Paul Lambert Quits As Norwich City Manager

Paully D

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4347635/Paul-Lambert-quits-Norwich-after-furious-row-over-Villa-job.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The Scot resigned following a furious bust-up after the club refused to give Aston Villa permission to talk to him.

Lambert will walk into the vacant Villa job, with owner Randy Lerner and chief executive Paul Faulkner identifying him as their No 1 choice yesterday.

The raging boss wanted out once it became clear the Canaries were digging their heels in, adamant they would not even let him hear what Villa had to offer.

It resulted in a bitter end to Lambo’s three-year love affair with the Carrow Road club, who he took from League One obscurity to 12th place in the Premier League following successive promotions.

It is the second time in 18 months that Norwich, backed by TV cook Delia Smith, have refused to give their manager permission to speak to a rival club.

In January 2011, they turned down Burnley’s request to approach Lambert following the dismissal of Brian Laws.

A Canaries statement at the time said: “The club will fight tooth and nail to retain the services of Paul Lambert and his team during this critical period of the season and whilst they remain employed under a long-term contract.”

They tried the same tactic yesterday but it blew up in their face — days after Lambert, 42, declared he was going nowhere.

That clears the way for him to succeed Alex McLeish, who Lambo played under at Motherwell.

SunSport can reveal Villa identified the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder as the steely character required to shake up the Midlanders before Roberto Martinez declared he was staying at Wigan.

Lerner feels Lambert is the young, aggressive and ambitious boss Villa need after two miserable years.

Norwich now face a summer sweat to bring in a new manager.

Former Canaries skipper Malky Mackay will be a contender.

He took Cardiff to the Carling Cup final, where they lost to Liverpool on penalties, as well as the Championship play-offs last season.

Chris Hughton is also in the frame.

West Brom are not keen to cough up around £2.5million for the Birmingham man’s services.

But that figure would not worry Norwich who expect to receive some compensation from Villa when Lambert is officially installed as boss.

peter lansley@LansleyTimes

Paul Lambert walks out on #ncfc after bust up on being refused permission to talk to #avfc who will now look to appoint him as new manager

Lumbo

Does this mean that Pep could now end up at Norwich?

Thanx 4 The Fish

Have seen nothing on SSN about it.

Wonder how that will work now. Assume he is in breach of contract and they will look for compensation of some sort. If they wanted to they could insist that he honours his contract for a reasonable amount of time until they had a suitable replacement. Shame that they tied up Holt at Norwich, bet he would have been following his man out the door.

kensutz

Certainly hope it's not true although won't be surprised. He did wonders for our club but I hope McNally and co play hardball and not allow him or Culverhouse and Karsa walk. This is going to start a sh*t storm I reckon.

eagle eye

Hasn't he a rolling contract which expires unless he renews on the 1st June?

Ape X

Sad that it's ended that way really (if true).

JPA

Welcome to villa.

JPA

eagle eye wrote: »

Hasn't he a rolling contract which expires unless he renews on the 1st June?

Don't rolling contracts keep going? Always a year left on them.

G.K.

Certainly a ruthless manager.

kensutz

G.K. wrote: »

Certainly a ruthless manager.

Did it to Colchester and will probably do it to us

G.K.

Exactly.

eagle eye

JPA wrote: »

Don't rolling contracts keep going? Always a year left on them.

Its up to him afaik. He can choose to end it at the end of any season.

GavRedKing

Good for Villa bad for Norwich.

applehunter

Excellent manager.

Will get Aston Villa back to the top 10 again next season.

Massive blow for Norwich.

Rekop dog

Best time for him to choose to move on now imo, sensible guy.

Samich

2 positives of last season playing good exciting football lose their managers. One good season makes managers these days it seems.

dreamers75

Rekop dog wrote: »

Best time for him to choose to move on now imo, sensible guy.

really thats moving on?

IvySlayer

Don't get it, surely Norwich are in a better position than Villa

Beat Helix/JPA/Neil are creaming themselves though :pac:

JPA

Do people really not get why he would move from Norwich to Villa?
I am seeing crap like this too often!

Do people only operate on a season by season basis?

Samich

JPA wrote: »

Do people really not get why he would move from Norwich to Villa?
I am seeing crap like this too often!

Do people only operate on a season by season basis?

Football clubs seem to do that, i.e Liverpool and Villa

dreamers75

JPA wrote: »

Do people really not get why he would move from Norwich to Villa?
I am seeing crap like this too often!

oh yeah "big club" according to their deluded fans.


Sure liverpool fans say the same thing.

JPA

dreamers75 wrote: »

oh yeah "big club" according to their deluded fans.


Sure liverpool fans say the same thing.

And both are right.

Pighead

dreamers75 wrote: »

oh yeah "big club" according to their deluded fans.


Sure liverpool fans say the same thing.

Of course they're a bigger club. Villa Park holds about 15000 more than Carrow Road. They have more money. They've probably finished above Norwich for about 18 of the last 20 seasons. Not necessarily saying that they're a big club, but they are definitely bigger than Norwich.

nkay1985

Wouldn't be a nice way for it to end but I think he could do a great job at a big club. He seems very methodical.

Villa would be a good move. Not too big a club that they won't give him time to implement whatever plans he may have. I thought he might have had a shot at the Liverpool job but think Villa would be a better move right now.

Of course, this hasn't been confirmed anywhere but I think there's a big possibility it's true.

K-9

Samich wrote: »

Football clubs seem to do that, i.e Liverpool and Villa

And Chelsea.

Newcastle and City hardly have proud records either.

invinciblePRSTV

A delightful turn of events for the Villa and not really unexpected given his comments a few weeks ago. Personally I'd much rather Lambo to OGS or Martinez.

Poor ol' Norwich. Mike Walker come in and steady the ship?

Samich

K-9 wrote: »

And Chelsea.

Newcastle and City hardly have proud records either.

What do you mean?

Chelsea have yes and they've failed with one.

Newcastle, what about them? Pardew was good with both West Ham and Reading.

City, they brought hughes after he performed miracles with Wales and didn't do badly with Blackburn.

Corholio

Samich wrote: »

What do you mean?

Chelsea have yes and they've failed with one.

Newcastle, what about them? Pardew was good with both West Ham and Reading.

City, they brought hughes after he performed miracles with Wales and didn't do badly with Blackburn.

The argument was about football clubs operating on a season by season basis, have you seen Newcastle's recent managers record??

Samich

Corholio wrote: »

The argument was about football clubs operating on a season by season basis, have you seen Newcastle's recent managers record??

Well I was on about how clubs decide managers on a season basis, one hit wonders possibly.

K-9

Samich wrote: »

What do you mean?

Chelsea have yes and they've failed with one.

Newcastle, what about them? Pardew was good with both West Ham and Reading.

City, they brought hughes after he performed miracles with Wales and didn't do badly with Blackburn.

Ah bless your cotton socks.

Bounty Hunter

Lambert did a good job last year (not the one just gone) too and tbh I doubt Villa really have too many big name candidates after the past few years but Villa is a club where he will have far more resources, a bigger fan base etc and yet a club where he will probably get time to do his job unlike at other bigger clubs where expectations would be higher atm.

Seems a good fit even though I was oddly in favour of OGS despite the lack of experience & one goodseason etc remarks about him

Neil3030

Can someone please say something to ease my concerns that Lambert wouldn't be Owen Coyle V2.0?

Neil3030

IvySlayer wrote: »

Don't get it, surely Norwich are in a better position than Villa

Beat Helix/JPA/Neil are creaming themselves though :pac:

Well I can't speak for the other two, but since I'd EUR20 on AVB at 500/1, I was very much reserving my cream for another appointment

G.K.

Did Owen Coyle get 2 straight promotions?

Does Paul Lambert play hoofball?

Did Owen Coyle adapt his tactics to suit the opposition, or even drastically change them mid-game?

Does Owen Coyle make a lot of shrewd transfers?

Neil3030

G.K. wrote: »

Did Owen Coyle get 2 straight promotions?

Does Paul Lambert play hoofball?

Did Owen Coyle adapt his tactics to suit the opposition, or even drastically change them mid-game?

Does Owen Coyle make a lot of shrewd transfers?

Coyle didn't play hoof at Burnley, and certainly didn't bring hoof to Bolton initially. AFAIK Bolton only resorted to hoof towards the latter part of this season out of injury forced necessity.

Didn't achieve b2b promos, but got Burnley up into the Premiership and had a great start to the season, probably doing enough to secure them safety had just about anyone other than Lawes come in. Also got to the League Cup semi final with them the year before. He, like Lambert, also found some gems from the lower leagues on a very small budget.

A lot of similarity, imo.

Rekop dog

dreamers75 wrote: »

really thats moving on?

Yep of course it is. He's got an incredible amount from that bunch of players over the last few seasons but how much further can he potentially take Norwich? Possibly they could make a bit of a run at one of the cup competitions but relagation is still a possibility(difficult 2nd season and that) and think it's the right time to leave now while his reputation is quite high. Timing is huge for managers and it's easy to get stuck in a rut in you're career when not moving on when you should.

Think Villa is a perfect club to join for a manager looking to enhance his reputation. They've been underperforming for a good few seasons now considering how much they've been spending. I don't think significant improvement is that unachievable under the right management. Also they've had one of the most successful youth/reserve teams over the past couple of years with a couple of those lads capable of the step up imo.

There hasn't been an up and coming manager whose impressed me more than Lambert in recent years and think the Coyle comparison is a lazy one.

Neil3030

Rekop dog wrote: »

There hasn't been an up and coming manager whose impressed me more than Lambert in recent years and think the Coyle comparison is a lazy one.

Lazy? I've listed several points of similarity between both men's careers.

Dempsey

Neil3030 wrote: »

Can someone please say something to ease my concerns that Lambert wouldn't be Owen Coyle V2.0?

More likely to be a MON v2.0

G.K.

What, spend a ridiculous amount of money to improve results in the short term?

Then leave a squad of ageing, overpaid, dross?

Neil3030

G.K. wrote: »

What, spend a ridiculous amount of money to improve results in the short term?

Then leave a squad of ageing, overpaid, dross?

Another concern, tbh. Hopefully his time in Germany will have instilled in him a bit more prescience with the shekels.

Dempsey

G.K. wrote: »

What, spend a ridiculous amount of money to improve results in the short term?

Then leave a squad of ageing, overpaid, dross?

Yep :pac:

Seriously though, I dont think Lambert is like that. Whilst he would have most likely the same man management traits of MON, I dont his transfer policy would be the same although I suppose this will be the 1st time that Lambert will have the opportunity to spend relatively big. It will be interesting to see whether he goes for proven pros, raw potential or a mix. I certainly think he'll have the current squad performing to their potential first and foremost.

G.K.

Agree, I think PL is an excellent manager.

nkay1985

Has any of this been confirmed yet?

premierstone

Pighead wrote: »

Of course they're a bigger club. Villa Park holds about 15000 more than Carrow Road. They have more money. They've probably finished above Norwich for about 18 of the last 20 seasons. Not necessarily saying that they're a big club, but they are definitely bigger than Norwich.

G.K. wrote: »

What, spend a ridiculous amount of money to improve results in the short term?

Then leave a squad of ageing, overpaid, dross?

LOL Aston Villa are a big club due to the capacity of Villa Park, erego Celtic must be one of the biggest Clubs in the World yeah???

And secondly incase neither of you have been following soccer too long Villa havent a fcukin penny they are broke!

G.K.

You've completely missed the point...

listermint

premierstone wrote: »

LOL Aston Villa are a big club due to the capacity of Villa Park, erego Celtic must be one of the biggest Clubs in the World yeah???

And secondly incase neither of you have been following soccer too long Villa havent a fcukin penny they are broke!

Villa arent broke buddy. Sensationalism at its best.

They have cash to spend and have just restructured their wage bill which was always part of lerners plan. He doesnt agree with paying to excess and getting nothing in return. Makes sense, no ?

Neil3030

What's this?

Not a done deal and Martinez still in the frame?!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/31/paul-lambert-roberto-martinez-villa

premierstone

listermint wrote: »

Villa arent broke buddy. Sensationalism at its best.

They have cash to spend and have just restructured their wage bill which was always part of lerners plan. He doesnt agree with paying to excess and getting nothing in return. Makes sense, no ?

So wtf was the MON era all about so??? Lerner have a day off there did he?

G.K.

MON got full control under a contract agreed by Doug Ellis.

A_Sober_Paddy

So is Lambert gone or what lads...

Twitter last night was hoping with stories he'd left,

SSN this morning saying he was still at Norwich,

But the twitter people don't seem to watch SSN as there is still stuff floating around saying his gone

...Got to love this stage of the season and the Euro's only a few days a way:D

the realpigiron

Villa have got a good manager in Lambert, hopefully they'll give him some funds.