Quite frankly, my head’s in a spin, as I was really convinced that the club would not sack Paul Lambert under any circumstances during this season.
But now that Lambert has been sacked, I want to be amongst the first to offer him my commiseration.
Not for anything he’s done for the club, you understand, but more for the way he must have suffered in the last few months.
My opinion says he must have gone through a world of hurt with the criticism that has come his way for a long time. No manager wants to keep reading about how poor his team, tactics and results are, but I think the pressure piled on him this season has been somewhat unprecedented: even worse than the vitriol Big Feck faced, I’d suggest.
It’s been mentioned by more than one commenter on here that Lambert has looked ill recently and it’s a point I’d agree with.
I really wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Hopefully, he’ll take some time out and get himself sorted, before he starts at another club.
And that’s where my sympathy ends.
The brutal truth is that he’s been handsomely rewarded for doing an awful job.
I’m sure I don’t need to mention all the bad records that have been broken, but where else can you get paid so well for doing so poorly?
It’s just shocking really, but anyway, Lambert’s reign is over, so I’m going to leave it there.
So, where do we go from here?
This is the interesting or more likely, worrying part.
The big question is have the club planned for this eventuality?
Why do I have this nagging worry that it’s only down to a concerted effort from the fans yesterday, combined with the Evening Mail actually having the balls to call it as it is and the stupidly monster new $ky deal, that made the club change it’s mind?
Whatever, I was talking to an Albion fan who was insisting that we won’t go down.
A Stokey friend of mine also had a similar view, in that there are three teams worse than us.
My reply to both was “Who? We’d be better with no manager at all and surely even I couldn’t be worse!”.
So what’s my point?
Well, even if the club haven’t got anyone lined up (and it really wouldn’t surprise me if we haven’t), things could hardly be any worse.
Given the improved performances from other teams who have got rid of their manager recently, I’m now interested to see if any of our player’s performances immediately improve.
Regardless, Lambert’s removal can only be good and we should be happy, even if it’s too late.
