Rickie, you have taken the Championship by storm with Saints. How have you made the step up so seamlessly? I was always a player who could score goals and who liked the ball into feet, but the coaches here have improved the otherside of my game. I've never been blessed with pace, but I'm making the right runs and I'm also creating space for others- you don't have to be the fastest player if your movement is right. Aside from Nigel Adkins, I also have to thank our coach Dean Wilkins for my improvement. He provides little scenarios in training games, when to make specific runs, and its brought another dimension to my game. People in the past questioned your physique to play at a higher level, but you've buried that myth... I knew a few years back that I was good enough to play in the Championship but never got the opportunity. Now its nice to prove a few people wrong. This is the best shape I've ever been in. I knew that stepping up to the Championship I'd have to be in peak condition, so I had a shorter holiday this summer and kept ticking over from the moment we finished last season to the day we returned for training. At the start of last season I went into League 1 campaign playing catch-up after an injury, but this time I've hit the ground running and I think its shown in my performances so far. Last season you scored 21 league goals, but this time out you already netted 14 by early December. What does that say about Championship defences? The defenders at this level are better, more experienced, but I came into this division just as another striker, whereas in League 1 I was known everywhere, I was a marked man. I also have to single out my team-mates for praise: we are such an attack-minded side, with so many forward-thinking players, that we create plenty of chances and I've been able to take advantage of that. Teams have struggled to contain us on many occasions- its been a real team effort. You say you haven't been a marked man this season, but as you face teams for a second time do you anticipate that will change? We've already noticed it already - not just me but everyone. Teams now seem to be showing us more respect and are setting up to stop us playing, whereas games were more open earlier in the season. That's an obstacle for us to overcome and we've been working hard on a formula in training to make sure we don't get stifled. You're 29 now, so is the Premier League a target in 2012? It's defiantly an ambition to play at the highest level and we've got a really good opportunity to get there this season. I look what Grant Holt has done with Norwich, going from League 1 to PL, and he's proof that you can make the transition a successful one. I've got full belief that I can do the same; I've improved with age, I know my body inside out and I feel at my peak. Alan Pardew said he'd love to sign you for Newcastle... Yes, I heard those comments, which were nice, and Alan has been another key factor in my improvement at Southampton. I can't praise him enough for having the faith to bring me to the club and hopefully I can join him in the PL.... with Southampton!! That's the aim this year: to get this club up and score goals at the very highest level. Courtesy of FourFourTwo magazine.
Great read, thanks. I don't think any Saints fan thinks that Rickie isn't capable of playing in the Prem. My only fear after yesterday is that he will encounter an even greater degree of cheating and diving etc. than Brighton dished out yesterday. We will just have to trust Nigel and the back room staff to prepare the team for that, as well a higher level of skill.
Opened this months Four Four Two magazine, and the first article I saw in there was an interview with Rickie Lambert! The main focal point was he was posed with the question, basically, are you going to Newcastle as there has been interest, and thank God he said 'yes it is an ambition of mine to play in the Premiership...with Southampton!'
in Feb's there is an interview with Pard's with a one line comment about how he and Cortese don't like each other.
We are Lambert's spiritual home and his best bet of getting into the PL. He probably knows that even if signed by a PL team, he might not maintain his form. Ours style suits him and he suits us.
If you direspect the Saints family, you end up going for a swim wearing concrete shoes. Pardew best watch it.
