Managing the club was like being on death row says Paul Lambert

[pauliewalnuts]

The reason I didn't like the "he's thick" line of attack was because it reduced it to what could be perceived as a personal attack on the bloke himself, rather than the job he was doing.

If that happens, I think it devalues the other criticisms.

I agree entirely on the stuff like the bomb squad and his "I just do" nonsense, but I don't see that as evidence if him being some sort of jibbering dimwit, I see it as him not being very good at his job.

The thing he used to say which drove me most nuts was after we'd just failed dismally against some shit side, and usually failed to fashion a shot on target, he'd tell the media he couldn't have asked for any more from the team, and we were "excellent".

[RussellC]

If his "we go again" rhetoric grated on the fans, imagine how little motivational impact it must have had on the players.

I'd love to be able to sit-down with Lambert - and more so than any other ex-Villa manager and ask him some questions. I think my top 5 would be;

1) Was anything, ever, done on the training ground to address the issue of us not being able to retain possession of the football for longer than 1 second from our own throw-ins?
2) Whose decision was it to sign Senderos instead of Lescott?
3) Whose idea was the Bomb Squad?
4) Did you not think that a winger might be a useful addition to the squad after spending £15m on 2 6ft 3inch strikers?
5) Andi Weimann. Discuss.

[pauliewalnuts]

re the bomb squad, I'd love to know whose idea that was. If it was Lambert's then, really, he should have known better. If it was Faulkner's, then Lambert should have stood up for himself and pointed out how stupid it was.

Worse than that, though, was the situation with Culverhouse and Karsa. We start hearing stories of how they're being bullies, and how they're coaching us in long ball tactics, how BMH isn't a nice place to work.

Either Lambert knew about that or he didn't. If he did, and they were acting on his instructions, then that is really pretty damning. If he didn't know about it, then that is just as bad - not knowing that your assistants are doing at your training ground?

[Monty]

Not to mention the 'I call them "number tens" I do' moment.

[Jimbo]

The reason I didn't like the "he's thick" line of attack was because it reduced it to what could be perceived as a personal attack on the bloke himself, rather than the job he was doing.

If that happens, I think it devalues the other criticisms.

I agree entirely on the stuff like the bomb squad and his "I just do" nonsense, but I don't see that as evidence if him being some sort of jibbering dimwit, I see it as him not being very good at his job.

The thing he used to say which drove me most nuts was after we'd just failed dismally against some shit side, and usually failed to fashion a shot on target, he'd tell the media he couldn't have asked for any more from the team, and we were "excellent".

There's no doubt a lot of that criticism was born of frustration on the fans part. But it went beyond Lambert being bad at his job. Just listen to what he says, even when the pressure's off, and I guarantee you'll struggle to find anything that sounds remotely insightful or intelligent.

Now he's refusing to shoulder any responsibility for his own failings, or acknowledge and learn from his mistakes, which is another classic sign of low intelligence. I'm no Einstein, but when I fuck up I hold my hands up and try to find out where I went wrong. I haven't heard Lambert accept he got it badly wrong once. His team were always 'excellent', which infers that he was also excellent. They weren't, they were shit; he was shit.

[RussellC]

He must have been a written-journalist's nightmare. Imagine trying to paraphrase some of his interviews. Even on the official site there'd be articles that were effectively 3 paragraphs of him repeating the same sentence over and over again.

[Proposition Joe]

In my time supporting Villa, we were very rarely thrashed. Sometimes well beaten, not usually thrashed. The worst thing about Lambert's reign was that we were thrashed so often we became numbed to them.

For me, the 8-0 alone was sackable. Wasn't that to a Benitez team too? Benitez! A manager as negative as Mourinho, thus giving us the infamous Shit on a Stick derby.

[TimTheVillain]

Anyone who went to the mighty Leicester last season will know how dire we were away from home.

How many games did we go 'unwinning' ??

Worst manager I've witnessed at VP ever, and that's saying something.

[OzVilla]

He should be so ashamed of his record at the Vila ,particularly last season with all the broken record and the transformation Sherwood gave with the same players, that I'm amazed he's had the gall to even mention us. 

If I were him I'd be wanting to talk about anything but my record at the Villa.  Idiot.

[Pete]

It's telling that Sherwood reorganised and effectively transformed the side with a five minute team talk at half time against Leicester in the cup before he'd even officially started. That second half was the first decent football we'd seen in months.

[Big Dick Edwards]

Worst manager I've witnessed at VP ever, and that's saying something.

You must be too young to remember Graham Turner. He took over the team that won the European Cup and in very quick time turned us into a relegation-bound shambles.

[CT Villan]

Wasn't Turner just an Ellis puppet who was used to dismantle our team so Mr Aston Villa didn't have to be reminded of our success every time he watched ?

Lambert is just rewriting history in an attempt to get a job - I am trying to remember correctly but wasn't there a story at one point indicating that Lerner had provided transfer money and Lambert chose not to spend it ?

[dave shelley]

The 8-0 humiliation was the moment you realise you could possibly have a Poltergeist in the house.  Follow that up with the Bradford/Millwall debacles then you know for sure you have a ghost.  Season two that ghost had turned into a full-blown demon and season three was when the fucker should have been exorcised well before he was!

[john e]

two best things Lambert did whilst at Villa

1 - Buying Benteke

2 - Him and Keane telling Mourinho to fuck of when he wanted to shake hands early

 that's basically it

[David_Nab]

His comments on Randy are pretty low IMO.We all know the constraints ( Lambert was given alot of slack because of that) but now he wants to play some kind of hero who protected Randy and now he is just letting the truth out.There is one truth Paul and that's any other owner would of sacked you 18 months earlier at the least.

These comments are purely to repair his own reputation which has been destroyed by his time at Villa but I doubt they will get him very far.He was as bad as any manager I can remember ( I'm 34) and no manager bar GT in my time has done anything of significance after managing Villa.

On purely lack of funds I can accept like most struggling against the prem giants of Chelsea , Man City etc ..but I'm sure the managers of clubs like Millwall, Bradford and Shef United could educate him on real financial constraints !!.IIRC Bradford beat us with a squad costing of free transfers and signings they were less than half of Darren's Bents weekly wage !!

After his initial statement after being sacked every comment he makes about Villa seems bitter and somewhat deluded.