Encumbered forever by desire and ambition,
There’s a hunger still unsatisfied,
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon,
Though down this road we’ve been so many times.
– High Hopes – Pink Floyd
With a point in the bag against West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa may have considered themselves lucky, not just in making a comeback, but also in the fact they have survived the season so far.
Whilst there was much to be critical of on Monday night, particularly in the first half, Villa have suffered heavily with injuries this season. The loss of Jores Okore for the long term, combined with issues that have seen Antonio Luna, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Andreas Weimann, and Fabian Delph on the sidelines, has meant Villa’s team has been more about forced changes rather than voluntary ones.
After all, is there a single Villa fan out there who would have picked the starting XI that began the game against Albion? Though each player had previously operated in the roles they took up on Monday night, few can argue that several were out of place, out of sorts, potentially leaving the manager out of luck.
Yes, Paul Lambert has his foibles, though that makes him no different to any other manager out there. In fact, most of the views of every manager – and every team for that matter – comes from a question of perspective.
What do I mean? To explain, let’s look at something that has no real right or wrong answer – keeping the team as unchanged as possible.
In itself, tinkering with a team is neither good or bad, with the only real views formed based on how things pan out as a result. If a manager doesn’t tinker with a team and they lose the game, he’s regarded as stubborn. If he keeps the same time and they win, he’s lauded for keeping faith in his team.
By the same token, if he messes with the team and they lose, he’s an idiotic tinkerer. If they win, he’s keeping the squad fresh.
The reality is the media, and fans, will spin everything they see to a narrative based on one simple event – whether the team wins or loses. After all, nothing else matters at the base level, not style, not possession, not who is picked – nothing else.
In a game where winning is what counts, we end up with different paths to the same goal. Some play two strikers, some play one. Some play wide, some play narrow. Some have four at the back, some have five. Whatever the tactics chosen, however, there is no definitive way to guarantee results – if there was, we would all be doing it which, in turn, would mean we would draw every game as neither team could score or concede.
It isn’t just winning that defines success for many managers though – the same could be said for grinding out results. When Sir Alex Ferguson was at the peak of his career managing Manchester United, his ability to get a draw, even if a win was expected, was lauded as genius.
In those instances, it wasn’t so much about the fact that points were dropped, but that a never-say-die attitude meant United could come from behind and snatch a win or a draw – if Ferguson was 2-1 down with five minutes to go, you could almost bet he’d find a way to get it back to 2-2. In the eyes of many, United weren’t framed with a narrative of a team dropping points, merely a team who was unstoppable, snatching results that seemed like lost causes.
Change the person being looked at from Ferguson to Lambert, and our own views may differ. Monday night, for example, could be viewed in two stark ways – a view of disappointment and despair at the first half, or a sense of relief and pride in the second half.
One thing is for certain is that Villa are the team who have taken the most points so far from losing positions – seven so far – illustrating a character to the team that, if nothing else, refuses to lay down and die despite their own mistakes.
So does that make us good or bad? Right or wrong? The reality is we are neither because the aforementioned terms are little more than opinion.
After all, even with the most objectively structured opinion, Villa are often clear as mud. Between an owner who often says nothing at all, to a manager who some will say won’t criticise his players publicly – even if he is unafraid of telling them how things are in the dressing room – things often leave what is actually going on behind the scenes practically impossible to decipher.
Sometimes there are pieces of evidence that come out, but between a raft of false rumours and a social media network that can turn a Chinese whisper into the next front page headline, there’s a healthy degree of scepticism in anyone believing anyone else’s view.
Why? There’s a strong argument to say that many “unknown” sources are little more than fantasists who claim to be “in the know”, a term often used perjoratively when referencing these so-called ITKs.
Amidst the fantasists, there are people who do know what is going on, though those who know the most about things are often bound – either indirectly or directly – to silence, a situation that leaves fans even more frustrated.
What is the solution to such a silence though? Several years ago Villa had former director Charles Krulak communicating at ground level, leaving messages on forums and messageboards, presumably to offer a little insight given Villa’s chairman is a publicly silent individual.
However, despite the best of intentions being shown by Krulak – a man whose history is littered with achievements – he was shouted down as little more than PR, a man who was offering a mouthpiece to a plan that was invisible, unachievable, or otherwise irrelevant.
Such a view was a tad harsh on Krulak, who was trying his best even if his Americanisms may not have comes across in a way that often appeared confusing, or otherwise lacking in knowledge. Like Lerner, who also appears to have tried his best, he ended up being castigated, leaving his voice silenced.
Given such past attempts, it could be argued that Villa’s hierarchy are caught between a rock and a hard place. Despite attempting to communicate, Krulak was described as a fake, meaning he eventually shut up, presumably finding better things to be doing than engaging in comment-by-comment warfare.
The question now is what exactly the club could say or do to improve things. As ever, the narrative is complicated by many factors, most of which tends to relate to an inability to broadcast certain information publicly.
Are Villa really that different though? Or is it simply a case of our own perspectives, set up as they are to focus so strongly on our club, an organisation so much more likely to make us miserable (and ecstatic) based on how things go?
The truth is that we often only see the positives in other teams – or rather we do when setting up our own comparatives – leaving our view of the club appearing to be negative, or at least second-rate, even if that isn’t how it might actually be.
Again, those emotions often obfuscate our ability to be objective leaving us praising the patience of other teams for their play or player development, despite us trying the very same things.
So, before things get too heated towards the people in charge, take a moment to think about their options. I say this not because I want to defend their regime, but because emotions often leave us saying things we might regret.
If we look at what has happened – and there are immutable things we simply can’t change retrospectively – we’ll likely find the following:
Randy Lerner is most likely a well-meaning person who came to the game a little naive. Despite taking advice from multiple people, some of his issues have backfired, and some have not, but he did what most people would if they lacked knowledge – he had the guts to ask others who are most certainly experts, like Sir Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello, or Ottmar Hitzfeld. He remains in debt via the club, and he probably wants to make the money back.
Paul Lambert is most likely a capable and intelligent football manager. In the dressing room, he manages to keep the team’s spirit high despite setbacks, and despite criticisms. He isn’t perfect, obviously, but he has moved the key statistic forwards – points gained. He’s took a lot of chances on players who were cheap because he has his hands tied financially and, like every other manager, some of his targets will work out whilst some won’t – even Sir Alex has the likes of Bebe and Juan Veron on his flop list, a pair who cost more individually than any player purchased under Lambert’s regime.
To finish, the bottom line is that people make mistakes, and it is often easy to see how things could have been done better when a) we aren’t having to worry if our choices are right, b) won’t be held to task if they are wrong, and c) have the benefit of perfect hindsight.
Sure, there are situations where we can say “I told you so” because we got it right but, and this is honesty speaking, none of us get it right all the time.
So, as Villa face Sunderland this weekend, there will be much to discuss, but when it comes to opinions – mine included – it is often worthwhile to realise that none of us are perfect, just like our owner, manager, and team.
This post (and the associated Pink Floyd quote & video) is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Belmonte, contributor Kristina’s uncle who sadly lost his battle with cancer earlier this year. We offer Kristina and her family our condolences, and hope we can see her back on AVL in the near future.
The Author
