... just on a side not re: lambert, something i forgot to mention in my thread, was his reason for going to villa.
at the time, i think its fair to say that many of us, least of all me, could see lambert heading to villa park. this was based on footballing reasons. heading back from villa park we had a long discussion about his move in the car. i think we hit firmly upon his reason for heading to birmingham... its because he was cornered. he had nowhere else to go. he simply couldn't stay at norwich any longer in his eyes. we all know about his 'wobble' with burnley and its pretty common knowledge that he was interested in the west ham job last summer, despite them being a league below us. basically, the guy wanted out. his relationship with mcnally was always tense - we now find out it was equally so with bowkett.
i don't think, given a choice, lambert would have gone to aston villa. i think he ended up there by default, as they were the only club to show interest in him this summer. he wasn't allowed to go to burnley, nor west ham, or others maybe we don't know about.........but his reason for going to villa had more to do with getting away from norwich than it did any thoughts of 'being a villa legend' or even 'using them as a stepping stone'. he just had to leave for his own sanity this summer.
You say he was "cornered" superman. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say he'd got himself into a corner of his own making? Of course we don't really know anything much, but I find it hard to believe there was much on the club's side other than asking for (1) commitment by signing a term contract, and (2) accepting the need to pay off the external debt this year. Yes, you can get all sorts of clashes of personality, but those were contained through last season and I cannot see anything apart from Bowkett and McNally quite correctly putting the interests of NCFC first. Indeed, when Bowkett spoke at the season's end about the financial priorities, PL said "I understand where the chairman is coming from." He understood, but he disagreed. To which one could add Bowkett's comment about PL's impatience. Bowkett is on record saying they would do everything they could to keep PL. Everything, that is, apart from prejudicing the club's longer term future. Cornered, maybe; but by himself.

That equates to two entire seasons
although our defence is so much better this year with the acquisitions of Bassong, Garrido and Tettey affording them protection. But, still...
.