[Archived] Official: Paul Lambert Appointed Blackburn Rovers Manager

[JHRover]

The mind really does boggle with the state of things at the moment.

With FFP around in theory clubs like Middlesbrough and Derby, who have spent outrageous amounts in pursuit of success, should be in last chance saloon this season after failing last season. They've had 2 years+ of excessive spending and 2 cracks at promotion. We didn't get that luxury after we were relegated. We had 1 year of daft spending and have spent the last 3 making huge cutbacks.

Derby have made some very strange decisions - appointing Paul Clement who had never managed a club before, sacking him mid-season with the club just outside the top 2, appointing Darren Wassall until the end of the season, coming out with a daft statement about promotion not being the aim this season and it all being about developing the 'Derby way', and now appointing Harry Redknapp to help out until the end of the season. If their aim wasn't promotion then why spend £25 million on new players? If their aim was/is promotion then why put it in the hands of coaches who have never managed before? It just doesn't make any sense, their decision making this season has been almost as ridiculous as our behaviour in 2012-13 and they have spent a lot more too. They deserve to get the book thrown at them in the summer if they fail to go up, yet I don't believe for one minute that they will be sanctioned. They know it too, that's why the lack of urgency to get promoted. They know they have as much time as they need to put together a formidable squad of players that can not only get promoted but stay up rather than meet the same pitiful fate they had last time they were in the Premier League. If it was last chance saloon for them this season there would be a lot more urgency. I expect someone like Pearson, Moyes or Rodgers to rock up there in the summer and oversee another massive spend of £20 million to get them promoted.

[EgyptianPete]

Our January dealings were all hampered by FFP, come the summer we will have much more freedom (if Venkys make money available) as there will be much more freedom. There will be other clubs having the spotlight cast on them much should they not get promoted. There are 4 or 5 clubs with eyewatering wage bills vying for 3 promotion places who the FL will have to deal with otherwise they will have to abandon FFP for the farce that it

After reading the posts on this current page i just wonder if some of our fans have short term memory loss, go back to January remember, out of embargo, PL said the summer will be our big window, and we/some will be pleasantly surprised at the signings we will make, that does not sound like 5-7m to me, more like the 20m that has been mentioned from good sources. I wait with baited breath.

[EgyptianPete]

After reading the posts on this current page i just wonder if some of our fans have short term memory loss, go back to January remember, out of embargo, PL said the summer will be our big window, and we/some will be pleasantly surprised at the signings we will make, that does not sound like 5-7m to me, more like the 20m that has been mentioned from good sources. I wait with baited breath.

I will add that the 5 or 6 players that played at Ipswich will not be here come august,PL gave them a chance and they blew it, he knows the ones who are not up to the standard just like us. so i see at least 5 new players who will be straight into the first team.

[Norbert Rassragr]

After reading the posts on this current page i just wonder if some of our fans have short term memory loss, go back to January remember, out of embargo, PL said the summer will be our big window, and we/some will be pleasantly surprised at the signings we will make, that does not sound like 5-7m to me, more like the 20m that has been mentioned from good sources. I wait with baited breath.

We can only wait and hope it's not a '£50m war chest'/Ronaldinho story.

[garnersfags]

If most views on here are to be believed, we will spend max 5-10m but, trust me, it will be 10-20m. (This will be a net spend of less than £10m so not unreasonable for Venky's 'final push', especially if we can add 3-5000 to the home gate by xmas).

Lambert and Irvine know what's available, and I just don't buy the line that they joined us to pay the bills.

Lambert is massively ambitious and he did not sign until he was guaranteed a decent summer transfer budget.

I know we've nothing better to discuss but we will go round in circles on this until July......

[RevidgeBlue]

After reading the posts on this current page i just wonder if some of our fans have short term memory loss, go back to January remember, out of embargo, PL said the summer will be our big window, and we/some will be pleasantly surprised at the signings we will make, that does not sound like 5-7m to me, more like the 20m that has been mentioned from good sources. I wait with baited breath.

Not saying this side couldn't do with 20m spending on it to bag automatic promotion but I'd be fairly surprised if we spend a net 5m in summer. We can't even afford a stand alone Chief Executive at the moment seemingly.

Lambert's recent comments strike me as being from someone who knows this and whilst you can't fault him for saying what he is doing, as the investment is needed whether he stays or not, they also strike me as him positioning himself near the exit door and him giving himself an excuse to leave if there is no money available in summer and any better offers come his way..

That said he's done precious little here so far to indicate he is the man to deliver promotion next season or raise his stock generally within the game following his disastrous stint at Villa. Imo.

[RevidgeBlue]

If most views on here are to be believed, we will spend max 5-10m but, trust me, it will be 10-20m. (This will be a net spend of less than £10m so not unreasonable for Venky's 'final push', especially if we can add 3-5000 to the home gate by xmas).

I rather the suspect the "last push" was appointing Lambert and Co. in a last desperate roll of the dice to try and get in the play offs this season, all hope of which had evaporated by the time the January transfer window came round.

I hope you're right though.

[K-Hod]

Not saying this side couldn't do with 20m spending on it to bag automatic promotion but I'd be fairly surprised if we spend a net 5m in summer. We can't even afford a stand alone Chief Executive at the moment seemingly.

Lambert's recent comments strike me as being from someone who knows this and whilst you can't fault him for saying what he is doing, as the investment is needed whether he stays or not, they also strike me as him positioning himself near the exit door and him giving himself an excuse to leave if there is no money available in summer and any better offers come his way..

That said he's done precious little here so far to indicate he is the man to deliver promotion next season or raise his stock generally within the game following his disastrous stint at Villa. Imo.

It might have been Mike Ellison that made the point, but I think we all need to take a step back and not lose our minds over what our transfer budget may or may not be next season. If Venky's have shown us anything, it's that they're unpredictable, so therefore, predicting their behaviour is fairly pointless I'd suggest.

I think that last sentence is incredibly harsh. Probably best to give him a summer transfer window and pre-season before jumping to such conclusions I'd say. (Though the second part is fair enough). It would have been asking a hell of a lot for any manager to improve us in such a way so far. I really don't know what more people were expecting from Lambert, but apparently it is a hell of a lot more than what I was!

Villa, like Newcastle has been a poisoned chalice for a while as is clearly being demonstrated now by both teams pretty much reaping what they sow from a few years of poor player recruitment.

[Mattyblue]

You are a hard man to please Rev.

What did you actually expect over these last few months?

[JHRover]

I rather the suspect the "last push" was appointing Lambert and Co. in a last desperate roll of the dice to try and get in the play offs this season, all hope of which had evaporated by the time the January transfer window came round.

I hope you're right though.

I could maybe believe that theory if I only concentrated on Venkys and their running of the club or if the man they had appointed was another nonentity or desperado grateful just to have a job with scant regard for the future plan/resources.

However that doesn't tally with getting Lambert, Irvine and Kelly signed up to 2.5 year deals. Those guys aren't mugs and I doubt very much that someone with pedigree like Lambert with a reputation to rebuild would just blindly jump into the nuthouse at Rovers if the expectation on his shoulders was promotion this season or bust or if he had doubts about the longer term situation.

He can't need the money and if he had nagging doubts or reason to question the 'project' it would have been far safer for him to have had a few more months rest and then tried to get back in at another club like Forest or Derby in the summer. Presumably whatever he was looking for he saw at Rovers and he was comfortable and confident it would work. I'm sure he wasn't told to get us promoted this season after taking over in November at a club under an embargo with 3 wins all season with no plan/idea about beyond that. When he took over we had no chance of automatic promotion and would have needed to go from relegation form to title winning form in 30 games to get in the play-offs. It was never going to happen and someone like Lambert would have never agreed to such a target.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

I think that last sentence is incredibly harsh.

Me too! Hughes had 1 season of stagnation to deal with and it took him a full season to get us motoring. Lambert has 4 and a third seasons of stagnation, during which time Rovers as a club has had every overhaul in book short of being attached to the spaceship in Event Horizon and spending a while in a hell-like alternate dimension. And he gets, what, a couple of weeks to turn us into promotion contenders? The bloke has made an extremely commendable, verging on very good, start to his career at Rovers. Taken us slowly away from relegation towards mid-table, which is where I expect us to finish. The fact that he's an improvement on Bowyer makes him a good appointment right off the bat, I expect next season we'll get to see just how good.

[tomphil]

When you look at the article/interview with Duffy the other day it gives an indication of what we are up against. It was basically screaming at other clubs managers to have a look at him and who engineers such articles ? This for a player who's only really just had any run of consistent form and is only in the spotlight because he smashed in a good goal but now he's touted as the next big thing.

Holding on to players is going to be difficult enough without that kind of propaganda and I do still worry about the motives at Ewood by some. It would be no surprise to me to see a sell to buy/loan in policy again in summer. In Lambert and co maybe they see them as better qualified (quite rightly) to operate under these conditions than Gaz and co whilst retaining an outside chance of the play offs etc.

We also have to think about the wage bill and just why would they go about stretching it again after cutting it back ? Unless the Rhodes money goes towards the wage bill that is.

[islander200]

I rather the suspect the "last push" was appointing Lambert and Co. in a last desperate roll of the dice to try and get in the play offs this season, all hope of which had evaporated by the time the January transfer window came round.

I hope you're right though.

But for him to be right it would mean that you're wrong,from reading you're posts you wouldn't like that one bit I suspect.

I never read anything positive from you,first to post when we lose...not seen for days when we win.Or is that because you are still trying to figure out how we are scoring goals when Lambert made the error of selling Rhodes in January?

[den]

You are a hard man to please Rev.

What did you actually expect over these last few months?

Hard to admit that we're playing far better football, scoring more goals and improving results. Revs been very quiet since we sold his hero.

Blimey Islander - touché! It's obvious isn't it.

[JHRover]

When you look at the article/interview with Duffy the other day it gives an indication of what we are up against. It was basically screaming at other clubs managers to have a look at him and who engineers such articles ? This for a player who's only really just had any run of consistent form and is only in the spotlight because he smashed in a good goal but now he's touted as the next big thing.

Holding on to players is going to be difficult enough without that kind of propaganda and I do still worry about the motives at Ewood by some. It would be no surprise to me to see a sell to buy/loan in policy again in summer. In Lambert and co maybe they see them as better qualified (quite rightly) to operate under these conditions than Gaz and co whilst retaining an outside chance of the play offs etc.

We also have to think about the wage bill and just why would they go about stretching it again after cutting it back ? Unless the Rhodes money goes towards the wage bill that is.

I think the Lancashire Telegraph are responsible for this. Whenever they get chance to speak to a player they always seem to put an angle on it. It was the same with Rhodes/Cairney/Gestede - as soon as they started to perform well for us the Telegraph start rattling off usually baseless stories about possible interest in the players and stirring it up. The national media still rely heavily on local journalists to start rumours off, so if someone at Sky Sports spots a rumour in the Telegraph and re-prints it then it suddenly becomes gospel truth and rumours circulate nationally. It also doesn't help that there remains a large number of people who aren't on here or on twitter/Facebook and so their only source of Rovers 'news' comes from the back page of the local paper. As soon as a 'rumour' is seen in there it must be true, though the reality is that the Telegraph have no idea what is happening.

Our wage bill come July must be one of the smallest in the Championship. Our squad will only consist of about 15 players and the majority of those ought to be on sensible contracts. The biggest earners are likely to be Hanley, Marshall and Evans, all signed whilst in the Championship. If wage bill management is an issue in the summer then we have major problems, as I think we should be in a good position to build from the ground upwards from the starting point of a small wage bill with potential to increase it substantially if the owners want to, given the cutbacks made recently.

[tomphil]

I think the Lancashire Telegraph are responsible for this. Whenever they get chance to speak to a player they always seem to put an angle on it. It was the same with Rhodes/Cairney/Gestede - as soon as they started to perform well for us the Telegraph start rattling off usually baseless stories about possible interest in the players and stirring it up. The national media still rely heavily on local journalists to start rumours off, so if someone at Sky Sports spots a rumour in the Telegraph and re-prints it then it suddenly becomes gospel truth and rumours circulate nationally. It also doesn't help that there remains a large number of people who aren't on here or on twitter/Facebook and so their only source of Rovers 'news' comes from the back page of the local paper. As soon as a 'rumour' is seen in there it must be true, though the reality is that the Telegraph have no idea what is happening.

Our wage bill come July must be one of the smallest in the Championship. Our squad will only consist of about 15 players and the majority of those ought to be on sensible contracts. The biggest earners are likely to be Hanley, Marshall and Evans, all signed whilst in the Championship. If wage bill management is an issue in the summer then we have major problems, as I think we should be in a good position to build from the ground upwards from the starting point of a small wage bill with potential to increase it substantially if the owners want to, given the cutbacks made recently.

The article was in the football section of one of the red top rags and it was a large one. I know what your saying though but this looked every inch a fit for purpose article planted by someone with connections. Maybe just his agent angling for a contract renewal or something, I would think there'll be a lot of that about if they think there is a bit of cash washing around in summer.

[MCMC1875]

Not saying this side couldn't do with 20m spending on it to bag automatic promotion but I'd be fairly surprised if we spend a net 5m in summer. We can't even afford a stand alone Chief Executive at the moment seemingly.

Lambert's recent comments strike me as being from someone who knows this and whilst you can't fault him for saying what he is doing, as the investment is needed whether he stays or not, they also strike me as him positioning himself near the exit door and him giving himself an excuse to leave if there is no money available in summer and any better offers come his way..

That said he's done precious little here so far to indicate he is the man to deliver promotion next season or raise his stock generally within the game following his disastrous stint at Villa. Imo.

Rev, you can't see a good thing when it smacks you in the face and knocks you over! Would you go back to the downward spiral of last September? Wake up and smell the coffee lad!

[garnersfags]

But for him to be right it would mean that you're wrong,from reading you're posts you wouldn't like that one bit I suspect.

I never read anything positive from you,first to post when we lose...not seen for days when we win.Or is that because you are still trying to figure out how we are scoring goals when Lambert made the error of selling Rhodes in January?

I know we are all so desperate for success that any criticism or questioning of the new guard is defensively seen as negative, or 'some people are never happy', but that attack seems a bit personal.

Don't know if the content is accurate but attacks on fellow posters are usually in a banter-style, at least initially.

[MCMC1875]

I rather the suspect the "last push" was appointing Lambert and Co. in a last desperate roll of the dice to try and get in the play offs this season, all hope of which had evaporated by the time the January transfer window came round.

I hope you're right though.

Naïve in the extreme. Anyone who thinks Lambert, Irvine and Kelly have come/returned here without guarantees must be living in cloud cuckoo land!

[McClarky]

I think too many people are giving PL an easy ride so far, for many reasons some of which are valid. I would say though that I would expect a new manager to get better performances out of the players he inherited and to date he just hasn't done that. I am not saying he is a rubbish manager or that we should sack him but I am saying that you can't hire a manager in November and give him a free pass for the rest of the season. I hope he does get money to spend but hope more that there is some control put on this. The club doesn't seem to have any kind of cohesive structure and I fear that if £10M is chucked in it will be another feeding frenzy with noone being able to stop the money heamoraging out of the club.

Who knows what will happen, least of all our owners.

[MCMC1875]

I think too many people are giving PL an easy ride so far, for many reasons some of which are valid. I would say though that I would expect a new manager to get better performances out of the players he inherited and to date he just hasn't done that. I am not saying he is a rubbish manager or that we should sack him but I am saying that you can't hire a manager in November and give him a free pass for the rest of the season. I hope he does get money to spend but hope more that there is some control put on this. The club doesn't seem to have any kind of cohesive structure and I fear that if £10M is chucked in it will be another feeding frenzy with noone being able to stop the money heamoraging out of the club.

Who knows what will happen, least of all our owners.

Clearly you, Rev and Abbey have no faith in Lambert or Venkys (no prob with that).

If you want to stop money haemorraging out of BRFC you have to balance the books. With our income, we would have to sell Brockhall and make redundancies wholesale and I doubt that would be enough - refer Bolton.

[islander200]

I know we are all so desperate for success that any criticism or questioning of the new guard is defensively seen as negative, or 'some people are never happy', but that attack seems a bit personal.

Don't know if the content is accurate but attacks on fellow posters are usually in a banter-style, at least initially.

An attack on a fellow poster?Are you for real?How dare I question why he only posts something negative never anything positive.Please explain why you think my post is an attack?Your welcome to pm me

[47er]

I've raised this before but here i'll do it again. From the moment Lambert joined this club he needed us as we needed him.

It's not as simple as saying if he doesn't get the backing he wants then he'll walk away. Then what for him? He'd be giving up 2 years of a lucrative contract. Most reasonable Rovers fans can see the signs of improvement under Lambert and that gives us hope for the future, but he hasn't done a spectacular job. He hasn't done enough yet to walk into another good Championship job where he will get millions to build his own squad. He certainly hasn't done enough yet to rehabilitate his reputation enough after what went on at Villa, although Villa themselves are such a disaster that people are starting to realise what a poisoned chalice it is.

If Lambert walks from here the very best he's going to get is another average Championship job, and he won't get a payout unless contractual cast-iron promises from Venkys have been broken. He needs this to work as much as Rovers do, because not many rich Championship owners are going to employ him if he resigns after 6 months if the money on offer isn't to his liking.

The way I see it is I dearly hope that he will be supported with a competitive Championship budget, but if money turns out to be tighter than first expected it is his job to get on with it and work within those constraints. If he received assurances which have not been delivered then he can sue Venkys. If not then its his problem and job to sort out.

He can sue Venkys for assurances given about transfer policy? Ridiculous claim.

[garnersfags]

I agree that Lambert has shown positive signs of being able to take us to the next level and I agree he is a significantly better manager than GB.

It is a sign of the size of his task that, imo, we will finish exactly where we would have finished if GB had remained in charge.

I'm confident that we would have slowly grown into the season and had a relatively strong finish. Again. But we wouldn't have ever got near enough to the play-offs under GB, hence the necessary and impressive change.

On the subject of 'what did you expect from PL', some of us expected that we would probably end up higher in the table than GB would have. I think that is reasonable but I think the mentality in the dressing room was far worse than PL expected which has resulted in a deeper rebuilding job.

[MCMC1875]

He can sue Venkys for assurances given about transfer policy? Ridiculous claim.

A contract can be written, verbal or implied. Consult your lawyer.