Just read this story on the 'Daily Fail' website. Seems reasonably accurate. Darren Bent When the England international was signed from Sunderland for £24m in January 2011, it was made clear by Gerard Houllier, Villa's manager at the time, that he had been bought to score from chances created by Ashley Young and Stewart Downing. Both have since left. Is it any wonder that Bent's goals are drying up? He has always been a taker of chances, rather than a creator of them. And his statistics demonstrate that. In the opening match of the season at West Ham, he touched the ball just 19 times. It was a similar story last week at Fulham. Is that Bent's fault? Is Paul Lambert using him to Villa's best advantage? The sacrifice of quality Former boss Alex McLeish highlighted an unpalatable truth in a Sportsmail interview last month. Aston Villa cannot continue to sell players of the calibre of Gareth Barry, James Milner, Young and Downing without results deteriorating. Other seasoned performers such as Brad Friedel, Carlos Cuellar and Olof Mellberg have simply walked away from the club for nothing. Add to that the loss of club captain Stiliyan Petrov, happily now in remission from his battle against leukaemia, and here is the backbone of a team that could justifiably be asked to make an impression on the top six. Read the full story here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2223231/What-going-wrong-Aston-Villa.html
This was effectively the subject of a post that I made earlier in the week.It predates Lambert's arrival so in that rrspect he is a consequence rather than a cause.It could be simply that they have got shot of so many good players as the article suggests.However there does to be some kind of deep seated malaise at the club that made it a poisoned chalice for Lambert.It seems to have deepened as the season has progressed and I feel that if they don't get the points tomorrow then alarm bells will be ringing there.
It is a shadow of the team that Bent had around him when he first arrived at Villa Park and there seems to have been a reluctance to replace quality players with players who could at least 'step up to the mark' (Lerner keeping a tight hold of the purse strings probably) and I felt at the time whether it could be a 'poisoned chalice; for PL. They do need to start getting points on the board - as long as it's after Saturday!!!!
To be honest something isn't right there and I thought Lambert would be flying much higher than he is now and I just hope we're not on the end of a massive Villa backlash tomorrow.
That would be a danger if Villa were capable of one,and I don't think that the stats,especially their goals scored,suggests that they are.More chance of QPR suffering one at The Emirates
its really very simple. if you sell all your best players and replace them with lower quality purchases, you'll perform worse. that's what's happened. it happened to us under chase in '95.
