Why does this surprise him? When he took the job last year, he surely did his research on Evans and noticed this owner has been putting in the bare minimum levels of investment. He must have noticed that we consistently make more money than spend money in the last several transfer windows before Lambert joined? This is the way our owner has operated since 2010. I was apprehensive at the start of the summer for the season ahead, now I'm completely disillusioned. I'm seeing an owner who looks like he's given up and a manager already making his excuses.
This is a deplorable owner with a standing arrest warrant out in Brazil. This is an owner whose name is blacklisted by several international sport bodies for his event management's practices. An owner who is responsible for overseeing a decade of stagnation and eventual decline to the third division. An owner who, somehow, is beyond criticism by an element of our deluded fanbase on social media and TWTD. Those drooling idiots will parrot the lie that this owner puts £6m of his own money into the club every year. Those same drooling idiots will then have you believe that this club has no money to spend at all. Well if it is, the question should be why the hell is it - when you've got teams like Rotherham, Portsmouth, Peterborough, and Gillingham splashing the cash this summer and bringing in good players? What good has this useless owner done?!
Look at our summer business so far. We've offloaded so many players from the wage bill that you could make a starting eleven and a bench out of the names. What is it in all - nearing 20 now? We've received over £2m from sell-on clauses alone this summer. And what have we done with this? We've brought in three effing freebies and two cheaper loanees. Even in the wake of a massive injury crisis at the club. An injury crisis which is self-inflicted due to the cost-cutting measures we've made in the medical department. Measures painfully laid bare by the report in The Independent, which the club got all hot and bothered about, vowed to release a lengthy statement disputing it the day after, and - almost five days on - are still holding their tongues. Maybe because it's true.
Now people can rightly say we've lost a lot of money through relegation. But we'll stand to lose even more if we stay in this division for a season longer, because that's when SCMP regulations will really start to bite. Why doesn't the owner fund the club from his own money? We've adhered to FFP for several years now, the owner has the leeway for some actual investment. Will he do it though? Will he ****! This club somehow owes him over £100m - for what? What good has he actually done?!
So yeah, I sympathise with Lambert. But from my perspective, Lambert knows the owner is a cheapskate. Lambert knows the expectations are high following his failure to keep this club in the Championship. Lambert's only ranting about the money and passing the buck entirely to Evans because he's covering his own rear end. Lambert knows that if he was sacked or chose to walk, he would have overseen back-to-back relegations for Stoke and Town. Even in a domestic game that makes a habit of hiring old, failed British managers time after time, Lambert may find his career options drying up. If he cannot get this squad competing for the play offs through good coaching and management, then that's another blot in his managerial copybook. The temptation to walk away is probably quite enticing for Lambert, but then why walk if you can stick it out for a couple of months and take the compensation for being fired?
We know that this club is not in an ideal state. It is broken, and it has been broken for some time. Lambert's empty words doesn't change that fact and nor will his words repair the foundations of the club. The only way we will get back into the top flight - and maybe even the Championship - is if this hapless owner sells up and we have a coaching team that can get performances and confidence out of this squad. Running your mouth off in the press conference on the eve of the season is highly unlikely to achieve the latter. The season hasn't even started and I already feel like I'm done with it.
Give it up for FFS your side lost 