Smithy07

Not the first club no but the first one he saw as a step up. He supposedly had talks with Burnley at one point and was linked with West Ham and refused to distance himself from speculation, presumably using it as leverage to get a better deal/more funds from the board. Lambert did great things for us, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement and these things come to an end but one of the things I don;t miss is worrying our manager will be off every time a managerial vacancy comes up! We don;t have to worry about that now of course with good old cautious Chris which is both a blessing and a curse at the same time! Your happy with a manager that wouldn't want to better himself? Its like saying I don't want the club to do well in case the manager then leaves. Norwich are being pathetic in this if as stated they will sell but not to villa, its petty playground stuff and rather embarrassing. I'm happy to have a manager who I think has genuine integrity, wants to build up all areas of the club and won't jump ship at the first sniff of a slightly bigger club coming along yes. In that respect Hughton has always been a good fit for us, particularly when a spell of stability was needed after Lambert. its just a shame his tactics and mentality are so conservative and boring that on occasions I can't bear to watch us play hence would quite like him to be sacked now. A spell of stability? Lambert was with you for 3 years, that's longer than the average manager. Its not like he moved on after 1 season. I just think the board Are being pathetic and ungreatful for what lambert did there. So whats your point - we should let Lambert sign Wes on the cheap as a sign of thanks for all his hard work? Bottom line is that your offer is pathetic. Nothing more needs to be said on the subject really.

Not the first club no but the first one he saw as a step up. He supposedly had talks with Burnley at one point and was linked with West Ham and refused to distance himself from speculation, presumably using it as leverage to get a better deal/more funds from the board. Lambert did great things for us, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement and these things come to an end but one of the things I don;t miss is worrying our manager will be off every time a managerial vacancy comes up! We don;t have to worry about that now of course with good old cautious Chris which is both a blessing and a curse at the same time! Your happy with a manager that wouldn't want to better himself? Its like saying I don't want the club to do well in case the manager then leaves. Norwich are being pathetic in this if as stated they will sell but not to villa, its petty playground stuff and rather embarrassing. I'm happy to have a manager who I think has genuine integrity, wants to build up all areas of the club and won't jump ship at the first sniff of a slightly bigger club coming along yes. In that respect Hughton has always been a good fit for us, particularly when a spell of stability was needed after Lambert. its just a shame his tactics and mentality are so conservative and boring that on occasions I can't bear to watch us play hence would quite like him to be sacked now.

Not the first club no but the first one he saw as a step up. He supposedly had talks with Burnley at one point and was linked with West Ham and refused to distance himself from speculation, presumably using it as leverage to get a better deal/more funds from the board. Lambert did great things for us, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement and these things come to an end but one of the things I don;t miss is worrying our manager will be off every time a managerial vacancy comes up! We don;t have to worry about that now of course with good old cautious Chris which is both a blessing and a curse at the same time!

We were entitled to compensation for our manager (which you tried to deny us) Not really, he resigned. And he had good reason to as well. Well if we were not entitled to compensation then your shareholders should be having a word with your own chief exec for paying it then! Lambert manufactured his departure to move to a club he saw as the next step up the career ladder. I have no problem with him wanting to do that, just the fact that he tried to deny us the compensation we were due. Shame for him really as had he waited a bit longer rather than jump at the first chance he probably could have got himself the Spurs or Everton job where he wouldn't be scrambling around signing Holt on loan and trying to land Wes for £750K!

I've nothing against Villa other than fans who display this sort of smug and pompous attitude. Lived in Brum for a while and you are a bit of a moaney old bunch but at least Villa and WBA fans don;t generally have the aggressive streak you get in Blues or Wolves fans. Particularly ironic when only 1 point separates us in the league and you are desperate to sign a player who does not regularly get in our side! We were entitled to compensation for our manager (which you tried to deny us) and we are entitled to whatever fees we deem fit for our contracted players. The fact that you have tried to get both on the cheap suggests that it's you who are showing the small club mentality not us. A "bigger and better" club should really show more class in the way it goes about things.

Not ignoring it. He probably does fancy the move to Villa for a longer contract on good wages and to play for a more attacking manager but it makes no difference really unless someone offers a fee that we accept. he signed a contract extension last season so he has to abide by that unless the club says otherwise. That is the fundamental point. Many players have handed in transfer requests before and stayed at their clubs. Indeed the suggestion from Dennis appears to be that he handed in the request after having a request for a contract extension turned down by Mcnally (i.e. we would not match the length of contract you appear to be offering).

I see your point but he was fine until the carrot of your longer contract was offered. i don;t think he's fundamentally unhappy at the club (or at least he wasn't) although obviously would like to be playing a bit more. From what i know of Wes i don;t think he's likely to cause major problems in the dressing room but obviously that's a judgment call for Hughton to make! he's been in and out of the team before including when Lambert first took over when we were in League 1 and he was banished to train with the kids and Lambert tried to sell him but he got back in the team and went on to be arguably our most important player in 2 successive promotions and our first season in the premier league!

I agree with a lot your post on principal, but Hoolahan has played 9 games this season - 4 of which have been substitute appearances. I don't know how this fits in with being a "first team player" but I'd assume you won't be getting a transfer fee for him after this window (31 year old, not playing regularly, lack of time on his contract). What are Norwich honestly holding out for? You'd almost be better selling him for £750k given the lack of impact he's having on your season. Why? We don;t need £750K. We have no debt, wage bill under control and are looking to spend rather than sell. If he stays with us to the end of his contract in 18 months time and walks for nothing its not the end of the world and we could probably get more than £750K for him in the summer anyway. We can't get a replacement now for that sort of money. he's a useful player to have in the squad even if he does not play as much as he used to (or as much as the fans would want). He's played very well in 3 or 4 games for us recently and if he stays he will play again in games when we don;t play 2 up front. It is simply not worth the club p****ng off the fans (who have already been in semi-mutiny mode due to Hughton's turgid tactics) by selling Wes (one of the few players who does have some flair) to you lot for that sort of money right now. Had you offered a decent fee from the off it may have been different (and indeed it may be different in the summer) but i suspect both sides are entrenched in their position now. Leaving aside the Villa/Norwich animosity at boardroom level I find it remarkable that so many of you seem to think that we are being unreasonable by refusing to sell you a good player for that pathetic price. PS As i said above do not underestimate the PR angle to this. Hoolahan is a very popular player. Hughton is not that popular as he is perceived as defensive and conservative. This is exacerbated by comparisons with Lambert's (more naive and possibly would have been found out) swashbuckling style which often saw us have 4 strikers on the pitch at the end of games and generally always playing for the win. Symbolically, offloading one of our most popular attacking/creative players to anyone would not go down well. Offloading him to Lambert on the cheap would go down like a sack of sh*t.

I agree with a lot your post on principal, but Hoolahan has played 9 games this season - 4 of which have been substitute appearances. I don't know how this fits in with being a "first team player" but I'd assume you won't be getting a transfer fee for him after this window (31 year old, not playing regularly, lack of time on his contract). What are Norwich honestly holding out for? You'd almost be better selling him for £750k given the lack of impact he's having on your season. Why? We don;t need £750K. We have no debt, wage bill under control and are looking to spend rather than sell. If he stays with us to the end of his contract in 18 months time and walks for nothing its not the end of the world and we could probably get more than £750K for him in the summer anyway. We can't get a replacement now for that sort of money. he's a useful player to have in the squad even if he does not play as much as he used to (or as much as the fans would want). He's played very well in 3 or 4 games for us recently and if he stays he will play again in games when we don;t play 2 up front. It is simply not worth the club p****ng off the fans (who have already been in semi-mutiny mode due to Hughton's turgid tactics) by selling Wes (one of the few players who does have some flair) to you lot for that sort of money right now. Had you offered a decent fee from the off it may have been different (and indeed it may be different in the summer) but i suspect both sides are entrenched in their position now. Leaving aside the Villa/Norwich animosity at boardroom level I find it remarkable that so many of you seem to think that we are being unreasonable by refusing to sell you a good player for that pathetic price.

is that similar to "lambert won't be joining you" then " culverhouse and karva definitely won't be joining you" from your itks when a few of us actually knew different . No it will be different as Hoolahan is a player under contract who cannot (and i suspect would not) just walk out like Lambert did. You have to agree a fee with us and the point that so many of you lot seem to be ignoring in making comments about how petty we have been or how we should "let it go" or that we are being childish is that your reported offer was pathetic. You don't appear to have come in with a better offer subsequently. The transfer request changes nothing really. The fact is that if someone makes a decent offer it will be considered, until they do he's out player and we don;t need or want to sell him. Its not like we are desperate to make the sale so you can leave it til the end of the window and bank on us bowing to pressure. We haven't opened up this feud again. Villa are the ones who have unsettled the player, put in a derisory bid and then via the manager and Holt talked about Hoolahan publically in press conferences to fan the flames. Yet we are supposedly showing being pathetic or showing a small club mentality by refusing to sell you a first team (regularish) player at a knock down price? Can you not see the irony in those claims? Our manager is still on thin ice with our fans at the moment. Selling one of our most popular (and importantly an attacking player with a bit of creativity) players to Lambert for a pittance would be appalling PR for him and its therefore massively naive for anyone your end to think that this approach would ever going to be successful unless you were offering very good money. All Norwich fans knew Carsa and Culverhouse would go to Villa once Lambert did so i'm not sure which ITK's you have been conversing with. Why we we have wanted to keep Lambert's back room staff? they were just pawns in the compensation game.

Maybe they just don't want to sell? To us. If someone like Fulham, Newcastle, Stoke, Cardiff, WBA etc etc etc put in a bid of around 1.5M they'd sell him of that I have no doubt at all. It is us they have the issue with and it is because they are still sore we took Paul from them. I'm pretty sure we would not sell him for £1.5m to anyone else but its also correct to say we do not want to sell to Villa/Lambert if we can help it. Lambert/Villa manufactured his departure from us and then tried to avoid us getting the rightful compensation. Most clubs would be sore. Its no coincidence that Lambert falls out with every club he leaves/walks out on because he is a ruthless individual who is only ultimately concerned with his own career. That's fine, we knew that, benefitted from it for a while and ultimately should not have been surprised that he walked out on us in the same way he did Colchester. That's not to say though that we are not entitled to be disappointed or indeed that we should go about making his life easier now he's your manager by selling him any players he fancies when we don't need to sell them.

In response to the queries above: I would have thought £3-4 million might make us interested. Before your offer came in he had started the last two games and starred against Manchester United. Villa offer gets leaked and suddenly he declares himself injured for the Cup game. It is correct to say that had he been entirely happy at the club then there may not have been an opportunity for Villa to try and exploit and part of his unhappiness (shared by fans) will be down to the lack of playing time under Hughton this season. he's been in and out of the team before though and not agitated for a move like this so i would say whatever discussions have been ongoing with his agent behind the scenes appear to have unsettled him. He is a proven premier league player. he's not playing at the moment because we are playing 4-4-2 and he simply doesn't fit in that formation because he's not quick enough to play on the wing and he's not physical enough to play as part of a midfield 2. he has to play as part of a 3 man midfield or behind the striker in the second striker role. his absence from the team is nothing to do with his ability to hack it at this level merely the way Hughton has been setting us up. when he has played he has done well and against Man U was the best player on the pitch (on either side) but unfortunately our manager does not use Wes as much as most of us would like him to.

Having come back on here for the first time since the Lambert saga to see what the views were re Hoolahan just had to respond to the suggestions that we are being petty or acting like a "small town club" by not agreeing to sell you a good player for a pittance. Fact is: 1. We don't need or want to sell this player so will only do so if the price is right; 2. Your reported offer for him is derisory - you don't get proven premier league creative midfielders for £750,000 or even the £1.5m some reports have cited, especially in January from teams who have no need to sell; 3. There probably is an element of not wanting to sell to Lambert/Villa as well. part of this will be down to relations over how Lambert's move was manufactured/handled and bad blood flowing from that. The other part is probably down to the fact that it appears you have unsettled our player and are trying to get him on the cheap in much the same way you tried to do with the manager. Given this, I don;t blame the club for taking a stance that they are not going to let Villa get their way and sign one of our players on the cheap though grubby tactics. Put in a decent offer in the proper way and I am sure that it will be considered but it will have to be a very good offer because we do not need the money and he's a good player. Also because of the Lambert situation and the way you (and possibly Wes's agent) have gone about this it would probably have to be a better offer than it might otherwise have been. Until you do that, all of the rest of this circus (including the transfer request) is irrelevant. Good little player if you do stump up some proper cash and get him. A bit inconsistent and not suited to every game but when on song he runs the show. Personally I hope he stays because he's a firm favourite with Norwich fans and we would rather see his current unhappiness cured through more time on the pitch for us. Most of us would rather the manager left than Wes. Unfortunately that's now not going to happen this season. Of course whether or not things have now gone too far down the line with Wes for him to be brought back into the side remains to be seen.

Fair enough. I can;t think of a Brummie stereotype to respond with to be honest which should be an insult in itself! ;-)

Which may or may not be the case but none of us know what the clause said. I would be utterly amazed if it said he could talk to any club who approach and if it did he wouldnt have needed our permission to talk to you anyway. A clause which entitles him to "seek permission to talk to other clubs" is not the same as a clause which entitles him to talk to other clubs. If he has to seek permission then there must be circumstances in which permission can be refused and certainly I cannot see how he could just quit 3 hours after making the initial request (as our chairman claims) and claim a fundamental breach of contract. If it transpires we have f**ked up then so be it I will come on here and hold my hands up but before people start calling my club pathetic or p*sspot perhaps we should all wait and see. As i have said before its a shame that the whole matter couldn;t have been dealt with at the time with reasonable compensation agreed rather than have the whole grubby affair played out in public.

We are buying the sh*t we are being fed yet you are utterly convinced that Lambert and Villa have done nothing wrong? In my view you are living in cloud cuckoo land and its pretty obvious to anyone who is not incredibly naive that Lamberts move to Villa was lined up before any approach by him or Villa to Norwich City (because he certainly wouldn't have quit without a job to go to) and all this fuss over the supposed "permission" clause is an attempt to try and exploit a loophole and avoid having to pay compensation. Whether or not that attempt will be successful I don;t know (i don't think any of us do but I do not believe under any such clause we would not at least be able to hold a board meeting to consider any request) but its pretty grubby conduct for a supposedly big premier league club. Then again you tried to get away without paying compensation for Macleish so its not as if there isn't previous there.

No reason for it to be nasty really. There is no real argument between the fans. Most Norwich fans won;t know whether to applaud lambert for what he did for us or whether to abuse him for how he went about leaving and this subsequent revelation so i suspect most will just do neither. We also know he revels in getting grief from the other side as we saw when we thumped Col U after our dispute with them. I don't think its pathetic to want compensation for a highly rated manager walking out on us to go and take a job at a premiership rival when he (so far as we are concerned) was under contract. Every club in the country would be seeking compensation if in the same position.

No reason for it to be nasty really. There is no real argument between the fans. Most Norwich fans won;t know whether to applaud lambert for what he did for us or whether to abuse him for how he went about leaving and this subsequent revelation so i suspect most will just do neither. We also know he revels in getting grief from the other side as we saw when we thumped Col U after our dispute with them. I don't think its pathetic to want compensation for a highly rated manager walking out on us to go and take a job at a premiership rival when he (so far as we are concerned) was under contract. Every club in the country would be seeking compensation if in the same position.

Hi lads, Well I'm sure you can imagine and understand the anger directed towards our ex manager down here this morning. Hitler would be more welcome in the City atm, and he bombed the place! http://www.pinkun.com/home/paul_lambert_taking_norwich_city_to_tribunal_for_2m_over_unfair_dismissal_and_breach_of_contract_1_1572145 For us its very raw, a man we once admired who knows our financial state to do this is beyond the pale, trust me, it will get nasty when you come to play down here. Thats not a threat to Villa and their fans, indeed, quite the opposite, but the anger directed towards your manager will be intense. I won't get involved with the legalities of this or trade insults, but this is just a post to convey the mood down here. Cheers. I must have missed the bit where you acknowledge that your nasty little pisspot club is suing him as well? We are seeking compensation for him leaving yes. I think that has been well known for some time. If you think a manager should be able to just tear up his contract and walk for no compensation after giving the chairman 3 hours to decide if he can talk to a rival club about a job then fair enough. I guess time will tell which club is behaving like the "nasty little p*sspot club." Just seems a shame it all had to be dealt with like this. i am sure there is some blame on both sides but surely both clubs would have just been better served agreeing a reasonable compensation figure and getting on with the football.

Greetings Been a while since have been on here but thought would pop back in light of last nights news. Must say I am pleased to see that most Villa fans seem to have some sympathy for the resentment that most Norwich fans are feeling this morning. For what its worth I think many here are raising an eyebrow at the timing of this revelation given this has all been rumbling on for some time and comes at a time when things are not going for us on the pitch and the manager is under a little bit of pressure. I also suspect that if Lambert does have a claim going to tribunal against us or a contractual claim it is tactical as part of Aston Villa's attempt to avoid having to pay compensation and (at the very least) muddy the waters in that respect. All that said whilst I have no idea if either Mcnally or Bowkett made errors which enabled him to walk away but its very clear to me that Lambert and manufactured his departure from us with a view to joining you and Villa trying to avoid compensation. he walked straight into what I am sure is a better paid job and (unless we haven't paid him some old wages) I cannot believe has suffered any kind of financial loss. Even if this claim is just a tactic as part of the wider dispute the fact he is claiming/seeking anything at all from us shows a complete and utter lack of class and shows up Lambert for the type of man he really is. He may be a good football manager but he is frighteningly ruthless and burns his bridges everywhere he goes. We benefitted from his ruthlessness when we got him from Colchester and we had 3 great years before we suffered from his ultimate ambition. I suspect you will end up in the same boat but at present of course I am sure that doesn;t bother you because if he is able to leave you in similar circumstances it will mean he has done a good job and revived Villa. Ultimately we will still end up massively better off for having had Paul lambert (as i think will you) but for any football fan the notion that these well paid individuals can just walk out on a club for another club and then have the nerve to come back and try and sue them for big money is just wrong and another sign I think that football has gone mad! he's got what he wanted and i'm sure is being very well paid.

Yet he is making a cock of himself by Dave Whelan measures. Why haven't the press picked up on your bogus compensation claims? I suspect because nobody outside of Norwich or the suburbs of Birmingham gives a t*ss whether some nominal amount of compensation was paid for Culverhouse and Karsa. In fact most of us don;t really. I think we got something but its not likely to be a huge amount in the grand scheme of things. Compensation for managers and coaches doesn;t tend to be much anyway. As for the other comments re McNally/Hughton - McNally is a very good CEO and has turned our club around in a manner that very few would have been able to do. There may, or may not, have been a c**k up over allowing lambert permission to talk to you but we will probably never know. In terms of Hughton only a few mavericks would try and argue we have definitely got a better manager in Hughton. Lambert was an outstanding manager for us (although latter part of last season there were a few mistakes IMHO) and Hughton has a tough act to follow. However, he comes across well and many are hopeful that he will turn out to be as good as lambert. We are also enjoying the fact he is more media friendly and actually answers questions. As for predictions of our impending relegation we will have to wait and see. At the moment, however, i don't think either squad has improved markedly from the last game of the season where we beat you with relative ease so if so many are sure we will struggle then it may also be a long, hard season for yourselves.

What, our success has gone to our heads because we don't think we should just roll over and let an (admittedly slightly bigger) club who we finished above last season poach all of our management team for no compensation? You guys would have reacted exactly the same if the boot was on the other foot and I have no doubt you will do when lambert walks out on you at some point in the future. For the time being though we can all move on. We've both got new managers the fans are happy with and we are both making new signings and looking forward to the new season. Bit of a shame though we have to have a lunchtime kick-off for our game at Villa Park. Still at least it should be on the saturday as i would expect Liverpool to get through in the Europa League. I don't think you can blame us really, had McNally and co not reneged on their contractual promise that they would allow Lambert to speak with us directly, Norwich would have been entitled to a good deal of compensation. Blame the Norwich executives, not us. Fair enough protesting if you have a strong case for crying foul but that's not true is it? To be honest none of us know what went on, if the clause in question even exists or if it does what it says so its very hard for any of us to judge whether anyone went back on promises or who was in the wrong. McNally is a hard nosed operator but by the same token he;s no fool so i would be amazed if he breach a term of Lambert's contract to the extent that Lambert was simply able to walk away. If he did then its out of character. With the way football is these things are never clear cut and i am sure that there is barely a transfer or managerial move that is done by the book these daysl Everyone is tapped up and regardless of whether or not McNally gave Lambert permission to speak with Villa I would be amazed if things hadn;p;t already been agreed between lambert's agent and Villa well before any formal approach to Norwich was even made. Anyway as said above, we move on and will be interesting to see how we both get on next season. I have a feeling we will both do ok. For us the change could be what we need to freshen things up and avoid "second season syndrome" and I think lambert will have you in the top half.

What, our success has gone to our heads because we don't think we should just roll over and let an (admittedly slightly bigger) club who we finished above last season poach all of our management team for no compensation? You guys would have reacted exactly the same if the boot was on the other foot and I have no doubt you will do when lambert walks out on you at some point in the future. For the time being though we can all move on. We've both got new managers the fans are happy with and we are both making new signings and looking forward to the new season. Bit of a shame though we have to have a lunchtime kick-off for our game at Villa Park. Still at least it should be on the saturday as i would expect Liverpool to get through in the Europa League.

Thanks but will pass on that one. We've actually just signed the guy who replaced him at Rangers. Based on the comments in here re Hutton lets hope he was an improvement! Interesting to see who you bring in this summer. Its a bit like the "here's what you could have won" bit at the end of Bulleye! Pleased with our signing of Butterfield though. Quite a Lambertesque signing.

So, um, call me crazy but doesn't that mean that once more Norwich aren't actually entitled to any compensation from us? The phrase "my mutual consent" implies that some sort of agreement has been reached to enable them to terminate their contract so i suspect we have been paid something by Villa. Doubt we will all ever find out the details but wouldn;t think it will be a huge sum. Despite what many of you think I don;t think any Norwich fans (including Wiz) ever seriously thought that either of them would stay with us. Hughton has brought his own guys in and would not have wanted them around. Their ongoing employment with us was clearly just for the purposes of the negotiations ongoing behind the scene with Villa. Nobody knows what Karsa does but Culverhouse is key in the Lambert set up and Lambert acknowledges as much. Culverhouse takes virtually all the training and indeed for the first couple of years they were with us i understand Lambert used to go back to Scotland for 2-3 days a week to see his family so Cully pretty much ran things at the training ground. Similar approach to MON and his coaches in that regard. Anyway time to move on now. Hughton is impressing our end with his early actions and i can tell from here that you guys are pleased with Lambert. Will be interesting to see how the season pans out. or "by mutual consent" even!