With Aston Villa facing West Ham at the weekend, the game poses the greatest chance the club have of securing three points before an away trip to the Emirates, and a home fixture against current Premier League champions Manchester City.

In recent times, as we all know, Villa have been less than dominating. Whether it has been a case of losing points by losing games, or dropping them by letting other teams back into matches, the end result has been the same – less points than needed.

I don’t mean to imply by that statement that we should be working to a points-per-game logic because, as we all know, things can go awry very quickly if the plan is to get a point here and three elsewhere.

The fact remains that, whoever the opposition, we should be playing to win. That is why I have to admire the steadfast commitment to attacking football shown by our manager. Whilst the ethos may not be bearing the fruits that we might like at present, there is a sense that the direction is correct, even if results aren’t what we like.

Has He Gone Mad?

Now, I know, many will say “How can you defend a team that has been playing so poorly, and how can you laud a manager as ‘good’ when the results have been poor?”.

In a sense, it sounds totally contradictory, and I can understand the rationale of those saying that, as the statistics suggest, the club was actually better off under Alex McLeish, a manager who was, by many, regarded as the worst thing that could ever happen to the club.

All of this points to the need to introspect amongst fans. There are two narratives that can branch from the experiences of the past two seasons but, whilst adopting either may stick in the craw of many, they are the only rational positions that can be occupied.

What are these positions? I shall explain.

With all the anger against McLeish last season, it was pointed out that nobody could do a worse job than him, that the very belief that his employment was so crazy, so utterly ridiculous, was a stain on the history of the club.

If people want to believe that narrative, that is fine, but now evidence points out that a “better” manager in Paul Lambert, lauded almost universally when he was appointed, has actually done worse than the lambasted McLeish.

Which leads to the question – if McLeish could do more with less, then surely he’s a better manager than Lambert. That is one perspective.

McLeish Or Lambert?

The other side of the fence is the belief that fans were right to laud Lambert as a good acquisition and that, despite the lack of progress to date, the long term plan is good because he brings more attacking football.

Which was, after all, pretty much what most fans asked for last season. McLeish’s football was awful, defensive, and otherwise not suitable so, as logic would dictate, attacking football must be better, right?

This, in basic terms, then supports the role of Lambert at the club at present. Based on the delineation of the first and second opinion, people have to be aligned with one of these camps.

Fans han, obviously, have more opinions on wider issues but this fact remains – either a fan can still believe McLeish was awful, and the Lambert is better for the long term, or they will have to face up to the fact that maybe, just maybe, McLeish wasn’t as awful as he was painted out to be.

So with Villa in the mire right now, do we try to revert to the so-called “garbage” football peddled by McLeish to survive, going against all the anger that erupted through out last year?

Or do we stick with Lambert because his ethos is the right one, even if he isn’t getting the support he might need financially.

Randy’s Given You What You Wanted, Right?

This, ultimately, is what has to be understood. Randy Lerner’s investment may be far less than it was in his early years, but fans have to accept that they have had both sides of a coin and can’t reject both.

Why? There are no other realistic alternatives, and the sooner that is understood, the faster the club can move on.

As hard as it is, it is time to wake up to the situation. We don’t like being where we are, but more change isn’t going to fix it. Fans ask the club to provide attacking football, and they have done so.

As much as it might hurt, fans have to accept that their preference for an attacking ethos – one that the management then went out and found a suitable candidate with which to deliver that style – may or may not result in relegation.

For all of our sake, I hope the once-popular choice of Lambert pulls it out of the bag because, behind the anger at our current position, there are no more alternatives that don’t end up being a rehash of what hasn’t already been tried by the club.

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