Lambert a victim of circumstance that Sherwood
will have to avoid at Aston Villa
Faced with 13 games to keep a club, who have only managed 12 goals from their 25 league games so far, in the Premier League, Tim Sherwood has the prime opportunity to show why Aston Villa have courted and secured his services as one of “English football’s most highly sought-after managers”.
Looking for a route back into management after a brief introduction to the job at Spurs last season, Sherwood failed to gain assurances over QPR’s future during interviews for the vacant position at Loftus Road, but searching for a swift appointment Villa owner Randy Lerner has persuaded the 46 year old with a long-term vision.
In the immediate short-term, Villa have gone someway to restoring the feel-good factor by reaching the quarter-finals of the FA Cup by beating Leicester City 2-1, which Sherwood watched from the stands. But looking much further ahead, youth development and an astute plan similar to the successes at Swansea and Southampton is the aim, it is a compromise to Lerner’s own uncertainty at Villa Park.
They are reassurances that Paul Lambert, sacked after the 2-0 loss at Hull City proved to be the final straw for the owner who has witnessed a season of dour struggle in which attendances have been as sparse as 25,000, seemed to be lacking. With Lerner looking for a way out after failing to gain satisfactory return on the £250 million he has pumped into the club during his time in charge, Lambert was left to head a directionless club on the pitch while questions reigned off it.
Back in September the American owner was reportedly willing to end his eight-year tenure at the club for as little as half the initial £200 million valuation he priced Villa at after placing the club for sale last May. Then came a sponsorship drive which included the plan to put the naming rights to the iconic Holte End up for sale, with Lerner looking to boost revenue streams after Reforms Acquisitions Limited- the holding company that owned Villa- recorded losses of £217.7 million and in 2013, their accounts said that the club had “closed the chapter of heavy spending”.
Since taking control of the club from Doug Ellis in 2006, Lerner permitted Martin O’Neill to spend over £130 million on players in a 3 year spell in which the annual wage bill was allowed to rise to £71 million, accounting for an eye-watering 85% of the club’s turnover.
Lerner was charged with re-balancing the finances after O’Neill resigned in 2010, though the troubled season under the guise of Gerard Houllier meant the American had to fork out another £18 million for Darren Bent’s goals to steer them away from relegation. The first signs of frugality were apparent under Alex McLeish, controversially appointed following his relegation with city rivals Birmingham, who was allowed just a third of the £40 million the club recouped on the sales of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing.
A dull, uninspiring season of near-relegation once again followed and Lambert, on the back of earning a reputation as a studious and resourceful coach at Norwich, was given the remit, as told by the coach himself in his LMA statement to his sacking, of “conducting a massive overhaul of the playing squad, lower the overall wage structure of the playing staff and achieve this whilst keeping the club in the Premier League”.
“There was also a concerted effort to purchase and develop younger players who would provide a solid footing for the football club to move forward and enhance the value of the playing squad in the future”, said Lambert, who in his first summer had to shop in the bargain area of the transfer market for the likes of Ashley Westwood, Matthew Lowton, Joe Bennett and Jordan Bowery who all arrived as bright prospects from the Football League. £7 million was lavished on Christian Benteke in a move that paid-off with the Belgian’s 19 goals in his debut season, but it was all a far cry from the £13 million going on the likes of James Milner, of the combined £18 million for defensive duo Curtis Davies and Carlos Cuellar back in the regal days of O’Neill.
In his first year Lambert directed Villa to 15th, which he replicated in his second season and caused Lerner to decide that it was the best time for him to cash out. First came the announcement of the planned sale last May, before Arsenal’s former chief commercial officer Tom Fox was appointed as chief executive in August. That came during a summer in which Lambert spent a total of just £7 million on Carlos Sanchez and Aly Cissokho while free transfers and loans had to be relied upon to bolster the squad in the form of Kieran Richardson, Tom Cleverley, Joe Cole and Phillipe Senderos.
Such uninspiring business set the tone for a dour season and by the time they found another £4 million for the craft of Carles Gil of Valencia it was too late. The goal droughts had become a topic of ridicule and on the same evening as the Premier League announced the mammoth £5.1 billion deal to renew television rights, Villa slipped into the bottom three with a listless display on Humberside and the spectre of relegation loomed large.
The obscene riches that are in store with the Premier League’s new deal were probably too much for Lerner to contemplate losing out on, so he dealt his hand, possibly even being swayed by such an increase in revenue to even stay in charge of the club. That would help explain the announcement of the long-term plan forged together with Sherwood.
The terrible form of Lambert’s Villa in his final season, with just 2 wins in their last 20 matches, meant that there was little argument over his sacking. The Scot would agree with the description that the job was “the toughest challenge of his career” and now Sherwood, a relative novice compared to his predecessor, finds himself occupied with it. For him to succeed, Lerner and Fox will have to lend greater clarity to where they want the club to go.
