Celtic 67Live · @the_eriugena
30th May 2012 from Twitlonger
Here's the Paul Lambert story without hitting The Sun's site –
PAUL LAMBERT quit as Norwich boss last night.
The Scot resigned following a furious bust-up after the club refused to give Aston Villa permission to talk to him.
Lambert will walk into the vacant Villa job, with owner Randy Lerner and chief executive Paul Faulkner identifying him as their No 1 choice yesterday.
The raging boss wanted out once it became clear the Canaries were digging their heels in, adamant they would not even let him hear what Villa had to offer.
It resulted in a bitter end to Lambo’s three-year love affair with the Carrow Road club, who he took from League One obscurity to 12th place in the Premier League following successive promotions.
It is the second time in 18 months that Norwich, backed by TV cook Delia Smith, have refused to give their manager permission to speak to a rival club.
In January 2011, they turned down Burnley’s request to approach Lambert following the dismissal of Brian Laws.
A Canaries statement at the time said: “The club will fight tooth and nail to retain the services of Paul Lambert and his team during this critical period of the season and whilst they remain employed under a long-term contract.”
They tried the same tactic yesterday but it blew up in their face — days after Lambert, 42, declared he was going nowhere.
That clears the way for him to succeed Alex McLeish, who Lambo played under at Motherwell.
SunSport can reveal Villa identified the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder as the steely character required to shake up the Midlanders before Roberto Martinez declared he was staying at Wigan.
Lerner feels Lambert is the young, aggressive and ambitious boss Villa need after two miserable years.
Norwich now face a summer sweat to bring in a new manager.
Former Canaries skipper Malky Mackay will be a contender.
He took Cardiff to the Carling Cup final, where they lost to Liverpool on penalties, as well as the Championship play-offs last season.
Chris Hughton is also in the frame.
West Brom are not keen to cough up around £2.5million for the Birmingham man’s services.
But that figure would not worry Norwich who expect to receive some compensation from Villa when Lambert is officially installed as boss.