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.
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!!!