OK, here’s a late night poser.
How many of the current Aston Villa squad would you put into a Norwich City starting XI?
Simple question. How many?
I can think of at least four; maybe five. Benteke, Agbonlahor, Delph and Vlaar. Bertrand, maybe.
Otherwise, everyone is pretty much of a muchness. Or put it the other way. If you were a Villa fan, how many Norwich players would you put in your starting XI? One? Wes, at a guess.
The point here is one that has dogged this club for the last couple of seasons. And goes back to the point that the Midlands Press made from very early on in Paul Lambert’s reign.
He got ‘lucky’ in Grant Holt.
Now many might argue that such a claim wholly under-values the Scot’s powers of motivation; he’s tactical genius formation-wise; the manner in which his sides never gave up until the final whistle.
All of which have been used to compare and contrast to the limp and little lamented reign of Chris Hughton.
But here’s another question. If Lambert and Villa were to part company this summer, which of the two men would be the first to be re-employed? Who would get the bigger gig?
Because there’s something very odd about events at Villa Park this week and in the small village that is football in this country, I think it will be Hughton who comes out smelling the rosier.
The suspension of his two, principal lieutenants – first at Wycombe, then Colchester, onto Norwich and now Villa – doesn’t sit easily with football people.
I never wholly understood what Gary Karsa’s role as ‘director of football operations’ was; other than he was the eyes and ears of the manager around the building. Ian Culverhouse’s role was far more clear; he was the coach.
He was the Peter Taylor to Lambert’s Brian Clough; or more pertinently, he was Stevie Walford to Martin O’Neill. His old ‘Gaffer’ at Celtic. Karsa was John Robertson.
That’s how it worked.
Until this week. When something has clearly gone very, very wrong on the basis of their suspension and Lambert suddenly finding himself with two new deputies – Villa legend Gordon Cowans and Shay Given, the keeper all-but frozen out of the picture by the manager for the last 18 months.
It looks very much like a shot-gun wedding; with Culverhouse and Karsa sacrificed on a run of poor results that leaves Villa just four points off the relegation zone with a huge home game against Southampton next on the agenda.
It doesn’t – from a distance – strike me as a case of ‘All for one and one for all!’ in the Villa Park boot room.
And Randy Lerner’s very public backing of his manager also has an all-too familiar ring.
Because Villa are under-achieving. In Benteke they have a Premier League striker straight out of central casting; a force and a figure and a pay-packet that is a million miles away from poor Ricky. It’s a man versus a boy up front. Vlaar looks a leader; Delph a handful. Agbonlahor always offers too much for Norwich and is a proper athlete.
So why are Villa ending their season in such an unseemly heap?
What has happened to Lambert’s ‘magic dust’ manager-wise?
Does his reign need to be revised in favour of the Midlands theory that it was ‘Holt wot won it?’ That it was his leadership on the pitch that drove Norwich ever upward until his knees started to buckle under the Premier League strain?
It is fascinating. Albeit a bit belated in terms of the never-ending comparison with Hughton, who was – from Day One – handed a God awful gig in terms of following Lambert’s meteoric rise to managerial fame and prominence.
If memory serves, there was a spell that golden spring when his name was in the frame for the Liverpool job; alongside Roberto Martinez. And, of course, Brendan Rodgers. Who looks ever more like fulfilling Stevie G’s wish of a Premier League title after 15-odd years of trying.
Martinez has, meanwhile, proved that there is plenty of life in Everton post-Moyes. You couldn’t claim that they had gone backwards under his tenure. In fact, he might have pushed them on again.
Villa have flat-lined and are in danger of imploding. In a poisonous mess.
And for all Hughton’s alleged faults, I couldn’t see him throwing Messrs Calderwood and Trollope to the legal wolves in the manner that has befallen Culverhouse and Karsa.
I suspect Hughton would be one of those that would walk the plank with his backroom staff.
And football folk will note that.
The point? I think with the benefit of hindsight, Paul Lambert will be seen to be only human after all; not quite the managerial god everyone thought.
As for Hughton, he’s not as bad as everyone appears to make out. He’ll be back.
He made one, big punt in the transfer market; whacked £8.5 million on a lad out of Portugal, when £7 million would have got you the real deal out of Belgium.
And it’s almost as simple as that.
Occasionally it happens in football that things just click and work brilliantly. This was the case with Norwich, Lambert and Holt. I think each benefited hugely from being in the presence of the other 2 and would not have enjoyed as much success in the absence of one of the parties. Perhaps each regrets the relationship ending when it did.
Regarding your last point, you’ve made reference to this a couple of times during the season. Yes, 7 million would have got Benteke in 2012 and that was an amazing deal for Villa as a year later they could have more than tripled their money. When we signed RVW I think the vast majority of us thought/expected he would be our Benteke and arguably RVW had a better pedigree. While it hasn’t worked out, I find it hard to criticise the deal as at the time I thought it was the right deal made for the right reasons. I don’t believe we were in a position to sign Benteke for 7 million in 2012 or 2013 and I don’t recall reading your dossier of better alternatives when we got RVW. If it’s so easy to find Benteke’s, please feel free to head up out scouting network and bring them in.
god its true what they say about people from norfolk. the villa have slashed and burnt a hole team of good but overpaid players its a miracle we’re not in the 3rd tear his two best signings benteke + the defender?allso kuzak are on long term injuries. thanks Dave
Lambert was always going to struggle at Villa.
Part of the reason is spite, he was being talked about as the Liverpool manager… Brendan Rodgers got the job, having achieved far less with Swansea than Lambert had with Norwich… and so he took the Villa job as a consolation.
Maybe if he stayed with Norwich he could have built something, but I suspect his emotions got the better of him. Why he chose to opt for the poison chalice of the premership is something only he can explain.
It’s odd looking back at his reign because it was in many ways a rather ramshackle affair. All those late goals, the game at Tranmere, Frazer Forster’s heroics against Charlton, Simeon Jackson’s goal against Derby, the games against Ipswich, the match against Forest – which was one of the classic games of Championship football – etc.
This is the main difference between Lambert and Hughton. Apart from Johnson’s almost goal of the season against Swansea it is difficult to think of many stand out moments.
Yes, Hughton can organise a defence – it makes me smile when I occasionally look at the Villa forums to see people complain at Lambert’s defensive frailty, did they not know the history of the man they chanted for? Probably not. Given the televised footballing culture of the post Sky era – but in the end you make your own luck, and Hughton’s style for all it’s bad luck was never going to produce goals, because unlike Lambert he didn’t play the odds.
As for the future, I suspect Hughton will end up at somewhere like Forest or Ipswich – somewhere he can ‘command’ respect form the Footballing media for his conservative style and his adherence to the rules.
Lambert will go one of three ways
If his hatred can be reignited in a manner akin to Cloughie or Fergie he will achieve something great (assuming he lays down his pipe and kicks off his slippers with the Villa job)
He will go the Mike Walker route and end up couching abroad at an obscure club.
Or he will get his wish to spend more time with his family – and perhaps dabble a bit at a club like St Mirren.
Rick, I hear what you say but I’d have him back tomorrow. I know it will never happen, too many bridges burned I suspect, but sometimes people and Clubs are just made for each other.
No one has done well out of him leaving us!!
There were far more players performing ‘above their level’ than just Holt as a result of Lambert. That could easily be seen by the meteoric drop in the quality of our football just 15-20 games in to Hughton’s reign. We never recovered.
At the end of Hughton’s first season we sold off those players who were deemed ‘not good enough’ who had previously done fantastic jobs under Lambert under the notion that it was the player’s lack of quality. We brought in much bigger, better names to replace them. But few matched their potential (just Olsson?)
At Norwich Lambert raised the level of our team. Under two seasons with Hughton we have lost ~30% of our points we had under PL. Norwich could never afford to lose that many.
PL clearly hasn’t had the same impact as he did at Norwich, but they are a better team for having him (even if Villa fans have higher expectations). The season before he took over they achieved 38pts and a team in fast decline (the season before that having 48pts), his first season they got 41. They have five games to play and could easily pass the 40pt barrier again. Villa is a tough gig because their name holds much more weight than the finances that now back them.