celtic or any club for that matter offered Lambert a job, then he would have my blessing on taking it up.
Yes, he might get a pay off/bonus on completion of a sale, but to work under such constraints and having to take most of the flak in the absence of the very people who should be fronting it, I take my hat off to the bloke.

[Monty]

I dread to think what the feeling amongst fans will be if we start the season with Lerner still in place.

I am still just about persuaded that he didn't just put the club up for sale when he made that statement, but if it turned out that that was the case, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

I genuinely feel sorry for Lambert. He has clearly been sent out to bat against the press and face questions about the takeover. In every interview I've heard the last few days he sounds miserable as hell.

If it is true there is nothing imminent then he deserves a lot of praise for hanging around under conditions like these.

This is my feeling. I know it's early in the summer (technically, the season hasn't even ended yet), but there is certainly a feeling that this may be longer-term than we'd anticipated. Any other year Lambert would not be our manager anymore, and it's clear that he doesn't particularly want to be, but having a lame duck chairman now means we also have a lame duck manager, and if both start the season then, in my view, we'll be a lame duck Premier League club.

[cheltenhamlion]

I am still clinging to the hope that this takeover business will be done sooner rather than later.

If we head into next season with the current management team in place then we are up shit creek without a paddle, no wellies and lacking a pair of trunks.

[Legion]

Or a canoe.

[ozzjim]

I would almost say that by hanging about and trying to steady a ship which clearly has a huge gaping hole in the bottom, he deserves the chance to have a crack with more funds if we do get taken over. Almost.

[Jon Crofts]

I would almost say that by hanging about and trying to steady a ship which clearly has a huge gaping hole in the bottom, he deserves the chance to have a crack with more funds if we do get taken over. Almost.

I can see the logic in that but has anyone really seen the tactical or management ability to suggest he'd be anything other than a bit shit?