Aston Villa are creeping toward a terrible fate.

As an Aston Villa fan, I worry about where the club is heading. It has been awful this season; in fact it hasn’t looked at all promising since the day Martin O’Neill left the club.

A majority of Villa fans insist that O’Neill is a traitor; that he did wrong by the club and we were better off without him, but that naivety shines through so much that I have seen in recent years. Booing O’Neill is just as mystifying as Villa fans booing James Milner and Gareth Barry – one of the longest serving players in Villa’s history – but applauding Ashley Young, who left in identical circumstances to the former two.

The claret and blues are not moving forward under manager Paul Lambert. I said above that it didn’t look promising under Alex McLeish or Gerard Houllier, but I must admit that when Lambert was appointed, I was excited. 

So were most Villa fans. We were promised – and expected – attacking, attractive football. There was urgency for an injection of young talent, of hungry, match-winning calibre players. The club got names that fitted this bill, and because it was the Scot’s first season in charge last year, the original struggles and eventual safety in the Premier League were seen as a testing season where the new gaffer simply laid the foundations for renewed success.

Wrong.

Villa have lost four in a row, sit in 13th place with just 19 points – one better than the same time last season – and the statistics on the attacking end don’t sit pretty for people with season tickets.

Villa are the lowest scoring home side in the top flight, totalling a dreadful six goals in eight games. Those who are of a laid back fashion and arrive slightly late to a game have stumbled upon genius this season, because Villa are yet to score a first-half goal at Villa Park in the 2013-14 season. That’s embarrassing.

After the 1-0 loss to fellow strugglers Crystal Palace on Boxing Day – Dwight Gayle’s injury-time winner was a hammer blow for Lambert – the home fans released their anger and a vast array of boos could be heard as the former Norwich man headed toward the tunnel.

His methods aren’t working. I was never in favour of letting Darren Bent leave the club, and Christian Benteke’s form this season is proving me right. Yes he had a good season last year, but he also handed in a transfer request during the summer. People were head over heels when he re-signed, saying it was a stroke of genius by Lambert, but unlike Brendan Rodgers and his support of Luis Suarez, it seems Lambert has less control of his players than he thinks.

The Villa manager cannot deal with experience. He has washed his hands with Shay Given, who is now playing well for Middlesbrough. He didn’t want to deal with Stephen Ireland, probably Villa’s most talented technical player who, given the right care, could flourish as he did at Manchester City.

Front-man Libor Kozak is a dreadful player, or at least that’s what I deduce from watching him play at Southampton in early December. He scored a goal but was slow, un-athletic and showed no threat to the Saints back four. Joe Bennett is no longer involved, the team are playing five in defence away from home and while the counter-attacking approach works once in a blue moon, that will not keep you up and it most certainly won’t entertain the fans.

Aston Villa have to be careful here. They haven’t packed Villa Park to the rafters for years. The Holte End hasn’t witnessed good football and lots of goals for a while, and that has led to ugly managerial departures. I feel as if there is another one looming here. Lambert is dour in press conferences and although he jumps about and throws his arms up in the air on the touchline, that enthusiasm for the job and club has run its course with the home faithful because the results aren’t there.

The club don’t seem to be adding any real quality to the side. Villa needs a leader, a goalscorer and everything in between. Change is necessary. Money is a must. Randy Lerner; spend or go back to the States. Switch the philosophy, before it’s too late.