‘No sense anything could get better’: Paul Lambert leaves Aston Villa in a shambles

Aston Villa supporters were not enjoying life under their Scottish manager.

The goals were few and far between, the football lacked excitement and they were involved in a joyless relegation battle.

That was in 2012, during Alex McLeish’s solitary season in charge, which seemed a nadir.

Paul Lambert has disproved that, though.

Villa may have been tedious under Lambert’s predecessor, but they had reached record-breaking levels of wretchedness this season that led on Wednesday to Lambert’s dismissal.

They averaged under a goal a game (37 in 38) during McLeish’s reign, but Lambert has departed a side that had one goal in eight.

It made this season’s team the first in Villa’s 141-year history to fail to score in six successive matches. In the past 25 league games, they struck just 12 times.

They are on course to become the least prolific team in Premier League history.

They have scored as many league goals in Birmingham this season as Championship leaders Bournemouth, whose eight against Birmingham City came in 90 minutes. Villa’s eight at Villa Park have taken 1080.

Statisticians have found plenty to enjoy in Villa’s campaign but those with an affinity to the club have not.

If the club’s power brokers had not had their heads buried in the sand, Villa would have realised and recognised rather earlier what was unfolding.

Lambert, the man who was awarded a four-year contract in September, presided over two wins in their next 21 matches.

There is a possibility that, for the first time since the Berlin Wall was standing, Villa will be playing their football in the second tier next season.

Eventually even chief executive Tom Fox and owner Randy Lerner looked at the league table, the form table and the goalscoring figures.

Before then, Villa had become the object of mockery with supporters wielding printouts of giant arrows, trying to direct their shot-shy side towards goal.

The Birmingham Mail, which rigorously chronicled Lambert’s increasingly dismal reign, marked his 100th league game in charge – Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea – with a tongue-in-cheek list of “99 good things Paul Lambert has achieved at Villa”.

They included winning a pre-season friendly on penalties, moving a dugout, meeting actor Tom Hanks, wearing nice jumpers and undertaking an ice bucket challenge.

They marked his demise, two games later, with “101 reasons Paul Lambert won’t be thanked”.

They featured 12 particularly poor signings, 15 especially bad decisions, nine unwanted club records and all 54 defeats.

Lambert’s tenure was sufficiently awful that it could not be explained alone by the current age of austerity at Villa Park.

Jose Mourinho cheekily suggested that Villa have one of the best squads in the division.

They do not, but nor do they have one of the worst or one of the smallest budgets.

While Lambert said his initial remit was to reduce the wage structure and overhaul a failing squad, he ended up underachieving, grievously and grimly.

They lost their optimism and their identity alike.

Some of Lambert’s initial missteps could be forgiven. He seemed to be building a team around youth, using counter-attacking pace in a way that was sporadically devastating.

He went off the beaten track to scout for players and brought the promise of a brighter tomorrow.

Two years on, it was hard to see what Lambert stood for: a team with a contingent of ageing players played ponderous football; some of the signings were has-beens; few were being recruited, unlike his earlier buys, with the prospect they would improve at Villa Park.

There was no sense anything could get any better, only worse.

The Villa he inherited from McLeish had stayed up, just, while the one he leaves could go down, which is why it may be tough to find a suitable successor.

The new coach has to be a short-term specialist, charged with getting results in 13 games, yet one who possesses a long-term vision.

The best relegation fighter in the business, Tony Pulis, has already been hired and Lerner has an awful record of hiring managers.

Yet the size of Villa and the potential Lambert left untapped means this job represents an opportunity for someone.

sports@thenational.ae

Follow us at our new home on Twitter @NatSportUAE