Hope or optimism for next season, what is Paul Lambert football and an interview soon

It has been four days since the club statement confirming the appointment of Paul Lambert, but we've heard nothing else. The new kit is coming soon and no doubt speculation speculating on new players and even more speculation.

There will be an interview with Lambert too. In it he will tell us about how he couldn't turn down the chance to manage Aston Villa, how we are a great club and how there are challenges and that he is ready for them.

We might even have Paul Faulkner tell us about the target of finishing in Europe this season, like he did last. But all that is speculation. One thing I think we are going to see is some money spent.

Money has to be spent. We need two or three players and they have to compliment what we have and they have to strengthen the first team, but more important than that, they must be able to play football the Paul Lambert way.

The Lambert way

But what is football the Paul Lambert way? It is hard to write about this with any real knowledge and you'd have to be a Norwich City fan to talk with any credibility or someone with an awful lot of time on your hands.

We have numbers though, but they are for Norwich and for one season. I don't want to look at the season before or the season before that because they were different leagues and the football is different.

There is a positive to take from that though; you can only beat the team in front of you and you have to adapt your game based on the opposition. He has shown he can do that and his first season in the Premier League was a respectable one. Only goal difference stood between them and 10th.

It is also tough to look at just one season and use that as a benchmark. Often a team comes up and does well in the first season only to struggle the second, but Lambert has taken his chance and with that, he also creates a time for optimism. There is a really big upside too; not many will actually know that much about his methods and the players all start with a clean sheet too.

The not so secret plan

But, I need to stress that this isn't a secret plan but a common sense approach to a Football Club like ours. We have to use our players. We have to strengthen with quality to the starting eleven. If we are not producing enough players for the first team squad, we have to look at doing something better, but we are, so we just need to look at continuing that.

We can not bring in players over a certain age as they offer no potential return and only drain on the club of cash, even if they had a good season last time out. Sure, there are players that you break that rule for, but we all know who they are and who they are not.

But part of the not so secret plan is time and Lambert will have to have the time to work with it, because I think he will need it and because the most important part of the secret plan is the actual football. Aston Villa have to change how we have played football for a long time and as supporters we have to hope that Lambert can do that.

I'm sure what everyone expects for next season, but for me, if Fulham can finish 9th, we have to do better than them and if Newcastle can finish fifth in their second season back in the Premier League, I'd want to be challenging for top eight and I think it is possible and not unrealistic. Where do you think we will be next season?