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Lambert: Club Needs to Be Cleansed, it Will Be a Million Times Better for My Strategy Going Forward
Thursday, 7th Mar 2019 18:31

Boss Paul Lambert has outlined the basis on which he plans to rebuild the Blues with relegation now appearing certain following last week’s 2-1 defeat to Reading, which left Town 12 points from safety with only 11 games left to play, believing the club needs to be “cleansed”.

Lambert concedes that last week’s failure to take even a draw from what was a vital six-pointer was a huge blow to the Blues’ hopes of remaining in the Championship with results not having matched performances for much of the time since he took charge in October.

“Where you do get frustration is that you’re playing well and you’ve a better chance of winning when you’re playing well rather than with you backs to the wall every week and you’re just playing long ball football and football that’s alien to what I want to play because long term it will benefit the club,” he said.

“I think that’s important. Whatever happens this season, the club needs to be cleaned, without a doubt it needs [to be] cleansed. And I think we’ll see what happens in the summer.”

Does that imply there will be a lot of exits in the close season? “You’ve got six loans right away. Nobody knows what’s happening with those lads because obviously they’re not our players, they go back those guys.

“Some lads are out of contract as well. They might be waiting to see what happens, things like that.

“You don’t need to be Einstein to sit back and think there’ll probably be one or two changes.”

He says he has already begun to put in place his plans for next season, which will almost certainly be Town’s first in the third tier for 62 years.

“We’ve already started bits here and there,” he continued. “In a couple of months you’ll know exactly what’s going to happen. That’s all I can really say, in a couple of months’ time you’ll all know exactly what’s going to happen.

“I think it’ll be exciting, I think the club will be in a lot better place if there’s a strategy and a plan and everybody buys into it, and let’s see where it goes.”

He added: “I know exactly where you think you can try and help it, you can try and make it right. I know exactly where I think it went wrong with certain things.

“There’s no right way and wrong way in football, there’s no right way and wrong way to play football, there’s no right way or wrong way to make it right, it’s just my way, that’s what I’m saying. I’m not saying it’s the [only] right [way], you could be sitting talking to somebody else who will have a different view on it.

“There’s not a right way or a wrong way, that’s why you respect everybody’s opinion, but my way is hopefully going to be the right one.”

Is he guiding owner Marcus Evans? “He’s been brilliant, he’s been absolutely brilliant. I wouldn’t like to think what the owner has put into this club money-wise, and it’s his own money and it’s sitting where it is. So something tells you something’s not quite working.

“I can’t ask any more from Marcus Evans as in support or dialogue or anything like that. He’s the custodian of the club, the club needs him as I’ve always said, he’s really great with me since I’ve been in and one thing I don’t want to do is him keep losing money, money and money and more money and the club sinking and sinking.

“It’s not right, something’s got to stop and I get on really well with him on that. I’ll say things to him that I think are right, I don’t hide behind things, you can probably guess my personality.

“But I’m doing it for the good of the club, not for the sake of me or for the staff that I’ve brought in, it’s for the good of the club and I don’t want to see it drift.”

Asked whether he feels it’s still too early to field youngsters in order to gain them experience for next season, he points out that a number have been in and around the squad throughout his time at the club.


“I’ve chucked in Dozzell, Downes, Bishop, Lankester, I threw them in when we first came in,” he said.

“So if I think they’re ready for it, it doesn’t matter to me which stage of the season we’re at, I’ll throw them in because they’re the future of the club and the club will hopefully go that way.

“You’ll get everything out of them, you’ve got enthusiasm, you’ll get endeavour, you’ll get ability, you’ll get determination, you’ll get young legs that can get around the pitch. You’ll have all that anyway.

“It doesn’t matter to me whether it was we came in in November or now, if I think they’re ready I will throw them in.”

While Town have sat rock bottom for most of the season and need a miracle to survive, they have rarely been thrashed, as is usually the case with sides cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

“It’s not just that, but we’re actually playing well enough to win games,” Lambert insisted. “I thought we should have been two or three-up at Wigan.

“I can go through them all with you. Against Bristol City we were dominant and we ended up losing due to mistakes.

“Millwall, we were dominant, a helluva lot of games we’ve been the best team and we’ve not walked away with any results or a draw here and there. It’s not been for a lack of trying because the way we’ve been playing has been really pleasing.

“Even against West Brom, one of the early games, we were well in the game against a team that’s just been relegated from the Premier League.

“But it’s both ends, either box. The club definitely needs to cleanse itself and if we can do it right, it’ll certainly help it.”

Would he have done anything differently? “You’re never satisfied whether you’re winning or losing. Just because you’ve won a few games, I don’t think you ever say you’ve arrived, you think you’re great.

“I never do that. I never did that as a player and I’ve never done it as a manager because the most important people at any football club are the players and the supporters, always will be.

“Without those two components you don’t have a game. We’re here to help them and to try and make them better players and better people to try and perform at the highest level.

“I never sit back and think after we’ve won a game or drawn a game, ‘This is great because I got the result’. No, not at all. I always try and think that we strive to be the best we can and if we can do that, then great.”

Lambert has generated a lot of goodwill during his months at the club, something he wants to maintain over the final games of this season and take into the summer and then the new campaign.

“You’re 100 per cent right,” he added. “That’s one thing I can ask for is to keep that feeling that’s here and I think in the next few months things will become clear to everybody.

“I think you guys [the media], everybody at the club, I think there’s a really good, strong future at the club because you’ve got some really good young players here and ones coming through but they need a little bit of time and patience and a strategy. But things will become clear in the next few months.

“And the support, as I’ve said before, they will be there because it’s a fabulous support that we’ve got.”

Was his appointment as much about future seasons as it was about trying to prevent relegation?

“You’re better asking Marcus that question,” he continued. “Whatever happens at the end of the season, it’s an absolutely brilliant club. I love being here, I think it’s a great, great club, it can potentially be anything it wants.

“The fanbase its got behind it, I keep referring to it, the history behind the club, the people that actually support the club, there’s one team in the town, but if you don’t pull it together, it’s always going to drift and I don’t want it to drift, I want it to have a philosophy here where the whole football club plays the same way.

“And there’s what I said about the community because you lose a generation of supporters which you should never lose.

“You’ve got to try and get back into the schools to get the young ones back in as well, I think that’s important.

“I think it needs to be reviewed, everything. It can’t keep doing what it’s doing because it does eventually catch you.

“We’ve come in at a time when [it has caught the club up] but I know the bigger picture, the way I can see it or envision it, and I think Marcus is really on it, [general manager of football operations] Lee [O’Neill]’s really on it.

“I’m pretty sure if you ask anybody there’s probably been mistakes made and it’s up to us to try and help it.”

If the Blues are relegated budgets will inevitably be cut with the club set to lose £7 million in media money, without taking into account any reduction in income from other routes. Town’s wage bill last season was £18.5 million and Lambert concedes it wouldn’t be anywhere near that in League One and that the club has to find a new approach.

“Quite right, it’s impossible,” he said. “Marcus has put how many millions over his 12 years? If I said to you to put £100 million into the club and have nothing to show for it, something’s got to change somewhere.

“It has to, it can’t keep doing what it’s doing or else there is no Ipswich Town. I don’t want that, nobody wants that.

“OK, if it never worked doing it his way, let’s try another way. We’ve got the good really young guys here, good young players here, we need to have a strategy and a plan going forward long term, ‘This is the way we’re going to go’.

“Nobody can point the finger at the owner and say, ‘What have you done?’. ‘I’ve put in a hundred million or so’. Dear oh dear.”

While it may be the case that Evans has injected an average of around £6 million a season in his just over 11 years at Portman Road, taking the debt - which is almost entirely owed to him - from £36 million to £95.5 million at the end of the financial year to June 2018, his investment is dwarfed by the cash made available at the clubs at the top of the division. That £18.5 million wage bill was around the 18th highest in the division.

“What has he got to show for [his investment]?” Lambert asked. “When you have an academy with young players, but you have to hold your nerve and you have to have a plan where you say this is what we do off the pitch, this is the philosophy off the pitch for the club, for the supporters, for the season tickets, for the interaction with the schools, the community, there has to be some plan for the club to stop failing, there’s got to be.

“My idea, which I’ve already relayed to Marcus and Lee, I think will definitely benefit the whole club. If everybody buys into it then it could be really exciting, really exciting.

“It can’t keep doing what it’s doing and that’s why I always say when you have loan players, for example, and you’re spending money on loan players and the lads go back, you need to do it all again.

“You have your decent U23s or decent U18s, five or six guys in the first team at the minute, so what do you do, do you say they’re not good enough? Turn around to Bishop and Dozzell and Lankester and Kenlock and say, ‘Listen, I’m going to bring in somebody from Galatasaray, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich or wherever’.

“That’s a balancing act for me. A strategy going forward and the club will be a million times better place for it.

“Because the support is there for it and the support drives the club. But we have to reach out to them, without a doubt you have to reach out to the supporters.”

The academy being central to his plans going forward, might it be protected from the cuts which are likely to come in the summer? “That side of it, I don’t know. If you fail, normally things happen, people may be lost here or lost there, that’s normal, it doesn’t matter what club you’re at, that’s normal.

“But you’ve still got to have a structure where the young players come through and, as I said before, there are good young ones here, really good young ones.

“You need one or two experienced ones to help them along the way but there are some really ones here, six of them are playing in the first team at the minute, this season will do them the world of good. They might not think it at the minute but believe me it will, it’ll do them the world of good.”


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warktheline added 18:43 - Mar 7
Been saying as much for sometime Mr Lambert! Whether your the right man to do that remains to be seen, undoubtedly many are beginning to think otherwise, especially with your continued selection of Chambers, Skuse and Knudsen !
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blueboy1981 added 18:53 - Mar 7
Don't think too many people will disagree with you PL - time will tell, and proof is always in the pudding.

As the old Suffolk saying goes ..... !!
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Suffolkboy added 18:54 - Mar 7
If only ME had seen the light earlier we may well have boosted our promotion chances ; but decisions over the preceding seasons did not reflect an in depth knowledge of planning and what was needed.The Stadium was allowed to deteriorate, facilities and provision for supporters were left unattended : our chief executives were pretty characterless , or lacking either in energy or commitment / authority –-the results self evident .
PL seems to buy in to everything ITFC etc – much power to his bow !
COYB
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ITFCsince73 added 18:55 - Mar 7
What we know for certain is, Evans isn't going to spend any real money this summer on bringing players in.
I think it's been made clear that to much money has been wasted on loans.as well.
As I've said already our youngsters are our future.
The investment has and is being made by Evans on our own players. He now without doubt wants to see a return on all that investment.
We have very good sides, with very good players from juniors all the way through to the 23,s. We have superb coaching staff throughout all age groups. All over looked by one of the most respected in the business Mr Klug. The future is very bright.
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BeethorpeAndy added 19:02 - Mar 7
King Lambert is getting us back on track. Honest bloke,no bull, has the fans best interests at heart. Big task but he can do it. Young player with e few senior pros to guide them. COYB
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blueboy1981 added 19:12 - Mar 7
........ like I've said many times - be thankful we have an owner like Evans, don't keep knocking him, without him we have no Ipswich Town. Not bull - absolute FACT. Whatever one thinks of him personally is totally irrelevant.

What this Club has lacked is GOOD MANAGEMENT over the years, and yes maybe Evans has made mistakes in his selection - BUT almost everyone, who now criticises, would have agreed with his selection of Manager at the time of appointment

I hasten to add, I haven't agreed with either Jewell, McCarthy, or Hurst, as being good choices for various reasons - but yet again, Hurst was a unanimous choice for MANY of you, who now criticise, once again.

With hindsight (wonderful thing) Lamberts ideas are not too far away from what Hurst was all about, to be fair to the guy. Who knows now, how that would have worked out ... ??

We have a great Club, we need to get back to some kind of greatness - togetherness will see us do that, NOT constant criticism of everything.

Once a TRUE BLUE - always a TRUE BLUE. There is NO other way. Holdfast and we shall succeed once again.
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MacMan added 19:30 - Mar 7
Let's face facts. Wolves lost over 50 million pounds last season and nearly 25 million the season before. Does FFP even exist anymore? Seems not. Can we compete against clubs like that? No, not in the sense of having an owner with that kind of money to gamble, because it still is a gamble, on going up.
So we do need to try another way, and that has to be by developing our own players with a few quality signings here and there to provide experience. It worked pretty well for Sir Bobby didn't it? But it does take time so fans will have to be patient. This isn't PL's team yet, but I have every faith that next season it will be, and then we'll see an entertaining team playing entertaining football...and winning games.
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MichaelRockyLavelle added 19:55 - Mar 7
Get Emmanuel in the team then! Already proved he can cut the mustard at this level 2 years ago! shone in L1 for Rotherham last season
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ITFCsince73 added 20:22 - Mar 7
Blueboy. I wanted Hurst. But would never criticise.
He was on a loser before the 1st day at work.
He went to bed a very good respected coach, he didn't wake up in the morning the opposite.
Got a very tidy payoff from ITFC.
No doubt had his feet up since, although keeping an eye on all leagues, clubs and players.
Like you would expect a good coach to do.
I expect he will be back in a job come the summer.
And ready to bite us in the arse along the way.
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dirtydingusmagee added 20:26 - Mar 7
agreed MacMan , but its the need for experienced players that is the stumbling block, We keep getting experienced fitness liabilities .A good clearout is needed ,sick,lame,&lazy offloaded and money spent on solid/fit players that will do a good job alongside the youngsters . We need to be able to play a settled team, not one constantly being rearranged because players are not fit . I dont see any point in retaining Chambers or Skuse , they are well past their ''sell by date'' and Knudson is just not reliable,far too many mistakes ,Cant see Bart staying he had set his sights on a higher level not a lower one.So BIG changes needed and i think they will come.However i dont see a return to Championship anytime soon ,we will remain underfunded and under gunned in Lge1. while we reliant on M E .
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Steve_D added 20:50 - Mar 7
We are about 5 yrs away from being a non league club
-3

Lightningboy added 21:13 - Mar 7
Fully behind you Paul - we need to give him & his vision a decent amount of time to work out.

Plus no matter what club you are in whatever league spending billions or pennies,you need a bit of luck along the way...I think it's safe to say we've had absolute zero over the last season or 2...hopefully things will change in our favour from next season onwards.
1

Carberry added 21:52 - Mar 7
I'm sorry but I've had enough now, this is the most arrogant performance from Paul (my strategy will be a million times better) Lambert. His master plan will come from the fact that the owner has told him there is no money available, so he will have to play the kids. That's not a magic plan, it is pragmatism because Evans has decided he won't throw his good money after bad. And you fans are absolutely great, never known anything like it - and maybe if I say it often enough you might ignore the fact that I have achieved absolutely nothing since I've been here. I know many supporters buy into Lambert but I'm very skeptical. Whatever he did with Norwich he has become a losing manager, maybe he can win some games in League 1. League 1, say it again League 1, whatever has happened to our once great club, the ignominy of it, the embarrassment, the disaster that has befallen us, and that is what we have to thank Evans for, Blueboy, total, utter mismanagement.
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Oldozblue added 23:01 - Mar 7
PL seems very loathe to criticise ME - almost beholden to him. Almost as if this is his last chance at a big job. ME seems to do contract negotiations with players. This is a worry. Suspect this is not the situation at Norwich - Delia leaves it to Webber (where is O'Neill at ITFC). Norwich, whatever you think of them, have been very successful at player recruitment. Their old regime wasted millions on Wildschutt and Naismith etc but the new regime of Webber and Farke got Pukki, Buendia, Leitner, Zimmermann and Vrancic etc for peanuts. ITFC need to restructure and get a smart, empowered Director of Football to do negotiations and recruitment. Leave it to Marcus and it will end in tears.
0

Kirbmeister added 23:14 - Mar 7
Oldozblue - PL loathe to criticise Evans? Probably something to do with Evans paying his wages.
1

TonyHumesIpswich added 02:51 - Mar 8
As others have said here, I think the young players will be the crux of this team next season. All the loanees plus Knudsen and Donacien will be the first to move on, followed swiftly by Spence, Dawkins and Adeyemi. If offers come in for Bart and Huws, I'm sure they'll be accepted. Ward and Sears will obviously be with us next season (due to their injuries) . Hopefully judge and Keane will join. Most likely youngsters to leave seem to be Dozzell, Emanuel and McKendry. Might well be Wolfie alongside Chambers in CD if he stays. All guess work but wouldn't be surprised if this pans out.
1

harlingblue added 03:59 - Mar 8
I think that PL has united the Club and us Supporters, what I can't understand is why he doesn't watch U23 games?
The constant use of loan players by MM while chancing some good/bad buys, kept us in The Championship for several ordinary seasons, BUT when the loanees go back, the better buys jump ship, you are left with a few good average older players, and sicknote signings.
PH inherited this scenario, did his best in signing players that he knew that were good from the lower leagues, some will come good when mixed with our Academy youngsters.
He lost his job, but I am convinced that some of his buys will blend with the best of our Academy youngsters under PL, either staving off relegation (a long shot) or pushing for a return to the Division next year.
1

Chondzoresk added 06:01 - Mar 8
I and many others accept relegation. Let's build with what we are left with once the loaners have gone. We have, as others have already said a decent 23s and 18s. Try and keep Judge and Keane. Let PL build it from there. I think we will be sniffing around play offs in League One. Who knows, we may come straight back up and from there with our fully blooded youngsters bounce onward.

You never know, by that time the scum will be going the other way.
3

SouperJim added 06:56 - Mar 8
I keep reading so many comments saying Norwich do this, Norwich do that. Who gives a monkeys about Norwich? I'm an Ipswich fan. Some of you are an embarrassment.

Get behind Lambert, he's the only hope we've got.
4

MickMillsTash added 07:41 - Mar 8
£18.5 Million wage Bill
Hard to work out how that tots up
2

Bluearmy_81 added 07:56 - Mar 8
"be thankful we have an owner like Evans..."

There are no words!! Thankful for a generation of stagnation in the Championship followed by an embarrassing drop to the third tier for the first time since the fifties?! Yeah thanks Evans.
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heathen66 added 08:38 - Mar 8
Paul Hurst tried to 'cleanse' the club and now Paul Lambert.
You need to discard Mick foot soldiers who have been underperforming (but still playing) week on week.
The issues this season have not been from the inexperienced Paul Hurst signings but from the so called experienced high earners who are too 'comfortable' at this club.
We need to relinquish the services of Knudsen, Chambers, Spence, Skuse and Sears.
I expect Bart to be sold (the only real asset we have), and we should also get rid of Huws and Adeyimi (although Huws is a good player, we cannot afford to just pay his wages when he never plays)
Build your side around Judge, Edwards, Bishop (and perhaps someone like Keane) and allow the current squad to flourish.
Nsiala has done nothing wrong and like Donacien deserves a chance (perhaps the next 11 games would be a start for Nsiala).
Add to that Kenlock, Emmanuel, Dozzell, Morris, Folami, Woolfenden, Nolan, Jackson, Harrison (and a few others) and you have the basis of a competitive side / squad.
Add an experienced CB and an Experience CM and we would not be far off.
1

midastouch added 08:49 - Mar 8
Based on Bart's form this season and our demise it will be hard for us to command anything like the same sort of fee we could of got about a year ago. But at £20k a week or whatever it is he is on then it's not really feasible to keep him in League One, but I fear we might not get anything like as much as we would hope and could see a big haircut in terms of what we would of got a year ago. Dean would be a very good goalkeeper in League One I would hope so no big worries there (hopefully!). Don't know too much about Harry Wright as a no.2. Heard good enough things about him in the U23s and seen him play a few times on the Facebook streams. Saw him warming up ahead of the Reading game and my lad is a young goalkeeper and he said to me a couple of times "how did he not save that?" but I just said they don't always go at it hammer and tongs in a warm up like they would in a real match. And he sometimes used to say the same to me when Bart was warming up and then Bart would go on to do a MOTM performance between the sticks for us. He is only 9 so he's no expert. Usually whenever a goal goes in he says "I could of saved that!" even if he prob couldn't even of reached it really as he's nowhere near tall enough to be able to touch the crossbar lol! It's a bit like when one of our players misses a really good chance I sometimes say to him on the way home, "I could of scored that!" (we're all quick to judge as fans in the heat of the moment) although in all truth the Nolan chance just before half time at Reading, I'm sure plenty of us on here could of nailed that if given the same opportunity!
1

MadDog added 09:13 - Mar 8
Lambert says all the right things-but he hasn't set the world alight since Norwich! Keeping up his record of being relegated wherever he goes. We have to stick with him though as he has the experience in League 1. The concern about playing the youngsters though is that they have never been deemed strong enough for the championship & league 1 is more physical! It won't be a walk in the park to get out of that league. As for Evans, well the demise of the club since he took over speaks for itself. Never thought I'd see the day when we were in the 3rd division!!
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ArnieM added 09:47 - Mar 8
MaddogLambert hasn't been at a Club for a pre season since scum days . So he's always been going in trying to sort out rotten squads that are not his. That's McCarthys mantra . Lambert BUILDS teams , and he is going to do this at Town . Sorry to disappoint you .
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