The most lamentable thing about Tuesday’s unceremonious league cup semi-final defeat to Bradford City was not the realisation that Villa had fallen to a team in the fourth tier of English football but the entirely unsurprising nature of the exit. There was an air of resignation to a number of the players as we reached the latter stages of the game, when their attitude should have been quite the contrary. Perhaps more difficult to stomach is the fact that very few of those players in claret and blue had the capacity to alter the direction of the game even had they been on full-throttle.
In short, the current squad is not good enough to survive the drop. Therefore, relentlessly blaming the manager is hardly conducive to positivity, and it is unlikely that the season will be saved, rescued or even improved upon if Lambert is shown the door as a result of the current crisis in which the club finds itself.
The problem lies more in the quality of the players than in the tactical ineptness of the Scotsman who has courageously taken the hotseat at a club that has been heading the wrong way for the past few years.
While it is almost too easy to be pessimistic after such a demoralising stretch of results, the relegation battle that the side now faces may very well end in disappointment. The real question is whether or not relegation from the Premier League could in fact be something of a bittersweet remedy for the Villans, whose free-fall seems almost irreparable at this stage.
The club is in such a difficult phase due to prior seasons of mismanaged over-spending on players either too old or too incapable of reaching long-term targets that rapidly became unrealistic short-term targets. Demotion to the Championship, though exceptionally painful for all Aston Villa stakeholders, could offer the club and its management the occasion to start afresh and force the implementation of a plan that currently seems entirely non-existent.
What’s more, with the parachute payout of around £50 million, Villa could be in a position to carry out a thorough identification of the players in the current squad that are worth their wages, re-build the squad and gear it towards a re-establishment not only of the club’s status as a Premier League outfit, but as a re-development of the club’s identity. For years, Aston Villa has been a club drifting around in the uncertainty of mediocre results and regression. It may well take a seismic change or failure to rock the core of the club and force it to bounce back.
This option sounds defeatist, to say the least, and there is undoubtedly a concern that Villa would struggle in the second tier and fall victims to the predicament of a number of big clubs who have previously been relegated and then become stifled. However, if this potential eventuality did come to fruition, the size of the club would surely render this issue as unacceptable and, as Newcastle United did not so long ago, we would fight back.
Nevertheless, there is still a belief, deep down, that we will avoid the drop.
Of course, January is upon us and there is thus an opportunity to make some signings that are absolutely necessary for survival. The defence is the weakest that Villa Park has seen in recent memory and the attacking element of the side is in a state of chronically fluctuating form. Lambert will be working hard to make signings, surely, but whether or not the club’s state of affairs are attractive enough for the required quality players is another question.
Criticisms of Paul Lambert can at times be understood. For example, his substitutions against West Bromwich Albion were seemingly to blame for the loss of a 2-0 lead that had been achieved in the first half, Benteke and Agbonlahor with the goals.
To take a point away from The Hawthorns was not a bad result at all but there can be little doubt with regard to the disappointment that such a defensive attitude caused. By the same token, it could be argued that the frankly pathetic amount of experience throughout the team resulted in a naturally defensive recoil, as the team sat back and suffered an onslaught of pressure.
But Lambert is the head coach and is the man for the job at present. If nothing else, his dedication and determination to succeed at this club is an exemplary demonstration for the players in which he is trying to instill those very ideas.
After the game on Tuesday, I received a text message from my brother—a long-suffering Villa fan, too—that said quite simply: “I am lost for words”.
His speechlessness resonates with all of us at the moment, though we know what must be done. We must keep the faith in Lambert. We must support the team. But significantly, we must sign some players. One week remains.
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