Next Manager chat.

[Tony Towner]

I'm not saying he's an obviously terrible manager (though I don't want him here), I just don't get how his reputation soars with every passing day. I really don't think there's that much to split him and Lambert at this stage. Lambert's Norwich played way better football than I've ever seen from 15+ years of Steve Bruce teams.

I amended my post whilst you were posting your own, so at the risk of repeating myself. It's not an appointment I'd have been happy with in August, but we may as well have gone there then rather than waste 1/4 of a season under Zenga and then appointed a manager with the criteria that he would probably have been the best candidate for if available.

Everyone thought Zenga was a stop gap until we could get the man we wanted, that clearly now wasn't the case, so the stop gap just seems completely pointless. I'm more having a dig at what appears to be a haphazard strategy rather than bigging up Bruce or having a downer on Lambert.

 

[Jinky]

What did you think when we appointed Mick after his Sunderland team had flopped so badly in the Premier League?

Lambert got Norwich from League One to the Premier League and kept them up with ease with a squad full of football league journeyman players. He took the Villa job knowing full well his remit was to slash the wage bill and kept them up too.

I'd always liked Mick so was pleased when we appointed him.

Lambert just doesn't get the juices flowing and I certainly won't be racing to watch the post match interviews. I just feel he is a very 'safe' appointment. Who knows - maybe that's what we need.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I amended my post whilst you were posting your own, so at the risk of repeating myself. It's not an appointment I'd have been happy with in August, but we may as well have gone there then rather than waste 1/4 of a season under Zenga and then appointed a manager with the criteria that he would probably have been the best candidate for if available.


Everyone thought Zenga was a stop gap until we could get the man we wanted, that clearly now wasn't the case, so the stop gap just seems completely pointless. I'm more having a dig at what appears to be a haphazard strategy rather than bigging up Bruce or having a downer on Lambert.

I'm not sure why we've had the major shift in direction either (there are better foreign options than either of Lambert or Pearson, or Bruce for that matter, likewise with managers currently employed in this country) so we're on the same page there.

I suppose there is part of me that doesn't want us to have to take an approach where whoever we appoint now has to be ditched once we get promotion, it's messy and although Watford have made it work I don't think it's a model you can bank on, especially given Fosun are new to football. I would have no faith in Bruce getting us to any better than a bottom six PL finish at any point, he's extremely limited, his teams tend to have a pretty short shelf life before he needs removing for everyone's good, his signing record is extremely patchy - it's debatable whether he'd want to work in a structure where he didn't have control of recruitment anyway - and I find him an intensely frustrating person to listen to (Lambert might not be any better in this regard, we'll see).

At least it looks like we've dodged Pearson and Sherwood.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Of the field of apparent candidates I think Lambert is actually quite comfortably the best. I am intrigued by his trips off to Germany to keep trying to improve himself. I don't think we are going to get a rigid manager out of this (at least I hope not). I wish I could understand him in press conferences, but unfortunately he makes Kenny Dalglish sound like Larry Olivier. But that doesn't make him a poor manager.

Yes, I wish the field had been wider and more imaginative, but GOOD Lambert could be pretty damn decent here. BAD Lambert probably won't last. He also clearly has a potential higher ceiling than the other British candidates mentioned so for me it makes a bucket load of sense. No Tim Nice but Dim, and no Nigel the Lunatic, and no Paul "pre-season is beach time for me, I'll call you when I am back from it", so that is a step forward.

 

[Parkins left foot]

The problem for me with Lambert is that we may well be satisfied with him initially purely on the basis that he is not one of the others heavily rumoured who would have been more toxic.

If he can recover his mojo then could possibly get us to promotion, but not much beyond - though I suppose after the last 3 or so yrs that would be a distinct improvement

 

[Lycan]

Spot on Paddy.

 

[SSB]

I am intrigued by his trips off to Germany to keep trying to improve himself.

What has he been up to in Germany? Everytime I take a trip there I end up pissed in a beer hall.

 

[Tony Towner]

In terms of being difficult to listen to, as things got difficult for Lambert at Villa his interviews became borderline incoherent. He went full Rab accent wise. WM were convinced it was deliberate. As I said earlier I'm not anti him, I've not made my 'you've let us down again' banner for tomorrow and hope the Norwich manager of 4/5 years ago appears.

Although Blackburn at home last year was up there with the worst games of football I've ever seen in the flesh, they were solid. If he can do that to us and give our creative players their heads all will be well.

 

[Lupo]

I am intrigued by his trips off to Germany to keep trying to improve himself.

At least it's much closer than Dubai too

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

If he is learning from the school of Klopp and Wagner then that is a potential huge positive.

 

[Lycan]

Who was his manager at Dortmund? It wasn't Rehhagel was it?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Hitzfeld

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Even better. Rehhagel committed a crime against football with that fucking Greece side.

 

[ROVERT47]

Bit of a reality check when you think back to those heady days of late July early August when most fans were thinking we were gonna be the next Man City.
Lambert is a million miles from where I would have liked us to be, personally I'd have favoured pursuing the foreign route.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

As would I BUT this is a decent decision if we are going that way.

 

[Kenny]

Bit of a reality check when you think back to those heady days of late July early August when most fans were thinking we were gonna be the next Man City.
Lambert is a million miles from where I would have liked us to be, personally I'd have favoured pursuing the foreign route.

Unfortunately this Division is a cockend and the ability to attract the best doesn't kick in properly until we go up. Also being down the bottom end doesn't help.

 

[ROVERT47]

I know, hence the reality check, I think it'll take an age for us to become what Fosun want, I just hope they don't lose interest when the reality kicks in with them.

 

[Kenny]

I know, hence the reality check, I think it'll take an age for us to become what Fosun want, I just hope they don't lose interest when the reality kicks in with them.

I don't think they will, certainly not for a few years at least. They will be brutal on those that fail though, won't be a second thought about firing someone. Lambert is a big appointment for Thelwell, if he has put him forward as his Number 1.

Hopefully Lambert will be as big a success as his last choice to manage Wolves.

 

[wordsleywolf]

Lambert is a solid appointment. Top end foreign managers would need a truck load of Euros to look at a Championship side and lower ability one's are a huge risk, as our previous excursions to THAT market show.
It's certainly a better option than the other British names I've seen.

 

[ROVERT47]

I agree when you look at all the options available without poaching someone, I think the last time we did that it was McGhee and Lee who the the bright young things at the time.