Paul Lambert - a retrospective

[Damo70]

His record at Livingston, Wycombe and Colchester was very average. His record at Norwich was excellent and a hark back to the SGT and Dave Bassett days at Watford and Wimbledon. I wasn't as keen on his appointment as some but there was something to suggest he might be the next bright thing in management. His recruitment could be described as 'scatter gun'. Like playing a football management game on a computer with a limited budget and taking a load of punts. His punts were more losers than winners. His record was dire, that is why we remember the rare good days so vividly. I don't like to praise TSM before him too much, but at least when we were in the shit he pulled a Robbie Keane out of the bag as opposed to a Grant Holt.

[ktvillan]

Not sure if it was all down to him or his so called scouts but most of the players he "unearthed" , with the exception of Benteke, Vlaar and maybe Lowton were either mediocre or utter shite.   Driftwood, KEA, Tonev, Helenius, Luna, Bennett, Bowery, Sylla,Richardson and then ultimately, desperately, crocks and has beens like Cole and Senderos.   He may not have had a huge budget to play with but I reckon a chimp could have used 90% of it more wisely when it came to spotting young and hungry players with talent.  He's hardly been in massive demand since leaving us, which says a lot.   

[Damo70]

You can take a punt on a crock like Andy Carroll or a bad boy like Joey Barton or a youngster untried at the top level but you can't base your entire transfer policy on risky punts that come into any of those three categories.

[Matt Collins]

His first summer's business looked fantastic by the way the end of his first season. Lowton, Westwood and even Sylla were all playing very well. We were playing really good football too

That following summer almost every buy was poor, and the style changed to a much more dour and combative style. Lots of players didn't progress or went backwards.  We got more and more defensive over the next 18 months. Then he completely lost it and decided we could play a slow possession game with zero creative players, which was just never going to work

By the end the squad was clearly under achieving as Sherwood proved pretty immediately

[pauliewalnuts]

His first summer's business looked fantastic by the way the end of his first season. Lowton, Westwood and even Sylla were all playing very well. We were playing really good football too

That following summer almost every buy was poor, and the style changed to a much more dour and combative style. Lots of players didn't progress or went backwards.  We got more and more defensive over the next 18 months. Then he completely lost it and decided we could play a slow possession game with zero creative players, which was just never going to work

By the end the squad was clearly under achieving as Sherwood proved pretty immediately

It is often forgotten that after that first season, despite it being largely awful in terms of league position, he managed to maintain huge levels of support from the fans.

[saunders_heroes]

His first summer's business looked fantastic by the way the end of his first season. Lowton, Westwood and even Sylla were all playing very well. We were playing really good football too

That following summer almost every buy was poor, and the style changed to a much more dour and combative style. Lots of players didn't progress or went backwards.  We got more and more defensive over the next 18 months. Then he completely lost it and decided we could play a slow possession game with zero creative players, which was just never going to work

By the end the squad was clearly under achieving as Sherwood proved pretty immediately

I remember watching us in a pre season friendly at Forest and being absolutely horrified watching the hosts run rings around our new signings from the lower leagues. I knew we were in trouble there and then.
I try not to think of Lambert these days. He should have been sacked after the Chelsea humiliation, but let’s face it even if he was it wouldn’t have made a difference in the long run. Lerner had already given up and our eventual relegation would have happened whoever was in charge.
Absolutely dreadful period in the history of this club.

[mr underhill]

he just about avoids being placed in a pantheon of Villa shysters and charlatans for the sole act of bringing Benteke to the club - which kept him and us from being swallowed whole for three years.

[aj2k77]

A lot of people bought into the young and hungry, give him time bullshit. Believing what they want to believe rather than the proof of their own eyes, which was that we were shit in almost his entire reign give or take a period of about 9 games.

[CT]

he just about avoids being placed in a pantheon of Villa shysters and charlatans for the sole act of bringing Benteke to the club - which kept him and us from being swallowed whole for three years.

Agreed. The man who threw his fellow coaches under a bus to save himself and the man who came back from Germany with the idea of playing the ball to our own corner flag from a goal kick. This to two full backs who weren't very confident, or even very good.

65% possession running around in circles and going backwards, lose a game 2-0 and he saw it as progress.

[in exile]

...Grant Holt.

Signed for Kings Lynn on Friday

[sickbeggar]

I have some sympathy, though not much, for both him and TSM in retrospect. They were both bought in to keep us up on a budget as a selling club. Both had got smaller clubs in the premiership and to be honest most people would jump at the chance to do exactly the same job with more money, better facilities etc.. Unfortunately there's very little difference between a club with no money getting 30+k attendances and one getting 20+k and its very hard building a premiership team on the premise of picking up bargain lower league and foreign players. You have to put this into the context at the time that our chief executive was seriously planning to build our future based on what AJAX were doing! Utter mentalism then and now. Having said that, anyone with ambition to get to the top in management would have looked at Villa's plans and said no thank you in the interview. Lambert presumably needed the money or thought he'd never get a similar chance.

[Damo70]

...Grant Holt.

Signed for Kings Lynn on Friday

Has he taken up speedway racing?

[in exile]

...Grant Holt.

Signed for Kings Lynn on Friday

Has he taken up speedway racing?

He'd need a trike with his ass!

[KevinGage]

Surely enough time has now past we can have a clearer perspective of him?

Kept Norwich, us*, Blackburn & Wolves all up. Survival specialist on a budget? Was brought in to do just that?

According to the man himself and Faulkner, no.

He was reticent to mention targets when he first arrived, but shortly after the 3-1 away win v Liverpool the talk was of how apparently everything had be geared to top 6 and a return to European football within two years.  And he knew that was his remit.

Yet when he left, it had all been about staying up and he knew that all along too.

And as others have said, this is a guy who thought we were 'excellent' most weeks.

If Paul Lambert said good morning to me, I'd go outside to check what time of day it was.

[saunders_heroes]

A lot of people bought into the young and hungry, give him time bullshit. Believing what they want to believe rather than the proof of their own eyes, which was that we were shit in almost his entire reign give or take a period of about 9 games.

Hear hear!