It’s often claimed that the busy festive fixture schedule is significant in terms of determining the fate of the Premiership title. Equally, the same can be said for those clubs languishing at the wrong end of the table, something that cannot have been lost on Aston Villa supporters of late.
If we accept the foregoing sentiment for the moment – though we mustn’t forget that only half of the season’s matches have been completed so far - it can surely be assumed that festive cheer will have been in short supply for Villa manager Paul Lambert.
As recently as two weeks ago, Aston Villa enjoyed an improbable 3-1 win against Liverpool at Anfield, a result which led many to opine that Villa had ‘turned the corner’ and they could look forward to the rest of the season with a degree of optimism.
To Lambert, therefore, if a week is a long time in Politics, a fortnight must be the proverbial lifetime when it comes to the beautiful game.
Since that happy day on Merseyside, Villa have endured a disastrous run of results which cannot be dressed up in any sort of positive spin. As if an 8-0 thumping at Chelsea weren’t embarrassing enough, Lambert’s charges have tamely capitulated in the two following games, going down 4-0 to a Gareth Bale-inspired Tottenham side on Boxing day, and, perhaps worst of all, a 3-0 reverse (again at home) to perennial strugglers Wigan Athletic.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that three defeats, coupled with no goals scored and fifteen conceded over the piece, presents a gloomy outlook for Villa, who are now a solitary point above the bottom three automatic relegation places.
To be fair to Lambert, he has done his level best to portray the look of a man who isn’t about to choke on his turkey, although you suspect that, deep down, this run may put paid to his prospects as manager, if not quite his club’s top flight status.
However, if Lambert’s playing career is anything to go by, it would be wise to refrain from writing off this unassuming Glaswegian’s chances of remaining with Villa just yet. A steely determination lurks within a man who appears a somewhat reserved and hesitant character.
Following a decade of solid if unspectacular service with St Mirren and Motherwell, a transfer to the German Bundesliga in 1996 saw Lambert become a Borussia Dortmund legend, when he helped the side to Champions League glory in 1997.
Converted to a holding midfielder by Dortmund manager Ottmar Hitzfeld, Lambert snuffed a certain Juventus player, by the name of Zinedine Zidane, out of the final. His side’s 3-1 win helping him become the first British footballer to win the European Cup with a non-UK team.
A year later, Lambert returned to these shores, when he signed for boyhood heroes Celtic. He was a key member of the side which prevented rivals Rangers achieving ten league titles in a row, before captaining the Celtic side which came within a whisker of Uefa Cup glory in 2003.
Interestingly, when then hoops boss Martin O’Neill was asked about the most important members of his side, the Irishman was always more than willing to extol the abilities of his midfield lynchpin. You should recall that the Parkhead side back then contained the supreme talents of the likes of Henrik Larsson, John Hartson and Chris Sutton.
Lambert’s game wasn’t about goals and crunching tackles, so much as an astute footballing brain which kept it simple but effective. The late Bill Shankly stated: ‘Football is a simple game. It’s making it look simple that’s the difficult part.’ In that regard, Lambert could be said to be an effective exponent of Shankly’s philosophy, something which gained him forty caps at international level along the way.
Lambert, like the aforementioned O’Neill, started out his managerial career within the lower echelons of the game, first with Livingston north of the border, and then with Wycombe Wanderers and Colchester United – in each case, his record was decent if far from distinguished.
Nevertheless, a 7-1 win for Colchester against Norwich City quickly earned him a move to the hot seat at Carrow Road, where he tasted multiple successes when leading the Canaries to the Premiership in 2011.
Despite having done much to cement his managerial credentials there, the lure of Villa Park lead to his departure from East Anglia being tinged with a sour taste. Lambert’s ambitions clearly meant that the offer of a move to one of the 'bigger' guns could not be ignored.
It remains to be seen whether Villa Chairman Randy Lerner is willing to allow his manager sufficient time at the helm to restore Villa’s fortunes following the festive maulings.
Recent history suggests that the American, in common with many other chairmen, (Alex McLeish lasted less than a full year) is a stranger to patience in such matters, and that Lambert’s days as manager of Aston Villa may be numbered.
Certainly, forthcoming fixtures against Swansea City and Southampton suddenly assume high importance, and some may suggest that a failure to garner a clutch of points from those fixtures might seal his fate as the first managerial casualty of 2013.
We shall see.