Can Paul Lambert rescue Henri Lansbury from Aston Villa this summer?

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The pair worked together at Norwich City in their Championship promotion campaign.

Villa player Henri Lansbury

When Aston Villa signed Henri Lansbury from Nottingham Forest last January it looked like a brilliant deal for perhaps one of the best performers in the Championship.

He was a regular at first but he did not massively improve Villa’s performances. In the months that have followed he has been swallowed up by the players around him. Jack Grealish, Conor Hourihane and Birkir Bjarnason have all improved leaving Lansbury, who has also had to battle niggling injury trouble, out in the cold.

He has played just once for villa in 2018, in the FA Cup exit against Peterborough, and come the summer he will surely be looking to leave Villa Park – especially if they get promoted and even more new faces come into the mix.

Henri Lansbury of Norwich

Lansbury does have a good reputation however from his impressive days at Forest, and during several loan spells whilst an Arsenal talent.

One such spell was at Norwich City, where he helped them earn promotion to the Premier League. His manager at the time was former Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert. So could he offer Lansbury an escape route in the summer?

Lambert is now manager at Stoke city, who are battling to avoid the drop from the Premier League.

Lambert wanted to keep Lansbury permanently at Norwich after his loan spell, but the talented midfielder felt he had a chance of making it at Arsenal back in 2011.

Paul Lambert, Manager of Stoke City

The Stoke boss was clearly a big fan of the player, dubbing him a ‘Premier League player’, as reported by Goal, six years ago and he could have the perfect opportunity to finally work with the midfielder again.

Stoke could use another midfielder in their team with goal-scoring prowess like Lansbury to be successful in the Premier League. In the case of potential relegation to the Championship, Lansbury would also be a brilliant and experienced option in the second tier for Lambert if he is to remain as Stoke manager.

Lambert could certainly rescue Lansbury from his Aston Villa woes this summer and Stoke would surely enjoy having a player of his talents in their ranks.