Norwich have revealed that manager Paul Lambert has offered his resignation, but that the club have rejected it in a bid to keep the Scot at Carrow Road.
Aston Villa have identified Lambert as their top choice as replacement for the dismissed Alex McLeish, and the Canaries boss has seemingly made up his mind to move to the Birmingham club.
However, an official statement on Norwich’s website has confirmed that they will battle to keep Lambert at the club.
“The club regrets to confirm that Paul Lambert has offered his resignation from his position as Norwich City manager,” the statement reads.
“We have fought hard to keep Paul at Norwich and have not accepted his resignation whilst discussions with another club are taking place.
“However, whatever happens, we want to place on record our sincere gratitude for everything Paul has done for the club over the last three fantastic seasons.
“When Paul joined us in August 2009 were in 66th position in the English football pyramid and the club was on the brink of financial meltdown.
“Today we are a Barclays Premier League football club, on a financially sound footing and with a stadium full to capacity.
“Discussions with Paul throughout the last few days have been professional and amicable. Paul has already earned his place in Norwich City Football Club history and, no matter what happens, will always have a friendly welcome at Carrow Road.
“Meanwhile, contrary to some media speculation, the club does not need to sell any players and the finances are in place to substantially strengthen the excellent squad which helped us to finish in 12th position in the Premier League last season.
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“Rest assured that everyone behind the scenes at Carrow Road remains absolutely focused on continuing to help the club progress,” it concludes.
Aston Vila have unveiled Paul Lambert as their new manager, who joins from Premier League rivals Norwich.
The Birmingham-based side have been looking for a new boss since the dismissal of Alex McLeish at the end of the 2011-12 season, and the Scot is delighted to have joined the Villa Park outfit.
“I’m honoured to be manager of the football club. I’ll give it everything I’ve got to try and make it as successful as I can and the fanbase is huge,” he stated at a press conference, covered by Sky Sports.
I’m delighted to be here. I can’t wait to get going if truth be told. It’s a huge club. I’m exciting by it.
“It’s something I need to embrace more than anybody – the history it’s got and the tradition.
“It’s already won the European Cup which speaks volumes for itself. It’s won titles and it’s got everything going for it
“My job is to try and drive it on and that’s what I’ll try and do,” he revealed.
Part of the reason that Villa fan did not take to former boss McLeish was due to negative tactics, and Lambert has admitted that entertaining the supporters and attacking is a must.
“We have to. I think that goes without saying. You’ve got to give them something. The players need them and I’ll certainly need them.
“We’ll need them because a football club needs the fans to drive it on and if we do that we’ll be totally fine.
“There’s a lot of expectancy at the club and it’s not something I’m going to shy away from, it’s something I’m going to thrive on hopefully.
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“We have to try and play football the right way that I think for this football club. If we can do that, and we can win more games than not, then the crowd will certainly go with us,” he concluded.
It has been pretty quiet around the Kassam Stadium in the last few weeks with little transfer activity to talk about since the released and retained lists were announced.
However not all those who were offered new contracts at Oxford have taken up the new deal, with Asa Hall opting to move to Shrewsbury for the chance to play League One football in the new season. Nobody can blame Hall for choosing the Shrews over United and every fan would want to wish him all the best for the future.
Goalkeeper Wayne Brown signed his deal weeks ago so the only question mark remaining is now over Adam Chapman, who has yet to agree his deal. Rumours will of course start to surface with other club expressing interest in the play-making midfielder, and the thought of Chapman leaving would be a huge blow to our promotion plans for the upcoming campaign. It would be especially disappointing if Chapman did turn down our deal for another club after the support we gave while he spent 18 months in a young offenders institute.
However the biggest story of the summer looks set to be the James Constable saga reopening again with Bristol Rovers already having one offer rejected. They have since put in another bid thought to be in the region of £200,000 which has already been rejected. The yellows passed on a similar offer from Swindon Town last January however it may be time to cash in on ‘Beano’ after a stuttering end to the season and a section of the fans voicing their concern in the stands. Despite this, Constable has been a great servant to the club and his goal tally is in Oxford’s all-time top ten list, which shows just what kind of impact he’s made since arriving here. It would be quite a struggle to find a club willing to let someone of the same calibre leave for a decent price.
One player to come in since the end of the season is the attack-minded Sean Rigg from Port Vale. Rigg comes into the winger/forward role and should fit into either of the main formations Chris Wilder tends to use. A big plus for United has been the recovery of Alfie Potter after six months out with an ankle injury. Potter could be key to a successful promotion push, and had he been fit for the whole of last season we maybe could have seen a better outcome to the final standings.
United have announced another pre-season tour of America followed by home games against the two Championship playoff finalists West Ham United and Cardiff City. It will be great to see the newly promoted Hammers, as well as being some of the first fans to witness Cardiff’ City in their controversial change of home kit.
You can follow on me Twitter for more Oxford United based discussion.
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The lack of movement over a new stadium has been a source of much frustration for Liverpool fans for nearly four years now, as promises haven’t been kept, deadlines have been missed and indecision runs riot, but do the club need to focus all of their attention out on the pitch before thinking about moving homes?
The club finished a disappointing and lowly eighth in the league last season under the stewardship of Kenny Dalglish, their lowest league finish for 18 years. The gap between expectation and performance was clear for all to see, as a whole swathe of new signings failed to both settle and gel, with the side’s profligacy in front of goal bordering on the unbelievable at times. The point is that should the club be concentrating their efforts on a new stadium when there are such clear and obvious troubles out on the pitch? Isn’t that like putting the cart before the horse?
The club’s owner John Henry seems to think so, arguing last month in favour of redeveloping Anfield: “A long-term myth has existed about the financial impact of a new stadium for Liverpool. A belief has grown that Liverpool FC must have a new stadium to compete with (Manchester) United, Arsenal and others. No-one has ever addressed whether or not a new stadium is rational. New stadiums that are publicly-financed make sense for clubs – I’ve never heard of a club turning down a publicly-financed stadium. But privately carrying new stadiums is an enormous challenge. Arsenal is centred in a very wealthy city with a metropolitan population of approximately 14 million people. They did a tremendous job of carrying it off on a number of levels but how many new football stadiums with more than 30,000 seats have been built in the UK over the past decade or so? New stadiums increase revenues primarily by raising ticket prices – especially premium seating.”
Now by looking at my bank account, I’m pretty certain that I have a loose grasp on the value of money, but John Henry seems a pretty clued up chap, so I’m happy to take his word on the ‘myth’. It’s clear that FSG don’t have the money to pay for such a large project themselves up front, just in the same way that Tom Hicks and George Gillett never didn’t either, so to avoid any leveraged debt situations arising, it seems the sensible course of action for the time being.
There are various avenues that the club could go down. The first being the issue of naming rights to any proposed new stadium, something which Arsenal took up upon their move from Highbury to the Emirates. However, the knock-on effect as Henry attests to of privately financing a stadium is that Liverpool simply aren’t in the same position as Arsenal were. Anfield could not be bought up by property developers and turned into expensive, luxury flats and it’s been well-documented how incensed the fan-base has been by the sharp spike in ticket prices in North London.
The ‘premium seating’ is far from a throwaway line either, as it’s essentially a nod to the fact that the club will have to install more corporate seating and VIP boxes instead of creating the expected space for more seats on the terraces. FSG may have dithered terribly over the stadium issue for 18 months or so now, but they appear to finally be getting to grips with the matter and coming to a definitive conclusion that in a tough economic climate such as this, in the grip of a double-dip recession, it simply isn’t financially viable to take on a project of this magnitude just yet and it represents a huge risk.
Henry followed up with this: “That’s why I say that it is a myth that stadium issues are going to magically transform LFC’s fortunes. Building new or refurbishing Anfield is going to lead to an increase from £40million of match-day revenue to perhaps £60-70m if you don’t factor in debt service. That would certainly help but it’s just one component of LFC long-term fortunes. Our future is based not on a stadium issue but on building a strong football club that can compete with anyone in Europe. This will be principally driven financially by our commercial strengths globally.”
The emphasis is clear, build the side up on the pitch first, make the club more commercially driven and successful as a ‘brand’ across the globe, and wait until a move makes more sense. There’s no urgency to it, moving stadiums is not going to all of a sudden bridge the gap in quality on the pitch, or even off it when you factor in the wealth that both Chelsea and Manchester City have at their disposal.
Arsenal as a club seem well-prepared for the implementation of the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, but their saving has come at great expense on the pitch and they haven’t been able to invest anywhere near to the same level required, bound by serviceable debt repayments. It’s a cautious approach and one that could pay long-term dividends, but it’s been widely unpopular.
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Patience is the key with concerns to the topic of whether Liverpool need a new stadium or not. In the long run, Anfield will either need to be dramatically redeveloped or the club will need to move if they are to achieve their ambitions, but the problem has only arisen from the lack of activity and indecisiveness rather than a pressing financial need for the move in the short-term.
When Harry Redknapp is your manager for three years, there’s always going to be a significant amount of transfer activity at your club. Sure enough, ‘Arry did plenty of ‘wheeling and dealing’ at White Hart Lane (though don’t tell him that), but in all honesty, many of Spurs’s transfer disasters came long before Redknapp arrived at the club.
After a decade of mediocrity in the 90’s that saw some dreadful players pull on the white shirt, Spurs decided to splash the cash under Chairman Daniel Levy. It’s fair to say some purchases were better than others and the likes of Robbie Keane, Jermain Defoe and Michael Dawson can be viewed as money well spent. However, the Spurs reserve side has featured many an expensive player in recent years who simply couldn’t cut the mustard in the first team. See if you agree if our worst Tottenham signings XI from the Premier League era.
Click on Paulo Tramezzani to unveil the XI
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Paul Lambert has banned mobile phones and laptops in the dressing room on match days and also at training.
The Scot is attempting to improve discipline at Villa, as he looks to reinvigorate the Midlands club after a miserable season, and opening day defeat this year.
The Daily Telegraph witnessed Lambert’s disciplinarian philosophy at a fans forum this week, “If you are a professional footballer, then it’s not a hobby it’s your job.” The 43 year old said.
“You are at the training ground to work. If you train the way you play, then I don’t have a problem with it. But iPhones and iPads are a distraction. I’m here to win football matches not play on a computer.”
Another innovation courtesy of the ex-Norwich manager is that the dugouts have been swapped at Villa Park. Lambert is hoping moving the home dugout closer to the Holte End stand, will further motivate the Villa.
Villa host Everton this weekend and Lambert will be hoping on an instant improvement from last term’s home form, where the Birmingham club won only four league matches.
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French midfielder Florence Malouda has been left out of Chelsea’s Champions League squad for the forthcoming group stages, according to The Guardian.
The 32-year-old has fallen out of favour at Stamford Bridge following the arrival of Juan Mata to West London and has failed to make the squad list in any of Chelsea’s first three Premier League games so far this season.
Malouda was reportedly on the verge of joining Brazilian outfit Santos. However, the deal fell through after the wingers wage demands were thought to be too high.
Malouda is one of the number of ageing Chelsea players who appear to have no future left at the club. Goalkeeper Hilario has also been omitted from the squad list, while Michael Essien has been loaned out to Spanish giants Real Madrid and Raul Meireles joined Fernebache for £8 million yesterday.
Chelsea begin the defence of their European title at home to Italian champions Juventus on 19th September.
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Sunderland are believed to have contacted Michael Owen’s representatives in a bid to sign the veteran forward, The Guardian state.
The ageing striker is a free agent after being released by Manchester United at the tail-end of last season, and did not sign for a new club over the summer.
The Black Cats are eager to build on the transfer window signings of Louis Saha, Steven Fletcher and Adam Johnson, and will make an attempt to bring Owen to the Stadium of Light.
Despite Martin O’Neill’s interest in the forward, Stoke still remain favourites to land the attacker and have been working on a deal to sign Owen over the last week.
Owen has also been linked with the likes of Everton, Liverpool and West Ham over the last month, but for the time being the forward’s options appear limited to Stoke and Sunderland.
Meanwhile, The Daily Mail state that Brendan Rodgers will make a move for Owen to bolster his attacking options.
The Merseysiders only have Luis Suarez and Fabio Borini in their squad as attackers and the Northern Irish manager could attempt to bring Owen back to Anfield.
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Former England international Emile Heskey has penned a one-year deal to play for Australian A-League side Newcastle Jets.
The veteran forward was released by Aston Villa at the tail-end of last season, and failed to find a new club during the European transfer window, despite confessing that he had offers.
The A-League starts in October, and the 34-year-old will pair up with former Leeds striker Michael Bridges for the east coast side.
Newcastle coach Gary van Egmond feels that Heskey’s stature and experience will offer quality to his side.
“He’s someone who can really lead the line and that is exactly what we’ve been missing,” the coach is quoted as saying in The Guardian.
Heskey is looking forward to a new challenge in his career and hopes to act as a role model for younger players.
“I hope I can help grow football at the grass-roots level and also provide advice to young players at the Jets,” he commented.
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Heskey follows ex-Italy international Alessandro Del Piero to Australia, who signed for Sydney earlier this summer.
In the run up to Joey Barton’s home debut for Marseille, the controversial midfielder has asked French supporters to judge him on his performances, not the stories describing him as ‘Hollywood.’
The English midfielder is expected to play in Marseille’s Europa League clash with Limassol on Thursday.
“It’s difficult because of my bad reputation; I find it a bit unfair. They are stories like Hollywood, far from the truth,” the former Queens Park Rangers captain told the BBC website.
Barton joined the French club in August after signing from QPR, and has only played once before in the Europa League, due to the fact that he is serving a 12 league game ban which he picked up during his time in the Premier League, after being found guilty of two counts of violent conduct.
The midfielder however, is enjoying his new French life so far, and is happy to be away from the English press.
“The English media love to make headlines and dramatise as English football is the number one sport.
“I hope that people in France and here in Marseille judge me on what I do here and not in relation to what they read.”
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Marseille currently sit top of Ligue 1 with 6 wins from their first 6 games, ensuring that it won’t be easy for Barton to step straight into the side.
“There are some very good players here, but when you want to be a big club you must have a team of 15, 16, or 17 players. All players cannot play every week and I hope to bring something different to the team and become an important member,” he added.