The Paul Lambert thread - poll reset after our capitulation to Hull

[peter w]

I still like Lambert. I really do and I think this is the issue many fans have when wanting him gone. he clearly has had a difficult time here with finances and has done well with what he's got, and he clearly loves working for us and wants to do well for us as well as for himself. The problem is that he has overseen too much in the way of defeats that he is as much part of the losing mentality and negativity that is around the club. There needs to be a breath of fresh air for everyone - him and the players especially. A break from each other could see both revived. It feels like the end of a relationship that started well when both like each other, but both can see its going to end in failure but neither has the nerve to break it off.

The other issue is that boos and catcalls can affect the players and I see them as largely faultless in all of this. they too have a losing mentality and playing the way we do with the mentality running through the club is not going to work. he has to go, it needs to come from the fans, I don't think the fans want to boo and get worked up but that's the only way anything will happen. Unfortunately.

[Holte L2]

I still like Lambert. I really do and I think this is the issue many fans have when wanting him gone. he clearly has had a difficult time here with finances and has done well with what he's got, and he clearly loves working for us and wants to do well for us as well as for himself. The problem is that he has overseen too much in the way of defeats that he is as much part of the losing mentality and negativity that is around the club. There needs to be a breath of fresh air for everyone - him and the players especially. A break from each other could see both revived. It feels like the end of a relationship that started well when both like each other, but both can see its going to end in failure but neither has the nerve to break it off.

The other issue is that boos and catcalls can affect the players and I see them as largely faultless in all of this. they too have a losing mentality and playing the way we do with the mentality running through the club is not going to work. he has to go, it needs to come from the fans, I don't think the fans want to boo and get worked up but that's the only way anything will happen. Unfortunately.

I like Lambert.  It's clear that he loves the job and wants the club to do well.

Ultimately it's a results business and W 23 D 20 L 42 isn't good enough.

[rob_bridge]

That results record is like reading BFRs final rolling season of 42 games and times it by 2.

It is an abysmal record despite mitigating circumstances

[peter w]

Indeed.

[pauliewalnuts]

I know this sounds either a bit odd or an obvious point to make, but my problem with Lambert is that if wrote a list - "reasons he should stay" - it is an increasingly short list. Not "reasons you should sack him", but reasons why he deserves to stay.

It is just getting harder and harder to mount a convincing argument for him staying - NB an argument for it, not an explanation of why he's still here.

The squad isn't the best, we've been working under restricted budgets etc etc, all of that is true, but it would be more of a mitigating set of circumstances if he didn't manage to make the squad look worse than it is. Steve Claridge (I know, I know) said during the QPR game "Can you really say that that team out there is playing as well as it can?"

That struck me as a good, if obvious, question. I find that way, way too often under Lambert, the answer is not just "no", it is an emphatic "no".

Good managers take a group of players, form them into a team, and get more than the sum of the constituent parts out of them. Average ones get them producing about what you'd expect. Poor managers manage to field a team which looks worse than the sum of its constituent parts, and that's what Lambert does.

He has broken all manner of horrible club records in two years (and look at the stats from Sky after Monday's game to put them in context), and pretty soon that is going to stop. Not because he's going to improve us, but because he's going to run out of shit records to break.

[AGRIPPA]

Someone else may have or can do the stats on this but has any Premier ;league manager ever held onto their job with such poor results???

Personally, I cannot understand anyone defending him....he has had money, spent it badly (and another £8m on Cleverly to come) and has no tactical nous at all.
It was apparent on Monday even the players have given up on him...

I see some people have started at Randy again....its obvious to see that he is completely out of his death as an owner of a football club but no-one can say he hasn't backed his managers financially. I guess at present he is looking at a £50-100m loss (depending upon who's figures you believe) on what he has invested in the club ... probably equivalent to most of us adding £50,000 to our mortgage ... how would you like that?

[pauliewalnuts]

Someone else may have or can do the stats on this but has any Premier ;league manager ever held onto their job with such poor results???

Personally, I cannot understand anyone defending him....he has had money, spent it badly (and another £8m on Cleverly to come) and has no tactical nous at all.
It was apparent on Monday even the players have given up on him...

I see some people have started at Randy again....its obvious to see that he is completely out of his death as an owner of a football club but no-one can say he hasn't backed his managers financially. I guess at present he is looking at a £50-100m loss (depending upon who's figures you believe) on what he has invested in the club ... probably equivalent to most of us adding £50,000 to our mortgage ... how would you like that?

i wouldn't like it, no, but it is largely down to his own abysmal management of the club.

He has thrown money into it, but neglected to realise that you also need to manage things cannily. Great intentions and all that, but money wasted largely through his own weaknesses.

[Holte L2]

It's even more worrying to think that I can't see that Randy's going to give him the boot.  It's really obvious, surely?

[peter w]

That's my point paulie. The players need a fresh direction. Also, despite the difficulties he's been under we do not appear to be any better than we were over the last few poor seasons. We can't go through another season like the last few.

[pauliewalnuts]

I wonder what the atmosphere is like down at BMH.

[eamonn]

According to Richard E on the other thread, VP has about 78% Nitrogen, about 20% Oxygen, and with bits of Argon and Carbon Dioxide in there somewhere so I guess BMH isn't much different.

[peter w]

According to Richard E on the other thread, VP has about 78% Nitrogen, about 20% Oxygen, and with bits of Argon and Carbon Dioxide in there somewhere so I guess BMH isn't much different.

Still no Okore, though? Unbelievable.

[mr underhill]

 Lambert's got more lives than a cat, but even he can't survive another three consecutive defeats. 8 on the trot and he's toast.

[Holte L2]

Lambert's got more lives than a cat, but even he can't survive another three consecutive defeats. 8 on the trot and he's toast.

I think we'll get a result at Burnley.  A win there will probably see him through too May.

[mr underhill]

but that comes after Spurs, West Ham and Southampton. My point was that loose the first three and even Randy's Blind Faith might begin to waver.