Paul Lambert confirmed as new manager (reply #544)

[martyn ellis]

Colchester batter Norwich 7-1 away and within the blink of an eye, Lambert becomes the Norwich boss. Norwich batter Villa 2-0 (could have been 7) on the last day of the season and before another Premier League ball is kicked, he becomes Villa's new manager (I'm assuming). Is there a pattern emerging here? I just hope we don't run up a cricket score against Man U next season.

[Ger Regan]

I think what is going to be interesting is to see how the press react to us now.

We were loved by them when we were Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa, then treated like shit when we viciously sacked him, not recognising we were dealing with football greatness, then we were ungrateful bastards for driving Houllier out, and not giving McLeish a chance from the start.

Now we've got a manager they generally doff their caps to again (Henry Winter, for example, loves Lambert as he loves O'Neill).

It will be interesting to see what sort of coverage we start getting.

I know where you're coming from, but I really couldn't care less about what the likes of Henry Winter think about our club. Apologies for the language, but fuck 'em.

[mr woo]

I remember reading a decent interview with Lambert a few months back and managed to find it here. I think he has more humility than some give him credit for.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4255778/Paul-Lambert-I-was-a-cp-player-but-I-grafted-for-success.html

I was a c**p player... but I worked hard to be a winner

THE exact whereabouts of his four Scottish title medals with Celtic are unknown.
The same goes for the one he picked up at Borussia Dortmund when he became the first player from the UK to win a Champions League with a foreign club in 1996-1997.

The shirts he swapped with some of the world’s most famous players are shredded and full of holes.

“I gave them to my dad,” says Paul Lambert. “But he’s a roof tiler, wore them to work and they’re ripped to pieces.

“As for the medals, they’re round the house somewhere, I don’t know where. But all the experience that came with winning them is up here.”

He tapped his head.

The Norwich boss has used it well, building a side in his own image at Carrow Road.

The Canaries stand 10th in the Premier League and could have a decisive say in the title battle as they entertain Manchester City today.

With a managerial merry-go-round expected to be sparked by Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham exit, the name Brendan Rodgers is being bandied about here, there and everywhere.

But Swansea have lost their last four league games to slip to 14th.

Now it’s Lambert’s name being increasingly mentioned after the way Norwich have settled in the top tier after successive promotions.

Yes, Rodgers has orchestrated some spectacular results this season.

But Swansea were already a work in progress when he took over, while Norwich were on their uppers when Lambert arrived.

He smiled and said: “They talk about us being in Swansea’s shadow — I never realised we were!

“Brendan’s done great but the only thing I can influence is what’s going on here. We took over a club that was really struggling and rebuilt it.

“And then rebuilt it in the Championship. And we have done it again.

“You never rest on it, you keep striving, you always want more.”

Of all his achievements, Lambert’s greatest has been in plucking players from the lower divisions.

The team that produced such fine football in winning 2-1 at Spurs cost just £6million to assemble.

That these previously unrecognised journeymen have been given the opportunity is directly related to Lambert’s own playing career.

The 42-year-old father-of-four, another product of the great Glasgow Academy, said: “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

“I was born in Glasgow in Duke Street, just round the corner from Parkhead. Hardly a playground of the rich and famous. Everything in Glasgow you have to fight for — literally.

“As I said, my dad was a roof tiler, out in all weather in a job generally regarded as one of the toughest around. So it was a far from easy upbringing.

“I wasn’t one of those boy wonders, either, who went straight to Celtic or Rangers. I pitched up at St Mirren as a 13-year-old. It was the greatest experience of my life to work under manager Alex Miller and his coaches Martin Ferguson, Sir Alex’s brother, and Drew Jarvie.

“I washed the boss’ car, painted, helped the groundsman, swept the dressing room and cleaned boots.

“Everything that young players don’t do these days. These guys were hardened pros and I thank God they were my mentors.” Lambert had seven seasons at St Mirren and three at Motherwell. Suddenly he was 27 and out of contract. No one was interested.

Out of the blue came a call from an agent asking whether he was interested in playing abroad.

Lambert chuckled: “I thought he meant somewhere like Liechtenstein.”

Instead, he had a four-game trial at Dortmund and, incredibly, was taken on.

A year later, the free transfer would return to Scotland as a Champions League winner with Celtic paying £2million. His life had been turned on its head.

Sitting in his office at the Norwich training ground this week, he said: “My early career shaped my belief there are many players out there who are good enough. All they need is the chance.

“That’s what happened with me at Dortmund. I also learned another important lesson there — that football is a proper job not a hobby.

“As a player I was c**p. I was probably the worst player in the Dortmund side, a team with genuinely world-class players.”

Lambert reeled off the names, Matthias Sammer, Lars Ricken, Andreas Moller... and laughed again.

“Actually I was more c**p than I thought!” he said. “But I worked hard and I became a winner.”

He undersells himself but you get the point. “I want winners, I don’t want players whose careers are dominated by money,” he added.

“That will come later as a result of success. Like here, we won League One and then the Championship and now those players reap the reward.

“I like hungry players. That’s what I’ve got. They never ask for anything and they never throw in the towel.

“When Norwich went up to the Championship everyone was telling me to buy Premier League players.

“I asked them how they knew that the players I already had weren’t good enough.” Lambert is very much his own man — very much a mould-breaker and not solely because he’s a Glaswegian who drinks white wine and measures it in glasses not bottles.

When he took his coaching badges, he did it in Germany, where standards are higher than anywhere.

He did it in a foreign language. It was hard but worth every minute.

Starting his managerial career at Livingstone, Lambert had success at Wycombe and Colchester before arriving at Norwich after his United hammered the Canaries 7-1 on the opening day of the 2009-2010 season.

Five months later, Norwich would travel to Colchester and win 5-0.

Today it’s Manchester City, the team that thrashed them 5-1 earlier in the season.

Lambert said: “We have come a hell of a long way since then. That we can actually compete with them and all their millions when, two years ago, we were playing Walsall, Yeovil and Stockport is incredible.”

And so it is.

[Archie]

I read that many posters said that Lambert favours a direct style of playing.
Yes, in a certain sense his style of playing is more direct than Rodgers's one, but this must not be read in a  negative sense. 
I have a soft spot for Norwich, so I had the chance to see several games of the canaries under Lambert, and I have always remained impressed by their style of football; with players that probably earn all together the fees of the sole Richard Dunne, they have played a modern, entertaining, attacking football, with 2 forwards (Gabby and Bent) and one attacking midfielder (Ireland), and with the defenders that tried to build the play from the back instead of limiting to belt the ball clear; they had a never-say-die spirit, and they scored a lot of goals.

What's more?

Since 2010, when I saw Norwich to win the League One  with a fantastic comeback, I fell in love with P.L., I just hoped to  see him at Villa, and now my dream came true!

[Ads]

I have being reading some very bitter comments from Norwich fans. They strike me as uppety wankers for a no mark who have had two good seasons in the past twenty years.

[James]

Colchester batter Norwich 7-1 away and within the blink of an eye, Lambert becomes the Norwich boss. Norwich batter Villa 2-0 (could have been 7) on the last day of the season and before another Premier League ball is kicked, he becomes Villa's new manager (I'm assuming). Is there a pattern emerging here? I just hope we don't run up a cricket score against Man U next season.

I know what you mean, but then ... I'd love it if we did!

[sonlyme]

Houllier was poor, but you had the idea he was trying to do something, but failing.

McLeish was far far worse than that, and you had the knowledge that he wasn't trying to do anything other than that which he always does - scrape around for draws.

Bang on the nail fella.

In other news - football's answer to the Dalai Lama - Mr Robbie Savage - was suddenly interested in goings on at Villa Park when he heard that we were getting 'Lambo'.  His ardour has cooled since he learned that this was in fact a person and not a car.

boom boom.

[john e]

Colchester batter Norwich 7-1 away and within the blink of an eye, Lambert becomes the Norwich boss. Norwich batter Villa 2-0 (could have been 7) on the last day of the season and before another Premier League ball is kicked, he becomes Villa's new manager (I'm assuming). Is there a pattern emerging here? I just hope we don't run up a cricket score against Man U next season.

I know what you mean, but then ... I'd love it if we did!

i can remember like yesterday Villa beating Norwich in the league cup final 1975,
 Ray Graydon goal which was a bona fidi goal and not a penalty as it was saved onto the post and Ray put in the rebound in open play,  95000 were there to see it

[damon loves JT]

Colchester batter Norwich 7-1 away and within the blink of an eye, Lambert becomes the Norwich boss. Norwich batter Villa 2-0 (could have been 7) on the last day of the season and before another Premier League ball is kicked, he becomes Villa's new manager (I'm assuming). Is there a pattern emerging here? I just hope we don't run up a cricket score against Man U next season.

We all know he will do the same to us as he did to Colchester or Norwich the day a really big job comes up. Let's just hope that by then he's done enough to warrant it.

[Drummond]

I don't care if the football looks bad if we win every game 1-0. However, if we're not going to win, I'd rather we played good looking stuff. I guess I'm far from alone on that front.

[richard moore]

Colchester batter Norwich 7-1 away and within the blink of an eye, Lambert becomes the Norwich boss. Norwich batter Villa 2-0 (could have been 7) on the last day of the season and before another Premier League ball is kicked, he becomes Villa's new manager (I'm assuming). Is there a pattern emerging here? I just hope we don't run up a cricket score against Man U next season.

I know what you mean, but then ... I'd love it if we did!

i can remember like yesterday Villa beating Norwich in the league cup final 1975,
 Ray Graydon goal which was a bona fidi goal and not a penalty as it was saved onto the post and Ray put in the rebound in open play,  95000 were there to see it

I was there for that, we took loads that day, remember lots of Villa fans being in the Norwich end. Very happy with impending developments. Typical of Villa to pick a week when I am away on business and unable to access my beloved H and V as much as usual. But have been working with another Villa fan so we have been exchanging snippets of info whenever possible

[martyn ellis]

i can remember like yesterday Villa beating Norwich in the league cup final 1975,
 Ray Graydon goal which was a bona fidi goal and not a penalty as it was saved onto the post and Ray put in the rebound in open play,  95000 were there to see it
[/quote]

Me too John. I was right behind the goal.

[berneboy]

i can remember like yesterday Villa beating Norwich in the league cup final 1975,
 Ray Graydon goal which was a bona fidi goal and not a penalty as it was saved onto the post and Ray put in the rebound in open play,  95000 were there to see it

Me too John. I was right behind the goal.
[/quote]

Moi aussi

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

i can remember like yesterday Villa beating Norwich in the league cup final 1975,
 Ray Graydon goal which was a bona fidi goal and not a penalty as it was saved onto the post and Ray put in the rebound in open play,  95000 were there to see it

Me too John. I was right behind the goal.


[/quote]

You couldn't have been. Me and my mate Dave were right behind the goal! ;-)

[James]

1975 was my 'right of passage' year with Villa, first visit to VP! Damn, nearly four decades, where did they go?