Stan Collymore: 'Paul Lambert should not be sacked'

Former Aston Villa striker Stan Collymore believes that current Villans manager Paul Lambert should not be sacked, despite the club lying 15th in the Premier League table and having not recorded a win in seven games.

Collymore, who scored seven goals in 47 appearances during a three-year spell at Villa Park between 1997 and 2000, believes that it is unfair to judge Lambert given the limited resources he has been given to work with.

"Do I feel he should get sacked? No, and the reason why that is is because his hands are tied to a degree," Collymore said on talkSPORT.

"I think when he came into the club he was perhaps hoping for a little bit more serious investment over years two, three four five rather than selling players and buying bargain basement players, which for Aston Villa Football Club in their history is never good enough.

"If Villa go down this season then I think they need to be looking for a new manager. But I would draw the sword away from Lambert on the basis that Joe Cole on a free, Philippe Senderos on a free, Aly Cissokho on low money, gambles for players like Carlos Sanchez and Carles Gil means I probably won't be able to know if this is a good manager or not, until he's been given proper Premier League resources."

However, Collymore also believes that club owner Randy Lerner needs to find a new buyer for the outfit sooner rather than later.

"For me, if Aston Villa stay in the Premier League this season, Lerner needs to do everything in his power to sell, to sell quickly," he added.

"I will be more than happy to give Lambert from pre-season up until Christmas time next year, if there's new inward investment.

"If it's still the same, if Villa are still near the bottom, if the football is still poor, if the goals are still not flying in, then I would advocate a change for Aston Villa manager."

Aston Villa face Bournemouth in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday before returning to Premier League action on Sunday February 1 when they travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal.