My dear Villans…shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Not bloody likely.
But I’ve still missed you.
Had a wonderful catch-up with our Mr. Turvey last night on Skype. Hadn’t talked for ages with this new work thing. He steered me toward a website full of wonderful, twistable footballing statistics. Had us in stitches.
The one we loved that started it off? Spurs. £108 million spent and how many goals from open play? Nine in 15 matches.
Your lowly, ugly, embarrassing, long-ball discount Villans? 11. United? 14. Yes, RVP is missing. Still. Really?
That’s right, my friends. To date, the worst footballing side you’ve ever seen, even those of you with season tickets since 1911, have scored more goals from open play than those savvy Londoners who signed all the silky foreign players we were supposedly in for.
It’s a funny old…
Fine margins is the point. I couldn’t see the Fulham match, packing and moving, and first one I’ve missed all year. I suppose there’s a replay I could watch, and I probably should’ve done, but I’m knackered and had more fun drinking beer and talking to Matt. Make of that what you will.
But, as I’ve been saying over and over again, Paul Lambert isn’t an idiot. I concede that you could make the point that his purchases could only leave him the option of playing poor football.
If I did that, though, I’d ask you to consider the return he’s getting on said poor footballers, especially and including the rash of injuries that’s plagued the side. Chris Herd starting? I rest my case.
The league is tough. It may not be filled with beautiful teams, but no league worth its salt is. Real leagues are filled with the blessed, and those that figure out how to play out lesser hands.
What it ultimately means, as some of us have said, is that results are everything. Style points, as far as I’m aware, are still not being awarded in league play. And we’re still younger than the promoted sides.
So, to my mind, Lambert has gotten a fair return from his bargain-basement spending. Do I think this is the end of the line? Am I settling for mediocrity? No. I’m just accepting what is, and putting it into context. I expect better things to happen in the future.
And before anyone trots out the home-grown prodigies he’s unfairly ignoring, I’ll ask how many of them are setting the lower leagues on fire. If you’re basically holding down a place at Notts County, are you really the answer in the Premier League? That sort of answers itself, doesn’t it?
You have to confess, none of these players is really the missing link. And that’s the bitter truth we’ve had to swallow. It was never a case of Lambert just needing to add one or two quality players to a great foundation. It was always the case that Lambert was starting from scratch. And doing it on the fly in the most competitive league in the world. And on a budget.
That seems remarkable to me.
So, you know, argue amongst yourselves. Consider the heresy of saying things are worse under Lambert than they were under McLeish, which is sort of odd since McLeish was the worst footballing sin anyone could make. Has that now changed?
Yes, I’m yanking some chains, but it’s all in good fun. What we really want, and I’m serious now, is to see Lambert continue. Let’s see this through. Let’s see if the ideas comes together, if he can take the next steps. Will Lerner invest more now that the books look better and now that he has a guy who can do something with money besides waste it?
I hope he does. I hope we can look back and say of Lambert that he couldn’t take the next step rather than that he wasn’t given the chance. I’m betting that if he spent £108 million he’d get a better return than AVB.
The Author
