Andy Larkin 14 Posted January 7, 2011 I have tried very hard todayto avoid all of the hysteria that has surrounded Paul Lambert and the newsregarding his potential move to Burnley.Sadly, for me, he missed the golden opportunity to put everyone''s mind at restwhen, at the regular Press Conference this morning, he didn''t make a clear andunequivocal statement regarding his desire to remain as our manager. He wasprobably briefed on his output - what he was and wasn''t allowed to say - byDavid McNally and thus they created the problem to which the title of this postalludes.I think that Paul Lambert has the potential to be our best ever manager. Thereis little doubt that both he and his backroom team have been the pivotal forcein the total reversal of fortunes at our club. Sure, the business side of it isvery important, but if the lads that are in charge of the football side don''tcut the mustard that all becomes a bit academic. We are a football club afterall - despite previous attempts to prove otherwise.I have been hugely pleased by his ability to make a substitution that changes aresult. I think that the way he sets his teams up to attack is so refreshing inthe modern game. I believe it is the way that football should be played theworld over. I have even half fallen for the "massive club, brilliant fans,going places" etc etc and his very public adoration of us has certainlyenamoured him to many thousands of Norwich fans. And this is the bit where I have become hugely cynical about the game that Ihave loved for over 40 years. This two-way love affair can only survive if weare both respectful to each other. It is evident that most people that go to the games now appreciate Lambert andhis management style and results. Take the Portsmouth game. We lost 2-0 yet theplayers were applauded off the pitch. We were showing our respect of him andwhat he is trying to build with our team. And in return he delivered theplatitudes about us, about how we support him and the players etc. Like I said,a two-way love affair. (Maybe "love affair" seems a bit melodramatic,but football does that to even the sternest curmudgeon… it allows you a bit ofwhimsy).So, today, when the chance was presented to show us how "special" ourrelationship was, our Paul left us feeling a wee bit betrayed. We didn''t wantmuch, just a simple "I''m staying at NCFC". Now don''t get me wrong… I know how these things work. I have worked inadvertising and PR all of my adult life. I know how you have to be so carefulabout what you commit to the media (see our PM and Deputy PM for how amisplaced word or two comes back to haunt you). But this no comment approach ishighly divisive and it shows scant respect to the most important people at theclub… us, the fans!Sadly, football is so riven with hard cash that we are the last people to beconsidered in all of this. There used to be a time that any team in the top flight thought that they werecapable of winning the league title. Nottingham Forest were a great example ofthis. A side not that different to Norwich in size and support went on to winthe League and the European Cup, led by a genius of a manager that bucked thetrend with his managerial style. Nowadays, Cloughie would be poached by Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool etc after afew months of success. He would immediately be under extreme pressure todeliver silverware and if he failed in this after 2 years he would be out onhis ear with a tarnished reputation, never to reach the heights again.Paul Lambert has had a long career in the game as a player. He may not havebeen a £100k per week merchant but it is without doubt that he probably neverneeds to work again for financial reasons at least. It is widely accepted thathe is ambitious and wants to show what a great manager he is. So… what shows his managerialskills better? Manage a decent but by nomeans huge club to the very pinnacle of the game through your superior managingand coaching techniques backed by a “progressive” board and adoring fans… or doit with the “big club plaything” of a billionaire, where any problem can beovercome by throwing some dough at it to the glee of the latest generation ofplastic fans that turn on you after 3 bad results? We all know the answer tothat don’t we?Which makes this Burnley rumour so much harder to understand. They are far, farremoved from being a big club.Yes, a long, long time ago Burnley WERE a big club but they''ve not been one fordecades.… they were deemed to be an average Championship team by us for years.It was only their promotion season that any of us really took them seriously. Theseason when they ran us close for that final play-off place, they were an okteam, but Stan Ternant (or was it Ronnie Moore?) was definitely getting themplaying way above themselves.It''s been said a thousand times before but when you stack it up… what doesBurnley have to offer apart from hard cash? The ground is dilapidated,their training facilities are archaic and their crowds are much smaller thanours. Now I can''t think of any player nor manager that would rather perform fora half full stadium over a full one. And would you rather have state of the arttraining facilities or ones that need massive investment (I asked a Claret fanwhat their facilities were like in case you were wondering where this knowledgecame from)? Would you rather play in a modern, large and sometimes noisystadium or a ground that is firmly stuck in the 60s? Norfolk or Lancashire (andyes, it is nearer to Scotland but hardly commutable is it?)? Is their team really thatmuch better than ours? So whichever way we look atit, IF (and it’s a big IF) these rumours have any foundation in truth, thenPaul Lambert will have been lured by money. It will be the 3 more seasons ofparachute payments that they have at their disposal… hardly fair on the otherteams trying to scrape their way to the Promised Land is it? And so we wait… in a land oflimbo where our season (and possibly the next decade of this club) hangs in thebalance. Waiting on this behind the scenes farce to play out. Yes, we can get othercapable managers in, but I think Lambert has that special Cloughie-like abilityto totally transform. I don’t know if others could get as much from ourplayers. And if we are honest, we all feel like this about his managerialability otherwise there would not be this level of hysteria on forums, socialmedia, the fourth estate etc. And, with a delicious ironythat shows us all how much we have forgotten about this being the beautifulgame, we now face the same misery as the Colchester United fans that we tauntedwhen we pinched Lambert from their club in 2009. And in turn we will be mockedby a set of fans that were sobbing about the unfairness of losing theirmanager, Owen Coyle, in similar circumstances last year. The Burnley fans don’t appearto be overly concerned by the many layers of hypocrisy on display now the ballis running for them. And I should imagine that if he does go, we will replacehim by doing the same thing to Watford or Doncaster or… fill as appropriate! We need to apply a sense ofperspective about this. Although we started the 2009/10 season in the sameleague as Colchester United, there can be little doubt that Norwich were aconsiderably bigger club even though we had just reached our lowest point andtherefore Paul Lambert’s decision to leave them for us showed a certainprogressive logic. I really can’t say that same logic applies this time round…asides from cash in the bank, Burnley are an inferior club in league positionand most certainly potential. Surrounded by all of the big LancashirePremiership outfits, they will never reach the same level of support enjoyed atFCR… I had high hopes for PaulLambert as our manager. I thought he was going to be different. Sadly, althoughit is by no means certain, I think he will be the same as the rest of them…seduced by money even though he probably doesn’t need it. Be that wages for himor promise/lack of transfer funds or both. Who knows… anyone but us it seems. Someone needs to arrest thisslide into oblivion that is football’s downward trajectory. Sky’s sponsorship of thebeautiful game has resulted in slush funds being so great, of footballers’salaries larger than third world countries health budgets, of fans need forimmediate satisfaction – that directors of football clubs always make akneejerk reaction to “rescue” their club’s season… and inadvertently ruinanother clubs (and the subsequent happiness of their fans) by starting up themanagerial money go round. Money is totally ruining thegame and our perspective of it too. I know that in otherbusinesses you don’t get to know of management decisions until they areimplemented… but this isn’t any other business, this is our football club andour future happiness as supporters that we are talking about here! This whole episode hasbecome tardy in the extreme. Witness the hordes of reporters outside FCR. WTFis that all about? Nothing other than filling their 24/7 Sports News channelwith tat. Gah, I don’t know why Ibothered with this rant other than I had to get it off my chest… maybe it isthe feeling that this won’t end well for us just when I though we were gettingour s**t together again. Sorry to have wasted yourtime if you have got this far… rant over and I hope I have it all wrong… butdeep down in the bowels of my brain I can’t help feeling that our littletwo-way love affair has hit the rocks ‘cos one of us wanted to dip our wickwith a “socialite” that turned out to be a bottle blonde minger… in the coldlight of day… when the champers had run out! And even if he stays… therewill be that nagging feeling that he went and spoilt it all… and we’ll end uphowling in the corner with make-up streaking down our cheeks… I do so hope not! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Larkin 14 Posted January 7, 2011 Sorry about that font sh*t at the start. No idea as to how that happened?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henry 0 Posted January 7, 2011 Fantastic ... agree 100%Well thought out and written [Y] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Woman in the Stands (WITS) 0 Posted January 7, 2011 Agreed. Sums up what lots of us have been saying for ages. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wings of a Sparrow 1,385 Posted January 7, 2011 Excellent, certainly suns up how I feel about the situation and free of the histrionics of many other posts/posters on here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Norfolk Mustard 94 Posted January 7, 2011 Andy Larkin - you''re a star my friend! I loved reading this post - beautifully constructed - I really resonate with all you''ve said... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SI 0 Posted January 7, 2011 Nicely said Andy. Thanks for the effort to put all those sentences together. You must be thirsty by now(hint), Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yoda 0 Posted January 7, 2011 Totally agree . I mentioned earlier that if Lambert does go i will chuck football in once and for all , like i say what the hells the point ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yellow Rider 0 Posted January 7, 2011 Andy, when I get to work next week and can access a decent printer I will run your post off, it''s the best and most heart rendering I''ve read on here for many a long season (well until my last post anyway! Sorry).Seriously you have hit nail well and truly on head. If Lambert wanted to stay here in preference to Burnley he would surely say so and kill all this farce off. He is either hacked off that we declined Burnley permission as he really wanted to jump ship and has been persuaded to stay for ''one more game'' OR he is cynically using the situation to try and extract more cash from a heavily debt ridden club. Either way once McNally became aware of Lambert''s intentions he should have helped him pack his bags!At the end of the day we need a manager who WANTS to be here. Sure the boy has done a great job and we will always remember this last, glorious 18 months. Pity PL has become blind to what a good thing he''s got at NCFC. He may well find the grass is not as green on the other side of the fence as he thinks. Even if he stays, things can never be the same now between him and the board (and with some, perhaps many of the fans as well). I personally think tomorrow will be the end. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erik the Viking 0 Posted January 7, 2011 Best post of the day Andy by a garden mile amongst all the $hite that certain people have posted. Also highlights the fact until we gain significant investment into the club one way or another a club of our stature warrants these issues will persisit.........For gods sake a poxy club like Burnley poaching our best manager for many years,they will never be as big as Norwich City NEVER! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Barclay Boy 0 Posted January 7, 2011 "Sky’s sponsorship of the beautiful game has resulted in slush funds being so great, of footballers’ salaries larger than third world countries health budgets, of fans need for immediate satisfaction – that directors of football clubs always make a kneejerk reaction to “rescue” their club’s season… and inadvertently ruin another clubs (and the subsequent happiness of their fans) by starting up the managerial money go round. Money is totally ruining the game and our perspective of it too."Could not agree more. 100% spot on!What is the point, the beautiful game is just not what it was. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rich2408 0 Posted January 7, 2011 Nuff said,no more threads needed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sonyc 5,447 Posted January 7, 2011 Yep, this is what I thought this morning too. Very eloquently put too Andy. But, as I''ve just posted maybe there is another truth and some kind of respectful silence is being upheld, which if true, even in itself would show incredible grace - e.g. if he was using silence to protect the club? Could that be true? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dylanisabaddog 4,746 Posted January 7, 2011 Sky TV didn''t cause Ron Saunders, John Bond, Mike Walker or Martin O''Neill to leave Carrow Road, so I think it slightly unfair to blame Rupert Murdoch, however unpleasant he may be. Football has always been like this and it always will be. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John 0 Posted January 7, 2011 As ever, an exquisite post Andy, with the sorry state of affairs we currently find ourselves in eloquently summarised to the finest detail. [Y]As i tend to highlight in my blog, the network of relationships you find within football, from the fans to a club in it''s most general sense, can often be seen to correlate with those of which we endlessly experience in everyday life. Only the levels of emotion are heightened almost beyond recognition!By the end of this relationship with Lambert, we''ll be green with envy of the one lefthowling in the corner with make-up streaking down their cheeks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DOGGER 0 Posted January 7, 2011 Good post, well written[Y] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kdncfc 27 Posted January 7, 2011 Brilliantly put Andy, I could accept him leaving for a prem club even though I''d be gutted but I can see no sense whatsoever going to Burnley especially as we have been doing so well. Feel totally deflated about the whole sorry episode tbh, in some ways I''d rather we gave him permission to speak to him if he wants out rather than keep dragging it on. He must be an absolute idiot if he chooses them over us. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John 0 Posted January 7, 2011 http://www.canaries.co.uk/page/NewsDetails/0,,10355~2261383,00.htmlAndin the midst of all of that, i could almost cry!Just as professional as ever from the man. But don''t you dare leave us on such tender hooks again Paul, or so help me!... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Barclay Boy 0 Posted January 7, 2011 [quote user="John"]http://www.canaries.co.uk/page/NewsDetails/0,,10355~2261383,00.htmlAndin the midst of all of that, i could almost cry!Just as professional as ever from the man. But don''t you dare leave us on such tender hooks again Paul, or so help me!...[/quote]Phew, that looks like the end of then, I sure hope so!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John 0 Posted January 7, 2011 [quote user="Barclay Boy"][quote user="John"]http://www.canaries.co.uk/page/NewsDetails/0,,10355~2261383,00.htmlAndin the midst of all of that, i could almost cry!Just as professional as ever from the man. But don''t you dare leave us on such tender hooks again Paul, or so help me!...[/quote]Phew, that looks like the end of then, I sure hope so!![/quote]To me, he sounds like a man focused solely on his job.He''s clearly quite detatched from the speculation that fuels such torturous angst, and hence, from a PR perspective this situation could have been dealt with far easier than it had been. But our emotions are well behind the priority of success at this club, so i''d like to think Lambert will continue in the same manner he always has.All we can do is calm down and let the man do his job. Lambert has had the same question posed to him countless times over the past year, and his answers have rarely, if ever varied. And his answers are always one''s of great affection for our club.That is the best we can hope for. Pressure him further, and our nightmares may come true. Otherwise we can do no more to keep Lambert here, and if he were to leave at some point in the future, no regrets will justly be kept by the fans. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Larkin 14 Posted January 7, 2011 Well after all of that heartfelt effort, he goes and spikes my guns the bastard!The sentiment remains the same regarding Sky, our managing of this situation and Burnley being not as good as they used to be… but having read Lambert''s statement I have to say I have regained a bit of that lost love. Still thinks he''ll eventually leave us and the kids for some well-heeled bimbo, but for now I shall give him the benefit and have a try to patch things up without reverting to counselling! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Butler 0 Posted January 7, 2011 [quote user="Andy Larkin"]Well after all of that heartfelt effort, he goes and spikes my guns the bastard!The sentiment remains the same regarding Sky, our managing of this situation and Burnley being not as good as they used to be… but having read Lambert''s statement I have to say I have regained a bit of that lost love. Still thinks he''ll eventually leave us and the kids for some well-heeled bimbo, but for now I shall give him the benefit and have a try to patch things up without reverting to counselling![/quote]Very true Andy, but today Lambert put himself in the shop window without saying a word.He let everyone raise his profile and availability by saying NOTHING. Very clever.It does highlight what the "club" thinks of it''s fans/supporters. Mushrooms anyone! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bury Yellow 2 Posted January 7, 2011 Sorry Butler but as far as I''m concerned it''s all hail McNasty, Bowkett and Lambo.No one can be sure what has been going on but reading between the lines over the last two weeks certain board members have come ''the old soldier'' and our illustrious trio having arrived from the real hard world have called the bluff.i thank you Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mello Yello 2,265 Posted January 7, 2011 [quote user="Bury Yellow"]Sorry Butler but as far as I''m concerned it''s all hail McNasty, Bowkett and Lambo. No one can be sure what has been going on but reading between the lines over the last two weeks certain board members have come ''the old soldier'' and our illustrious trio having arrived from the real hard world have called the bluff. i thank you[/quote] yup.....definitely. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites