The Silent Consistency This is my second review of the candidates for the vacant Aston Villa job. Today the spotlight is on Paul Lambert a success story which has gone unnoticed quite a bit. Lambert who currently manages Norwich City has built a successful team who are in the premier league for another season and have a striker who scored the second most goals for an Englishman. Lambert took a broken Norwich team from league one to the premier league on three seasons. Under Lambert's guidance Norwich won league 1, championship and finished 12th in Norwich's first season back in the top flight. With back to back promotions under his belt and premiership survival secured by a long way Lambert to me seems an ideal choice. His success at Norwich was completed on a low budget and the signings of lower league players who have proved they can play in the top flight shows Lambert can also motivate players and sign good players who are cheaper than well known players. One player who I would like to have at Villa is Grant Holt. Holt has been Norwich's top goal scorer for the past 3 seasons and scored 17 last term in the premier league. Holt then would be a good acquisition if he were to play at Villa. Lambert also had a successful career at Celtic in his playing days and is eye for bargains and winning are good attributes to have. The latest news is that lambert has fallen out with the Norwich board over spending money for the summer. Grant Holt also had a transfer request turned down which has alerted Villa. Lambert then is set to talk to Villa on Monday. So far I feel Lerner has made two good decisions by talking to Solskjaer and soon to be Lambert. I would like either Lambert of Solskjaer to be the next Villa manger.

Bring In The Guns Today saw the media surrounding Aston Villa's management search take shape. It has been a big surprise for many particularly the fact that the man being interviewed has only been in management for about 4 years. And this surprise turned out to be the 'baby faced assassin'. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer is in my opinion the best candidate and my favourite. Having played at Manchester United and scored 126 goals for them you can see that Solksjaer is a sensible candidate. The fact that he won cups at Man U shows he knows what he's doing. His playing days have moved onto something quite interesting. After retiring from playing in 2008 Solksjaer managed the Man U reserves for 2 and a half years. Now United wouldn't hire just anyone and this to me shows how good managerially Solksjaer is. After 2 and a half year Solksjaer moved back to his native Norway and managed the club where his playing career all began. Managing Molde seems a good step to take the reins of your first proper club. Solksjaer has only been at Molde merely a year and he has turned things around. He guided Molde to become Norwegian champions for the first time in 100 years. That to me shows what kind of calibre Gunnar is packing. Molde will also be playing champions league football next season which might be hard for Solksjaer to walk away from. But if he manages Villa it will be a good choice as he is young, is used to winning and knows how to. He will also be used to working on a small budget. Whatever happens hiring Solksjaer will at least redeem Lerner for sacking Mcleish and then using Mcleish as a scape goat. Bring on the Guns and let the 'baby faced assassin' loose once more in the premier league.

Catching Fire After reading cathing fire I have come to the conclusion that trilogy books that set out to be a trilogy are often a little slow. Catching Fire is no exception and I was feeling a little unsure of how it panned out. By all means Catching fire sticks to the same formula, but it takes a while for the main plot to take shape. However I still felt it has been a good middle to the trilogy and acts like a junction between the 1st and 2nd books. Catching fire is by no means a bad book, it just lacks something that the first book did. You still find it hard to put the book down, but theres a lot of build up leaving the first half of the book a bit slow and not as appealing. The one thing that has annoyed about the books is the synopsis. It's my fault for reading them, but Mockingjay gave away what happens in Catching fire as did catching fire gave away a lot in what happens in The Hunger Games. This is not the only problem with the books. The storyline is quite predictable and the suspense is enough in both books so far. Although there is suspense I felt catching fire did what most trilogies do and that's connect the trilogy.

Mcliesh Gone What Next So after only 11 months Alex Mcleish was relieved of his duties after guiding Aston Villa to a lowly 16th place finish and narrowly avoided relegation by 2 points. However was Mcleish unfairly dismissed. Football is a very fickle sport and is tough to survive in. The Villa board decided that Mcleish wasn't the man to take Villa forward. Mcleish though was unfairly judged. Coming from Birmingham City was a an error made by Lerner and co. So Mcleish was always fighting an uphill battle. Mcleish will be judged on his tactics and how he inspired the players whih he has to be questioned on. However, Lerner and Faulkner should take the blame rather than hide behind closed doors. Neither Lerner or Faulkner have come forward to take the blame. Neither have any players come forward and taken the blame. Mcleish had it tough with key players missing through injury, having to use inexperienced youth to fill the gaps, losing two good players in Young and Downing and having next to no money to spend to buy some good players in. Mcleish did bring in Given, Hutton and N'Zogbia. Apart from that Mcleish had nothing to spend. If anything Lerner and Faulkner have used Mcleish as a scape goat so that they aren't blamed for such a terrible season. Lerner didn't give Mcleish the goods to deliver and didn't support him enough. The players too hid like most do and played like a bunch of Mary's with their tales between their legs. A bad decision to sack Mcleish, but he in my opinion he should have walked because having a boss like Lerner and Faulkner is not a good partnership.

Transfer Hotspot Now I don't want to make any hasty decisions as the premiere league season still has one game to go. First off I would like Mcleish to stay as he is a good manager. Sacking Mcleish will cost Villa more in paying him off, that means less money for investing in Aston Villa. Mcleish has also got a good rapport with the current Villa team. Mcleish has also been unfarely judged on the fact that his teams performance has not been entirely his fault. Villa had injuries which have cost Villa, Mcleish has also not had much money to spend, Mcleish lost two of Villa's best players in Young and Downing. This to me is enough to give Mcleish another season to rebuild and make his mark. So Mcleish is staying period, end of discussion. My attention however is to who Mcleish should acquire to strengthen Villa. My attention then is to the two relegated teams in Blackburn and Wolves. Firstly Blackburn they do have some good players who will still want to play premiership football next season. So to me players such as Paul Robinson, Scott Dann, Morten Gamst Pederson, Junior Hoilett, Steve N'Zonzi and Yakubu. These six players would be good recruitments and would offer experience, youth and talent. Not all of them can offer experience compared to others, but they would strengthen Villa to a good standard. Now to Wolves. Wolves are another team bursting with youth, experience and talent just waiting to be let loose. Mcleish then should consider Wayne Hennessey, Rodger Johnson, Christophe Berra, Karl Henry, Michael Kightly, Jamie O'Hara and Kevin Doyle. Mcleish has today announced that he is looking into signing Karl Henry from Wolves who would offer a brick wall to Villa who have lacked central midfielder like Henry all season. What I don't want Mcleish to do is to sign too many players and allow our current players to not play and then leave. From what Mcleish has said is he wants to sign a couple of players to add experience to Villa. Whatever Mcleish does do when the transfer window opens will be an interesting one.