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

[DB]

The gap between the 'have's' and the 'have not's' is getting bigger. More teams will be separated by fewer points....and the richer pull away. Lambert is on a fine line from mid table to relegation.... As are a number of other managers. We have made a great start, I hope we can do an Everton an push the top rich clubs.

[JUAN PABLO]

Who would have believed a month ago , Hutton, Lambert and Gabby getting new contracts.

The mind boggles.

[supertom]

Who would have believed a month ago , Hutton, Lambert and Gabby getting new contracts.

The mind boggles.

Steven Ireland re-signed in January. 5 year deal???
I'm getting down Ladbrokes to put a fiver on now. That said the odds are 1/10. So I won't win much.

[LeeB]

Who would have believed a month ago , Hutton, Lambert and Gabby getting new contracts.

The mind boggles.

Steven Ireland re-signed in January. 5 year deal???
I'm getting down Ladbrokes to put a fiver on now. That said the odds are 1/10. So I won't win much.

Who would have believed a month ago , Hutton, Lambert and Gabby getting new contracts.

The mind boggles.

Steven Ireland re-signed in January. 5 year deal???
I'm getting down Ladbrokes to put a fiver on now. That said the odds are 1/10. So I won't win much.

Steve Hodge to become club president.

[supertom]

Who would have believed a month ago , Hutton, Lambert and Gabby getting new contracts.

The mind boggles.

Steven Ireland re-signed in January. 5 year deal???
I'm getting down Ladbrokes to put a fiver on now. That said the odds are 1/10. So I won't win much.

Who would have believed a month ago , Hutton, Lambert and Gabby getting new contracts.

The mind boggles.

Steven Ireland re-signed in January. 5 year deal???
I'm getting down Ladbrokes to put a fiver on now. That said the odds are 1/10. So I won't win much.

Steve Hodge to become club president.

And a statue of David O Leary unveiled at Villa Park.

[adrenachrome]

Torygraph

If you get Aston Villa right it is a fantastic club and a massive one at that, says Paul Lambert

Exclusive interview: Paul Lambert has won Aston Villa's supporters back round after the club’s fine start to the season

By Henry Winter

8:18PM BST 19 Sep 2014

Paul Lambert was back at his old club, Borussia Dortmund this week, checking on Arsenal, who visit Villa Park on Saturday. Lambert, a Champions League winner with Dortmund, loved being in the raucous Westfalenstadion, even breaking off from his scouting work to savour the atmosphere emanating from the South tribune, the famed Yellow Wall.

“I was writing things down about Arsenal, their strengths and weaknesses, and looked up and looked at that end jumping up and down," said the Villa manager on Thursday, talking after training at Bodymoor Heath. “I thought before I leave this earth, I’m going in there. I was reading an interview with Marco Reus. He’s got a pact that one day he’ll go in that South tribune. I think it would be unbelievable. No pressure of thinking who you play next week. No pressure of which player you’re going to play. The only thing is: how the hell do you go to the toilet because you’d never get back in!

“I’ve been fortunate enough to play in front of the Dortmund crowd; and it has never wavered in its support, just like the other night. In Dortmund, the stadium is nearly full for the warm-up. They’ve always been there in their numbers, always backed the team."

When Lambert looks right out of his dug-out when Arsenal visit on Saturday, and sees a heaving Holte End, he can hear similarities with the Westfalenstadion. “Villa Park will generate the same atmosphere with lesser numbers. The Holte End could be like the Yellow Wall. The Holte End holds close to 14,000. That Dortmund end holds 26,000, fewer when the seats are in (for Europe). You want an end like that, flags, everything."

Eight months ago, some Aston Villa fans turned on Lambert, or simply did not turn up at games. He acknowledged the criticism as the team struggled. “I expect that if things aren’t going well. I don’t like seeing it going over the top, seeing banners, it’s not nice, but that’s football at times. I have to accept it. But, listen, the fans have been great with me. They come in their tens of thousands to watch us."

On Wednesday, Lambert signed a new contract. “With me signing again, the stability is there for the fans. I love being here. I won’t please everybody every minute of the day. But the 40,000 who’ll come on Saturday will be right behind us. They might now look at it and appreciate that, all right, it has been a really hard two years, but see what is going to happen now. If they stick with it, and stick with us, it will be a really good season.

“Villa are a massive club, massive. You don’t realize how big Villa are unless you’re actually inside. It has a fabulous support, right on you (demanding) all the time. I understand that because of the way the club is. It’s a great club, great facilities. A club this size that does not do as well as people think it should then you’re open for criticism. If you get it right, get it going, wow, it’s a fantastic club."

 Lambert occasionally looks left from the dug-out, at the words written large of the commentary celebrating Villa’s greatest moment: “Shaw, Williams... prepared to venture down the left. There’s a good ball in for Tony Morley. Oh, it must be and it is! It’s Peter Withe." That was the goal that won Villa the 1982 European Cup. “It’s great," reflected Lambert. “I remember watching that game. Big Peter scoring the goal. I’ve met the ‘82 lads. Obviously Gordon (Cowans) being here working. We had a dinner two years ago (the 30th anniversary) and we sat and spoke about football. Brilliant lads.

“Any club that wins the European Cup gives it more credence." Similarly, for a player who becomes a manager? “When you win the European Cup or Champions League, it gives you that back-up,’’ replied Lambert, a winner in 1997. “Nobody could ever say: ‘What have you done?’ I don’t need to go and broadcast it. It’s there. It’s the same with the ‘82 team. Those lads don’t broadcast it. I know exactly what they’ve done. I know what Gordon’s done. Villa’s history doesn’t frighten me. Not at all. I respect it. I actually embrace it, because I’ve been through it. I know how difficult it is to win the European Cup."

A will to win drove Lambert as a player, just as it does as a manager. “I’m always striving to be successful. I always want more. I win a game, I want to win the next game, always greedy. I was like that as a player, always wanted to win. I’m never happy to sit back and say ‘I’m content’ and just ‘stay in the league with Aston Villa’. That’s not my job. My job is to get Villa as big and far as we can go, have days like Anfield (last weekend), winning big games. I’d never be content. I want to do the best until the day I stop.

 “I don’t think you can be content as a manager. You always have to have an edge, that fear of ‘Jesus, hope I’m not next, the chairman’s coming for me’. I never want to lose that edge. It’s probably not healthy. The stress levels - oooph. I should actually go to that (LMA) ‘Fit for Life’ (health-check) thing, which I’ve not done for a few years.

“Management is getting harder, more stressful. Players are all different now. A manager is working with different cultures, different personalities. A manager has to know everything. Brian Clough used to say that ‘footballers think they can step out of football boots and go right into management, but once you step into a manager’s shoes you tend to find there’s a little bit more to it’. That’s spot on.

“I do sleep well but my mind still goes overtime. I wake up really early, thinking about football. I try to switch off the best I can. As soon as the Liverpool game finished my mind went right on to the Arsenal game. That’s not switching off I guess!"

When he reached the Premier League with Norwich in 2011, there were six other Scottish managers in the elite division, Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes, Kenny Dalglish, Alex McLeish, Owen Coyle and Steve Kean. Now, Lambert and Alan Irvine are the only Scots in a Premier League dug-out. “God, whether you are Scottish, English or foreign, there’s so much chopping and changing with managers. People used to say it’s a results-driven business. I don’t think it is any more because if you fall out with your owner or chairman, you’re (in trouble) regardless of how the results are going."

 He works well with Randy Lerner, the owner who seeks stability in this uncertain period as he tries to sell Villa. “If you ask me when I first came in here would I have had that kind of (trusting) relationship with an owner, I’d probably say you don’t,’’ said Lambert, who endured an awkward relationship with the Norwich chief executive, David McNally. “The Norwich thing went the way it did,’’ Lambert added diplomatically.

“Coming here, working with a guy who genuinely has the football club at heart, we get on really well. He tells me how it is, good, bad or indifferent. He doesn’t hide behind any trees. I like that. I respect him for what he’s done for this club. I respect it is a business as well. We can’t go and spend £45m on a player but he has never once turned me down to go and get a player. If I said to him ‘can I go and get him in’, he’ll say right ‘OK, find out what it is’. If it’s too dear, he’ll say ‘listen it’s too dear’. But if he thinks it’s right, he’ll go and do it. I’ve always respected the restraints on him as well. The two of us over the years have built that trust."

Lerner backed Lambert in difficult times when some Villa fans wanted sacked. “Yes, he’s been excellent, when the truth be known he could have (got rid of Lambert)." Lambert dealt with the pressure of that time, through his innate strength of character and a belief that Lambert was not going to sack him. “Probably a bit of both. He recognized the good things we’d done on and off the pitch.

“He said: ‘the first year is going to be the hardest of your career’. He forgot to mention the second one! We have a joke about that, even now. He sees the funny side of it. Hopefully now you see the fruits of this through what is happening now."

 Villa are second, having won three, drawn one, scoring four times and conceding only once. Philippe Senderos, a free signing, and Alan Hutton, back in favour with an incentivized deal, have excelled in repelling opponents. “Every time I saw Senderos at Fulham, I never saw him having a bad game," said Lambert. “I went over to Switzerland to watch the Swiss train and he organised things. He knows the game.

“He can’t be a bad player if he’s been at Arsenal, AC Milan, Valencia and been to World Cups. Not many players can turn round to him and say: ‘well where did your career go?’ He must have been good enough at those clubs for them to go ‘listen, right, you’re in with us’. I’m no different. I see a lad with really high professionalism." With a point to prove? "He probably has. Since he’s been here his performances have been extremely high. He’s never let me down, never let anyone down."

Hutton was overlooked as Villa went down the path of recruiting cheaper, lower-league players. "I never had a cross word with him," said Lambert. "It’s not as if we were at loggerheads, or ignored each other in the corridor. It was: ‘How are ye?’ ‘OK.’ ‘Keep hanging in’. Everybody knew about the first two years with the (tightened) finances, and we had to generate a squad here. It was not just Alan; there were a few lads in that category. Now it’s a totally different ball-game. Alan has come back in, and the way he has performed, and his professionalism, for country as well, has been excellent."

 Lambert takes pride from Fabian Delph’s England debut, although admitting surprise it has taken so long. "Fabian was playing well last season. He was worth having a look even in a friendship game then. But the only guy that matters is Roy Hodgson. I’m glad Fabian’s now got a chance with England and he got in the team. The next thing is to stay in it.

"Fabian’s been great since he came back from England, humble, no problem at all. If anything, he’s come back even more mellowed. England has done him the world of good. Fabian’s young, his performances are getting bigger and better, and if he can sustain that, he can become a right top player."

Arsenal will provide a significant test on Saturday but will not appreciate the sight of a former nemesis, Roy Keane, striding through the tunnel, heading to the home dug-out. "Bringing Roy here was my call,’’ said Lambert. "Roy’s in here to help me, somebody I can lean on, a strong personality. Scott Marshall is in with us as well. We bounce everything off each other. Ultimately it will be my decision on what we do and how we do it but those lads are great with their opinions.

"It was a loss to the game when Roy was on TV. I felt Roy had a lot more to offer than just being a TV pundit. He’s somebody I can trust. He’s got a great football knowledge. I don’t think there’s a fear of Roy, there’s massive respect for he did and was like as a player."

"People think Roy is ‘quite scary’. I’ve never found that maybe because I’m a strong character myself. I played against Roy. We knew that Manchester United at that time had great players. But I played with big players in that Dortmund team. There was never any inferiority complex that we were playing Manchester United. The German mindset was: ‘let’s go and win’."

 Lambert believes the English have much to learn from the Germans, particularly in developing this winning edge. "The Germans were very professional in the way they worked. They weren’t cold. People have a perception of Germans as being straight-faced but the dressing-room I was in loved a laugh, dear oh dearie. Karl-Heinz Riedle liked a laugh, so did Andy Moller and Jurgen Kohler.

"When they went on to the pitch they became professional. It was a job and that was what you had to focus on. Germans treat football as a massive job, and that reflects on their national team as well as their club teams. I don’t think the balance is right over here at the minute. We are not too far behind it but there’s still a bit to go.

"I wasn’t surprised when they became world champions. I know their mentality. They will come off the pitch having won 1-0, might not have played well, and go ‘no problem, we’ve won’. They’ll never be over-analytical because the name of the game is to win. I went to watch them against Argentina in Dusseldorf. Argentina were fantastic, and that was without Lionel Messi. For the Germans it was a kind of celebration for the World Cup, and some players retiring, and they got beaten convincingly but I always knew that when it mattered, they’d win."

So when Germany began qualifying for Euro 2016, taking on Scotland, that winning mind-set kicked in again. "Whether they beat Scotland heavily or not, and Scotland did great against them, the Germans came off the pitch, winning, going ‘that’s it what’s about’.” The win was secured by Thomas Muller, who’d scored twice, then hauling back Shaun Maloney, who was breaking through late on. "Absolutely, but over there it’s your job." Do the English have to learn that Muller mentality? "I think so, yes. Cynical. Yes. You’ve got to be."

It’s about winners. "When Lukas Podolski came on for Arsenal the Germans all clapped him. Because they had won the World Cup. I’m not so sure you’d get that here. That was a really nice touch." Those Dortmund fans. Lambert cannot wait to be amongst them one day; in the meantime, he wants Villa Park to rival the Westfalenstadion for atmosphere, starting against Arsenal.

[Dante Lavelli]

Good article that.  I really like the bloke, I'm just not certain he's a good manager.

[garyfouroaks]

We might do better, we could do much worse.

Keano has added the fear factor into the dressing room. So far . so good.

[dave.woodhall]

Yet again, someone who didn't know how big this club is until he arrived.

[OCD]

We really need to improve our PR.

[QBVILLA]

I've seen quite a few threads on here crediting our good start to the influence of Roy Keane. It's a fair comment I suppose, but were the defeats to Arsenal and Orient also down to him or was that Lambert's fault?
I've said all along that I couldn't see any manager choosing to sign lower league players if he was given the choice between them and Premier league players. His signings have been slagged off, but the fact he also signed Benteke and Vlaar seems to get forgotten when this argument is raised and should those two be sold we'd be looking at a good £30m profit. Yes there are some things he has got badly wrong. Getting rolled out of cup competitions by lower league opposition shouldn't happen, every now and again you can excuse it but not every bloody time. However, whilst 15th place in the league isn't good enough for a club of Villa's stature it was in my opinion an achievement last season with the squad at his disposal. I can't see another manager doing a better job in the current circumstances and I see the contract extension as a positive.

[LeeB]

I've seen quite a few threads on here crediting our good start to the influence of Roy Keane. It's a fair comment I suppose, but were the defeats to Arsenal and Orient also down to him or was that Lambert's fault?
I've said all along that I couldn't see any manager choosing to sign lower league players if he was given the choice between them and Premier league players. His signings have been slagged off, but the fact he also signed Benteke and Vlaar seems to get forgotten when this argument is raised and should those two be sold we'd be looking at a good £30m profit. Yes there are some things he has got badly wrong. Getting rolled out of cup competitions by lower league opposition shouldn't happen, every now and again you can excuse it but not every bloody time. However, whilst 15th place in the league isn't good enough for a club of Villa's stature it was in my opinion an achievement last season with the squad at his disposal. I can't see another manager doing a better job in the current circumstances and I see the contract extension as a positive.

I heartily agree.

[dcdavecollett]

Spot on.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Thirded.
UTV!

[Ian.]

Yeah me too, good post QB.