A lot has been written this week about Paul Lambert and there is a growing number of supporters that think he has to go and that if he doesn't, we face the real prospect of relegation. And they're right and wrong.
They are right that we face the prospect of relegation but they're wrong that Paul Lambert has to be sacked. Don't get me wrong, I wrote last April that for me, Lambert had until October to show that he can get the team playing the right way or he had to go. And in October I wrote that he had to go. It wasn't just a reactionary post, it was, in my humble opinion a well thought out post.
That he has the team playing the right way now to an extent proves the point. He's had the chances and it's one thing getting them to play the right way, it's absolutely another thing to get them playing the right way and doing it better than the opposition. And he doesn't have that long left to get it right because there are not that many games. If he was sacked in October, the new right man could have come in and got it fixed by now.
It doesn't take four seasons
That it's taken him into his third season to figure this out should be enough, that he is breaking all the wrong records all over place should be what sealed it. But the sad truth is that he has to stay in the job now because the risk of changing things now, again this is just my opinion, is far greater than sticking with him.
Sure, a new manager could come in and have an instant impact and we could pick up the thirteen to 15 points that would keep us up, but it could also be that the new man comes in and we implode. Right now we look like Wigan the season they went down and that isn't a good sign and I'm not convinced changing it will make it better.
And I think the players like him and I think change now upset too many players. But the CEO has said it doesn't take four seasons, so I do think this is his last chance. If we start to score goals, I can't believe I'm writing that, it could all fall into place and we might start winning the games we need to win.
But again, he can't be fired. If we scrape through this season and manage to stay up, sure he will have to go, but at the same time it might all come good and we'll all have to eat humble pie, but I just can't see that happening and I'm not hungry. But for all the information we don't have, what we're seeing now was predicted and had they just done the right thing at the right time, there was every chance we wouldn't be in this situation.
And none of this is written with hindsight, it's well documented on this site. Worst case scenario is we'd have been in exactly the same situation had we sacked him in October, but then that wouldn't really have mattered. But one thing is for sure, the next fifteen games are going to determine if all this extra information the club have really counts for anything.