I feel compelled to answer your post regarding Paul Lambert as you reckon he would not be able to handle so say top players.Well like i said in my post this man has won the champions league as a player,so that in itself commands respect & at the moment how many of our players can say that only Stevie who's not had a good season & who,s career is coming to an end,as for Carra he cannot now command even a starting place.Lambert has also won titles in Germany & Scotland so i think he is more than capable of handling so say top players.
I've seen the references to John Barnes in this thread as reasons why top players don't necessarily become top managers, and I'm surprised no one (especially someone like Stanley Park) hasn't mentioned Kenny Dalglish in the same category of European Cup winner but average manager of a big club. The best managers tend to have made their names as managers, not as players - Fergusson, Mourinho, Benitez.
This point you make about us getting into the champs lge i think you need to wake up & smell the coffee fella, we are a million miles away, we've just finished 8th there are 4 places up for grabs,2 Manc clubs,Chelski because they will spend a shed load of money,which will leave hopefully us,Arsenal,spuds maybe the barcodes!fighting for one place.
So how much more money are we going to waste,rumour has it that the new manager will get 30mil for new players,so it has to be spent wisely.Lambert would be a far better bet than both Bobby Martin & Rodgers
I agree that other clubs will spend more than us again this summer. I do think that when people see us in 8th they immediately think the wrong thing. The important thing is actually the points gap to 3rd, because that is what we need to address rather than our rivalries or relative strengths against the clubs fighting for the same place. We finished 18 points behind Arsenal, either 6 more losses need to become wins, or 9 draws need upgrading. That is a significant demand. We're more likely to get some of each if we're playing better, but either way we need to improve the results of roughly 25% of our games. That means our squad must either become stronger or must learn to play together at a far higher level than this season.
Fortunately one can look at the 11 points referees cost us this season and understand that the squad is probably close to being good enough if Lucas can play 30 games rather than 12, so 30m (+some minor sales) is probably plenty enough to buy the missing links. But our squad is also rather small and needs fleshing out if we're to compete in 4 competitions without throwing too many youth players to the wolves, so we're likely to fall short unless the manager is excellent. For all their "good results with bad teams", there is nothing to suggest that managers of clubs on the cusp of promotion/relegation are any better than some of the managers sacked this season (eg Steve Bruce who did better with Wigan than Martinez has).