I know you’re a fan of mine, Mr. Benteke, because how else could you get things so wrong?
We’re all sick of this, and it hasn’t even been dragging on that long. Why am I bothering to get worked up today? Specifically, I’ve seen a slew of headlines from the usual abettors in the dailies talking up your cause and how Villa have to meet your demands.
It’s starting to look like either you, your agent, or Mr. Levy think that if the atmosphere gets poisoned enough that Paul Lambert will capitulate and cut Spurs a deal.
Yes, I know, the papers are just doing what they always do. But who set it in motion?
So, Christian. Chris. Tell Spurs to stump up and you’re free to go. You’re the wrong kind of hungry, buddy. You’re in danger of epitomizing everything that’s wrong with the game.
Despite what that great philosopher Eden Hazard thinks, you’re under contract. And Villa can damn well afford to sit your ass for the duration of it. Someone needs to draw a line. I don’t ask for “loyalty”. I ask for class.
Villa gave you your shot. They offered to double your money. They told you they’d gladly give you more if you continued to produce, or happily let you search for greener pastures after fulfilling only half your contracted term. You were assured of being Villa’s focus. We’ve done alright by you, considering you’ve only got one good season under your belt.
I get the money. I get the “ambition.” I know you were ready to force a move to come to us.
I don’t care anymore. You signed the deal, and would be refusing to relinquish it if you hadn’t had a good season. Grow up and show a little class.
I feel better now. Thank you all for indulging me.
In other news, it appears Richard Dunne has found his level.
And if the Ireland-to-Middlesbrough talk is true, well, that’s about where he deserves to be as well. If I’d been blessed with that sort of natural talent I’d like to think I’d do more with it. So, let’s just make up the difference in wages and help him on his way.
What I’ve really been thinking about was how Villa did in Germany. Obviously you put no stake in the results, although a clean sheet would’ve been nice. But given I could only see the highlights, well, I don’t know any more than I did before.
I know the rest of the games will be shown live, so we’ll have a chance to see what things are really looking like.
But I think one or two of you might’ve caught some of the action in person, and if so, I’d really like to hear what you thought about the new boys.
And then we have yesterday’s discussion about Lerner. I was a bit late to the conversation, and I think most everyone has heard me more than once on the topic.
But what I will reiterate is that wiping out the high-earners, going with youth, building up strength in numbers, sifting through lots of players that don’t cost much….This is a fundamental feature of North American professional leagues since there’s no relegation. You can start from scratch.
It’s not a guaranteed approach by any means. But I learned how it well it can work watching the Green Bay Packers do it. I screamed in protest. I almost walked away from them for good when they let Brett Favre go and went with Aaron Rodgers (who has just secured a $130 million contract), kept letting high-salary veterans go, replacing them with unheralded draft picks. Against all odds they replaced a Hall-of-Fame quarterback, an entire team, in the end, won a Super Bowl, went 15-1 the following season, and proved me and a lot of other people wrong.
It can work, it has worked. It’s almost engineered into North American sports as a necessity. Which means it’s not something Lerner has just desperately seized on as a fig leaf or stumbled into out of necessity. Whether it works for Lambert and Villa, I can’t say.
But what I can say is that the first year is obviously the hardest. If the man in charge, Lambert, knows anything about picking a player (and you do have to sort through the numbers to find the ones who can make it), it does trend upward, and it can trend upward quickly.
I know other teams are buying players. They do it every year and still finish 7th to 20th. But Lambert is not only trying to build a team, he’s trying to rebuild a club and install a culture. Whether it works with Lambert or not, this is what a once-proud giant that’s been wandering in the wilderness for years needs. The messenger doesn’t have to be perfect for the message to be right.
The best coaches/managers are almost always the ones who were overachievers as players, guys who didn’t have the natural talent to be superstars, but had the drive, desire, and innate understanding of the game to make a place for themselves somewhere before turning to coaching.
These are the guys who love everything about the game, the guys who study it, the guys who did anything they could to stick and be a part of it. The guys who viewed every training session as a chance to prove themselves, every game as an audition. They guys who were always told they weren’t good enough. The guys who ultimately are the antitheses of the Bentekes.
I’m certainly no oracle. But I think we underestimate the Paul Lamberts of the world at our peril.
If you haven’t guessed already, I’m off for another beer.
The Author
