Former Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert has been giving his thoughts on the Premier League side's current situation, citing that he saw a downward spiral coming during his time at the club.
Scotsman Lambert managed Villa from 2012 to early 2015, before being sacked and replaced by Tim Sherwood with the Villans seriously battling the threat of relegation.
Whilst Sherwood managed to keep them up, aiding Villa to a fantastic run of form at the end of last season, their problems have worsened this time around, with the former European Cup winners finding themselves bottom of the table, eight points from safety with 12 Premier League matches left.
Now manager of Blackburn Rovers, Lambert is likely to face Villa next season, with each club expected to be playing in the Championship.
Lambert offered to resign
He might have been available to join another club sooner, as he revealed to the Express that he almost quit Villa Park, saying "I offered to resign at the end of my second season", only for owner Randy Lerner to reject his proposal.
Quizzed as to why he decided to do this, Lambert summarised that he knew he "wasn't going to get the money to spend", so thought "okay, let me resign then". He would last less than another 12 months at the club.
Bony, Lukaku, Aubameyang were all targets
Lambert told of how he "knew the club needed big players to come in", but the restrictions put in place by those above him meant Villa "couldn't go and get them".
He revealed that he spoke to the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Wilfried Bony and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang during his first couple of windows there, stating that "It was players like that that I wanted to try and bring in but we were never going to get them".
