Well, after all my bluster about how much I’d missed football in general while I was on holiday and how much I was looking forward to the Liverpool game….. I fell asleep and the missus couldn’t wake me up, meaning I didn’t get to see it!
I’d basically been awake for over 24 hours and just needed to sleep, but I haven’t been so annoyed with myself for years.
Hence I can’t comment about any aspect of the game, as I haven’t even seen the goal, let alone any highlights.
It was a brilliant result regardless of how we played though and I actually got a prediction correct for once, when I said I thought we’d nick it.
From what I’ve read, it seems we played really well for the first 20 minutes or so and then sat back.
I expect if I’d actually seen the game I’d have been complaining about that, as it bores me to tears.
But at the end of the day the result is all that matters I suppose and that’s why I’m asking the headline question.
While I’ve often questioned Paul Lambert’s tactics and methods, the undeniable fact is that we’ve got 10 points out of 12, which has us sitting nicely in second position.
Who’d have thought it?
I certainly didn’t, for a start and I doubt many of us did either; at least not seriously. But isn’t it a great feeling for a change?
Of course things can change really quickly in football and we have some very tricky games coming up, but if we can keep this run going, so we’ll be easing any pressure we’ll have on us, which might in turn lead to us playing better football overall.
We can but hope, but whatever, we’re a quarter of the way to surviving this season after only four games which leaves me somewhat speechless.
Couple this with the fact that we’ve only conceded one goal in those four games and things are suddenly looking very rosy indeed.
Senderos, a signing I severely criticized when he arrived has seemed solid and all of a sudden we don’t look likely to leak lots of goals. I mean who’d have thought that Nathan Baker would have come out with a man of the match display?
Fair play to him by the way, after I and many others have given him plenty of stick.
Regardless of what I think of Lambert and even his appointment of Roy Keane you can’t deny the results up to now, which makes me wonder if we have actually got it right. Let’s hope so eh?
On another bright note, I’ve just read that we approached Ajax last season about Daley Blind.
He wouldn’t have come cheaply, would he?
Things really are looking up at the moment.
Comments
201 responses to “Have Villa finally got it right?”
Lambert has extended his contract with Villa
What a joke 4 decent results and he’s the messiah Ffs. Def means that Lerner is not selling so stick with him now.
Thats disgusting.
Based on what? 4 games.
What a joke.
Thats me finished with this club.
Lamberk you’re the berk here and frankly if that’s your view then goodbye and good riddance. You may not agree with what PL has tried to do and, no argument, the football has been dire at times BUT he has kept us in the EPL and delivered on the financial aspects demanded by RL. I reckon he’s earned the extended contract and,as long as we can keep Roy Keane as his No 2 I reckon we have a very good managerial team. I suppose you were gagging for Solskjaer or perhaps even old saggy chops himself lol!!
So a manager does well v shite opposition for 4 games (except pool) and now the lamberk apologists are out in full force. Anyone who thinks that scoring 3 goals in 4 is entertaining is deluded. The football at home is still dire anti football. The only thing we’ve improved is the defence but that does not deserve a contract extension.
OohAh just because I have a different view it doesn’t make me a Lambert apologist which is, quite frankly, insulting and unacceptable as it suggests my view, as opposed to yours, is without any intellectual consideration. Disagree by all means but do not insult me with your inane comments.
I didn’t realise lamberk apologist was an offensive derogatory term. All it means is you will stick up for him whatever if he loses the next four games you will still say he’s good and we are one point better of than last year etc.
If you read my comments you will see that my view is based on a number of factors, football and business imperative over the period of him being manager and not on the last four games. I am highly unlikely to radically change my view over the next four games so how does that make me a mindless (by implication) Lamberk apologist.
Isn’t it ironic he gets an extension the same day OGS gets shafted. Agree I’m appalled 2 seasons of utter dross and because he’s dine well for four games he gets an extension. And it’s a double whammy Lerner will certainly be here the next 3-4 years at least. At best we will never be more than a mid table team occasionally getting into top 10
Bye then Lamberk – Cheerio
I am glad to see Lambert has been given a new contract. It sends out a positive statement in terms of stability.
Hopefully the team of four – Lerner, Fox, Lambert and Keane now have the experience and skill to move us on a few levels. I hope the attendance at Villa Park will pick up.
The icing on the cake would be Delph, Vlaar and Grealish all signing new contracts in the next few weeks. This would give us the base to build upon over the next coue of transfer windows. Perhaps we will only need a couple of players each window and can spend larger sums on them.
UTV
Sid, I’m convinced best two bits of business this summer Roy Keane and Tom Fox. Already since Fox came in we are sorting out the nitty gritty bits that are important in any successful business. Expect new contracts for Grealish, Delph and Vlaar pretty soon without the hysterics that was Fatty’s trade mark 🙂
Disagree it means another 4 years of watching anti football at vp. Despite the good start we’ve only scored 3 goals ffs.
Villa were getting it right. They just totally screwed it up though. Lambert hasn’t earned a new contract yet, 4 games yes, we’ve done well in, but that’s just over 10% of the season. Long way to go to prove he’s actually turned a new leaf. It does mean continued awful football, even worse than the garbage fans wanted O’Neill out for.
The question has been asked before, so who should we appoint and don’t come up with a list of managers that wouldn’t take the job if you paid them in gold bars. Some people on here need to get a dose of reality.
I’ve come up with multiple lists in the past of manager’s that would come. None of them were your Pep’s, Mourinho’s… I’ve answered that question many of time.
Also I never said get rid of him, however he has yet to be worthy of given such a long term contract based on everything we’ve seen from him.
Andrew, I respect your view but disagree with your reasoning. PL has not been given an extension based on four games but because he has delivered on the Chairman’s / Board’s strategy over the last two years despite all the odds. For that reason the Board trust him to deliver in the next three years.
Yes, and I’ve said it many times, the football has been dire and it has been terrible being a Villa fan… but football is big business (whether you like it or not is immaterial) and if you deliver as a senior manager you are retained. Ask Arsenal fans how they see Wenger and then ask the Arsenal Board the same question.
I’ve run a number of businesses from small to very large and if you deliver you keep your job……….
H60 – completely agree.
If that’s the case why wasn’t lambert offered deal last season. The reason is fans would have gone ballistic and even more would not have renewed STs. So they wait and hope he has a good spell then they announce it as fans in a more positive mood. A good time to bury bad news
Andrew what H60 is trying to say is –
whilst I respect your opinion I’ll covertly throw in I used be the head of a big corporation (yea sure you did, more likely the bacon counter at Tesco) so my view is MUCH MUCH more important than yours.
BWS – that’s not the point I was trying to make but relating delivery of an agreed strategy to my own experiences in business. As it happens I wasn’t always successful.
And it wasn’t the bacon counter ……guess again! 🙂
You must have owned a bank then if you can justify rewarding failure
And I thought it was just big banks that rewarded failure!!
Define failure
Failure in this case equals giving us the most unwanted records and humiliations in the clubs history! Lamberk should walk end of. Appalling decision
Seems to me that Billy Walkers Sperm has a bit of an inferiority complex…
Hi Langfor you sad sack mother fucker.
How about OGS
Are you for serious?
Failure – A cessation of proper functioning or performance.
If we are going to split hairs over the definition of words then by the above you’d have judge PL a failure taking the last 3 seasons into account.
Agree BWS the man is a clown and let’s face it it’s not like clubs would be queuing up for him if he went so why do we need to tie him down he’s going nowhere. Lerner is clueless
Really?
No Rilley!!
Roy keane would take it, Martinez would of if we approached it better, moyes would. Look at saints under koeman sell virtually all their players and still good. There are better manager out there that we could get trust me.
Agree Andrew
Let’s not forget how we struggled at home to Newcastle ffs
Just been told by my sources that we were on the brink of going out of business thats why Lerner tightened the purse strings. I will post more details as I get them
I assume you mean administration which would have meant a 10 point penalty and certain relegation. If that is the case then Fatty has a lot to answer for as a CEO he takes prime responsibility for the financial status of the company. It also reinforces the job PL has done in difficult circumstances. Interested to hear more if ‘ your sources’ are accurate and reliable.
MacLeish did exactly the same job as lambert I don’t remember you ever singing his praises
OGS ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Cause he’s a curved lots as a manager ain’t he? You need to move on oohah and accept Lambert isn’t going anywhere. The sooner you realise this the better your health will be.
I wasn’t on the blog then so you’d have to be psychic to know what I was thinking! As it happens I was disappointed by his appointment but was prepared to give him a go but the overwhelming anti McLeish feeling meant his position was untenable. Many Villa fans actively wanted PL as manager and I guess opinion is pretty evenly divided at this point.
Curved? Meant achieved. 🙂
On a brighter note I see that Ron Vlaar has publicly said that he is happy to stay at Villa. Let’s see new contracts for Grealish, Delph and Vlaar in the next few weeks.
A massive importance for a football club is stability, and as much as I don’t care too much for Lambert, his contract extension brings stability…. I think his hands were tied with money and the bomb squad and the vast improvement shown since fatty Faulkners departure are proof it was his advice to Lerner that was strangling the club…..Looking from the outside in and asking any neutral, they all seem to think Lambert has done a good job…. He just needs some PR advice to improve his interview skills and likeability factor !!
I agree Saddened but there are many on here who don’t and consider those who show any support for what PL has done as being senseless.
What has he done then. The guy has given us the most unwanted records in our whole history how is that worthy of a contract ffs
So you keep a crap manager on a long term contract for the sake of stability?
May aswell have kept McLeish.
Spot on mcleish is no worse than lamberk that’s for sure.
I disagree, he is young, inexperienced and is learning, as I said before I am not a fan, but I think it is good for the club to tie him down, to stabilise the club and players, imagine being in the academy, with a 1st team manager out of contract and a club up for sale…. Bye bye Mr Grealish…. And hey if he relegates us at the end of the season he can still be sacked.
Its not about the last 4 games, its about him keeping us up with championship players, hence – playing championship football, with an unhappy owner and a clueless CEO.…. The bloke has balls and is sticking with us. You can say if he had any integrity he would have walked, but you could also say his integrity has kept him here, to do a job which has been asked of him. Come on fella’s Tom Fox is talking about vision and the future, lets forget Mcleish and all the crap in the past few seasons and move on.
I have a few mates who work for a rather large London club and were really pi55ed off when we managed to secure the services of Tom Fox, therefore In Mr Fox I trust. !!!
Havnt we heard this vision bollox before. Next they will be telling us they have a 5 year plan ffs.
http://7500toholte.sbnation.com/2014/9/17/6342105/paul-lambert-handed-four-year-contract-extension
Found this a good read, echo’s my exact thoughts on Lambert’s contract extension.
Good read, I personally think it is a massive step in the right direction to have a CEO that is going to improve the club, rather than our previous one who seemed to cloud the owners judgement.
Excellent article which demonstrates considered thought. OohAh won’t like it then 🙂
Who knows, Fox in his few weeks as ceo seems to know what he’s doing, unlike Faulkner in his few years.. maybe we could have some funds available, and while retaining our key players we could add to that with 1 or 2 quality additions for proper money.
Thing is with oohah and a few others is they fail to see the bigger picture. Oohah still believes for whatever reason because we won the european cup over 30 years ago and won the F.A cup in the 50s we have a divine right to still be at the top of the ladder. Unfortunately as most know it doesn’t work that way, shame oohah cant accept that.
Agree to a point it’s a generation think I suppose. My generation were spoilt but the club should and could of created a dynasty after the early 80s success but Ellis didn’t want to know as he was jealous of our most successful period in the years he wasn’t there. We are the second city team and if we can get 60k plus in the old 3rd we can do it in the prem ffs.
If Villa had managed to replace Ron Saunders or, later, Tony Barton with someone like Brian Clough, by now we’d probably be the biggest club in the PL…
Like you, I reckon that the 74~82 period was probably the best we’ve ever had in our lifetimes.
But that WAS more than 30 years ago!
Time to move on.
I can’t move I’m stuck in the past. Would love those days again
Let’s wait & see how this season pans out.We needed a manager who would come in long term & build something.Lambert & Keane seem to have formed a partnership that seems to be working so let’s give it a chance.As for Lamberts new deal good luck to him hope it goes well for him.We have a manager who is prepared to take the flack,try hard & actually stick around.All teams have ups & downs we have been down long enough now & I beleive we are on the up with Lerner about to give it another go.Heres the thing you can live a life moaning or live a life & live it.Lamberts living his dream at a big club & openly says so.Im enjoying a good start to the season & I believe we can actually take Arsenal…..UTV
Not another wait and see merchant, let’s give him time yawn yawn. Been saying that for 2 years JD
B6, ta for your post; it’ll go up in the morning.
Lambert’s new contract is a bit of a strange one to me.
While I agree that Lambert has probably fulfilled his role well from Lerner’s pov, he simply hasn’t done well from a football pov. Let’s face it, a good manager wins things and a crap manager gets you relegated.
Lambert has been miles nearer the latter.
I see the argument that he has kept us up on a shoestring, but apart from the pretty decent start to the season, have we really shown any signs of progression, which surely is what a good manager should be achieving?
I’m not sure we have.
And then there’s the football.
He should be sacked for that alone, imo, regardless of what I think about his methods and tactics.
No, rather than give him such a long contract now, we should have waited. What was the urgency?
Why not give him a one year extension and then look at it again?
I keep coming back to the big payout we’ll have to give him when he gets the bullet, where we seem reticent to spend on players.
All that said, stability has to be a good thing.
Agree badger no need to offer him an extension it’s not like there a queue of clubs wanting him ffs. He plays the worst anti football iv ever had the misfortune to see especially at home. Plus we have the most unwanted records under pl in our proud history. Complete joke
Oh, for anyone who might be interested, there’s a fans forum thingy going on with Brian Little and Nigel Spink on Friday the 26th (8pm) at the Red Lion in Erdington.
Just think back 3 or 4 months: an owner who finally admitted that he was looking to sell; ; a manager who was expected to either get the chop or walk in a matter of hours; an expected exodus of any decent players left, and apparently zero funds to even pay the tea-lady, let alone bring in any new faces during the summer. Faulkener already expectd to go to a job fith the FA and no nobody any use would come to a club in that state.
Remember also that all the so-called ‘experts’ and pundits in the media had already decided that Villa would ‘implode’ within a week or two of the start of this season; bookies had Lambert as the first manager to get the sack this season [by a long way]; we were supposed to be virtually relegated before the end of September…
Well, the doom-sayers were a little premature.
I’ve no idea what has caused the turnaround; as I said before, I don’t really care – I’ll just accept that there seems to be more optimism around the club than I can remember since the summer when RL and MON came in.
I haven’t read anyone on here be daft enough to say that we’re looking like “top 4” material; we still can’t score goals; in all likelyhood either Citeh or Chelski may put 5 or 6 past us; Lambert is still pretty incomprehensible in interviews and the team are still frustrating to watch at times – although I think that Oohah is being ridiculously extreme in saying that Villa are playing ‘anti-football’.
As someone pointed out earlier, what’s a manager’s contract actually worth? I bet OGS and Felix Magath had nice long contracts in place just 24 hours ago. So whether Lambert ‘deserves’ an extension to his contract is almost irrelevant if things turn sour again but taken with some of the changes seen at VP in the last few weeks, at least it’s pointing forwards, rather than re-visiting the abysmal times of the last few years.
Ardent, there is undoubtedly fresh optimism.
But it could be wiped away in a flash.
One other thing.
Someone mentioned increased crowds.
I’m not sure I see that happening, with the current entertainment level of the footy.
Badger – I agree it’s all still fragile. If we get tanked by Arse/Mancs/Chelsea suddenly the atmosphere could be back to what it was in May. I suppose the real test will be when we do get beaten – how will the team respond [I can already guess how many fans will…]
As for crowds – yes, there’s a problem. IMO Villa’s home form [in particular] has been so awful for the last three or four seasons that it will take a long time to persuade fans to go back to VP.
Personally, I’d not bothered paying to watch the dross at home for more than two seasons, but went back to see the Hull game a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it was because I was in the North Stand, rather than my old perch in the Trinity, but it was certainly a lot more enjoyable than the last dozen games I’d been to before I stopped going. I reckon that if Villa can actually win a few home games in the next few months, and not lose any of the others too heavily, then the attendances will get back up to around 35,000 + reasonaably soon.
Bear in mind we could easily have lost at home to Newcastle who IMO are among the worst 3 teams in the prem. Hull game was nothing special and they were knackered due to Europe. Stoke away a decent result but even Leicester won there last week and granted we did well at Liverpool. However since lambert arrived we have always done well at anfield and done ok v stoke away. So in real terms we are the same as last year.
There’s always a reason why any particular game might have been ‘lucky’; I suppose that the difference so far is that this season we actually took advantage. If there’s any more of that luck going then I’ll be overjoyed. Hopefully Arse will be both knackered and without any defenders for Saturday.
The other difference that I’ve noticed is that however much possession we’ve given away [and I still don’t like that part of Villa’s game at all], we’ve rarely looked like rabbits caught in the headlights of a truck – so far anyway.
Just think back to the ‘hoof it away – anywhere’ mentality that developed first under McLeish and just got worse last year. For whatever reason, we’ve actually defended well, although I’d certainly prefer to see us defend in the opposition half!
True if I have to go and watch us play would much rather spend extra and go to an away game. The football at home is as bad if not worse than mcleish.
I agree with the last 4 posts. I said shortly after Lerner put the club up for sale and reported no definite interest, just a few tentative leads, that I could not believe the club was really on offer. The Lambert extension points to one of two extremes. 1/ That Lerner has withdrawn the fake sales offer since the improved season start and is happier to run with AVFC and Lambert. Or much less likely 2/ There is now a potential buyer (our first four games would not have put anyone off) but the buyer does not want Lambert. Lambert has persuaded Lerner to make him more expensive to sack.
The news here in London that someone is seriously thinking of buying Spurs for 1 Billion has me gobsmacked. All other things being equal if Spurs and Villa had roughly equal squads and the stadiums as found, then the London weighting would put a fair value on Spurs of up to twice the value of Villa, but no more. As it is – Spurs have apparently signed an agreement to sell WHL for demolition. And at the fastest possible pace they cannot get a new ground up and running for the 2016 season. They have not even got a confirmed site yet for the new stadium. The surroundings of WHL are the least pleasant of any London ground, even Orient is better. Villa Park compares favourably.
So it makes no sense for any sane person interested in buying a Premier league side and having a billion to spend to buy Spurs when they could buy Villa and have 800 million left. Which brings me back to my starting point – was Villa ever for sale?
OLL – intersting comparison.
Just by way of observation, rather than anything else:
IF there was a potential sale in the offing, and the new buyer didn’t want PL, no, I can’t see that we’d have given him a new contract. That would probably be a deal-breaker and I can imagine the lawyers/merchant bankers brokering the sale would probably choke on their canapes.
As for Spurs – I guess that they’re seen as a club that could potentially fill a 60,000 stadium every two weeks; realistically I can’t imagine Villa selling-out every home game with 42,674
seats, let alone 60k. Not unless we’ve had a couple of years of excellent home form, won a few cups, managed to come 4th or 5th for a couple of seasons, etc.
Then remember that many potential foreign buyers only seem to know where London/Manchester/Liverpool actually are in the UK! And there’s a shortage of reasonble-size clubs up for sale in those areas [with the possible exception of Everton?] Hence the additional premium even beyond the usual “London prices”.
But having said that, no, I don’t think Spurs are worth 5 times Villa – unless you happen to know another multi-billiionaire who wants a club half-an-hour’s armoured car ride from Kensington or Chelsea.
I’m pretty sure that RL has been open to offers for Villa rather longer than since last May [in fact that was one of the few bits of ‘inside knowledge’ – albeit second or third hand- from VP that I could ever claim, a good two or three years ago in fact]. I think that he would have sold before now if there was a buyer willing to cough-up enough to clear the family/trust loans and still leave a small profit on the disposal.
What puzzles me now though is whether he’s actually had a change of heart and decided to give it another try, albeit under better financial control than in the first three seasons, or whether he’d still sell it tomorrow if the right offer came along?
If he has had a change of heart then why dosnt he come out and say. He was never selling. Officially yes unofficially it was a ruse to keep fans happy
Oohah – he was never ‘selling’ unless there was a serious buyer, and by the look of it, there hasn’t been one.
Personally I don’t believe the ‘ruse’ bit; that sort of announcement simply destabilises the club just at the point where you’d want everything to look settled.
Ardent Villain, a lot of sense in what you’re saying, I do believe Birmingham city itself has a lot to answer to of its attitude to Villa. Aston Villa for years have had problems with the city council in the Doug Ellis days.was Villa up for sale? from the yank I don’t think so there more going on behind the city doors than we known. But to businessman Birmingham has no appeal to the world in sport its London, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, not the midlands ,why.
Hahahaha, and the conspiracy theorists are out to play again!!!