For Aston Villa, failure to change could have been fatal!
Article by Luke Heyes
Subscribe to the e-Football Podcast on iTunes for FREE - search 'e-Football'
Aston Villa managed to conjure up a performance against Chelsea on Saturday that gave their fans rudiments of hope and expectation in what has been another season of turmoil and mediocrity. Yet as is with football, and particularly Aston Villa, despair is always lurking cruelly around the corner. Defeat to Hull on Tuesday evening was not just another kick in the teeth, it was irrefutable confirmation that when you are playing woefully, failing to score goals, have a team of players that are bereaved of any confidence whatsoever and a manager utterly out of his depth, there is only one outcome.
Aston Villa, once again, find themselves in the black hole of the ‘relegation zone’ and what on the surface might appear like a replica of last season, scratch away and it becomes painfully evident that the situation right now is much more perilous. The fans are acutely aware of this; so are pundits, players, ex-players, managers, ex-managers, even non-lovers of football and for what seemed like an eternity where the stagnation was beginning to cultivate like bacteria on a rotting lump of cheese, Randy Lerner and Tom Fox have finally woken up from their slumber and smelt the coffee: the axe has finally been wielded on Paul Lambert and any further delay in that decision could have been fatal; Villa need to quickly forget and move on.
The search for a new manager is in full flow and although projected shortlistings for the vacant position have fluctuated between five and twenty five potential candidates, I’m certain Randy Lerner has managed to condense his own shortlisting down to three persons. Persuading any of those potential three is obviously a different layer of narrative and whether Lerner will appoint a firefighting figure to come in and simply keep Villa up or select somebody with a view to a more long-term stay is not yet clear. Villa need a more tenacious manager, a grittier manger that is willing to mix things up and freshen up the dressing room; ultimately, someone who has the personality to get the team playing with confidence and keep them in the Premier League. The football under Lambert was dull, half-hearted and tactically unchanging; it would be easy to say that any change in management would be welcomed in open arms, however, the blessed appointed candidate still has a gargantuan task ahead of them and in the words of Lambert himself, ‘thirteen cup finals’.
And so we look forward to the weekend. Aston Villa host Leicester in the FA Cup and with how open the competition is right now, this could the perfect opportunity to kick start their season with or without a new manager.
© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
Subscribe to the e-Football Podcast on iTunes for FREE - search 'e-Football'
Aston Villa managed to conjure up a performance against Chelsea on Saturday that gave their fans rudiments of hope and expectation in what has been another season of turmoil and mediocrity. Yet as is with football, and particularly Aston Villa, despair is always lurking cruelly around the corner. Defeat to Hull on Tuesday evening was not just another kick in the teeth, it was irrefutable confirmation that when you are playing woefully, failing to score goals, have a team of players that are bereaved of any confidence whatsoever and a manager utterly out of his depth, there is only one outcome.
Aston Villa, once again, find themselves in the black hole of the ‘relegation zone’ and what on the surface might appear like a replica of last season, scratch away and it becomes painfully evident that the situation right now is much more perilous. The fans are acutely aware of this; so are pundits, players, ex-players, managers, ex-managers, even non-lovers of football and for what seemed like an eternity where the stagnation was beginning to cultivate like bacteria on a rotting lump of cheese, Randy Lerner and Tom Fox have finally woken up from their slumber and smelt the coffee: the axe has finally been wielded on Paul Lambert and any further delay in that decision could have been fatal; Villa need to quickly forget and move on.
The search for a new manager is in full flow and although projected shortlistings for the vacant position have fluctuated between five and twenty five potential candidates, I’m certain Randy Lerner has managed to condense his own shortlisting down to three persons. Persuading any of those potential three is obviously a different layer of narrative and whether Lerner will appoint a firefighting figure to come in and simply keep Villa up or select somebody with a view to a more long-term stay is not yet clear. Villa need a more tenacious manager, a grittier manger that is willing to mix things up and freshen up the dressing room; ultimately, someone who has the personality to get the team playing with confidence and keep them in the Premier League. The football under Lambert was dull, half-hearted and tactically unchanging; it would be easy to say that any change in management would be welcomed in open arms, however, the blessed appointed candidate still has a gargantuan task ahead of them and in the words of Lambert himself, ‘thirteen cup finals’.
And so we look forward to the weekend. Aston Villa host Leicester in the FA Cup and with how open the competition is right now, this could the perfect opportunity to kick start their season with or without a new manager.
© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
No comments: