Aston Villa opened the doors of the Holte Suite on Monday night to a limited number of season ticket holders (around 150 with +1s) for a two hour Q and A with manager Paul Lambert.
The night was hosted by Free Radio’s Tom Ross, who endured expectant banter for his support for Villa’s biggest and most fiercest rivals Birmingham City, from both fans in attendance and even Lambert.
Paul Lambert. came across as a very modest, honest and humorous man, not pretending to be something he wasn’t, telling it how it is. His honestly was appreciated, personally giving his own feelings towards last seasons disaster that was the semi-final defeat to then League two Bradford over two legs in the Capital One Cup.
‘Well what a chance to win a cup we had last year and I blew that, didn’t I’.
He did enough to convince me even more that he is the best man to lead Villa to future successes, maybe even something Martin O’Neill couldn’t do, affiliate the top four.
A wide selection of topics were covered in detail by the man at the helm at Aston Villa, including generic questions you would of expected him to of been asked and a few which resulted in applause from people in attendance.
The forum started slightly late, 45 minutes than originally planned, but prior notice was given by the club. Food and drink were available to those in attendance, £5 for a pie (vastly improved in taste and quality from last season) with chips and gravy and a few pricey bottles of cider went down well before the interview started.
On arrival Paul Lambert and Tom Ross were given a loud standing applause, obviously none aimed at the latter, sure I heard bits of Blues related banter aimed towards Ross.
One question permitted per person in attendance and all questions were given an honest and well thought response by Lambert, when he wasn’t joking or ripping into Ross; including saying he (Ross) interviewing him was the worst part of his job; Ross called the night a ‘love-in’.
I’ll start with the questions that got the most interesting and authentic answers from Lambert and the answers that Villa fans, not just in attendance but at home, in the pub or still at work wanted answering.
Lambert was asked about one of Villa’s lowest points last season (there were a few) but the outstanding one for me (Lambert’s biggest regret) was the defeat over two legs to then League two Bradford City in the Capital One Cup.
Modesty he answered, “Well what a chance to win a cup we had last year and I blew that, didn’t I?”.
Adding he should of dealt with a certain situation more professionally, “A situation happened that I should have dealt with differently’.
Even though an full explanation wasn’t provided by Lambert, if pushed a little more I think a full answer might have been given.
Personally I think its not down to the tactics employed for the two games, but to more of an incident with one of the players; maybe one of the ‘bomb squad’ who hasn’t featured for the club since that notable two game disaster.
An issue heavily concentrated on by the British press of recent has been the players discarded by Lambert, now named the ‘bomb squad’. When asked by a brave fan, Lambert looked surprised, (maybe because he never reads media reports) answering he wanted to work with one group of players, he would be working with all season.
He also stated he didn’t have anything personally against the combustive named ‘bomb squad’ and even called one member of that group, Shay Given, a model pro.
One question I personally, but probably ever other Villa fan wanted the answer to was would Villa be adding to the six signings already this Summer, particularly the addition of a new number 10 type player. In response, Lambert remained tight lipped about the chance of new signings, but did mention the name of one target, who has been getting mentioned to a greater extent on Twitter in recent weeks.
“Assuming you’re on about the Nuremburg lad, Kiyotake, he is a different type of player, we inquired, but NO bid was made. We aren’t looking to strength for the sake of it, but if something comes up and I think it’s worthwhile I’ll look at it, you always have targets, never say never”.
Regarding the vacant number ten type player, Lambert said “(Aleksander) Tonev and (Andi) Weimann are both capable of playing in the number ten position”.
Also he (Lambert) stated that Villa wouldn’t be making a marque signing (a 30-40 million player) saying, “It just isn’t feasible for the club to do it”.
I don’t think personally any Villa fan expected this anyway. Lambert’s biggest signing so far has been Christian Benteke for a reported seven million and besides Darren Bent (24 million) Villa have never spend over 12 million (Stuart Downing) on a player; Ashley Young and Juan Pablo Angel, Villa’s ex transfer record were both signed for 9.65 million.
My own question (proud to of asked it) was what Lambert’s aims were for Villa next season. Remaining tight lipped and not giving much away, Lambert declared “Anything can happen in football, last season wasn’t a failure, but improvement is the aim”.
Lambert also gave the impression that he would be willing to let some of last season’s NextGen winning squad (whom have been playing in pre-season) particularly Jack Grealish go out on loan this season, to understand the difficulties and lessons of playing in the lower leagues, also stating they are still only kids.
Other funnier questions posed by members of the audience to Lambert were who he would least want to be stuck in a lift with out of the current playing squad, which managers he got along with and didn’t and the current situation at Spurs, with Real Madrid’s world record bid for Gareth Bale.
His answers, he would least want to be stuck in a lift with Antonio ‘Tony Moon’ Luna, as he doesn’t speak a word of English, ex Stoke boss Tony Pulis and current QPR manager Harry Redknapp were who he got along with best (no mention of the manager he least got along with, Roberto Mancini maybe) and to the joy of the audience, a smirk came across his face when he was asked about the world record bid (85 million) by Real for Spur’s Gareth Bale.
Regarding his contract, Lambert said he would discuss it with Paul Faulkner and Randy Lerner when the time was right.
The daunting issue, that has haunted the dreams of Villa fans throughout last season and probably still now was the repeated concession of late goals, the majority of them from set pieces. Villa threw away a debatable nine points (the difference between 8th-15th) from conceding late goals, throwing away leads and from set pieces.
Upon quizzed on why Lambert was on the slight defensive he answered, “We could practise set pieces on the training pitch all day, but its a different story when you’re playing in front of a large crowd”.
The 19th minute applause for Stiliyan Petrov is currently being debated to if it is still should to be done next season was answered by Lambert, he said “Its had its time, but it only should stop on Stan (Petrov’s) say so; Villa have already withdrawn the number 19 shirt until future notice.
Finally on the issue that is being vicariously debated by Villa fans on forums, in person and in different mediums of the media, the question is experience still needed or is Lambert’s philosophy of bringing through youth the correct thing to do.
In response which also brought the recently resolved saga regarding Christian Benteke up, Lambert mentioned Scott Parker, calling him a quality player, but said it would make sense switching a midfielder for one of the brightest young talents in Europe at the moment, referring to Benteke. But Lambert he did say if someone like Barcelona came in for one of your players, you couldn’t really get in their way if they wanted to move.
In conclusion the two hour Q and A session with gaffer Paul Lambert provided a great insight into who the man is taking Aston Villa into a new era. With a young, talented and hungry for success squad, the chance of winning a Cup this season (tipped by several journalists to do so) is a realism that isn’t so unbelievable nowadays; considering the last three years prior to Lambert’s arrival that had 40,000 dark clouds settled over Villa Park.
He also never ate during this three year spell as manager at Norwich, even though Delia Smith was there at the time.
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