Things are not looking good for Lambert and Faulkner and now the away support have started up and the manager can now no longer comment on the fantastic support, you know his days are numbered. But the sad truth is that we've got an owner and CEO that don't actually know what they're doing and it's those two that are holding the manager back.
They are holding us back because somebody somewhere should have said no to signing Shay Given. Someone should have said no to signing Charles N'Zogbia and when you spend £20mn plus on a player you make that player feel loved and wanting to play for you, so you do better and can, when you're doing better, attract similar calibre players.
But this isn't about Darren Bent and is he or isn't he. This is about, what you have to do when you want to play this game. But for the love of God, somebody somewhere had to say no to Stephen Ireland and whoever decided Alex McLeish was a good idea needs sacking.
But the point I want to make before looking at the Palace result is this; we've spent two years with Lambert and while for the most part it's not what we had wanted or expected (remember, he wasn't on my top five list when we were looking for a manager), we can't get away from the 'two years' and to change now would be like throwing away the next two years, because lets face, what are the chances of the next manager achieving success.
Change needs to come, but we also need some form of stability. A new CEO and a new coach or two along with someone to bring a new dimension to what happens in terms of football thinking at the club is needed and it's something Lambert either accepts or doesn't, but I suspect the current CEO doesn't even know what I'm on about when I talk dimensions unless it's that one ... okay, I wont.
My point is, I think we'll stay up and if we get the right people in to support the manager and players and have someone tell him what is expected and then sit down and help him plan it, I believe hand on heart, we will do better. And I don't mean, sit around a table and talk about it, but I mean seriously plan it out to the day, hour and session.
Defeat to Palace
Let's take nothing away from Crystal Palace, they deserved to win. We looked lost when playing, even though it wasn't all hit long. We did try, for parts to keep the ball, but for large parts, when we had it, we didn't know what to do.
We should have gone long. I mean, a lot of people knew what we needed in the summer apart from apparently the manager, CEO and owner. We needed stability and to strengthen but we did the opposite. And if you've seen the image on the home page that links to this story, you'll see that even Tony Pulis and all the Crystal Palace players knew our strengths before the game and how to play against us.
But we lost. But now everyone believes Crystal Palace are safe with three more points than us. However, I think we can also pick up at least three points from Southampton, Swansea, Hull, Manchester City and Spurs, so I think we need to sit patiently and see what happens between now and the summer.
I also think the manager needs to be given more time but I know I'm in the minority on this. But I was in the minority when it came to Krulak, Lerner and Houllier and even Faulkner last year, so it's not lost on me that I'm in the minority again.