Outgoing site editor DILL has his say on the Paul Lambert/Aston Villa/Liverpool situation.
Never dull in these parts is it? Nobody would have been shocked when Villa gave Alex McLeish the boot, but I was hoping we would at least have a few weeks this summer before the big red PANIC button was hit on Twitter and the message boards about Paul Lambert’s future.
Admittedly Lambert didn’t exactly pledge his long-term future to the club when pressed, but when has he ever? Lambert has never been a man of many words and it was exactly the same when Burnley came a calling.
As has been said elsewhere Lambert knows what he is doing, and if it helps strengthen his hand when it comes to negotiating with the board over those new improved contract terms or for adding another couple of million to the transfer kitty he’s going to do it (and why wouldn’t he?).
So can we just put to bed the assumption that he is leaving this summer because he hasn’t told us he isn’t, please?
On to Villa. It’s blindingly obvious what they would see in Lambert. He’s young, ambitious, proven that he can work wonders on a limited budget and doesn’t come with a load of unwanted baggage. He’s precisely the sort of manager a club like Villa should be going for. In fact to quote Chief exec Paul Faulkner on their official site:
“I think we want to find someone who can reinvigorate the club, someone who can bring some vibrancy back to Villa. That’s what we need and that’s what we can get.
“You want someone who can inspire the players, inspire the fans and can deliver on the pitch.”
That’s Paul Lambert alright. But why would he want to go to Villa? Back to Faulkner again:
“I think there are an awful lot of reasons you want to come to Aston Villa. You look at the size of the club, you look at the infrastructure that we have here, both the facility at the training ground is one of the best in the country and our academy is one of the best in the country, our stadium is one of the best in the country.
“We have a fantastic owner who loves the club and has supported his managers, there`s the club`s history, the fans are phenomenal, why would you not want to come here?”
Well. The fact that Villa are looking for their fourth manager in two years suggests their “fantastic” owner doesn’t support his managers for long. All the indications are that they have bugger all to spend and an enormous wage bill thanks in no small part to a large number of crap players nobody else will want to buy.
Villa fans probably are phenomenal – when they win – but when was the last time that happened regularly? And if all that isn’t enough, their chief scout is Glenn Roeder.
No, if I’m Paul Lambert, I’m setting my sights a little higher than Aston Villa Football Club – regardless of how nice the training ground is. The rewards for success there would be huge, but if I`m Paul Lambert, I’m much more interested in that little situation vacant up on Merseyside.
The problem with that of course are those poor, long suffering Liverpool fans. They will no doubt be screaming for an established “name” to try and bring the glory days back to Anfield, which in reality would cost them a fortune for a couple of years and then they’d start need to start again.
A much smarter move by the Liverpool hierarchy would be to go for somebody like Lambert. The reality is they need a manager like him, and if they had one I genuinely believe next year actually could be their year for once.
Will Lambert leave Carrow Road for a bigger club to further his ambitions? Of course he will – but I’m not completely convinced it’ll be this summer.
In the meantime I suggest we make the most of having him at our club, and concentrate instead on supporting Grant Holt at the Euros…wait…what do you mean “Andy Carroll”?
Bugger.