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

[Ian.]

Good god, we have scored 11 goals in 21 league games. Surely if this man had any respect or dignity he'd walk for that stat alone?

Would you, in all seriousness, walk out on a million pounds?

Depends how wealthy you are I suppose. I'd like to think the manager and chairman would sit down and negotiate a pay off that suited both sides. Looks likes its all or nothing though.

Surely he's now a wealthy man? He will get another job. This can't be fun for him either.
Sometimes the hat does not fit, I hope Lambert can realise this and resign.

Putting it another way, would you forfeit a year's pay, even of you did have another job to go to?

I suppose it would depend on my health, my families opinion and job satisfaction.

He must be starting to feel like this is not working and feeling the strain. It can't be enjoyable anymore.

[Richard E]

He shouldn't have to resign, it's not his fault he was given a 4 year deal. Lerner made that ridiculous decision and now he has to pay the price.

Resigning shouldn't come into it. He should be handed his cards whether he wants them or not.

[bertlambshank]

He will only resign when the abuse gets too much.

[Concrete John]

I posted this in the wrong thread.

This team should not be shit, thats my problem, they should be easily good enough to be comfortable. That might bring the odd silly defeat, the odd brilliant win but overall generally ok.
We're not though we are terrible to watch, maybe hard to beat but above all boring and toothless.
This has to be Lambert's fault. He's made us solid at last but that's taken 3 years, I can not wait 3 years for us to to crack the object of scoring.

He has to go now.

This. The group of players we have could be anywhere between 6-10th if properly coached and motivated.

This buffoon makes sure we're always looking over our shoulders at the bottom three. Now that we've decided goals aren't a priority I think we can almost guarantee this will be THE year.

Not a chance is our squad anywhere near that good. 10th at best in my opinion, and a better manager would get it out of them.

We lack good quality attacking midfielders.  If you imagine a 4-2-3-1 formation, it's the 3 where we're most lacking.  Get that sorted and we've probably got a squad to challenge for a Europa League spot.  As it is, we're a mid table side who are currently lower mid table and at best are upper mid table, so from a pure results and league position viewpoint a managerial change will not make a massive difference without more investment in the squad.

[dave.woodhall]

He must be starting to feel like this is not working and feeling the strain. It can't be enjoyable anymore.

I've always thought that to be a football manager you have to be incredibly driven and egotistical, which means that all struggling managers think they will turn things round eventually.

[andyh]

He must be starting to feel like this is not working and feeling the strain. It can't be enjoyable anymore.

I've always thought that to be a football manager you have to be incredibly driven and egotistical, which means that all struggling managers think they will turn things round eventually.

You are quite right, and that's when someone needs to put you out of your misery and let you 'smell the roses'.

[Ian.]

He must be starting to feel like this is not working and feeling the strain. It can't be enjoyable anymore.

I've always thought that to be a football manager you have to be incredibly driven and egotistical, which means that all struggling managers think they will turn things round eventually.

Your probably right, it's not often you see someone walk from the job in this game.
Amazing to think we've had Saunders, Taylor and Little quit us though. All three for different reasons but all three we would not have wanted for it to happen.

[SoccerHQ]

The abuse has never reached Pardew or McLeish levels really so I think I could stomach a few boos and insults when walking down the touchline at the end.

When 40k are all screaming abuse at you as could happen next week, different story.

That said deep down Lambert knows he isn't getting another prem job after us and he'd have to get another team promoted to get back up into the premier league which probably dosen't look that appealing after managing in this league for the past 4 years.

What gets me though is that completely idiotic and knee jerk reaction to get him a new contract straight after the Liverpool game.

It was FOUR games. And even in that was a dour 0-0 at home to Newcastle which hinted at our dismal goalscoring this season.

I said at the time my instinct was it was knee jerk and we should've waited until xmas/new year to see if the bloke can actually keep the good form up for a few months.

As it is we could've comfortably paid him off now with 6 months left rather than 3 and a half.

[saunders_heroes]

That 4 year deal just shows how little knows or cares about football. Anyone with a bit of footballing nouse on the board would have told Lerner how crazy that deal was, but sadly there's no one on the board level who knows jack shit about the buisness they're in.
Oh for a Steve Stride.

[N'ZMAV]

Lambert has had an easy ride off the national press. The local press have started turning against him, Mat Kendrick and Pat Murphy have had enough of him now. If Pardew and Newcastle had had this run the red tops would have been all over it. God knows how Lambert is getting away with it.

[pauliewalnuts]

Lerner has given us some pretty conclusive proof this season that, no matter what side of the atlantic, and no matter which sport, he is equally clueless.

Just utterly clueless.

[McGraths Dry Cleaning]

I think today is the turning point - i'm expecting the mood on Saturday to be ugly. My mood is ugly and I intend to vocalise that at VP on Saturday. I have three sons under the age of 4 and I want them to love the Villa like me but the club need to do their bit and make a fist of being a competitive football team.

[pauliewalnuts]

This is how we sacked McLeish.

Read this, and then see how the reasons they gave for binning him after the one season can possibly not be said to apply to Lambert after 2.5 seasons?

How can the man be anywhere near a job with us with his record?

Aston Villa can confirm that Alex McLeish's contract has been terminated with immediate effect.

The club has been disappointed with this season's results, performances and the general message these have sent to our fans.

The board wishes to assure supporters that we are conscious in every sense that Villa expects and deserves more and we will strive to deliver this.

Villa chairman Randy Lerner said: "We need to be clear and candid with ourselves and with supporters about what we have lacked in recent years.

"Compelling play and results that instil a sense of confidence that Villa is on the right track have been plainly absent.

"The most immediate action that we can take is to look carefully at our options in terms of bringing in a new manager who sees the club's potential and embraces our collective expectations."

Chief Executive Paul Faulkner said: "We'd like to thank Alex for his hard work and efforts throughout this tough season.

"We are mindful of the club's need to prepare thoroughly for the new campaign and for the new manager to be able to begin working with the board so that he is quickly immersed in these preparations and also in the long-term objectives of the club.

"Our focus now will be driven by these imperatives and we will update when appropriate."

[pauliewalnuts]

I think today is the turning point - i'm expecting the mood on Saturday to be ugly. My mood is ugly and I intend to vocalise that at VP on Saturday. I have three sons under the age of 4 and I want them to love the Villa like me but the club need to do their bit and make a fist of being a competitive football team.

We had that decent opening four results this season, but after that it has just looked increasingly poor.

I am now starting to think that it'll be impossible to maintain this scoring record and not get relegated.

You could say "well, we probably won't maintain this scoring record", but the problem with that is that in pretty much every single one of the matches over the last couple of months in which we've failed to score, it isn't as if we've really looked like scoring.

Today we wouldn't have scored if we'd carried on playing until now, for example.

If Lambert is still here come the end of January, I'll be having a few bob on us to go down, we are that bad.

[Jon Crofts]

I think today is the turning point - i'm expecting the mood on Saturday to be ugly. My mood is ugly and I intend to vocalise that at VP on Saturday. I have three sons under the age of 4 and I want them to love the Villa like me but the club need to do their bit and make a fist of being a competitive football team.

We had that decent opening four results this season, but after that it has just looked increasingly poor.

I am now starting to think that it'll be impossible to maintain this scoring record and not get relegated.

You could say "well, we probably won't maintain this scoring record", but the problem with that is that in pretty much every single one of the matches over the last couple of months in which we've failed to score, it isn't as if we've really looked like scoring.

Today we wouldn't have scored if we'd carried on playing until now, for example.

If Lambert is still here come the end of January, I'll be having a few bob on us to go down, we are that bad.

Too late by then I'd have thought, we'll be odds on.