Last week I quipped that if the Celtic job became available, Paul Lambert should accept it if offered. Without knowing what kind of golden handshake Randy Lerner may or may not be offering, winning trophies and Champions League football has to be more appealing than another relegation fight, little money to spend, an expiring contract, and the sack around the corner as soon as the club is sold. Staying at Villa is the most thankless job in top flight management.
Since his meeting with Randy Lerner, Paul Lambert has given numerous interviews. As the public face of a club with an owner as reclusive as Randy, Lambert is the only man who can try to rally and reassure the fan base. He’s had to bear the brunt of criticism for months of a situation that is only partially his making.
James Nursey takes a lot of stick for carrying Lambert’s water in the press. He does make a fair point that plenty of other managers would’ve walked in what is seemingly a no-win situation. If he did, who would take the job? I can’t imagine anybody I would rate. I would wish a caretaker role on Sid. He has done too much for the club and is too dignified to be forced to try and bail out this sinking ship.
Ideally a new owner would be in place. The club could identify a long-term manager. With everything that’s happened the last year, that probably wouldn’t be Lambert. Even if the new owner didn’t lavish obscene amounts on transfers, at least we would be able to make meaningful additions to the squad. That the Bomb Squad has been disarmed shows how desperate things have gotten. I’d still rather roll the dice with Darren Bent out there in August than Jordan Bowery.
The closest situation I can remember to this is when Newcastle went down. The club was for sale, they had no manager and we currently have a lame-duck, they went down and we are lucky we haven’t already. They were fortunate in that they had a capable caretaker manager in Chris Houghton who brought them back up, a homegrown striker who they eventually sold for £35m, and a scouting network that was able to make several astute signings.
Links to new players, or calling for a new manager means nothing until a new owner comes in. Our club has become a ghost ship. If Paul Lambert jumps ship and rows up north in his lifeboat, I couldn’t blame him.
The Author
Jason Chalifour
I am a regular columnist for Aston Villa Life with my column running every Friday and have been writing at least semi-regularly about Aston Villa since 2010. I also run my own General Sports Website www.98ontheblack.comComments 26
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Jason a good article mate, if I were Lambert I would go to Celtic ( if offered), or simply walk away. It would easy to spin all the negatives into blaming Lerner in the media and try and protect what remains of his reputation. Yes he’s had a difficult job, but he hasn’t done it very well, which is well documented on here. Lerner has been the big problem and continues to pretty much destroy our club, with no sale we will be relegated, without selling to someone who cares or understands this business we will still struggle. I don’t see a bright future ahead for us, we are becoming a mirror image of the vermin only in the flight above( for now), both have poor squads, poor managers, awful owners( they win in this pissing contest tho), both are up for sale with no firm interest and both are going backwards.
Some fans think there’s a deal imminent, where as all the media, ex players etc say the’ve heard the opposite , no buyer, nothing. Charlie Wyett, believes it will take 6 months to comets areal with a consortium when found.
Facing up to the realism of being amongst the favourites for the drop, with the village idiot as manager, a poor unmotivated squad is frightening and I fear capitulation . Delph wants out, Vlaar is into his last year, as is Delph, no contracts offered to them yet due to the chaos at the club, they can walk on a free next summer, so any bids will be seriously considered, it is one big shambles, Cheers Randy
Jay,
It all seems to make a bit of sense when you put it all together and the timeline backs it all up, it was said that Lerner had a buyer lined up early in the season so to ship out the players and reduce the wage bill made perfect business sense it made the club look more attractive, it was then stated that these new owners pulled out of the deal, we were then in a position to re-instate these players into the club although I still believe they will be sold as soon as any club shows an interest.
I also believe that other players will be moved out of the club to make way for Bent and CNZ, who knows what will happen with Hutton and Given but we enter pre-season in one hell of a mess.
UTV
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-randy-lerner-spent-7131673
This article tells you two things, one that Lerner was a dumb ass chairman who did not have a clue how to run a sporting institution and two if you were a prospective buyer for AVFC I would be running the opposite way as fast as my legs would take me.
UTV
As it stands, we could be lining up as follows for the first game
Guzan
Lowton/Hutton okores Vlaar Bennett
Kea
Nzogbia. Delph Westwood grealish
Bent
Subs Given, Clark, Gabby, Weimann, Robinson
That’s not a great side, I also think Vlaar and Delph will be gone before next season, as the’re in their last season contractually .
Rumours are Spurs are willing to throw Holtby and cash at us for FD, I’d be willing to take this potentially, I would prefer to finance the Holtby deal in another way, but I wouldn’t rule this out straight away. No matter how you look at it, this squad needs significant strengthening just to survive the drop, the budgets being bandied around won’t cut the mustard, they are expected as RL wants out and won’t throw money away ( ha the irony of it), however he will lose significantly more if we go down., I really think he will gamble rather than invest tho.
I fear we will be having very similar conversations this time next year , as arak will still be the owner, still trying to sell.
B62,
It is desperate times indeed take a look at that article and you would be mad to buy the Villa as it looks as if it is dying on its arse, all because Lerner did not have a clue abetted by Faulkner and his useless managers, all he needed to do was get some people on the board who knew the game but instead employed his buddy Krulak who could not even tell you what shape the ball is.
UTV
SWV
Iv read it mate, it’s like a poor version of brewsters millions, absolute buffoons running this club, the sooner Lerner, Lambert and Faulkner fuck off the better, I honestly dear us doing a Wolves and dropping 2 leagues in as many years.
Totally agree we could drop like a stone, Leicester Derby or QPR will give it a good go next season with only Burnley looking like certs to go back down, that leaves possibly two places with us, Olbyun and a few others scrapping to stay up, the longer the sale goes on the weaker our position gets because Lerner will not want to spend any more money, and would you trust Lambert with any more millions so he can go and buy some more Syllas,Tonevs or Bowerys.
UTV
I can’t see 3 worse teams than us as it stands, factor in the disaharmony and fractured relationship between the manager and the squad, were in real trouble
SWV,
Unless you’ve got a personal trainer and are as slow as when you played, you wouldn’t get far.
Go through the blogs and you’ll still find loonies supporting Learner and Faulkner.
Villa Park – “The Spiritual Home of Football”
Have you seen the cartoon adverts that the Beeb are putting out about the World Cup?
The Brazilian figure says “Here we are – the spiritual home of football”.
The English figure responds: “And I thought the spiritual home was at Villa Park!”
🙂 🙂
The only reason Lambert ain’t walking is because he wants his pay off.
I really thought times would be getting better but its only getting worse. Delph will force a move through to Spurs and even Vlaar has said he’s fed up with relegation battles so he better go because another one is on the way. Saints keeping there manager, they will stay strong, every other club knows what they are doing apart from us. Let’s watch quality players sign for everyone but us
It’s its to believed, it will take 6 months for us to taken over if a consortium want us, other wise it’s a single man mo wealthier than Randy is.
Season ticket sales must be freighting
ok you moaning minnies lets look at the positives……erm………..erm……..erm …… we have a squad hopefully returned to full fitness………..erm…….all your favourite characters are leaving…..erm eventually……..erm…….bent, nzogbia, kosak, given,hutton, okore, gardener all like new signings….. ha ha ha ha ha….sorry about that…erm…..erm….. we now have a team well versed in avoiding the drop including the aforementioned new signings…. oh god ha ha ha stop it …….erm……the young team is now a year older and we might not have to listen to commentators giving that excuse as we get thrashed…..he he he ha ha ha..oooh me ribs… we will definitely be using the next gen lads as they will be the only ones left….er…..that’s if we sort out their contracts….erm…hahahahahehe……, no matter I hear the under 10’s are quite good and some of the ladies could pass for blokes at a pinch…..hahahahahahaha god my sides are aching………erm….. tonev has been given a rock to practice keeping his shots in the country…….oooooo lord I’ve shat myself……oh and its Friday yay….hahahaha now if you kind gentlemen would just let me get up I promise not to burn things again….hahahaha…..come and see the oppression of the masses ………ow! hahahahaha …….i’m struggling to type with this jacke….£&8kgsrwnfhgjjdigdj mgm,g…dsg
Hello, all. Took the day off, have a wedding to go to, thought I’d say hi.
It is a bit of a pretty mess, isn’t it? Reminds me of the line from Out of Africa: “When god wants to punish you, he answers your prayers.”
So, many prayers were answered and salvation seemed to be at hand. But the cold hard facts of money keep getting in the way.
For what it’s worth, I’m glad that Lerner is either “keeping his word” about trying to get someone in who can take us forward, or has simply admitted his heart isn’t in it, anymore. There’s been good speculation from Jenny and others on here about why such an announcement was made…Perhaps it was to appease the supporters and let prospective buyers see they’d be welcomed with open arms. Perhaps it was an open invitation, or a spur to a dawdling purchaser. I really have no idea. I’d even say it could have been a bit of petulance. “You don’t like me? Fine, I’ll do as you ask and put the club up for sale. There you go, enjoy.”
But of course, if he does want out, I doubt he’s trying to do anything that damages his prospects of selling.
The sad truth, as well know, is that Premier League football is not a “business” in the normal sense. It’s a vanity project, a black hole for very wealthy people to throw their money at. Yes, you can try to run a club like a responsible, for-profit business…there are employees and all the rest, and, one hopes, a decent side that still leaves some money behind after all the book-keeping. But in the end, virtually anyone competitive is running some sort of loss. And there are clubs with cheaper valuations that don’t require any more work or investment than Villa would.
So, I do give Lambert some credit for staying put for now. Yes, I’m sure there’s something in it for him, and maybe he has no other viable offers. But I bet Lerner’s also grateful that Lambert has been the one taking it on the chin day-in day-out and keeping Villa up during the austerity.
I agree, I’d like to see this sorted as soon as possible. Lerner certainly knows that getting relegated isn’t going to help. My only hope is that knowing this, he’ll do enough to make sure Lambert can keep us up, especially if it looks like he isn’t going to be able to wash his hands of things anytime soon.
Mark,
And you reckon i’m barmy ?
By the time Lerner leaves we could be in an irretrievable relegation position with our handful of talented players seeking moves and the rest of the talent free group filling up the first team positions,
that’s Lerner’s legacy, Lambert and Faulkner will get they’re pay-offs and the club will be left a barren, talent free shell, devoid of anything positive.
Indeed Steamer. Nothing even seems close to happening. Can’t wait for Lamberts ” we were excellent” after our opening thrashing at home at VP come mid August
steamer
its contagious mate and you paint such a pretty picture, if you were a painter I think you would be like Lowry painting grim scenes of the Midlands only in black and red 😉
hi Jason
I think in the circumstances Mr Lambert is either a saint to stay, knows he’s messed up or is due some money for keeping quiet. cannot see him getting the Celtic job as anyone who can google Aston villa would see a right mess and look elsewhere.
Looking at our management style in the last 8 years anything could happen and we will be the last to know. just when we think it couldn’t get worse it will or conversely we will live happily ever after ( last bits a joke)
while we in a good mood
http://www.clubcall.com/aston-villa/lambert-issues-positive-fitness-update-1726457.html?
What is going to happen with players entering their last year of their contracts, ie Vlaar, Delph,Gabby, Bent?? With the likes of Hutton, Given etc not far behind.
It seems our master plan is to let their contracts run down and let them leave for free.
The players whose contracts run out next summer, can sign pre contract agreements during the jan window, how much effort are these players going to put in, as they know for them the grass will be greener, as they will prob get another premier league club, whilst we go down, were currently 3/1 for the drop, in and around the likes of WBA, palace,Leicester, Hull with Burnley the Fav at 4/7. Looking at the other teams, I dont think palace will go down, nor Hull, the three newly promoted teams usually figure in the battle, us and Sandwell Town are looking extremely vulnerable for the drop.
without a takeover (which all talk has gone quiet, and looks way off), we are knackered.
and theres more
http://soccerlens.com/celtic-news-roy-keane-bhoys-larsson-says/137096/
B62
it does suggest Lerner thought a deal was done as a new owner could keep them if desired or cash in . if no sale comes we could have no team and be worth next to nowt
My dear old dad always used to say that it always gets darker before the dawn, not being that philosophical, i always thought it was the drink talking, and, he was after all a toffee.
To me it was always dark then it got light, it certainly didn’t get darker before it got light, thats just stupid!
Then not long after he was diagnosed with Glaucoma and became blind i figured i knew the reason for the saying, he was after all BLIND!
Lets face it the thing that consumes us most is the very thing we have no control over, the fate of Aston Villa does not lie with us. Come on guys, we are not even the biggest contributors to its revenue.
Whether we like it or not we have to sit and wait and the only choice we realistically have is, do i support my team or not, everything else is dressing.
You can vent all you like, put up your anger for all to see, bare your soul and drive yourself to despair, but you know it will all come to nothing.
This year i will mostly be worrying about the things i can change, screw the darkness, i can see the light!!!
Villa will always be in my heart but not so much in my head.
VTID
Rod,
Sorry to hear about your Dad, Glaucoma is a horrible thing to happen.
Rod
Sounds like a recipe for sanity. Of course you’re right.
So Lamberts men have finally been sacked but yet Lambert remains still
God help this club
Frem ………….the bin men come mondays ……………….
Steamer you can keep the £20 you owe me . that does not include the others though..
just found out l have a vinyl LP worth £850 its The Smiths 1st LP signed by them all …..and guess what , my daughter just went and got me a cider from the fridge ………….marvelous ……………..
Have a good bank hols everyone ,including you SWW
jenny my poppet xxxxxx
group winners in 7’s
http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3853663,00.html?