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

[Toronto Villa]

The exclusively youth project as it was becoming would have seen us relegated. The realization that we need a combination of youth and experience has taken two incredibly difficult seasons to come together.

[Sexual Ealing]

It looks to me like the youth project was an (almost. Bradford.) unqualified success. We stayed up and we lowered the wage bill.

[Rigadon]

It looks to me like the youth project was an (almost. Bradford.) unqualified success. We stayed up and we lowered the wage bill.

Only if we are here to support a business.  I couldn't give a monkeys about the money angle, personally.  Maybe it's a defence mechanism against the modern game.  But the last two seasons have been shit and I can't give lambert any credit aside from isolated wins that looked more luck than judgent.  This season is different though, we are organised and have some grown ups in the team. 

[London Villan]

It looks to me like the youth project was an (almost. Bradford.) unqualified success. We stayed up and we lowered the wage bill.

10,000 missing fans might be evidence it wasn't a popular success, as it the u turn in strategy.

[Sexual Ealing]

I meant it was a success as defined by its objectives. I don't enjoy us being shit, or worrying about the accounts, either.

[Steve67]

We have improved at long last. Long may it continue. A fair bit of money wasted but at least we are still alive (in the top league) to tell the tail. I hope this new found confidence is sustained.

[dekko]

I'm looking forward to the tell-all memoir from someone involved in the club to be released, so many unanswered questions!

Mainly I want to know whose idea it was to isolate some of the high-earning players?  What exactly were the financial constraints that Lambert is/was working under?  Why did Henke leave his job as head scout so soon after joining?  What on earth happened with Culverhouse and Karsa, and why did it take so long for the problem to be dealt with?  Did the club really go up for sale with the announcement, or was that just a public acknowledgement of something that had been going on for a while?

I don't think we can fairly judge Lambert until we know what constraints he's been working under, and how many of the problems were of his own making.  At the moment, the assessment I'm leaning towards is 'fair-to-middling manager, given extremely difficult job, succeeds (barely)'

[Gregorys Boy]

The exclusively youth project as it was becoming would have seen us relegated. The realization that we need a combination of youth and experience has taken two incredibly difficult seasons to come together.

In fairness there were the odd postive along the way.  Besides this season may still turn bad, lets not get carried away.  The one thing I am becoming more confident off is that we should have enough to stay up.

[ozzjim]

We could easily not win between now and the 24th November looking at the fixtures, so I think we are being ahead of ourselves to think the dark days are past.

However, I do think that there is a noticeable shift in policy, which I hope is Lambert wrestling more control than a sign of him having made errors, as I am not convinced that leave Hutton out for 2 years was his decision in light of how quickly he has come back in and signed a new deal. Something has changed behind the doors at Villa Park.

[Toronto Villa]

Though it is very early, what appears different this season is how compact we look. We don't appear to have that sense of panic about us, and we look so much more composed. It's also so different on the bench where instead of bringing on players ho have barely kicked a ball in professional football we have the option now with established PL or international footballers. It's having a knock on effect on the younger players too which is critical, because now when we have an injury we don't just collapse. We all feared the impact of losing Vlaar last weekend and yet Baker slipped right in and never missed a step. And had he done so, Okore was there behind him. The whole environment is so much more reassuring and with Benteke and Kozak to return there is so much more to look forward too.

[ozzjim]

Though it is very early, what appears different this season is how compact we look. We don't appear to have that sense of panic about us, and we look so much more composed. It's also so different on the bench where instead of bringing on players ho have barely kicked a ball in professional football we have the option now with established PL or international footballers. It's having a knock on effect on the younger players too which is critical, because now when we have an injury we don't just collapse. We all feared the impact of losing Vlaar last weekend and yet Baker slipped right in and never missed a step. And had he done so, Okore was there behind him. The whole environment is so much more reassuring and with Benteke and Kozak to return there is so much more to look forward too.

17th September 2014. I really hope on the 17th December this is still the feeling! I look at the fixtures and just think "ouch" at the moment.

[Toronto Villa]

Though it is very early, what appears different this season is how compact we look. We don't appear to have that sense of panic about us, and we look so much more composed. It's also so different on the bench where instead of bringing on players ho have barely kicked a ball in professional football we have the option now with established PL or international footballers. It's having a knock on effect on the younger players too which is critical, because now when we have an injury we don't just collapse. We all feared the impact of losing Vlaar last weekend and yet Baker slipped right in and never missed a step. And had he done so, Okore was there behind him. The whole environment is so much more reassuring and with Benteke and Kozak to return there is so much more to look forward too.

17th September 2014. I really hope on the 17th December this is still the feeling! I look at the fixtures and just think "ouch" at the moment.

off course, but then you would have been wincing all the more this time last week and we turned in one of the more assured performances of the past couple of seasons. Again, I'm not getting carried away and we are going to lose games, but it will be the manner of those defeats that leave us feeling confident. We'll go down fighting as opposed to being constantly caned as were at the back end of last season.

[pauliewalnuts]

I don't think the dark days are past, far from it. I am extremely happy with our start, but will not be taking too much for granted (especially as we managed to get knocked out of the LC at home to a League One side in that good start period).

However, I don't really see the point of getting too concerned about this difficult run of fixtures. We've got to play these teams twice a season in any case.

No, it's not the best situation to see a run of several of them at the start of the season, but it also means these are fixtures we'll already have played later on in the season. And we've already taken three points from one of them, one of the more difficult ones.

Now, what I do find hard to handle is - seeing, how shit they are - the fact that we dropped points at home to Newcastle.

[LeeB]

I don't think the dark days are past, far from it. I am extremely happy with our start, but will not be taking too much for granted (especially as we managed to get knocked out of the LC at home to a League One side in that good start period).

However, I don't really see the point of getting too concerned about this difficult run of fixtures. We've got to play these teams twice a season in any case.

No, it's not the best situation to see a run of several of them at the start of the season, but it also means these are fixtures we'll already have played later on in the season. And we've already taken three points from one of them, one of the more difficult ones.

Now, what I do find hard to handle is - seeing, how shit they are - the fact that we dropped points at home to Newcastle.

That last point has irked me too.

What a pair of spoilt bastards.

[Eigentor]

I'll admit that I don't know what to make of Lambert. He has been at the club a while, and on a few occasions we have been impressive, on some occasions we have been competent and resilient (eg. Chelsea at home last seasons), and on far too many occations we have looked like a disorganised rabble without any discernible game plan.

So basically I'm at a loss explaining how a supposedly good manager can make us look so awful; or if the opposite is the case, how a supposedly poor manager can make us play so well.