[Archived] Official: Paul Lambert Appointed Blackburn Rovers Manager

[LewisF]

Tommy spurr was actually excellent on dead balls.

indeed. Didnt he set up Gestede's half volley opener against Brentford past season? Correct me if I'm wrong

[OscarRaven]

Although not my first choice, Lambert and his team still represents a major step forward than Gary Bowyer and crew. Nice to see so many Rovers fans enjoying their week at long last. Lets hope our new manager bounce starts immediately.

My initial feelings on Lambert are probably influenced by his last few months at Villa, a time were he looked mentally shot and physically in very poor condition. I found his interviews at that time somewhat dull, uninspiring and tame and wondered at his ability to motivate and influence established players, whilst also controlling and developing the younger players on Villa's books. It is pleasing to see him looking a lot more refreshed and also slimmer and in better health at this time.

Pleasingly, his appointment has negated some of the lasting BRFCC myths of this last year or two.

No decent manager in their right mind would come and work for the Raos.

No decent manager would tolerate our dysfunctional executive management structure.

The Raos are simply not interested in the club and do not even follow the results.

No established targets have been set and the the club has zero ambition.

The owners are unwilling to spend anything other than established budgets.

No decent manager would come here whilst working under an embargo.

The owners are only interested in selling for profit, whilst we slide down the table,

As a starting point, it is really pleasing that the owners have demonstrated some common sense at long last, a willingness to spend in removing the old staff and recruting this manager, an acknowledgment that we are keen to win matches and move up the table and that they still care for the club, its results and overall performance.

It has geneuinely been a very good week for Rovers fans and after the trauma of the last five years richly deserved. Fingers crossed we batter PNE and our travelling fans get the performance their support deserves.

He hasn't actually won a game yet, might be worth waiting before the proclaiming the gamble has paid off.

Fully agree on paper that he ticks all the boxes, a win ratio of 40% - the future looks promising but nothing is guaranteed.

[joey_big_nose]

Talking of free kicks why has Conway started taking them (from what I've seen)? I think Marshall is a lot better at free kicks

For a crossing delivery Id give it to Conway every time. However for a shot on goal Marshall.

Think it has been like this for months? Can't say I've noticed Conway taking the shots on goal also?

[chaddyrovers]

The people of Brockhall are saying the players where on the training pitch from 10am til 1:30 today in the rain, cars didn't start leaving til 3. To allow you to draw your own conclusions, 7 days ago they where arriving for 11 and leaving at 1.

Well that's very good from Lambert. He is clearly trying to get his and coaching staff ideas over to the players. Plus any new tactical plan to them.

Training for just 2 hours isn;t good enough IMO.

I wonder who will be his captain??

I would think he will leave Hanley as captain but install confidence in him and make him more of a leader. Or he will leave Hanley as captain until he has judge all the players and decide whether one of the current squad will be captain or bring him/sign a player to be his captain

His performance this season have been much better than last season.

Hoolahan please

He is regular in the Norwich team.

I wouldn't be surprise if he sign Elliot Bennett from Norwich who is currently on loan at Bristol City until the 3rd January

or Anthony Pilkington from Cardiff City.

Or Striker from Villa called Libor Kozak

[patrickvalery]

Conway should have been given our captaincy ages ago. But I'd be surprised if he removes Hanley now.

[roverandout]

Alan Hutton at right back would be a good fit

[JHRover]

The thing is though that even if it doesn't work for Lambert then i think that there should still be credit due to Venkys for giving it a try.

Whatever happens during Lambert's reign, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that it is a logical and sensible decision, in stark contrast to nearly every other decision they have made, and regardless of results on the pitch it is a positive that Venkys have seemingly learnt the importance of experience, are prepared to pay for it and have managed to persuade a well respected manager and coaching staff to resume their careers here, at a club many said would be untouchable for any self-respecting or decent manager in its current state.

If it doesn't work out on the pitch then fine, that's the way it works some times in football and virtually all managers will have bad spells, but it is refreshing to see logical thought and ambition in appointing the manager from the owners who deserve some credit for an efficient and impressive appointment process.

[DE.]

The thing is though that even if it doesn't work for Lambert then i think that there should still be credit due to Venkys for giving it a try.

Whatever happens during Lambert's reign, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that it is a logical and sensible decision, in stark contrast to nearly every other decision they have made, and regardless of results on the pitch it is a positive that Venkys have seemingly learnt the importance of experience, are prepared to pay for it and have managed to persuade a well respected manager and coaching staff to resume their careers here, at a club many said would be untouchable for any self-respecting or decent manager in its current state.

If it doesn't work out on the pitch then fine, that's the way it works some times in football and virtually all managers will have bad spells, but it is refreshing to see logical thought and ambition in appointing the manager from the owners who deserve some credit for an efficient and impressive appointment process.

It's a shame it's taken 5 years and the evisceration of the club to get to the point where they have finally made a sensible decision, but there's nothing anybody can do about that now. All we can hope is that it isn't too late.

If Lambert doesn't work out then so be it, nobody can question this decision in terms of logic or strategy. However, they will always have those first 5 years to answer for, even more so if this doesn't get the club back to where it was before they took over.

Best case scenario is that Lambert rejuvenates the club, rebuilds the team and gets us back into the PL. Venky's then either continue making sensible decisions going forward or once our debts are cleared they sell the club to somebody with better ideas.

I'd say this is unlikely, but at least we have some hope now, whereas before we had absolutely none. The above scenario may allow them to leave with some form of dignity, despite putting the club and the fans through hell over the past few years. Anything less and I'm afraid they will always be known as the owners who destroyed a stable, well run club through ignorance and idiocy.

[West Yorks Rover]

The people of Brockhall are saying the players where on the training pitch from 10am til 1:30 today in the rain, cars didn't start leaving til 3. To allow you to draw your own conclusions, 7 days ago they where arriving for 11 and leaving at 1.

Looks like Shebby Singh got one thing right at least, " the training ground is like a holiday camp"

Some of us on here, always thought he was probably talking sense for a change when he said that.

[AllRoverAsia]

The people of Brockhall are saying the players where on the training pitch from 10am til 1:30 today in the rain, cars didn't start leaving til 3. To allow you to draw your own conclusions, 7 days ago they where arriving for 11 and leaving at 1.

We are talking about a whole bunch of seriously plissed off WAGS and I'm quietly confident PL doesn't give a hoot

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

The people of Brockhall are saying the players where on the training pitch from 10am til 1:30 today in the rain, cars didn't start leaving til 3. To allow you to draw your own conclusions, 7 days ago they where arriving for 11 and leaving at 1.

No idea how hard Bowyer did or didnt work them - but 7 days ago was the week prior to an international break and a good time to go easier - yesterday was the start of a week leading up a match (as well as a new manager trying to get across new tactics). Think you are being a bit unfair to Bowyer with this comparison.

[booth]

I think he meant 7 days and beyond, not just 7 days.

[briansol]

Conway should have been given our captaincy ages ago. But I'd be surprised if he removes Hanley now.

While I agree Conway is a good candidate for captain, do people know Hanley's standing within the group? In a squad full of leader it was Sherwood who was captain in the PL winning squad, so it's not always clear on the outside who commands the role in a group.

[arbitro]

No idea how hard Bowyer did or didnt work them - but 7 days ago was the week prior to an international break and a good time to go easier - yesterday was the start of a week leading up a match (as well as a new manager trying to get across new tactics). Think you are being a bit unfair to Bowyer with this comparison.

I don't know the ins and outs of Bowyers ways of working (but I have to say my feeling was that the players had an easy life under him) but I do recall that one of the first things Mark Hughes did when he took over was having double sessions on a daily basis. I was told from somebody within the club that he felt that the squad were generally out of shape. A new manager should always come in and implement his ideas and methods immediately and if this is Paul Lamberts way then so be it but more imporantly if any players don't like it then get rid of them. If we see some benefits on Saturday and the coming weeks then we will all be happy.

[RoverNev]

While I agree Conway is a good candidate for captain, do people know Hanley's standing within the group? In a squad full of leader it was Sherwood who was captain in the PL winning squad, so it's not always clear on the outside who commands the role in a group.

I agree with this. Conway is a very very good player of ours but, I may be wrong, I can't see him being the main 'rallyer' amongst the group, I think this must be Hanley. Dare I say it, but I don't think Rhodes can be looked upon as the captain either, it needs someone who is in the game for 90 minutes and speaks with motivation behind the scenes. I'm not for a minute saying Hanley does all these things because we have seen before that he can do something stupid and leave us down to ten men. Call me old skool, but there's something about a centre half as a captain. If we could play every game, my choice would be Killa.

I don't know the ins and outs of Bowyers ways of working (but I have to say my feeling was that the players had an easy life under him) but I do recall that one of the first things Mark Hughes did when he took over was having double sessions on a daily basis. I was told from somebody within the club that he felt that the squad were generally out of shape. A new manager should always come in and implement his ideas and methods immediately and if this is Paul Lamberts way then so be it but more imporantly if any players don't like it then get rid of them. If we see some benefits on Saturday and the coming weeks then we will all be happy.

This is so true. Under Hughes we were arguably one of the fittest sides in the league! It was noticeable because of how good we used to be in the last 10-15 minutes when other sides would tire. I think the current side are a little out of shape compared to others I've seen. i think this is good early kudos for Lambert.

[den]

The thing is though that even if it doesn't work for Lambert then i think that there should still be credit due to Venkys for giving it a try.

Whatever happens during Lambert's reign, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that it is a logical and sensible decision, in stark contrast to nearly every other decision they have made, and regardless of results on the pitch it is a positive that Venkys have seemingly learnt the importance of experience, are prepared to pay for it and have managed to persuade a well respected manager and coaching staff to resume their careers here, at a club many said would be untouchable for any self-respecting or decent manager in its current state.

If it doesn't work out on the pitch then fine, that's the way it works some times in football and virtually all managers will have bad spells, but it is refreshing to see logical thought and ambition in appointing the manager from the owners who deserve some credit for an efficient and impressive appointment process.

Yes, it's not so much about Lambert - although I personally am happy with that - it's more that the owners have finally moved away from this idea that we don't need a proper manager, and that a coach developing players is the right thing for BRFC. we could never have moved forward running the club the way they did. There were no targets set down for anything and taking decisions on a manager took years.

I also suspect this change was made because of the owners representatives who have apparently been over here recently, rather than the existing structure suddenly enabling themselves. But in truth, I don't know.

[sambo]

I think the armband should probably stay with Hanley - no need to rock the boat, especially given his improvement this season.

Conway looks like a big character and I think that will be the case regardless of who has the armband. Giving Conway the armband may achieve nothing but shoot Hanley's confidence.

[Rover_Shaun]

New broom. New Captain. Someone who can lead by example on and off the pitch. Someone the other players can take instruction from without thinking "Who the hell are you to tell me that?"

[joey_big_nose]

New broom. New Captain. Someone who can lead by example on and off the pitch. Someone the other players can take instruction from without thinking "Who the hell are you to tell me that?"

I just don't think we have a player more suited than Hanley. The standout candidate, Guthrie, is too injury prone. The only other candidates in my view are Rhodes, Conway and Duffy. None of them seem an improvement on Hanley.

[rigger]

New broom. New Captain. Someone who can lead by example on and off the pitch. Someone the other players can take instruction from without thinking "Who the hell are you to tell me that?"

Personally I think it should be New broom, Correct captain. (That should be whoever the new broom chooses)

[RoverNev]

I just don't think we have a player more suited than Hanley. The standout candidate, Guthrie, is too injury prone. The only other candidates in my view are Rhodes, Conway and Duffy. None of them seem an improvement on Hanley.

I like the idea of Guthrie, I have to say. For me, if he's fit, he needs to play as much as he can. I don't think Duffy is good enough yet, Rhodes and Conway I'm unsure about too. I think its hard to find another candidate other than Hanley.

[Torgeir]

Duffy is a little bit too negative in my opinion, but with a little work can become captain material. Hanley has improved this season and showed real commitment to the cause against the dingles, I think I would have let him keep his role but emphasised that things might change down the line. The captain role is a little bit exaggerated in my opionion, the team should have leaders and professionals who don't need their hand held at all times.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

The captain role is a little bit exaggerated in my opionion, the team should have leaders and professionals who don't need their hand held at all times.

I agree. General team ethic is more important than having a good captain. All the best teams had 4-5 captains minimum on the pitch so if the captain was injured or suspended (second more applicable in Roy Keane's case!), it didn't make any difference to performances. I think teams tend to represent the mentality of their managers, so under Souness/Hughes/Allardyce we were fiery and combative. Under Bowyer we've been just like him in my opinion, friendly, quiet and non-confrontational. Its very difficult to captain a team that have that mentality. Its more important under Lambert that Duffy, Marshall, Taylor, Conway, Rhodes etc turn into captains than Hanley turns into a better one.

[rigger]

I agree. General team ethic is more important than having a good captain. All the best teams had 4-5 captains minimum on the pitch so if the captain was injured or suspended (second more applicable in Roy Keane's case!), it didn't make any difference to performances. I think teams tend to represent the mentality of their managers, so under Souness/Hughes/Allardyce we were fiery and combative. Under Bowyer we've been just like him in my opinion, friendly, quiet and non-confrontational. Its very difficult to captain a team that have that mentality. Its more important under Lambert that Duffy, Marshall, Taylor, Conway, Rhodes etc turn into captains than Hanley turns into a better one.

I am in total agreement

[Blue blood]

The people of Brockhall are saying the players where on the training pitch from 10am til 1:30 today in the rain, cars didn't start leaving til 3. To allow you to draw your own conclusions, 7 days ago they where arriving for 11 and leaving at 1.

Brilliant!