| Paul Lambert 2025 19:28 - Oct 15 with 7328 views | TresBonne |
I still remember being in the car on the way to Wycombe away and seeing that Paul Lambert had signed a five year deal.
We were already struggling in L1 at the time weren't we?! Bonkers that we'd have another two years left of the guy at a minimum, even now... |  | | |  |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 09:44 - Oct 16 with 2180 views | Churchman |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 09:21 - Oct 16 by PhilTWTD |
We were at the time it was announced but, as per the earlier post, his deal had been agreed when things had been looking rather better. The negotiations regarding the other staff delayed things and by that point it looked more bizarre. ME should obviously have held his horses. |
Looked shambolic at the time and even more so now. I don’t remember anyone cheering from the rafters when his five year contract jackpot was announced. I was stunned by it. I thought oh well, perhaps Evans will pay for another tin of paint or something or maybe there’s some master plan to go with this. Nope! Zippo. More of the same. Decline.
We didn’t have a team. We had a collection of individuals, some of whom were better than Bolton’s youth team, Burton or MKDons. We largely scraped results until October. It was obvious as soon as we came across anyone reasonable or organised like a Portsmouth Rotherham or a Lincoln we’d struggle.
I don’t care how long it takes to negotiate a contract. He should have held back. Lambert was hardly going to walk into another job having taken this club down without even a whimper. And if he did, so what? We weren’t talking Pep, Klopp here. In any case, it didn’t take long for Evans to sack him 18 months later.
I don’t blame Lambert for being a useless sack of something. He is what he is and if Evans was mug enough to pay for his luxurious retirement that’s his problem. And so it was. It all goes back to ME. |  | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 09:54 - Oct 16 with 2142 views | PhilTWTD |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 07:38 - Oct 16 by RegencyBlue |
I genuinely believe Evans gave him the contract to shut him up!
Lambert had begun to say things which made it clear what he thought the clubs problems were, namely Evans. Once he signed the new contract however not a peep from him until the end, when he knew he was toast. |
Lambert started pointing fingers and blaming other people much later than that, when it was clear things weren't going to be a success and with whispers of new ownership circulating. |  | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 10:27 - Oct 16 with 2101 views | Hipsterectomy |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 00:08 - Oct 16 by BlueBadger |
'Another few months and we'd have been promoted due to covid...'
We were falling away at that point and he was looking like the clueless fraud he's always been. |
Which is a blessing looking back. Scraping in due to PPG as a club with no money and no future would probably have harmed us even further |  |
| Walter Smith's Barmy Army |
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| Paul Lambert 2025 on 10:37 - Oct 16 with 2089 views | tractorboy1978 |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 08:50 - Oct 16 by HighgateBlue |
But that's the very point that's being made. There was a delay in announcing it, but Evans decided to renew his contract when we were doing well. Clearly the length of the contract was too long, and wasn't justified even on the basis of the form we'd previously shown. But the decision to renew was made before the slump. There were definitely rumblings, i.e. rumours that made their way into the public domain, about Lambert getting a new contract when we were still riding high. Anyone who's ever run a business employing people, let alone a multi-million pound business, knows that (a) renewing a fixed term contract for a key employee rarely takes mere days, and (b) it's suicide in terms of morale to suddenly pull the plug on a contract that's being negotiated just because there's a short term wobble.
Now obviously the short term wobble turned into a huge slump, but leaders have to be decisive, and they take the flak if they get it wrong. Evans got it wrong and suffers the consequences in terms of his standing with the fans. But he didn't decide to give Lambert a new deal when we were doing badly. That's just not what happened.
As for Lambert himself, he had a poor record at Town. But he had a better win rate than Cook, including numerous games in a higher division. The fact that he was grumpy and not chirpy seems to have been his biggest sin. There was no upgrade until McKenna came along, who clearly was the upgrade of all upgrades. |
Lambert was far better at managing up than he was down. He did a real number on Evans after the rumoured Sunderland interest (which was probably his agent anyway).
Re point (b) - 2 months is ages in football and it was even bigger suicide to put himself on the hook for another 5 years for a manager that most fans had begun to find out. To be honest, that decision is probably a perfect case in point for how utterly hapless he was here as an owner. The blip at that point in time was the strong form we had shown at the start of that season. We'd been relegated with a whimper the season before. |  | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 11:45 - Oct 16 with 2026 views | Chrisd |
Around that time it was really toxic at the club so much angst, I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that news as I was expecting PL to be sacked, but that was us under ME.........an utter shambles. It's like chalk and cheese now. I suppose we have to go through those periods to appreciate the good? However, I'm very thankful the direction the club is heading in now. They are doing so many things right and making us proud again. | |
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| Paul Lambert 2025 on 12:01 - Oct 16 with 2007 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 22:55 - Oct 15 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Re-writing history a bit there, we were 4th when the contract was signed and hadn’t won for 7 games - and had just 2 wins in the last 11. We were playing awfully too - the wheels had firmly come off by then, and so it continued to prove |
I remember him semi-threatening to leave while we were doing well, which helped win the contract. Evans just wanted someone in place, much like with Mick, and he would have stayed in post had Blue Action not made their move. There was no ambition beyond that here. Evans would have just cut the budget year on year in line with the losses, praying that we were promoted at random one season. |  | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 13:03 - Oct 16 with 1962 views | itfcjoe |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 22:55 - Oct 15 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Re-writing history a bit there, we were 4th when the contract was signed and hadn’t won for 7 games - and had just 2 wins in the last 11. We were playing awfully too - the wheels had firmly come off by then, and so it continued to prove |
From what I gather, timline was something like this....
Flying at top of the league, Sunderland show some real/fake interest, Evans offers him a new contract which is verbally agreed
Wheel fall off somewhat, whilst lambert is trying to negotiate for his staff to get new deals
Culminates in that 5-3 defeat at Lincoln, where Lambert gives that really weird cryptic presser post game and sounds like he may be off.
He basically tells Evans that either the deals get sorted that week or they walk
In an incredible event, Evans agrees and the contracts are quite literally couriered up from PR on New Years morning to the team hotel for him to sign to ensure he doesn't walk.
One of the players who wasn't in the squad sent the confirmation through to the teams whatsapp group and they all assumed it was a joke.
It was just an incredible moment, I remember it happening almost as we pulled up to park and everyone you spoke to was totally incredulous and in utter disbelief. |  |
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| Paul Lambert 2025 on 13:13 - Oct 16 with 1941 views | Mach_foreignBlue |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 09:44 - Oct 16 by Churchman |
Looked shambolic at the time and even more so now. I don’t remember anyone cheering from the rafters when his five year contract jackpot was announced. I was stunned by it. I thought oh well, perhaps Evans will pay for another tin of paint or something or maybe there’s some master plan to go with this. Nope! Zippo. More of the same. Decline.
We didn’t have a team. We had a collection of individuals, some of whom were better than Bolton’s youth team, Burton or MKDons. We largely scraped results until October. It was obvious as soon as we came across anyone reasonable or organised like a Portsmouth Rotherham or a Lincoln we’d struggle.
I don’t care how long it takes to negotiate a contract. He should have held back. Lambert was hardly going to walk into another job having taken this club down without even a whimper. And if he did, so what? We weren’t talking Pep, Klopp here. In any case, it didn’t take long for Evans to sack him 18 months later.
I don’t blame Lambert for being a useless sack of something. He is what he is and if Evans was mug enough to pay for his luxurious retirement that’s his problem. And so it was. It all goes back to ME. |
'We didn't have a team, we had a collection of individuals'.
We had a collection of barely arsed frauds who had taken an advantage from Evans not being interested. Nice and easy payday, no real effort required They were just a graveyard for all Hurst, Lambert and Cook. Yes these managers were part of the problem but the players themselves were a bigger one.
Horrible, darkest era but this is what happens when you let the players run the club.
As Andre Dozzell said after leaving us: 'Ipswich was a comfortable zone' |  | | |
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| Paul Lambert 2025 on 13:27 - Oct 16 with 1916 views | Mach_foreignBlue |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 08:02 - Oct 16 by Churchman |
Too right he would. Shambling fraud of a manager. |
Not defending him but what an actual chance did we have with us given the players' bad attitude
He had had a couple of promotions with Norwich. The good, strong characters in their dressing room were a helpful thing. Holt on Hoolahan they were the ones. What characters did he have in the Ipswich dressing room?
That was Skuse and Chambers, so.... did you really expect him to deliver given our cesspit of a football team?
He didn't help himself by his comments but the problems were much deeper than manager. | | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 13:37 - Oct 16 with 1891 views | Kieran_Knows |
TWTD |  |
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| Paul Lambert 2025 on 13:47 - Oct 16 with 1875 views | Churchman |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 13:13 - Oct 16 by Mach_foreignBlue |
'We didn't have a team, we had a collection of individuals'.
We had a collection of barely arsed frauds who had taken an advantage from Evans not being interested. Nice and easy payday, no real effort required They were just a graveyard for all Hurst, Lambert and Cook. Yes these managers were part of the problem but the players themselves were a bigger one.
Horrible, darkest era but this is what happens when you let the players run the club.
As Andre Dozzell said after leaving us: 'Ipswich was a comfortable zone' |
Tbh I was focussing on Lambert rather than the players. I’m on record for my thoughts on them. That they died like a louse in a Russians beard after 60 mins says as much about them as it does the coaching. Wretched. I never want to see a shirt with Magical Vegas ever again.
But let’s face it, when Mick inherited Jewell’s abject shower adrift at the bottom of the table, he circled the wagons and did something about it. Ok, Lambert inherited a worse bunch, but what exactly did Lambert do beyond wheeling in a few deadbeats and journeymen and bore everyone to tears telling us how great he was.
We won what, five games all season? A L1, 2 or Conference side could have done better. Rear ends in the air, three point Portman Road, no such thing as an easy game apart from Ipswich home or away - it was the most embarrassing season I can recall. That includes the pre McKenna L1 seasons.
Lambert’s up there with the worst and let’s face it, there’s some stiff competition for that. | | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 14:00 - Oct 16 with 1843 views | Mach_foreignBlue |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 13:47 - Oct 16 by Churchman |
Tbh I was focussing on Lambert rather than the players. I’m on record for my thoughts on them. That they died like a louse in a Russians beard after 60 mins says as much about them as it does the coaching. Wretched. I never want to see a shirt with Magical Vegas ever again.
But let’s face it, when Mick inherited Jewell’s abject shower adrift at the bottom of the table, he circled the wagons and did something about it. Ok, Lambert inherited a worse bunch, but what exactly did Lambert do beyond wheeling in a few deadbeats and journeymen and bore everyone to tears telling us how great he was.
We won what, five games all season? A L1, 2 or Conference side could have done better. Rear ends in the air, three point Portman Road, no such thing as an easy game apart from Ipswich home or away - it was the most embarrassing season I can recall. That includes the pre McKenna L1 seasons.
Lambert’s up there with the worst and let’s face it, there’s some stiff competition for that. |
Again.... the players were on the pitch, not Lambert. So both share the blame.
But I know what you mean. However it doesn't stop a number of our fans to venerate them and call them 'legends'. | | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 14:05 - Oct 16 with 1830 views | Perublue |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 19:35 - Oct 15 by Perublue |
It was and is for another 2 years a sick joke final bantz F U Ipswich from Evans … getting as much as we did for Bramble from Newcastle only comes close to ridiculousness. |
I'm guessing the downvotes are in regards to the Bramble comment ? |  |
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| Paul Lambert 2025 on 15:08 - Oct 16 with 1787 views | BlueBadger |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 08:50 - Oct 16 by HighgateBlue |
But that's the very point that's being made. There was a delay in announcing it, but Evans decided to renew his contract when we were doing well. Clearly the length of the contract was too long, and wasn't justified even on the basis of the form we'd previously shown. But the decision to renew was made before the slump. There were definitely rumblings, i.e. rumours that made their way into the public domain, about Lambert getting a new contract when we were still riding high. Anyone who's ever run a business employing people, let alone a multi-million pound business, knows that (a) renewing a fixed term contract for a key employee rarely takes mere days, and (b) it's suicide in terms of morale to suddenly pull the plug on a contract that's being negotiated just because there's a short term wobble.
Now obviously the short term wobble turned into a huge slump, but leaders have to be decisive, and they take the flak if they get it wrong. Evans got it wrong and suffers the consequences in terms of his standing with the fans. But he didn't decide to give Lambert a new deal when we were doing badly. That's just not what happened.
As for Lambert himself, he had a poor record at Town. But he had a better win rate than Cook, including numerous games in a higher division. The fact that he was grumpy and not chirpy seems to have been his biggest sin. There was no upgrade until McKenna came along, who clearly was the upgrade of all upgrades. |
'Numerous games in a higher division'.
You got a free beer didn't you? [Post edited 16 Oct 2023 15:09]
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| Paul Lambert 2025 on 15:09 - Oct 16 with 1791 views | TresBonne |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 09:54 - Oct 16 by PhilTWTD |
Lambert started pointing fingers and blaming other people much later than that, when it was clear things weren't going to be a success and with whispers of new ownership circulating. |
I remember what I think was his final interview, where he spoke about people at the club needing to get round a table etc. That was so telling. Club is night and day compared to then | | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 15:58 - Oct 16 with 1759 views | PhilTWTD |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 15:09 - Oct 16 by TresBonne |
I remember what I think was his final interview, where he spoke about people at the club needing to get round a table etc. That was so telling. Club is night and day compared to then |
To be honest, I wouldn't read anything into what he said, that was all about deflecting any blame from what was happening from him onto other people. | | | |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 16:17 - Oct 16 with 1716 views | BlueBadger |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 20:25 - Oct 15 by MK1 |
Managers in all walks of life get rewarded for failure.
Bank managers, Government ministers etc.
José Mourinho has been paid £93.5million in sacking payments alone.
But yes, Lambert didn't deserve an extra year, let alone 5. |
Lambert should have been given a 'thanks for your efforts' and a meaningful goodbye after relegation but, like Keane, he was massively and inexplicably popular at that point.
If Mick leaving was one chance to reboot, relegation was another. | |
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| Paul Lambert 2025 on 16:21 - Oct 16 with 1706 views | Herbivore |
| Paul Lambert 2025 on 09:21 - Oct 16 by PhilTWTD |
We were at the time it was announced but, as per the earlier post, his deal had been agreed when things had been looking rather better. The negotiations regarding the other staff delayed things and by that point it looked more bizarre. ME should obviously have held his horses. |
Yeah, it's a bit like making an offer on a lovely looking house then getting the survey back and realising it needs to be condemned but going ahead with the purchase anyway. Always amazes me that ME was/is a successful businessman given some of his decision making. |  |
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