A certain inevitability about losing to Spurs and the growing disillusionment of Aston Villa supporters

There is one thing I don't like to do and that's have a pop at players. I might comment that they've made mistakes or that they're not worth a specific amount, or they're better playing somewhere else, but I wont have a pop at them. When I write about the manager, I also want to stress that it's not him I'm having a pop at, it's his ability to do the job of manager of Aston Villa.

But with Paul Lambert, it is becoming increasingly difficult not to be seen as having a pop at him directly. And it's not meant to be this way. Sometimes in football things are just not meant to be and sometimes in football you need someone that can make a decision.

The manager that followed Sir Alex Ferguson was always going to fail and the chances of Paul Lambert becoming a success at Aston Villa after one half decent season as a manager in the Premier League was always going to be slim.

And I know he has just signed a new contract, but none of us know what the terms of that contract are. None of us know what Tom Fox might be thinking and we all know that what Paul Lambert is delivering isn't good enough. And I'd like to just reiterate, there are not three worse sides than us in the Premier League and on current form we are rooted to the bottom.

And the worst thing about all this is, none of it is new. We're used to this and if Lambert stays, there will no doubt be two or three runs in the season where things start to look better and then you'll have people believing that things are turning around for Aston Villa. They're the supporters the club love.

Monkeys and typewriters

There is this theory that if you have a million monkeys a typewriter each that between them they'd be able to write a story. If you allow Paul Lambert a microphone he will say something sensible. The thing is, in his third season, you don't need something sensible or even something you can understand. Actions speak louder than words.

The truth is yesterday, despite us playing okay football, it was mostly because we met an average Spurs side. They were poor but when they needed to pile on the pressure and get the goals, they got them. There was a certain inevitability about yesterday that us Aston Villa fans either have to accept or, if we don't want to, you've got to do something about it.

What to do with a Randy Lerner

The truth is that there is a growing number of disillusioned supporters of Aston Villa that are taking to Twitter, writing blogs, commenting and generally demonstrating how pissed off they are. Those that can, then go to Villa Park and part with more money. Not everyone is though, I know quite a few that haven't renewed this season and many more that don't go anymore.

They still support the club and they're just as passionate now as they were when they went, but they're fed up because they know. They know what they know and if you know, you also know. If you don't and you're response is you've got to go and support the team, then you don't know. Nobody is saying don't support the team but there is and there only has ever been one way to get a message to the owner and what's happening now isn't it.

But the game is broken, so does it matter? When you've got two Americans running the Football Club you love, that on the face of things know little about the game and the culture behind it, then there should be reason for concern. I mean, they hired him in the first place and someone even approved the hiring of Alex McLeish before him. Surely these are warning signs that we should be taking notice of.

The sad truth is that the only way things are going to change at Aston Villa is if supporters don't go. But for some, that's hard. For others, they don't mind that they're not listened to and actually don't think they should be. They see the moaning from the stand as part of the experience. For others and a lot of the time these are the supporters old enough to remember the good times and what football was like when at the start of each season, there was a real sense of optimism, there is no choice and they're the ones leaving.

Ten seasons ago 42,573 were at Villa Park for this match because Spurs used to be a big match and in that season we finished sixth. This season as things stand we'll be lucky to stay in the Premier League and yesterday 32,049 attended Villa Park.