Stoke part with Lambert
PAUL LAMBERT left Stoke City yesterday following relegation – and the club are ready to offer David Moyes an instant return to management.
Lambert, right, was appointed on a two-and-a-half-year deal in January but was unable to save the Potters from sliding into the second tier after 10 years in the top flight. He won just two of his 15 games at the helm. Moyes left ❑ WEST BROM have confirmed the appointment of former defender Darren Moore as head coach.
The 44-year-old staved off relegation until the last week of the season after taking over as caretaker boss when Alan Pardew was sacked in April. West Ham this week and is top of Stoke’s list of candidates.
But the club may struggle to convince Moyes to take a step down. The former Manchester United and Everton manager still sees his future in the top flight and might be prepared to wait.
Lambert left the club after a meeting with board members. His departure was described as being by mutual consent but the Scot had expressed his wish to stay even when relegation was confirmed on the penultimate weekend of the season. Lambert was appointed following the sacking of Mark Hughes, who had been in charge for five years. IT IS little wonder Ander Herrera is so studious and analytical about football when you consider he was scouting players from the age of seven.
His father Pedro Maria, a former midfielder with Real Zaragoza, became the club’s general manager after his playing career was ended prematurely by a knee injury.
And Herrera snr would ask his young son for his opinion on players he was thinking of recruiting for the club.
“Sometimes he would say to me, ‘Ander, have a look at this player because maybe we’ll sign him for next season’,” Herrera recalled.
“I was seven, eight or nine years old so I used to watch games and give him my advice about a player. It made me more analytical when I became a player myself.
“I’ve loved this sport since I was a kid. I have a privileged position – the best job in the world – and I will enjoy it until the last moment of my career.
“When one day I leave Manchester United I don’t want to think, ‘I should have done this, I should have done that, I should have analysed the opponent more, I should have worked harder’.
“I do everything in my power each day to make myself proud.”
That analytical mind makes Herrera a dream player for Tony REPORTS YOU would think any proud parent would treasure the first professional winner’s medal collected by their son. No matter that it has been eclipsed since then by just about every other trinket going, the first is the most memorable; the signpost towards a bright future, the symbol of a coming of age.
So you have to feel for Francesc Fabregas snr. His son collected an FA Cup winner’s medal with Arsenal in 2005, at the tender age of 18, and he was charged with looking after it. And he lost it. “My dad used to keep them and once I grew up, one day I said, ‘Listen, where are all my medals and stuff?’ He even nearly lost the World Cup one,” said Fabregas jnr, who today has the chance to win another when his Chelsea side take on Manchester United at Wembley.
“It was in my mum’s house in a box. I have nearly all of them but I’ve lost two or three. I found the World Cup medal, but this FA Cup one, I cannot find it.”
Arsenal beat United that May day at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff with Fabregas in their midfield and Patrick Vieira striking the winning penalty in a shoot-out after a goalless draw.
Fabregas had made his debut for the Gunners at 16 years and 177 days in 2003, making him the club’s youngest first-team player, and the accolades have been pouring in ever since: a World Cup winner’s medal and two European Championships with Spain; a La Liga win with Barcelona, plus a Copa del Rey, a Spanish Super Cup, a UEFA Super Cup and a World Club Cup; and, after his return to England with Chelsea, two Premier League titles and a League Cup.
Now 31, Fabregas has come full circle, taking on the same opponents in the final of the same competition. And should a manager because he understands exactly what he is being asked to do, and does it with diligence.
There is no better example than his man-marking of Eden Hazard in the Premier League game against Chelsea at Old Trafford last April – arguably his finest hour in a United shirt since his £28million move from Athletic Bilbao four years ago.
Apart from putting the player he describes “as the best in the Premier League” in his pocket, Herrera also made United’s first goal for Marcus Rashford and then scored the winner himself.
Typically, Herrera paid tribute to the work of his team-mates.
“I was the one in the papers the next day but it was not