Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert is grateful for his relationship with chairman Randy Lerner.
Lambert admits Lerner could have panicked and sacked him following some indifferent results, but he feels Villa have now turned the corner.
"I remember Randy saying to me, 'Paul this will be your hardest year in football' and he was right. It was tough, really hard," Lambert told the Sun on Sunday.
"But we stuck to our beliefs and the crowd were great, even though we were getting beaten - sometimes pretty heavily. The supporters could have turned on me but they were excellent.
"Some owners would have got rid of me, I know that. They would have panicked and gone, 'Boom, you're out. Thankfully, I have had a good relationship with Randy and Paul Faulkner, the chief executive."
