Lambert sacked! - OFFICIAL THREAD

[Just Dan 10]

Anyone else cringe a little when he is referred to as "The Messiah"?

He''s not the Messiah, he''s a.........

[morty 0]

[quote user="Just Dan"]I think Lambert would be a good fit for QPR. He is what they need at the moment, and I think he would keep them up this season. He seems to base his management in getting in players faces and get them to run through walls for him, and this will only work for so long.

Just wonder how long it will be before Bent is recalled from Derby. A natural born goalscorer not getting a game in a team that has scored 12 goals in 25 games.

Did a great job for us, but has made some very strange decisions at Villa.[/quote]

Coincidentally the wheels really fell off when Culverhouse "left"......

[morty 0]

[quote user="Just Dan"]Anyone else cringe a little when he is referred to as "The Messiah"?

He''s not the Messiah, he''s a.........[/quote]Classless mercenary?[;)]

[The Phantom 0]

Elequent and highly professional statement the Messiah has just issued via the LMA. Shows the charachter of the man. A true gent and inspiration

[Snoots 0]

[quote user="Shyster"]How much was Wolfs winkle? Benteke was cheaper at the time.

Go figure.[/quote]

Shyster, my recollection was that Benteke had been identified as a target by Aston Villa scouts when McLeish was manager but joined Villa after McLeish had left and Lambert had moved in. That''s not to detract from the fact that Lambert was clearly a great manager for us. I have great memories of his time with us but his departure left a very sour taste in my mouth and I would not want him back. Lambert is the past, Neil is the present and the future.

[Webbo118 0]

Completely lost the plot after the assistants were sacked. After the Hull game was a dead man walking and I was surprised it look so long for the inevitable to happen. Fully deserves everything that has come his way.

[Maccys Back 0]

It certainly did leave a sour taste, days before sat in the stand, grey polo top on saying the press jump to conclusions and how he''s "absolutely no intention of leaving" also there was the Drury testimonial which really got us all worried he might be off.

[birchfest 397]

It''s a funny one really, I''m grateful for his part in turning us around... However we have to remember it wasn''t Lambert on the pitch, I think he benefited hugely from a good squad and a largely supportive board and he was the final ingredient the club needed to bond it all together.

But his era is over now, it truly ended when we came back down and to me this is a new chapter for Norwich. I doubt Lambert feels he owes us anything and would expect the same view in return, not in a nasty way but more just in terms of how football works like that.

Frankly I think good luck to him, however it was villa that poached him and tried to get away with not paying any compensation. Let them rot in the championship with their Leeds United ''we have right to be in Europe'' attitude.

[......and Smith must score. 1,342]

Can''t feel too sorry for him as he signed a four year contract only last Sept. I doubt he''ll be signing on any day soon. On a personal level he looked almost broken by the pressure of the Villa job. Neil Adams looked bad here but Lambert looked worse.

He did fantastic things for us which we should never forget but as someone said he had itchy feet with talk of moving to Burnley and West Ham well before he actually left. That left a bit of a sour taste.

On a professional level he was no different to John Bond and Mike Walker who both thought the grass was greener elsewhere and later regretted it

Sometimes you must be careful what you wish for.

[Hackedoff 0]

Kinda hard to feel sorry for him with the press claiming he has £10m compo coming his way.

[kantata soul 0]

[quote user="Indy_Bones"][quote user="kantata soul"]But playing in such a way meant that we couldn''t hope to finish any higher than midtable. Instead of pushing on and improving our game with a decent manager and coaches we tried to consolidate by going negative. We are still paying the price for failing to be more ambitious.[/quote]No offence, but that''s a ridiculous statement.We simply do not have the financial backing to push any further than midtable safety in the prem, you only have to look at the spending (and squad quality) of the clubs currently in the top 8 positions to realise that we were already punching above our weight in our places with both Lambert and Hughton:Arsenal - 95 milChelsea - 118 milMan City - 87.5 milMan Utd - 145.4 milSpurs - 28 milSouthampton - 68 milWest Ham - 29 milLiverpool - 117 milOut of those, despite Spurs relatively low spend this season, they had already spent 165 mil over the previous 2 seasons and therefore had a good squad to begin with. In fact, the only club in there that we could arguably compete with is West Ham, and whilst they''re not paying a lot in transfer fees I do hear that they''re paying some pretty impressive wages instead (the likes of Carroll, Jarvis and Song are on an absolute fortune IIRC).So tell me again exactly HOW you expected us to push on and improve on our previous 11/12th place finishes without spending probably close to 50-60 mil to take us beyond the other teams around us who would all have been spending 20-25 mil themselves anyway???[/quote]I''m looking a bit longer term than you seem to be. We''re in the Championship and haven''t had a decent run in the top division for well over 20 years now. As a result we''ve missed out on the premiership money and have largely failed to invest in the club. Currently we''re struggling to get out of the second tier after having realised that there are actually teams in the division that are better than us.There are lots of little old Norwich fans who have a very narrow short term view and scoff at the idea that we can finish higher than 11th or 12th. If we were properly run then I can''t see why we couldn''t have a sustained period in the premiership with a view to pushing on further than our last visit. I never said it would be immediate. If we had made wiser choices 15-20 years ago then we might by now be sitting in a 30-35k stadium watching decent football and expecting to survive with a bigger budget than we have had recently. A top four finish is probably beyond us, but the aim should be to try and finish in the upper half (West Brom recently managed 8th). With all due respect your mindset is typical of many fans who seem to think that we are in a fixed position within the footballing order. I don''t think it''s ridiculous to say that there''s room for improvement and we have to start somewhere if we want to achieve it. We won''t get anywhere if we constantly go down the low quality football route trying to compete with two dozen other teams who''re trying to do the same, especially ones which have better financial backing. It''s similar in something like manufacturing where it''s almost impossible to compete with countries like China in selling low quality products. To survive firms need to compete at the high quality end of the market.Swansea are the obvious template for what''s needed, over several years they have planned around playing good quality football instead of trying to scrap their way to survival each year. As a result they are in a stable position, have just made a decent profit from selling Bony and are now able to grow the club. They haven''t really been in serious danger of relegation or been massively affected by a change of manager. In fact I would think that sooner or later they will develop a team which will finish a couple of places higher than their previous record of 9th. They haven''t spent their way to success but have aimed to appoint managers who commit to playing high quality football.This contrasts markedly with Norwich which has had no footballing ethos and has been a revolving door with

players, managers and coaches coming and going, playing style changing and hence has had little stability. Swansea would not have touched someone like Hughton with a barge pole and allow their playing style to be compromised, but they have allowed Gary Monk to be a little more direct than his predecessors. Would we have matched or bettered Swansea if Lambert had stayed? I very much doubt it. After a generation of chopping and changing and accepting poor quality we''re roughly where we would expect to be given the

increasing money in the game.It''s not 100% about budget, although that is obviously a significant

determinant. But to be able to compete, and maximise our budget for doing so, we need to be run more along the lines of Swansea instead of having football-illiterate people making the decisions.If we could finish 11th or 12th by knocking the ball up for a big striker to head in, then we ought to be able to finish higher by played something more sophisticated. Higher quality would certainly be a prerequisite for a higher finish. If we focused on this aim then we''d have a better chance of staying in the top division and over time being able to grow the club, eventually surpassing our previous mid table finishes.

[Maccys Back 0]

Excellent post K.soul. Unfortunately this club has the most happy clappy fans anywhere. So your points will be utterly wasted and derided by most on here.

[Bury Yellow 2]

Agreed super post K.soul. I just hope that McNally has found us a gem in AN.

Too early yet I know but it does look promising.

[Crabbycanary3 994]

That is a very good post Kanata, and on a general point, did you hear what Steve Bruce was saying about Hull and their (realistic) Prem position? It was almost saying that 17th place, would constitute ''success'' and would be where Hull should ''expect'' to be, compared with the ''Big boys''. So it''s not just the fans who think along those lines.

There is nothing wrong with being the best of the rest though, as you allude to (in the top 10) with a solid mantra. Champions League qualification sometime? Wouldn''t that be something?

[Crabbycanary3 994]

''Kantata''

[sonyc 5,517]

Amazing that people feel he is a true gent! With his dignified statement. To me it just shows how little regard he had for norwich City. I still feel annoyed at him punching the air and the crowd when Villa beat us in the CarlingCup ....with the payback a loss later on at Bradford. He was fantastic for us, never to be forgotten but his leaving was entirely without grace. He showed himself to me that here was a very selfish man. Good luck to him in the future though. I don''t hold on to grievances. He didn''t take Villa down. ?..he has not been a complete failure. But his hero status for me was wounded forever by his actions as he left.

Maybe one day he may tell us fans what really went on. But it seems we meant less to him than he meant to us. And he knows that managers are here for the short term. He is a realist. I can''t help but follow him in his future though!