Lambert Looking For 5 Players With £20m Funds?

Right, lets get stuck in to the press talk today from the interviews with Villa`s new boss Paul Lambert yesterday.

All makes for nice reading!

Lambert said: ‘It’s an incredible opportunity. You look at the history. The size of the football club is vast. It’s something I’m not going to shy away from. It’s the first time I’ve got money. But whether you’re making little money or lots of money, I still expect the desire to win games. That should never deflect from winning games. The principles are still of the same regardless of what they earn.’

So… he`s been told there is money. He`s told them he`ll get the team spirit right and will look to bring back the desire of the players to win games.

Smiling yet?

John Wragg www.express.co.uk says that he has around £20million to spend (and other reports have said he`d also get the funds from any player sales) … so not a bad start.

According to John Lambert will look to bring in five players and possibly have a similar amount leaving.

Getting rid of the sulkers and those who showed now interest in the last two seasons? Yes please!

He said he will thrive on the pressure adding, “There`s a feeling around the place that`s really good at the minute. It`s up to me to try to keep that. I sensed it the first time I came here. I`ll do everything I can to make this club successful.”

The report says the list is already in Paul Faulkner’s hands for the five players he is after and ideally he`d like a couple of them in for the pre-season tour of America in July.

“There`s lads there that I hope we can try to get in. Foreign or British, as long as they`ve got the hunger and they want to perform then that`s the main thing.”

The report also says that he needs a No2 following the departure of Brad Guzan.

Plenty of quotes in the press about the link to Grant Holt as well.

He confirmed to skysports.com ‘There’s no agreement between me and Norwich about signing players,’ adding there is nothing stopping him going back for Norwich players if he wants.

But also says that he`s not even thought about Holt as yet.

“Grant Holt was absolutely brilliant for me. In the three years I was there he was a huge part of what happened. But things move on. I need to know what`s happening at Aston Villa before I do anything. The chairman and Paul Faulkner know that and then we`ll try to bring players in.
There`s four or five I`d like. The chairman has been brilliant.”

And on targets? LOL, he might have set his sights a bit high actually: www.dailymail.co.uk have quotes about who he has asked for!

‘The chairman and Paul (Faulkner, CEO) know the lads I`ve asked to look at and we`ll try, as a football club, to bring those in. I told Paul to go and get Messi. After him we want Xavi and Iniesta. So if those three come I think we`ll do all right. But there`s a list, yes. We`ll see if we can progress that down the road.`

The report also says that Lambert won`t be made to sell Darren Bent to fund new signings, with that said, there aren`t actually any quotes from the new Villa manager about that… but I concur, he can`t be and won`t be made to sell our top striker.

And on the fans, ‘They want to see a winning team. If you can do it with style then great, but if you can`t and you win, I`m pretty sure people will still be happy.`