Paul Lambert

For other people named Paul Lambert, see Paul Lambert (disambiguation).

Paul Lambert

Paul Lambert at Carrow Road, August 2011
Personal information
Full name	Paul Christopher Lambert
Date of birth	7 August 1969 (1969-08-07)
Place of birth	Linwood, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Norwich City (Manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1986–1993	St. Mirren	227	(14)
1993–1996	Motherwell	103	(6)
1996–1997	Borussia Dortmund	44	(1)
1997–2005	Celtic	193	(14)
2005–2006	Livingston	7	(0)
Total		574	(35)
National team
1990	Scottish League XI	1	(0)
1995–2003	Scotland	40	(1)
Teams managed
2005–2006	Livingston
2006–2008	Wycombe Wanderers
2008–2009	Colchester United
2009–	Norwich City
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Paul Christopher Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional association football manager and former player who is the manager of Norwich City.

Lambert won numerous honours as a player, winning the Scottish Cup with St. Mirren as a 17-year-old, the UEFA Champions League with Borussia Dortmund, all the Scottish domestic honours with Celtic and 40 caps for Scotland.

He achieved success managing in England's lower divisions and guided Norwich into English football's Premier League.

Playing career

St Mirren

Lambert started his playing career at Linwood Rangers Boys' Club in 1980 in his hometown of Linwood, before entering the professional game with St. Mirren in 1985. With St Mirren the 17 year old Lambert won his first senior winner's medal courtesy of the 1987 Scottish Cup Final. Saints beat favourites and that season's UEFA Cup Finalists, Jim McLean's Dundee Utd, in what turned out to be the last time the Scottish Cup was won by a team composed entirely of Scottish players. Lambert played with St Mirren for eight years.

Motherwell

Signed by Tommy McLean for Motherwell in 1993, the club finished third placed at the end of 1993/94 in the Scottish Premier League.

With Alex McLeish replacing McLean, in 1994–95 in Scottish football Lambert and Motherwell went one place better finishing league runners up, the club's highest finish since 1933/34. The club also had qualified for a place in the 1994–95 UEFA Cup. After eliminating Icelandic opponents, 'Well were drawn against Borussia Dortmund managed by Ottmar Hitzfeld. Drawn away in the first leg, Motherwell lost to a solitary goal by Andreas Möller in the 58th minute. In the second leg Motherwell were still in the contest until Karl-Heinz Riedle scored twice in 10 second half minutes.

Borussia Dortmund

In 1996, Lambert was signed by a manager and club he had played against for Motherwell in the UEFA Cup, Ottmar Hitzfeld of German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. Hitzfeld deployed Lambert as the team's defensive midfielder. In Borussia winning the 1997 UEFA Champions League Final against Juventus, he played in midfield to quell the influence of Juve's French playmaker Zinedine Zidane. Lambert's cross also set up Karl-Heinz Riedle's opening goal. Dortmund won 3–1. Lambert's contribution has since been suggested as a man of the match performance. He became the first British player to win the European Cup with a non-UK team, and the first British player to win the Champions League since its inception. Lambert had scored en route to the final with a 1996–97 UEFA Champions League group stage goal, the opener in a 2–2 draw at Widzew Łódź. Lambert's performance in the semi final elimination of Manchester United was praised in the autobiography of Roy Keane.

Lambert only scored one league goal with Borussia Dortmund, in a game against Werder Bremen.

Celtic

In November 1997, after just over a year playing in the Bundesliga he was signed by Wim Jansen for Celtic for a fee in the region of £2,000,000. The Scottish championship in his first season halted the run of Rangers', consecutive titles at nine, which equalled the nine in a row achieved by Celtic in the Jock Stein era.

During his time with Celtic, he won four Scottish Premier League titles, two Scottish Cups, two Scottish League Cups and was Scottish Football Writer's Player of the Year in 2002. Lambert captained the side that reached the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville. Lambert's team were drawing 2–2 after 90 mins but lost 3–2 after extra time to Jose Mourinho's F.C. Porto.

International career

Lambert represented Scotland at age group level. Perhaps the best known of the contests was against the country who played a significant part in his career, Germany. The young Scots drew 1–1 in Bochum in 1992 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship quarter finals. In the return leg at Pittodrie, Germany were two up after 40 minutes before Duncan Ferguson set up Ray McKinnon to pull one back before half time. Germany scored a third on the hour mark to seemingly put the tie out of reach. However in 68 minutes Gerry Creaney headed part Stefan Klos before Lambert himself equalised 10 minutes later. Alex Rae scored two minutes from time to clinch the game 4–3.

As a full Scotland international, Lambert won 40 caps, scoring one goal and in the latter part of his international career, captaining the side 15 times. His international debut was when at Motherwell and awarded by Craig Brown in the 1995 Kirin Cup against host country, Japan. Lambert played in a second game there 3 days later against Columbia.

It was when at Dortmund and in the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign when Lambert started to appear as a regular. After missing the open game of the campaign away against Austria, Lambert appeared in October 1996 in the 2–0 win in Latvia when he appeared as a 46th minute substitute. He was again a 46th minute substitute in the next qualifier, a 1–0 home win against Sweden. For his next cap he was promoted to the starting line up for a 2–0 home victory in the qualifier against Austria in which Lambert contended for man of the match. Lambert's only defeat of the campaign was the 2–1 reversal in Gothenburg against Sweden before grinding out a June 1–0 in Minsk against Belarus, a 4–1 win in Aberdeen against the Belarussians and a second 2–0 win against Latvia, this time at home.

He played in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, turning in an impressive performance as the Scots lost 2–1 to Brazil at the Stade de France in the tournament's opening match and also in the 1–1 draw against Norway in Bordeaux.^{[citation needed]}

Lambert was part of the Scotland side to win a challenge game away against Germany in April 1999 with the goal scored by Don Hutchison.

Lambert and Scotland qualified for a play-off place in the UEFA 2000 European Championship qualification campaign. However Lambert played in neither game due to being kneed in the face in the Celtic game the weekend before against Rangers. Craig Brown cited Lambert's absence as crucial to England's progression at Scotland's expense since he intended to deploy Lambert directly against Paul Scholes, scorer of both England goals. As Brown said, “The SPL went ahead with an Old Firm game a week before. I was furious because they did not legislate for a play-off, especially not for one against England. Predictably, we get a major injury and my holding midfielder, who performed with such distinction in the Champions League final for Borussia Dortmund, cannot play. Barry Ferguson played brilliantly but he was not a holding midfielder. Scholes scored two goals and that was the guy Paul Lambert was going to pick up …”

His final cap with some irony was in an away game against Germany played in Dortmund (a 2–1 defeat). Lambert had been awarded man of the match in the home encounter three months earlier at Hampden Park (a 1–1 draw).

On 15 November 2009 he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

Managerial career

Livingston

After studying for football coaching qualifications in 2005, Lambert landed his first managerial job with Livingston on 1 June 2005, assisted by Norrie McWhirter. Although he had not intended to play for his new club Lambert registered as a player in late August 2005 to cover for any injury shortages. His tenure ended the following February when he resigned after only winning two league games since starting the job.

Wycombe Wanderers

Lambert was appointed manager of English team Wycombe Wanderers on 30 June 2006. He led Wycombe to the League Cup semi-finals after defeating Premier League sides Fulham and Charlton Athletic. The semi-final tie, against Premier League champions Chelsea, saw Wycombe hold Chelsea to a 1–1 draw at Adams Park before losing the away leg. This was the first time in over 30 years a fourth tier team had reached that stage of the League Cup.^{[citation needed]} Lambert resigned as Wycombe manager on 20 May 2008 following the club's elimination from the League Two play-offs by Stockport County.

Colchester United

On 9 October 2008, he was appointed as manager of League One team Colchester United to succeed Geraint Williams, before winning his first game 2–1 at Stockport County. Despite occasionally threatening to flirt with the League One play-offs, the U's eventually finished mid-table in Lambert's first season.

On 18 August 2009 he began the 2009/10 season with an opening day 7–1 defeat of Norwich City before leaving the Essex club less than a year after taking over.

Norwich City

Lambert became the new Norwich City manager, replacing Bryan Gunn, who was sacked by the club shortly after the 7–1 defeat to Colchester. He led Norwich to the League 1 title and promotion to the Championship in April 2010.

On 1 June 2010, he signed an improved contract with Norwich City after it was confirmed Colchester United were entitled to £425,000 in compensation, in addition to Norwich City being fined £75,000, with a further sum of £125,000 suspended for two years which will only be activated if Norwich breach Regulation 20 again during that timeframe.

Norwich's fine form from their 2009–10 promotion campaign continued into the 2010–11 season, and saw them gain a second successive promotion – becoming the first team to achieve a second successive promotion at this level since Manchester City 11 years earlier. During Lambert's first two season's in charge, Norwich City did not suffer two successive defeats in the league, in the same season. They did, however, lose their final game in League One in 2009/10 at home to Carlisle and the opening game of their 2010/11 Championship season at home to Watford. Their 1–1 draw at Middlesbrough on 3 January 2011 saw them enter the automatic promotion places on goal difference.

In January 2011, Norwich refused to allow Burnley permission to try to secure Lambert as their new manager, following the dismissal of Brian Laws. The Norwich statement read, in part, "The club will fight tooth and nail to retain the services of Paul Lambert and his team during this critical period of the season and whilst they remain employed under a long-term contract". When Norwich beat Ipswich 5–1 at Portman Road, Lambert's record in East Anglian Derbies (including his time as Colchester manager) stood as played 6, won 4, drew 1, lost 1, scored 25, conceded 7. The 3–3 draw and 1–0 defeat were caused by Southend United, while Lambert was at Colchester. On 2 May Lambert and Norwich secured promotion to the Premier League after a win over Portsmouth, taking the second automatic spot with one game to spare. Lambert signed a new contract keeping him at the club during the summer.

Managerial statistics

As of 18 February 2012

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	L	D	Win %
Livingston	1 June 2005	12 February 2006	&1000000000000003200000032	&100000000000000050000005	&1000000000000002000000020	&100000000000000070000007	&1000000000000001563000015.63
Wycombe Wanderers	30 June 2006	20 May 2008	&10000000000000108000000108	&1000000000000004400000044	&1000000000000003500000035	&1000000000000002900000029	&1000000000000004074000040.74
Colchester United	9 October 2008	18 August 2009	&1000000000000004300000043	&1000000000000001900000019	&1000000000000001700000017	&100000000000000070000007	&1000000000000004418999944.19
Norwich City	18 August 2009	Present	&10000000000000129000000129	&1000000000000006700000067	&1000000000000003000000030	&1000000000000003200000032	&1000000000000005193999951.94
Total			&10000000000000312000000312	&10000000000000135000000135	&10000000000000102000000102	&1000000000000007500000075	&1000000000000004327000043.27

Player honours

St. Mirren

• Scottish Cup
  • Winner: 1986–87

Motherwell

• Scottish Premier Division
  • Runner-up: 1994–95

Borussia Dortmund

• UEFA Champions League
  • Winner: 1996–97

Celtic

• Scottish Premier League
  • Winner: 1997–98, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04
  • Runner-up: 1998–99, 1999–00, 2002–03, 2004–05
• Scottish Cup
  • Winner: 2000–01
  • Runner-up: 2001–02
• Scottish League Cup
  • Winner: 1997–98, 2000–01
  • Runner-up: 2002–03
• UEFA Cup
  • Runner-up: 2002–03

Managerial honours

Norwich City

• Football League One
  • Winner: 2009–10
• Football League Championship
  • Runner-up: 2010–11

Individual honours

• Scottish Football Writer's Player of the Year: 2002
• Inducted to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame: 2009
• Football League One Manager of the Year: 2009–10
• Football League Championship Manager of the Year: 2010–11

External links

• Paul Lambert career stats at Soccerbase
• Paul Lambert management career stats at Soccerbase
• Paul Lambert at Scottish FA

Sporting positions
Preceded by Tom Boyd	Celtic F.C. captain 2002–2005	Succeeded by Jackie McNamara