Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
McLean desperately wanted Lambert to pen a deal with Tangerines
CHAMPIONS League winner Paul Lamber t has revealed he snubbed the chance to j oin Jim McLean’s Dundee United.
Lambert burst onto the scene as a youngster at St Mirren and, in 1990, was picked by legendary United gaffer, McLean, for a Scottish League select side to face Scotland at Hampden.
Three years later, the then-Tangerines chairman lured the future Borussia Dortmund, Celtic and Scotland star to a meeting at Tannadice.
But Lambert recalled feeling uneasy from the very start.
“I went to Dundee United to speak to Jim McLean, believe it or not,” he told former Dundee man Si Ferry on the latest instalment of his Open Goal podcast.
“I went to Tannadice and it had stairs into it – I don’t know if it still has – you went up the stairs and turned right i nt o the dressing-rooms.
“So I went up, pressed the doorbell and nobody answered. I just thought: ‘I’m not sure this is for me,’ before I . . . talked to him. I was there by myself.
“I went i n, I was i n (McLean’s) room, waiting and waiting, and he came in and said: ‘Hi Paul, how you doing? Listen, I’d like you to join Dundee United, there’s the deal, you’ve got a day to decide’.
“I said: ‘Alright, I’ll let you know tomorrow’.
“So I travelled back to Renfrewshire, then I goes back to my dad and he said: ‘What do you think?
“I said: ‘I don’t know, I’m undecided what to do.’ He went: ‘Go with your gut feeling’.”
After that, things still weren’t straightforward for Lambert and his St Mirren manager, Jimmy Bone, sensed his indecision.
“I made up my mind – I’m going to go and sign, so I get the suit on,” Lambert explained.
“I go into St Mirren on the Friday morning, Jimmy’s the manager, and Jimmy says: ‘ Have you decided?’
“I went: ‘Aye,’ he went: ‘What you going to do?’ and I went: ‘I don’t know’.
“He looked at me bizarrely and said: ‘You don’t know? I t hought you’d decided?’
“I said: ‘I’m so unsure.’ “He said: ‘ Put your training clothes on, go round the track,’ – Love Street, at that time, had a big track round it – ‘take a lap round it, then come back and tell me your answer’.
“I walked round Love Street, came back in, he goes: ‘What you going to do?’ and I sai d: ‘I’m staying’.
“Three weeks later I joined Motherwell with (Jim’s) brother Tommy.”
United had finished fourth the previous season, 1992/93, and were set for European football once again.
However, Lambert has never regretted signing for the Steelmen.
Asked why he picked Motherwell, he said: “Gut feeling. If you look at it that way (how big United were at the time) aye (it was a brave decision) – 100%.
“I’m not sure (Jim McLean) would have been over the moon with it. But it was a decision that, from my own side, proved to be a good one.”