Such has been the achingly long sustainability of Aston Villa’s slog to stay in the Premier League this season, it feels somewhat difficult to recollect the journey that Paul Lambert’s men have taken to get here in the first place.
Following his side’s superb 3-1 win over Stoke City at the weekend, for the first time in what seems like a small lifetime, a dashing of optimism seems to have draped itself over Villa Park. With six games still to play, a banker for safety they most certainly are not, but as we head into the final weeks of the Premier League campaign, that rather elusive quality that goes by the name of belief, has finally decided to make an appearance.
Yet it was within their recent win over Tony Pulis’ side, that you imagine the beleaguered Lambert might perhaps afford himself a wry feeling of self-satisfaction.
Nearly twelve months on from what was possibly the most soul-shattering season witnessed at Villa Park over the last decade, the steely Scot has almost completely rebuilt this side.
The group of overpaid, overhyped and woefully underperforming experienced ‘big names’ that his countryman Alex McLeish left behind have largely been consigned to recent history at the club, with Lambert’s new-look Villa side preferring to harness the qualities of youth and hunger, rather than reputation and former glory.
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The formation and development of that blueprint has come at quite some cost, most notably to not only Lambert’s own credentials, but also to that of his club’s. Yet in watching his young side fight for their lives and grind out what could be a potentially season changing win over Stoke on Saturday, while you’d perhaps stop short of suggesting that redemption was on the way for his side, Lambert’s young guns finally looked like were beginning to repay back the faith.
Even if Villa managed to win their next three on the bounce, in spite of how refreshing it’s been for the neutral to see a Premier League manager put his faith in youth – several of whom are of course British – their 2012-13 campaign isn’t likely to be one remembered too fondly by supporters. Yet regardless of where their fate may or may not lie come May, was their season ever likely to have veered from its current course?
When a team is down at the bottom of the table fighting to keep their head above water, the spotlight is naturally always going to shine the brightest upon the manager at the helm and let’s make no mistake about it, Paul Lambert has made his fair share of mistakes along the way this season.
But given the resources he’s had available to him and the squad that he’d inherited at Villa Park, how much further up the league table should the club realistically be?
When Lambert arrived at the club in the summer, don’t let some of the names that were bumbling around the squad fool you into thinking the process of repairing the damage that McLeish had inflicted was some form of easy fix. Whether the unprecedented drama that the league’s climax dished up may have swept Villa’s finish under the season, no one can be quite sure.
But in finishing only two points above the relegated Bolton Wanderers and five behind a Wigan Athletic team that were generally perceived to have enjoyed something of a minor miracle to avoid the drop, you get an idea as to quite how much trouble the club was in.
Lambert’s first job was of course to stamp his own authority upon this Villa side and up until this point, the Scot has had to endure some serious questions about the integrity of his transfer philosophy. The £7million splashed on Christian Benteke when the club had a near on £18million striker in Darren Bent, was deemed unwise. Yet six months on and the Belgian has arguably been one of the signings of the season.
The likes of Matthew Lowton and Ashley Westwood were again both deemed as a couple of lower-league punts too far as Lambert sought to favour youth over the underperforming experience that was riddled within this Aston Villa team.
And yet while Queens Park Rangers look set to be relegated after adopting the antithesis to Lambert’s approach in spending millions on ‘proven’ Premier League talent, it’s been the hunger of the former-Norwich City man’s young side that has been the driving force in their battle against relegation.
The sackings of more or less every manager in and around Aston Villa this season has perhaps suggested that when a side is down towards the wrong end of the table, the only solution is to tear everything up and start again. Following the departures of Mark Hughes, Nigel Adkins, Brian McDermott and more recently Martin O’Neill, Lambert’s position at Villa should only feel precarious because of the fate of his peers, as opposed to his own performance at the club.
Owner Randy Lerner isn’t without his faults, but his refusal to be seduced by the mid-season trigger pulling culture that so many of his contemporaries have adopted within this league is one that might ultimately see him do his part to prevent the club from slipping through the trap door.
Destroying what the club had fought so hard to attain in recent years, took little less than a season to do so. Seeking to rebuild, however, doesn’t adhere to quite the same time scale. If panic is the Premier League’s current underlying narrative, then Aston Villa are far better sticking with patience. And the heart of it, regardless of what happens this season, must be Paul Lambert.
