With Eddie Howe all but confirmed as Celtic’s next manager, can we finally put the debacle of this season behind us?
After being trounced in our latest trip across the city, and Kennedy failing to do anything remotely progressive since taking over from Lennon, the next man in the Parkhead dugout has quite the job on his hands.
In recent times, one of our greatest midfielders, former Hoops captain Paul Lambert, definitely won’t be the man at the helm. While hugely respected as a player [in a similar ilk to Lennon], his managerial performances have been somewhat unimpressive.
Barring the back-to-back promotions with Norwich City in 2009-10/2010-11, his managerial trophy cabinet is empty. It doesn’t look likely that, as a manager, he will match the winning credentials he boasted as a player.
In 2018, Lambert became the first man to manage both Norwich and Ipswich, as he penned a three-year deal at Portman Road. This was after managing Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Wolves and Stoke City in an ill-fated six-year spell.
Shortly after leaving both Aston Villa and Stoke City, both teams were relegated into the Championship, and the less said about his time at Ipswich Town, the better, given their relegation into League One and subsequent regression under his stewardship.
So, what’s next for Lambert?
Few can criticise his achievements as a player, as he won eight major honours during his seven seasons at Parkhead, but he seems to lack the charisma and man-management to succeed regularly as a coach.
And with so many blemishes on his CV in England as a manager, surely his next managerial move will see him work overseas?
He’s undoubtedly respected in Germany, where he became the first non-British player to win a Champions League title with a non-UK team, turning in a man-of-the-match performance in Borussia Dortmund’s 3-1 victory over Juventus in the 1996-97 final.
But he’s not likely to find work in the top half of the Bundesliga. His former club Dortmund are in a transition period right now and will hope to flourish under new coach Marco Rose, who will take over at the end of the season.
And with bookmakers refusing to take bets on Bayern clinching their 29th domestic title, he has about as much chance of securing a job at a leading Bundesliga club as Neil Lennon.
Realistically, if Lambert is to find work in Germany, it’s likely to be in the German second flight, or maybe even further down the football pyramid. Such a job could suit him, and it would surely do him a world of good to focus on football away from the limelight for a while.
But what about a return to Scotland?
He ruled himself out of the running to become the next Celtic manager, not that he had a realistic chance of getting it anyway. Mind you, with the powers that be at our club; nothing would surprise us at the minute.
Since Eddie Howe’s name was tossed into the hat, he’s stayed as the firm favourite, with the only other realistic candidates having both managed at one of Lambert’s former clubs: Lucien Favre at Dortmund and Roy Keane at Ipswich.
It would be interesting to see Lambert in the SPL, however. But who would employ him? Even though Hearts have just been promoted, their fans are desperate to see the back of Robbie Nielson, so there could be an opportunity there.
Or, given that Graham Alexander hasn’t started life at Motherwell in particularly impressive fashion, he could view a return to Fir Park, where he excelled as a player, as a decent step in the right direction.
His managerial style could be suited to the Scottish game, with many critics from his time at Aston Villa bemoaning the type of football he insisted on playing week in, week out. For a club with ambitions of simply staying in the SPL, he could be a decent appointment.
But whatever’s next for Lambert, the reality for football managers these days is that their stays at clubs are remarkably short. Over the summer, countless job opportunities will present themselves, and Lambert will potentially be in with a shout of returning to management in the near future.