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

[cdbearsfan]

Get him gone, get Hoddle in until the summer - offer a hefty bonus for keeping us up - at least we could have confidence that they are being coached...

...by a bigoted scumbag. No ta.

[joe_c]

There have been numerous comparions with Graham Turner but who he reminds me of is (and I thought as much at the time of his appointment before dismissing it in a fit of optimism) Mark McGhee who for the benefit of any youngsters had a similar start to his managerial career and enjoyed some success at some of the lesser lights in the lower leagues, leaving in acrimonious circumstances in short order before floundering on the rocks of expectations beyond his capabilities at a major club. Well, Wolves.

[PeterWithesShin]

Wasn't McGhee with Wolves in the Championship though?

[Damo70]

Wasn't McGhee with Wolves in the Championship though?

Never trust a McGhee. Didn't he leave Reading and Leicester acrimoniously? I never liked the way Jack McGhee stalked The Incredible Hulk and don't get me started on how Henry McGhee treated The Honey Monster.

[PeterWithesShin]

Wasn't McGhee with Wolves in the Championship though?

Never trust a McGhee. Didn't he leave Reading and Leicester acrimoniously? I never liked the way Jack McGhee stalked The Incredible Hulk and don't get me started on how Henry McGhee treated The Honey Monster.

And what did Debbie McGee see in the millionaire Paul Daniels?

[Damo70]

Don't forget the bloke in the cartoons who blamed everything on his eyesight. (It sort of works if you say it quickly in a Scottish accent).

[joe_c]

Wasn't McGhee with Wolves in the Championship though?

Yeah but it was during the era that Hayward was throwing money at them in a bid to get promoted which he failed to do. His "golden tit" comment was directed at McGhee.

[adrenachrome]

Brum Mail

Should Aston Villa sack Paul Lambert? Yes, now!

Mat Kendrick delivers a no-hold barred verdict on Paul Lambert and says it is time for Aston Villa to relieve him of his duties

Remember the Paul Lambert who breezed into Villa Park with a self-assured swagger, bold promises to play exciting football and a reputation as one of the brightest young managers in the game?

Whatever happened to him?

In his place stands a cautious, battle-weary pale imitation of that man. Villa are seemingly damaging him every bit as much he is damaging Villa .

Perhaps this is the way it is destined to be - a long, lifeless slog towards 38 points each year, with goals deemed a luxury item rather than a necessity.

After all 38 0-0 draws would do it.

His task in keeping Villa in the Premier League has certainly covered a multitude of sins and papered over the cracks - and he finally admitted when the going got tough last season that survival was the height of the club’s ambitions.

It might be good enough for the chairman and the manager, but it is not good enough for the claret and blue fanbase.

Villa are not even taking the scenic route to mediocrity and have recently been dubbed the most boring team in Premier League history.

Whether planned protests take off or not - and Lambert is more than capable of emptying the Holte by himself - demonstrations on top of the recent anti-Lambert chants show fans have reached the end of their tether.

Despite previously displaying remarkable restraint they have been accused of being fickle for finally losing patience with the man they excitedly serenaded at Norwich during the final day of the McLeish era.

But this is not the Lambert Villa fans thought they were getting. Surely if something is not as advertised and is malfunctioning then the best course of action is to dispose of it?

“He’s a wishy washy manager,” is the most apt description I’ve heard from a Villa fan.

Wishy washy, illogical, a walking contradiction.

From young and hungry and foreign finds to old and experienced.

From long-ball counter-attack to possession-based counter-productive.   

From “The only stat you need to know is you have to try and win games - that’s the name of the game.” to “We had 752 passes against Blackpool and we had 69 per cent possession.”

Maybe he should be credited for trying different approaches in the quest for a winning formula? But if he gets fed up of his own philosophies what chance have the rest of us got?

I accept there have been difficult circumstances - from cash constraints, to a disinterested chairman, injuries, suspensions and so on.

But even taking into account all of those things - he should be doing better.

He is not solely the problem, but neither is he the solution.

This is not a knee-jerk reaction. He has taken charge of 97 Premier League matches, which have yielded 97 goals.

That’s just one goal a game - and while we would gladly take any goal right now, that is a shocking statistic to add to a charge sheet of shocking statistics.

Maybe the confusion on (Tom) Fox News earlier this week was that parts of Birmingham were becoming no goal areas populated entirely by must wins?

The points tally is no better. 101 points from 97 games. That’s an average of under 40 points a season.

If Lambert deserves credit for keeping Villa up, then so do their perennial saviours - three worse clubs.

Lambert has broken so many records that he would probably choose the late Norris McWhirter as his next assistant manager were he still around.

Speaking of number twos, to lose one may be regarded as misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness.

Having one armed tied behind his back is no excuse for the strait-jacket he has inflicted on Villa this season, and this with a group of players he has described as his strongest squad.

Right now they are performing less than the sum of their parts.

If Big Ron’s swashbuckling Villa reflected their manager’s bubbly personality, then so too are Lambert’s Villa playing in the Glaswegian’s image.

Never mind ‘strange’ comments in the name of self preservation, trust me, six-year-old boys falling in love with football don’t care for lame explanations about expectations or realism, they want to see goals. And the same goes for their mums, dads, brothers, sisters and so on.

It costs money to watch this. It is supposed to be entertainment.

Instead we get a manager inhibited by fear, drilling players to be so robotic they are barely capable of free thought. Off-the-cuff is off the menu. Even after the Guardiola pep talks it lurches between functional and dysfunctional.

Lambert gives the impression it is acceptable to be also-rans, taking defeats and dismal performances as ‘our lot’, when Villa Park is crying out for a manager who seethes when standards drop even a fraction below the absolute maximum.

He has become better at excuse management than actual football management.

Calling for him to be sacked is probably futile. But this is a change that can be made within the football club, whereas the stuttering search for a buyer relies on outside influences. A quick glance down the road - in either direction - shows that things can improve by replacing the unpopular figures in the dugout even if the unpopular figures in the boardroom remain.

Sometimes to re-energise a flailing football club it just takes a can-do attitude, an increase in tempo, a tweak to the tactics, a fresh perspective that a new manager can bring.

If Lambert isn’t prepared to take a risk then Lerner must because right now keeping faith is becoming an even bigger gamble.

Maybe the suffocating nature of the job would have the same effect on whoever next clutches the claret and blue chalice...

But without hope, Aston Villa are simply hopeless.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Bloody good article that.
Not always a Kendrick fan, but he is Villa and has the club's interest at heart, and he tells a few home truths there very clearly.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Kendrick is at his best when speaking straight from the heart. Spot on. Its not personal with Lambert, its just time. Lerner needs to act now. It may truly be his last chance to keep us up.

[Matt C]

Those first three sentences say it all.

[Californian Villain]

Brum Mail

Should Aston Villa sack Paul Lambert? Yes, now!

Mat Kendrick delivers a no-hold barred verdict on Paul Lambert and says it is time for Aston Villa to relieve him of his duties

Remember the Paul Lambert who breezed into Villa Park.......

That article is almost a month old.....and still perfectly valid.

[brian green]

We have brought all this on ourselves. We have been prepared (there's a fine Freudian slip) in large swathes of the fan base to make nice and accept humiliation piled on humiliation piled on yet more humiliation at the hands of this manager. Time and time again Lambert has dodged the proper consequences of his incompetence. Chelsea, Bradford, Sheffield, Millwall, Orient, Arsenal, the bomb squad, the (alleged) bullying, the humiliation of Marc Albrighton, young and hungry, old and knackered, hoofball, sidewaysball, boasting about reduced expectations, media gaffes, the Keane fiasco, all of this and more has engulfed the club without action being taken against him and swallowed with the bogus palliative that he has had no money to spend.
Now, when it is too late and even the Lambert apologists are facing what has been blindingly obvious for most of Lambert's tenure, he may be held to account, when the damage has been done.
Lambert's stay has been a classic example of an executive lacking the judgement and the courage to take action when it was needed, preferring to tolerate failure because it could be passed off as patience. Stagnation and rottenness got a quick squirt of PR deodorant and has been presented as the pursuit of stability.
In life you get what you are prepared to put up with. We put up with it, we have got it.

[manic-road]

By the time I get home from work today he had better be out of our club.

[pbavfckuwait]

The I don't hate Lambert personally thing, with me has now well and truly gone, I hate the fu..ing man and this is why.
A person with one ounce of integrity and self analysis would see that the job has run away from them, that despite what ever they try to do it is not getting better, in fact it is getting worse. He states that he realises what a big club we are, but seems set on a path of destruction, that he has no valid answers on how to change that.
No managers dont do the decent thing and resign anymore, even when their incompetence is there for all to see, I think if he did resign some goodwill from the Villa support would be forthcoming, but as we are now in the shitty world of football that is today, surely a mutual consent departure needs to be arranged.