Well as January's go, this was one of the best! 4 wins out of 5, a draw against Chelsea, through to the 5th round of the FA Cup, we've kept hold of all our best players and added two exciting new signings. When you add the comebacks of Vaughan and Ward its effectively 4 new signings!! The two new boys are exactly why this club will continue to be successful under the guidance of Paul Lambert. Both young, hungry and exciting players with massive futures in the game, bought for sensible money on sensible wages with the long term of the club always in mind. Always stick to the plan! We are so lucky that we support a club who are doing their utmost behind the scenes to run our club in a way that means it will surely have its best years ahead of it. Staying up was not imperative this season but the start we've given ourselves and the new additions mean its likely. Next season may prove harder to stay up but again, with Lambert in charge I see nothing but improvement happening. 'How long can we hold on to Lambert' is often spewed out by fans... well in my opinion the guy knows that he may have hit on something rather special here in Norfolk. He has universal support from within the club both at boardroom level and from the supporters. He has a young squad of players who are only likely to get better and better. He has the news that the club will be developing the youth system to run at Category One status in the EPPP. And of course he has 'the midas touch'! It will be very difficult to replicate what he has here with another club. He is still a young manager - he has time on his hands. He is in no rush to get to a Manchester United or wherever he eventually ends up. I really believe he is on the verge of something pretty massive here and I get the feeling he may feel that way too. I'm not getting ahead of myself - I'm not suggesting we are going to get in the top four or challenge for the title, but I do think we could win a major trophy and/or qualify for Europe within the next two or three years. Now as we are often reminded of by our neighbours down the road, we don't have the fullest trophy cabinet - not that theirs particularly bothers me - but under Lambert we have our best chance of adding to it. The man is a legend as it stands for what he has done for the club and if he walked out tomorrow I would give nothing but praise to the man, but I think he will stay until he can truly win something with us. Not the League One title, not the Championship 2nd place trophy... a major trophy. The addition of Bennett last night, a truly outstanding young prospect and from what I've seen, a potential England player, maybe even captain, has only heightened my belief that as a club we really do have to make the most of what time we have under Lambert - and I don't think it will be months we have him - it'll be years. We have all bought into Lambert's philosophy of young, exciting, grounded talent from the lower leagues. Likewise, he bought into us, the fan base, and he has bought into the club as a whole. So lets not **** this up Norwich, just this once... lets not **** this up! ILWT WFLGH OTBC Ps. I fully expect we'll lose to Sunderland after writing this!
I agree with most of what you have put, and after the Lord Mayors show we'll probably get caught cold by Sunderland tonight. Football has now become, unfortunately, rather masonic. You have to be invited to join. We are never going to be able to dine at the masters table unfortunately as the top 6 will make sure nobody can. And that is sad because we as a club have proved that you can turn things around remarkably quick and compete with almost the best. I seriously hope that the regulations now in will be enforced and allow us to compete for the major honours.
the important thing with regards the financial fair play regulations is that our club will be in a position to cope with them. i have literally no idea how they plan to regulate these new rules and i suspect it may end up being a damp squib but if some of the bigger clubs do end up being penalised, we will be in a position to pounce. i don't think we can ask any more than that
Surely if they can sort out tax payments are accurate, they'll be able to audit for financial fair play? I think you're right about PL. Lambert is on to a good thing here and he knows it. How many managers in the country have the security his job currently carrys, the backing of the board, a full house every home game etc.? He's a very shrewd opperator, and it'd take a heck of an offer to tempt him away. The often over used comparison to O'Neil may be a good one here. O'Neil did brilliant things with Leicester, but left with the temptation of Celtic. We know that doesn't appeal to Lambert, so which 'big' club is going to offer him a position? It hasn't come O'Neil's way, so why (at this stage) would Lambert be different? Yes, there are one or two (the obvious being Villa), but that future he's building here, and the position he's made for himself would be very hard to walk away from.
even then, o'neill gave leicester about six years before being tempted up north and everyone knew he was destined for the celtic job. as you say, lambert has dismissed ever managing celtic, which would have been an obvious link, so we don't need to concern ourselves if lennon leaves the number of clubs capable of enticing lambert is forever diminishing in my opinion.
There really aren't many places better for him to be. I think of English clubs, there are only a couple that I'd really be concerned about. The rest are would either be looking for a 'bigger name' or I don't think would be enough to tempt him. Of those that could pose a threat, I'd say Newcastle, but Ashley would be a huge problem for someone like Lambert: Suderland, but that's out with O'Neil: Everton, but financially would he be tempted?: Villa, could be tempting. After that Fulham and West Brom could be, but as it stands they're a sideways move. As an outside possibility, maybe Liverpool, but pretty unlikely. Unless he feels he's gone stale here, I can't see him going for a fair bit, and with those young signings, he's building for a future. My guess is he sees himself very much part of that future.
Can't see a top club going for him soon, especially after the special one announced he wants to return to the premiership. Then there are the clubs like villa or Everton, who are bigger clubs that us, but really neither have a massive amount of money or a considerably better team. I agree that Lambert could well be ours for the foreseeable future. Also what better CV could he have than taking a team from the bottom of league 1 to a major trophy in a few years. You've got to love the man.
at the moment i only see villa or everton being a problem, maybe spurs but all these clubs have their difficulties. everton are a massive club and so are villa, but unless they are heavily invested in i see no reason to move there at this moment in time. they both 'tread water' as it is so it would be more of the same. spurs will probably want a 'big name' manager to keep them in the top three or four... other than that, and maybe newcastle, or even leeds if they got their act together, there aren't any clubs i could see him going to other than maybe one abroad, in germany? the point of my thread was really to highlight that the bedding lambert has made here at norwich has now given him the opportunity to make this club bigger and better, and it will all be his own work - there aren't many clubs who are in a position where one man can do that
I would guess Spurs would be an option, especially if arry ends up managing England or goes to jail. As already note, the level of success PL has achieved is huge. If we finish about 10th then he will be at the forefront of the minds of many oligarchs.
I would be surprised if he went to Germany to manage considering he left Germany after just over a year due to his family struggling to settle. Obviously he likes the place, but whether he'd actually leave the UK, I'm not so sure.
Well as January's go, this was one of the best! 4 wins out of 5, a draw against Chelsea, through to the 5th round of the FA Cup, we've kept hold of all our best players and added two exciting new signings. You've forgotton that we also kept our first 'clean sheet' of the season too Supers ! P.S. Excellent original post Mate, couldn't agree more OTBC CTID ILW-ABSO-DEFO-WITHOUT QUESTION-WITHOUT DOUBT-T !!!!!!!!
i was one of the few who weren't particularly concerned by the lack of clean sheets to be honest so although it was a nice thing to get off our backs, was pretty irrelevant
Interesting though that PL said wasn't bothered about them either, he buys a CB. Trying to keep morale up, but recognised that there was a defensive problem, because there clearly was an issue.
not sure thats why we bought him specifically longsight. bennett is very much in the rio ferdinand mould of centre halves - they don't come around that often so it was a no-brainer. i think we were planning on getting him in the summer but swansea's interest forced our hand so to speak. when natural talent and leadership is available, you snap it up. i think he'll be a regular next season
PL stated at the beginning of January that he wanted to bring people to give the others a hand as he's fond of saying. He also said he wanted players who could hit the ground running. The two signings we have made aren't going to fit either bill.
no, of course we did!!! what i mean is that the lack of clean sheets was not the reason lambert has signed bennett. he hasn't panicked and though 'hmm, what i need here is another centre half to stop the goals going in'. he signed him because he is potentially an outstanding defender who could play for the club for many years to come. i think he's good enough to break into the first team now but lambert might not want to change the current centre halves at the moment. redruth, i think in an ideal world that would have been the case but nobody can argue that the two lads we've brought in will improve the overall team long term. we aren't in a situation where we needed players to make an impression immediately so its not a problem. lambert made his comments before the transfer window opened - we've won 4 games and a got a draw vs chelsea since then so things have changed slightly
Bennett could well be forcing his way into the team by the end of the season. Ayala will serve a suspension before the end of the season at the rate he collects cards. Got to be a chance for Bennett to show what he can do. Also while Everton and villa are big clubs, Everton have no money and randy Lerner had enough trouble with MON why hire MON mark 2.
Surely, lack of clean sheets is an index of a quality defence, and it often argued that as long as you score more than the opposition that's all that matters, fecking damn sight easier to score more if the opposition scores none. Of course, increasing competition in the defence keeps players mroe alert etc and stops fecking mistakes. The world is round: I'm waiting for you to argue the case that it's flat
not at all. i'd suggest that our issues with regards defending hark back to our midfield not offering enough support to the defence. i'd also argue that our attacking style leaves us susceptible to quick attacks and the issues are far less to do with organisation or even the quality of the players playing in defence, but more down to being too attacking in mentality. oh, and the world is flat. at least, it is on the map on my wall
