Former Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has admitted he was delighted when the club dismissed him in 2015.
Lambert spent two-and-a-half seasons at Villa Park from 2012 to 2015, which came at the tail end of Randy Lerner’s ownership of the club. Throughout his time with Villa, Lambert says he was working on a shoestring budget as Lerner was looking to sell the club.
After keeping Villa in the Premier League with two 15th placed finishes in two seasons, the ex-Norwich City manager was sacked and replaced by Tim Sherwood after a 2-0 loss to Hull City. While most managers are disappointed when they’re sacked, Lambert admitted he breathed a sigh of relief.
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While speaking on the Under the Cosh podcast, Lambert said: “It’s funny, I remember talking to Walter Smith (ex-Everton and Rangers manager).
“I’ve met him at St. George’s Park and I had been sacked by Aston Villa. He said: ‘Paul, have you got a minute’ and I said ‘aye’. He said: ‘How did you feel when you got sacked by Aston Villa?’ I went: ‘Well I was f***ing delighted. F***ing over the moon’.”
Lambert joined Villa in the summer of 2012, after a successful three year spell in charge of Norwich. The Champions League winner claimed he was given limited resources for transfers from the moment he arrived.
He said: “I knew the owner was going to sell the club and I was like: ‘S***, Jesus, he’s going to sell it’. I tried to get players to the club. I spoke to Romelu Lukaku when we first went in there. We agreed a deal with Chelsea on loan. He was only a kid at the time, he was only 19 years old.
“I spoke to him and he was like: ‘Great, no problem, I’ll come’ and then we couldn’t do it. I thought: ‘Why couldn’t Aston Villa do this deal? It’s a big club’.
“And then, all of a sudden, the line is that the owner is going to sell it, so we had to cut the wage bill and we had to let players go, all those sorts of things. I was thinking: ‘This is not what I want to do here’.
“But, you hang in there and think you’re going to change it. Deep down, I knew it was borrowed time. I didn’t think it was going to be f***ing as long as that.”
Sherwood did manage to keep Villa in the Premier League and even reached an FA Cup final after taking over from Lambert. A matter of months later, the ex-Tottenham Hotspur midfielder was sacked with the club languishing in 19th position.
Remi Garde was brought in as his replacement, but he would only last 147 days after winning just two of his 20 Premier League games in charge.
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