If he was thinking of leaving, why would he say this? http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7778313/?
because he isn't thinking of leaving! i mentioned on a different thread a few days ago that i have had this inkling for some time that lambert really thinks he can win something with the club; probably a carling cup but maybe the fa cup. now ok, he hasn't exactly thrown his weight at one of those two competitions since he joined the club but i believe he believes that's what he can achieve at norwich city. i don't think european football is out of reach through the league either. i'll probably get laughed at by opposition fans for thinking it let alone saying it but we've all seen the foundations he's laying here; we've got the basis of an exciting, dynamic and vibrant british team - with four or five quality acquisitions i can honestly see us moving forwards rather than stagnating or even drifting down the league as predicted by many. of course it might not happen, and survival is naturally our major aim for the forceable future, but the ambition is there on the managers behalf and i think the club behind the scenes have that desire too. we shall see...
i think lambert will have been a tad disappointed we faded towards the end of the season, although we did draw at the emirates and beat villa in the final two games! a little more strength in depth and a tad more experience and he probably would have felt that 8th was not out of the question last season!! i believe the division will be stronger next season - the three coming up are all better than the three going down in my opinion so it will be important to get a good start if possible, or at least get an unbeaten run formed before winter hits, just like we did last year
Unusually, I'm not sure i agree with u on this supers. I think that if we can finish 12th on 47pts again that will be moving forwards and certainly wont be 'stagnation'. This year we have exceeded expectations by taking teams tactically by surprise and occasionally being under-estimated (I'm not saying they are the only reasons we have done well). Next year, the pyschology will be different-we will go into the home games against e.g. West Brom/Fulham/ Stoke genuinely expecting to win and they will view us as equal opponents. If we can pull off the same points tally etc we will have progressed from being a group of over-achievers to being a genuine mid-table team.
There's much in what you say RT, but I think Supers is dead right, reading between the lines PL is saying, of course, survival is the main aim, but he personally is looking for more than that!
I don't understand why so many people (especially the media) think that moving to a "bigger" club shows ambition. Often I feel it maybe easier apart from some very big clubs who have had lots of recent success, you have more resources and better players to start with. Surely it is ambitious if a manager stays at a so called "smaller" club because he feels he can build a team that can win things.
The club will not progress if it doesn't aim a little higher every season. Lambert wouldn't say he is setting his sights higher if he didn't believe it was possible, if he didn't think the players were up to the task. Like Supers said, 4 or 5 astute aquisistions plus that little bit more consistancy and we can make the top half next season.
I liked the staged media retreat that went on throughout last season.To kick off (pun intended) we were told that we were certs for relegation,probably going to finish 20th on about 20 points.By Christmas everyone said we were going to do a Blackpool and crash second half of the season.When we maintained a ten point plus gap on the relegation fight in the early part of 2012 it became "Second season syndrome".Wonder what the next straw to clutch at will be. Having watched the play off final I wont be surprised if West ham concede some cricket scores BTW.
I think we need to get used to this situation. Assuming PL does stick around, the media will whipping this frenzy up again each time another manager falls by the way side. There's going to be constant speculation about PL succeeding anyone who's under pressure.
PL has said time and again that the minute you are content with things as they are you are finished. By implication, if he is managing a club which comes to be content with things as they are, he will be gone. So when PL says he is aiming for something better than survival, you can be sure that that is equally true of the City board, even though the chairman said again recently that survival (= at least 17th in the league) must be the priority. PL understands perfectly well why it must be the priority, but also knows that's no more that what it says, the priority. The ambitions for next season are a different matter and presumably include at least a top ten finish, maybe even challenging for a Europa League spot, and/or a serious tilt at a cup. The problem is not IMO that PL never tells anybody anything; he actually says quite a lot. We just need to get better at listening to him!
The message to us fans is "If we don't, it won't be for lack of trying". If people can't be satisfied with that, IMO they don't deserve the title of "fans".