The new Aston Villa manager is taking a more rhythmic approach to media matters, as Back of the Net's John Foster explains...
Fans and journalists have been lining up to praise Paul Lambert after the Aston Villa boss successfully answered all questions put to him in his midweek press conference in iambic pentameter.
Lambert won plaudits at former club Norwich for his motivational skills, his commitment to attacking football, and his facility with challenging poetic forms. But the former Scotland midfielder is well aware that his project to reintroduce pace, flair, and sonnets to Villa Park faces a significant obstacle this weekend in the form of Tottenham Hotspur.
âÂÂI like what AVB has done at Spurs,â said Lambert, in response to questions about his opposite number. âÂÂThey keep their shape, DefoeâÂÂs on fire, and Jan / Vertonghen looks a signing and a half.âÂÂ
âÂÂThe Lane is not an easy place to come,â he continued. âÂÂBut football's eleven v eleven / And all our lads will fight for every ball. / I think that anyone who writes us off / Before a ball is kicked will eat their words.âÂÂ
Journalists were keen to quiz Lambert over his alleged falling-out with star striker Darren Bent, after the England hitman was dropped for VillaâÂÂs last match against West Brom. But the 43-year old Lambert denied that his relationship with the player was strained.
"If you don't like that, I've got a good one about a man from Nantucket"
âÂÂItâÂÂs simple: every player wants to play / But I thought Benteke deserved a chance / to show what he could do against West Brom. / The kid did well, and I was also pleased / with DarrenâÂÂs contribution from the bench.âÂÂ
Sources inside the Aston Villa dressing room say that the playing staff are pleased at the new direction the club is taking under Lambert.
âÂÂIf [former manager] Alex McLeish spoke in verse at all, it was in terse, half-rhyming couplets,â young winger Marc Albrighton told FourFourTwo.com. âÂÂBut it never sounded natural. Some people tried to claim that he gave interviews in freeform blank verse, but the lads know poetry when they hear it, and McLeish just gave us rambling nonsense.âÂÂ
âÂÂPaul Lambert gives us art.âÂÂ
Editor's note: this isn't a serious accusation and all quotes are fictionalised. But you knew that, because you're not stupid.
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