PALMER OUT TO HIT ’EM FOR SIX
OUTSIDE Portman Road, statues of England’s two greatest managers, Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson, are like sentries of the apocalypse.
Ipswich Town, a great club with revered forefathers in the dugout, are anchored to the Championship seabed – and manager Paul Lambert says their predicament is a “disgrace.”
As if to accentuate the Tractor Boys’ plight, across the ‘Old Farm’ divide Lambert’s old club Norwich City are flying.
Even the death of Kevin Beattie, voted by fans as Ipswich’s greatest-ever player, last September has yet to inspire a revival in the great man’s memory.
Time is running out for Lambert, 49, to procure a miracle, and Ipswich will have to play like X Factor boys to close the 10-point gap to safety.
“I grew up in an era when this was one of the best clubs in Europe,” he said. “I can still name the whole team, from Mills and Burley to Wark, Thijssen and Muhren, Mariner and Whymark.
“Does it hurt to see Ipswich down here? For the want of a better phrase, it p **** s me off seeing the club the way it is. This is the club of Ramsey and Robson. I can’t sit back and let everything they built go to ruin.
“I didn’t come here and buy into an acceptance that this year it’s our turn to go down. I don’t like it, I don’t accept it and it annoys me just to think about it.”
He exonerates owner Marcus Evans – under fire from a section of fans – for Town’s plight, saying he’s “sick and tired” of the blame game and pointing out: “How much has he invested in the time he’s been here? Millions and millions, whatever it is.” And yet, somehow, Lambert has made a name for himself as a troubleshooter after forging his reputation as an exponent of high-pressing, high-tempo football at Wycombe, Colchester and Norwich.
But at least history is now judging his reign at Aston Villa more kindly than the bedsheet protests that hounded him out.
Villa have already been out of the top flight for as long as Lambert kept them in it, and he takes no pleasure in being proved right that they would slip out of the mainstream if ex-owner Randy Lerner turned off the taps but still expected to run a bath.
Since then, he has held the fort at Blackburn while another set of owners, Venky’s, played chicken with the relegation trapdoor.
If Liverpool’s FA Cup defeat by Wolves last week sounded familiar, it was Lambert who set the template by presiding over a monumental upset at Anfield in 2017 before Molineux was awash with Chinese investment.
And although his rescue mission at Stoke 12 months ago came up short, Lambert was serenaded by 2,000 travelling fans at Swansea on the final day as a tribute to his endeavours.
It would be trite, and misleading, to put Lambert – a Champions League winner with Borussia Dortmund 22 years ago – in the bracket of old timers who keep landing on their feet.
If anything, he deserves a soft landing for clearing up other people’s messes – and Ipswich, desperate for a win in today’s relegation shootout with Rotherham, may be his biggest basket case yet.
“At Villa, I could see what was happening,” he said. “I told Randy what could happen, and I was right.
“When the players we were trying to bring in weren’t coming, that’s when I thought something wasn’t quite right and we had to go down a different route.
“Then Randy wanted to sell the club – which was his prerogative – and I could see what was coming. I’ll never make the same mistake again in that situation.
“You learn from each different job, but I’ve not changed. The game’s changing but the most important people are still the supporters.
“They are the people you have to look after and entertain. They want to enjoy themselves and I want to give them something to shout about, not a slow team, a back-foot team.
“At Stoke, the fans were brilliant towards me because they could see what we were trying to do. Relegation was so hard on them. “When you are lucky enough to have the playing career I had, working with world-class players, I’ve always had that burning desire to be a winner. “I’m from Glasgow – it goes with the territory, we have that outlook in abundance. The day that desire leaves me will be the day I stop – and the fire hasn’t gone out.” Championship: 3pm
TOM LEES has flashed the danger signs to his Sheffield Wednesday team-mates hoping to impress new manager Steve Bruce.
Five successive wins have transformed Hull from relegation candidates into play-off contenders. And centre-back Lees (left) said: “We’re facing the in-form side in the league. Out of nowhere they get that form going and you see what it does. “A bit of confidence and a bit of momentum, it can be dangerous. “The form that they are in, they are going to be hard to beat so we’re going to have to be at our best.” Championship: 3pm NEW Bristol City loan star Kasey Palmer goes into today’s clash with troubled Bolton targeting another experience of the Championship play-offs.
The 22-year-old Chelsea midfielder helped Huddersfield reach the top flight in 2017 and he said: “Hopefully, I can create and score goals to help the team finish in the top six.
“We’re five points off on a good run and there is no reason why we can’t reach the play-offs. I want to get as many games as possible, play well and add something in terms of goals and assists.”