Paul Lambert is the worst divorcee ever. Constantly reminding Aston Villa about just how bad things were for him, how he tried to separate sooner but absolutely absolving himself of any blame in the break-up.
Now let’s get things straight, again.
As a football club, I have little doubt that Aston Villa represents a difficult job. Our instability, errors in judgement and general decline have been well documented both on this blog and elsewhere.
What Lambert overlooked both at the time and repeatedly in interviews since his departure, is that he was a massive part of that failure and our slide towards where we are now.
Under his stewardship we badly lost our way, both in tactics and through the players he opted to sign. For every Benteke that Lambert is quick to take credit for, there is a Jordan Bowery.
Lambert has become a broken record, desperately trying to rebuild a career after assisting in the master-plan which has brought Villa to its knees. A key part of this appears to be emphasising the nightmare behind the scenes at his former club, thus deflecting attention away from his drawn out spell at Villa Park.
This is after-all a man who lost, over two legs, to Bradford City in the League Cup Semi finals. A fourth tier side. A club record breaking 8-0 defeat to Chelsea. Achieving the worst start to a Premier League season. The most defeats (home & away) in Villa’s Premier League history. Our worst home record, ever. The list goes on and on and on.
This is also a man who insists he offered to resign in the close season of 2014, yet signed a contract extension a mere matter of weeks later. Laughable.
Paul is unfortunately either absolutely blinkered to reality or utterly deluded if he believes what falls from his mouth. He talks of spending time with Guardiola, Klopp, Ancelotti and company. They must have took pity, taking in a stray.
I remember, I watched Aston Villa for the punishing, relentless Paul Lambert years. I still see the effects today of the woeful coaching and “tactics” he inflicted on the likes of Ashley Westwood, Ciaran Clark amongst others.
We were an awful footballing team. Persevering with players and plans that made absolutely no rational sense. Playing Agbonlahor game after game despite atrocious displays. Starving a predatory striker like Benteke of service for months on end. Facing the cameras after every single match lamenting imaginary improvements or mumbling we “go again”.
It was by complete good fortune, not Lambert’s skill that kept Villa up. In reality, only because of Sherwood, despite his flaws, that we weren’t relegated in 2014/15. As myself and many others can recall, the last 5 seasons have been salvaged by there being 3 worse teams and a marginally more sensible recruitment policy.
I hope this is the last time I feel the need to write about Lambert, it opens wounds that given where we are now just don’t need re-examining. Aston Villa as a club is badly run and operated, but blame cannot be shifted in its entirety for on the field results.
Therefore, every time that I read or watch Lambert speak a revisionist history of his time at Villa, I’ll be prompted to revisit the damage he should should rightly be held to account for.
It is with no pleasure, but solemnity that we must recall his dreadful chapter in our great clubs recent history. Paul Lambert; you were part of the problem.