Paul Lambert

I was absolutely delighted when we appointed Paul Lambert as our manager. That summer, when Rogers, Martinez and Lambert were the hot properties in football management, I remember boasting that we'd got the pick of them. I felt he had something the other two didn't; that he was better tactically and would bring something from the German game to the villa job.

I guess our faith in Lambert has been dented by some of the worst elements of last season, and by the way things went so flat this year, but should we put those things down to his inexperience and the constraints he is working under or should we just cut our losses while we can get out without being stung for too much compo?

Personally, I see him as an enigma. He has many of the things I have always wanted in a villa manager: faith in youth, willing to try new things like the diamond formation, a refreshing approach to scouting. Yet, he disappoints me regularly. Our insipid performances make me question whether or not he can motivate his players (remember this strategy was supposed to be about young, hungry, motivated players!), if he can tactically match other managers in the league and most importantly, if he actually has a coherent philosophy which we are trying to implement.

The jury is really out for me. I want him to succeed, but I don't know if he can....Thoughts?

I see Lambert as failing at the moment, we are far to inconsistent. How can we destroy a team like Norwich in a 20 odd minute spell of football and not do the same to other clubs down at the bottom.
It looks like a confidence issue to me, the confidence seems to seep out of the team when he gets it tactically wrong.

I just don't buy it/him. He's as tactically inept as MON was. Culverhouse is clueless, sitting next to the dugout you see just what an inept arse he is. He couldn't motivate a fart out of me after fifteen pints of lager and a vindaloo.

I just wish we had a player that could put bums on seats a number 10 star player.

The thing with Lambert is that I really wanted him to be the manager to steady a sinking ship and then progress us as a club.
Sadly he is either not capable to do this or is not being allowed to spend the cash to do so.

I'm no fan. Bradford last season was bad, but look at what our FA Cup run would've been this year:

R3 Sheffield Utd
R4 Fulham
R5 Sheffield We'd
QF Charlton
SF Hull

With Arsenal/Wigan in final

Bazz wrote:I'm no fan. Bradford last season was bad, but look at what our FA Cup run would've been this year:

R3 Sheffield Utd
R4 Fulham
R5 Sheffield We'd
QF Charlton
SF Hull

With Arsenal/Wigan in final

Another missed opportunity at a Wembly final...

I am convinced that Lambert only put that team out after Faulkner marked his card. He had told Gardner that he was playing, according to a good source, only to drop him at the last minute.

I can imagine, especially following the kick off after he said what he said about the FA Cup before the game.

The club is being run by buffoons.

Aye and que the same old guff in the summer about vibrancy and other pr bollocks to sell tickets.

I am glad I can't afford the season tickets, I would go nuts at paying that much for that shit every week.

I think part of the reason that I have kept faith with Lambert through a lot of bad stuff is my fear of who the board would recruit to replace him.

I don't care what anybody says, I am still scarred by their first two forays into the managerial market after MON left! Both of those occasions were painful. At least with Lambert they went and got their man unlike the first two times when they treated the whole thing like an office vacancy that just arose and applications were welcome.

Would Lambert have got the job if there hadn't been such overwhelming support for him at McLeish's final game against Lambert's Norwich side?

Billy McBingo wrote:Would Lambert have got the job if there hadn't been such overwhelming support for him at McLeish's final game against Lambert's Norwich side?

I doubt it.....Jee, when you put it like that.....

And remember Lambert was third choice at best (behind OGS and Martinez).

I think Lerner dodged a bullet with OGS. Sure, the club is in an awful state but, despite Lambert's best efforts I don't think we're quite as shit as some of the sides below us; Cardiff being one. Ole Gunar Soljfklfjhskjaer has done nothing to stem the tide of crapness there.

Wonder how Martinez would of done here?

Better. Still not great due to the goings on with the board but better than Lambert.

I've said all along that with the right formations and tactics we have a top half side. Only just, mind, but still top half.

In fairness we are only four goals in goal difference off the top half with Lambert in charge.

AndyD wrote:Wonder how Martinez would of done here?

Controversial but I don't rate Martinez all that highly. Whoever took over from Moyes was inheriting something that had been carefully built, on a solid foundation. Quite a big contrast with the mess we have been the past four years.

Also, his Wigan teams seemed to accept they would be scrapping for relegation every year and only had to turn it on in the final ten games or so. Quite frankly, had he come to us I think our defence would have been even worse last year than it was.

I agree with you to a point, I do still think that Martinez is a decent manager but would definitely concede that Everton is an easier job than Villa. I've said it before, and I'll say it again but the Villa job is one of the more difficult ones in the premier league. The man in charge has to address the expectations of a large club on the pitch whilst simultaneously addressing the cost-cutting agenda of the owner. It's not as if we had solid foundations for the manager to build on which would have reduced the need to spend as much.

Agreed on that. Villa has become a very tough job post 2010. Always a big job, always a tough job but we really just screwed up at the worst time with the emergence of Man City and with Spurs and Everton in good nick.

Lambert should have walked after the Chelsea debacle if he was a man. Then after the shame of Bradford - but he's no man. He's getting away with murder.

Regarding Martinez, our nephew knows Barry. He gets into his private box at Goodison and had the same offer at Man City. He says that Barry rates Martinez as a really great manager.

Back to Lambert, I think he is very poor. He is sneaking by at the moment due to the time of the season that it is. They obviously think it would be risky to sack him at this stage. We will probably get away with it this season but the writing is on the wall. The question is, which game will be the tipping point?