I agree with you totally. It is just a shame, that's all. The guy could have acted differently and been a hero in these parts forever. A week before he went he was saying how much he loved it here and that he had never thought about leaving then 7 days later Villa show an interest, fair enough, I can accept that. All he had to do was tell Norwich he wanted to go and resign. Say some nice things about his time here, explain that it was a chance he could not turn down to further his career and take on an even bigger challenge and then leave it at that. No reasonable fan would have ever had a problem. But to do this? He has a big inside knowledge of the clubs finances, he knows exactly what 2m means to our club. All he has done is ensured that Norwich fans will lose all the respect they had for him. That is the shame.
shame. that's the word that i keep using. its a shame that its come to this, after all he did for the club, not to mention all we did for him remember. it didn't have to end like this, but this is what lambert does, and that for me is the biggest shame of all.
Could this be a case of McNally playing hardball and getting his fingers burnt, some of the best generals in history knew the best time to attack but more importantly knew the best time to hold back. If Lambert has the backing of the League management association it would seem he must have a pretty strong case.
as i say, when has a manager ever lost his case in these kind of situations? its the amount of money he's after that i find so galling when you consider how much he was earning at the club. nearly three times his annual salary? piss off!
You could be right, but I'd rather have McNally occasionally getting his fingers burnt than any previous regime I can remember at Carrow Road who for decades just bent over and took it.
I'd assume that at the time of Lambert's "resignation" he would have been taking legal advice every step of the way to ensure that the club could have no future claim against him, and consequently put him in a strong position to claim breach of contract/unfair dismissal against the club
well if this is still rumbling on when we play villa, he's going to get a tasty reception from our away support. adds a lot of spice to the game i also hope this has the effect of galvanising our fans, those in denial that Lambert has left, and give Hughton and the boys complete backing!
Your right Supers. What a shame. He could have been regarded as a hero, but now his name will be met with vitriol all the time. In one swoop he has wiped out all the things that he achieved with us and has turned a fan base that once revered him into people that cannot stand him.
that's what's disappointed me the most. the way i look at it is, i'd like to think that had i ever bumped into lambert in years to come, i could have a conversation with him about his time at city and talk with fondness about the revolution he produced, the great football, the promotions, and wish him the best for the future. if i saw him tomorrow i'd probably have to spend a night in the cells for what i'd done to him. shame.
It's really sad. That's all I have to say really and not sad in a piss taking way. It really makes me feel down about it.
that's how i feel too kemp. at times its very difficult to love football anymore and for me, this is a further nail in its coffin as far as i'm concerned.
Thing is Supers its not 1979 any more when players hardly moved clubs, chairmen were car dealers or scrap metal merchants and wore sheepskin overcoats and managers stayed at clubs for donkey's years. SKY has killed the game and made football available every night of the week and money money money breeds disloyalty. Take it for what it is. Lambert worked miracles and got you back to back promotions. Excellent. He's now gone so get behind Hughton and hope for more of the same. Just a small anecdote from my own club (stuffed with underperforming world class talent) - QPR play Blackburn in the cup when we were in the Championship. Nasty tackle involving Givet and our own Jamie Mackie sees Mackie's leg broken. Everyones favourite poppet El Hadj-Diouf verbally abuses Mackie whilst prone on the deck. Our saviour Sir Neil of Warnock lambasts EHD calling him a 'sewer rat' Roll on 2 years and the same Neil Warnock actively pursues the same 'Sewer rat' and signs him for MASSIVE Leeds, hailing him 'a class act'. Hypocrisy? No just the state of the modern game.
i've long been saying lets forget about lambert and concentrate on hughton - he is our manager and hopefully will be here for many years to come. just come as a bit of a shock i suppose - we all thought we were simply waiting on the courts to settle our compensation from villa, yet instead we hear we might have to pay to lose the guy! its unbelievable really. great example with warnock and the sewer rat by the way. how can colin ever be taken seriously now? oh, you say he never was anyway...? fine
I will always be grateful for Warnock and that magical season as you should be towards Lambert BUT as a man and his subsequent actions? No not really. The thing is mate, does anything in football really surprise you any more? Did you watch the Liverpool v Udinese match ast night? At one point a Udi players actually 'rugby tackled' Downing - the most blatant foul I've seen since Keane v Haaland - I was actually shocked. Then I was shocked again that the geezer only got a yellow card! Christ on a bike. Football HAS eaten itself.
I have read this entire thread and feel that you are all missing the point. This is nothing to do with loyalty, money in the game or the character of an ex- employee it is to do with Employment Law and whether we like it or not Football Clubs in general and NCFC in particular are not above the Law. Leaks seem to suggest that the only reason Lambert stuck to a 1 year rolling contract was because it contained a clause giving him the automatic right to talk to a bigger club if City were approached for his services. If, and I repeat IF, that is the case then there was a breach of contract if he was refused permission to speak to Villa. It is irrelevent whether City wanted time to get our Chairman back first - permission should have been granted. When Lambert left Colchester he had no such contact wording so was unable to plead breach of contract or constructive dismissal and, of course, we were forced to pay compensation to Colchester. In this case City are pursuing Villa for compensation and they are refusing to pay because Lambert was a free agent having resigned or been constructively dismissed. Obviously some legal bod, probably at the LMA, has pointed out that if it is the latter then Lambert is entitled to compensation. All Lambert is doing therefore is what any of us would do if legal action had been raised against us and we felt we were not at fault - raise a counter claim. What is more interesting is that if ( and I repeat IF ) Villa and Lambert win we will have to pay compensation and legal costs instead of getting £2m in compensation ourselves had we immediately agreed to the approach of Villa. Where would that leave the position of the person who made the decision to withold consent? Another vacancy at Carrow Road? None of us know the exact facts and surely have to await the outcome of the process before apportioning blame and hurling insults at individuals.
Well from an outsider, this is weird and not good at all. I know the Southampton-Norwich comparison is overdone but if this happened between us and Nigel Adkins, after what he has done for us (and Lambert for you) I'd be devastated. I don't know who is accused of what but Lambert appears to have got what he wanted, so I am definitely missing something.
