There was a showbiz feel to Fabian Delph announcing his commitment to Aston Villa directly over the big screen that, no doubt timed to spread a feelgood factor around the ground, was distinctly out of keeping with the majority of the season to date in this corner of the West Midlands.
However, after Aston Villa had caused yet another shock in this weekend of FA Cup shocks – they scored; they won – Paul Lambert predicted that the England midfield player can become the driving force for the club over the coming years.
The Villa manager also anticipates that Delph, 25, is a future captain of the club, although Lambert may hope that time will not come too soon as he wants Ron Vlaar, the current captain when fit and whose contract also expires at the end of the season, to follow suit and commit to a new deal.
It is thought Delph, Villa’s reigning player of the year who signed from Leeds United for £8m in 2009, becomes the club’s highest earner on £55,000 a week in a deal that takes him to June 2019. “I’m delighted he’s staying,” Lambert said. “I think it’s right for Aston Villa he’s staying. He is an England international with his whole career in front of him.
“It is brilliant for the football club. It would take millions to replace him. What’s he worth, £15m? We couldn’t do it. He will be a big driving force for this club for years to come. It is a great coup for us for him to stay. He will go from strength to strength. He is a captain in the making and has that personality and a driving force and hunger to succeed. I think he would thrive on the responsibility of it.”
Delph, who made his senior England debut in September, was paraded on the pitch at half-time as Villa milked this rare bit of good news, although more was to follow as they got their scoring boots back on in the second half when Lambert was rewarded almost instantly for an astute tactical change by switching Carles Gil to wide on the right and seeing the £3.25m acquisition from Valencia curl in a sumptuous opener on his full Villa debut.
Lambert has no doubt that Delph, who was unavailable because of an achilles tendon injury, has not signed simply to enhance his transfer value should Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur firm up purported interest at the end of the season, when his contract had been due to expire. “There’s no way that’s going to happen, no chance, [considering] the sort of person Fabian is,” the Villa manager said.
“The England thing is major for him and he was doing well breaking into the national side before his shoulder injury. There’s not too much loyalty in the game these days but Fabian before my time here had a really big injury and the club looked after him. He’s a mature guy and his loyalty speaks volumes for the guy.”
Villa’s confidence is so fragile that within half an hour of Delph announcing his news to the crowd to big applause, the pre-match adrenaline burst had dissipated in little more than the manner of a sugar rush. In ever-decreasing circles, it is as if this club was being pulled towards the plughole. Gravity calling.
The new joke, as VillaNil found themselves being outplayed by the Championship leaders, was that Delph would reappear on the big screen during the interval to announce he had changed his mind. This is a team who had only scored once in their previous six games – and then against Blackpool – and not for eight hours and 42 minutes in the Premier League; this is a club that has finished 15th in the past two seasons.
Supporters had turned on Lambert at the end of recent matches against Blackpool and Leicester City but after his signing of a new four-year deal after a fine first month of the season, there does not appear to be any appetite to change manager. Anyway, who would Villa turn to? Or be able to attract? It was not so long ago they could turn to a so-called smaller club and lure Lambert from Norwich City but would someone as proven as Steve McClaren trade an upwardly mobile Premier League hopeful such as Derby County for an ailing giant such as Villa?
Such negativity was deferred, however, as Villa could celebrate scoring more than a single goal for only the third time this season. The first bred the second; suddenly Lambert’s side started playing with belief. The passes zipped around with first-time conviction instead of the multi-touch ponderousness of many recent games. This was exemplified when Leandro Bacuna pinged in a wonderful pass behind the full-back for Alan Hutton to cross first time for Andreas Weimann to turn home adroitly.
Despite Callum Wilson’s stoppage-time goal for Bournemouth, Villa could breathe several sighs of relief. With Arsenal and Chelsea next up, it is a good job but upturns have to start somewhere.
