I’ve not been on the site much in recent times, but I wanted to post a piece that covers a number of different areas that fly all over the place – much like how Stan Lee makes his movies. I will hit on a few points that will go on a wild ride, so please hold on for what might look like half reason, half rant.
First, I believe in what Paul Lambert is doing. Well, kind of. We are working to be in a strong position and we are currently tenth in the league – one of the highest since Judas, uh, Martin O’Neill, left us on that forgettable day.
Lambert has built us back up on peanuts from a team with the fifth highest wage turnover to a team to, some will argue, one competing for the top half of the table or, at the very least, one managing to stay above the lower group of teams.
In terms of the squad, we now have a group of young (ish) players – a group who can grow as a team and progress. The manager rewards improvement, as well as ridding the club of those who are not giving to the cause. One thing is changing though, the players he is going for.
First, we saw Grant Holt join on loan and we have also gained Ryan Bertrand. It looked, for a while, that we might have been going for Wes Hoolahan though that never came off. The issue I have mainly is that we are Aston Villa – no, we might not be world beaters, nor might we have even won a damn trophy for twenty years but, man, we should be better than most players at Norwich, right? Let me explain further.
We started off the Lambert era getting Christian Benteke, a player we all believed was one for the future, and most of us had no idea he’d be this good.
We got someone like Ron Vlarr, who we all guessed would be our leader and, while Laursen he is not, he is still very much what we needed. The manager has also found something in Delph that we all thought had long gone, and all of these additions contribute to a very combative, talented, energetic Villa team, and a team we can call our own.
Now the growing trend though is to go for players with Premier League experience. Holt, Bertrand, and what seemed to be Hoolahan. My question is – Why? There are two points that come to mind.
One, he is running out of options. Libor Kozak breaks his leg, therefor he quickly believes he needs another forward, big who can hold up the ball. Obviously, Helenius has something about him which has turned off Lambert, but a 31 year old, who has only scored twice in the second tier English league? Really? We could not find anyone else on loan?
Next, Bertrand. One I believe is actually one we should have bought – someone who after one game, I would say we should spend up to 5 million on. However, while he is good, I wonder if we could not find someone just as good, for sale, for cheap in possibly the Belgian or Dutch leagues. In that sense, is Lambert losing faith in his defensive scouting options?
On top of that, he then appeared to be looking at Hoolahan – a very similar player to one we just sold, Barry Bannan. Now, yes, Hoolahan might be a good player, but a Villa player he is not in my eyes.
Make no doubt about it – he is a Lambert player, like Holt, and Jed Steer before him. However, for me we should never buy coaches past players – out of all the past players, only Petrov comes to mind who was good for us. So, why is Lambert returning to players he knows?
My second point of why things are changing is something else I believe – Lambert is shackled, and more than we know. Let’s review – the other week, he was questioning the price some journalists were listing player transfer fees at. In that meeting, he hinted that a lot of the players he had previously signed, were much less than what was being quoted.
One he pointed to in particular was Westwood, and also said that many of his other purchases were less than a million. With the players previously bought, one can assume he is under a very strict spending and wage cap.
Last year, in the January window, he brought in two players, for a combined total or probably less than one million. We stayed up at the end of the season and received £80m from the new TV deal. Now, one year later, Lambert still seems stuck to the same spending capability.
Both summers we seem to spend, according to newspapers, around £15-18m, though with the points the manager is bringing up, that might well only be £12m.
So, um, Mr. Lerner, where is the rest of the money? Are we seeing an angle that Lambert is losing his options because you simply won’t back him? Honestly, we do not need another massive summer budget, but how about half that of the TV money. Even then, I still think you would be coming out on top.
So, it is over to you Lifers – what do you think? I look forward to reading your responses, but I apologise if I don’t respond quicker as I’ll be teaching for most of the time the post is up so my apologies if I don’t reply straight away.
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