New Lambert Deal Proves That Norwich's Yellow Submarine Is No Sinking Ship

Paul Lambert’s new contract at Norwich City, the length of which is unknown, is the least he deserves after the rollercoaster ride of the last 21 months for both himself and the club.

It is a ride which has culminated in the Canaries winning promotion to re-join the elite of English football for the first time since 2005.

Following relegation to League One for the 2009/10 season, Norwich’s start under Bryan Gunn was nothing short of humiliating. A 7-1 home defeat to local rivals Colchester United who, at the time, were managed by Lambert. Already 4-0 down inside 22 minutes, two fans decided they had seen enough and ripped up their season tickets on the pitch. It would come back to bite them firmly on the backside.

Lambert's arrival sparked a transformation at Carrow Road

A mere six days later and Gunn had been sacked with Lambert sounded out as the top target. 39 at the time, his best achievement was leading a fourth tier Wycombe Wanderers to the semi-finals of the League Cup where they lost to Chelsea.

Despite this, Norwich were adamant that Lambert was their man and eventually got him after he walked out on Colchester to join the Canaries – a move that later cost them £400,000 at a tribunal but money well spent considering what Lambert has achieved whilst at Carrow Road.

Lambert’s influence on the side was immediate with the team winning League One from Leeds

United with an attractive, passing game. The season that has just passed, however, has been the one that has placed Lambert, 41, into the spotlight as one of the best young managers in the country.

Lambert celebrates promotion at Portsmouth

Seemingly not content with establishing themselves as a Championship side, Norwich finished 2nd to Queens Park Rangers to earn back-to-back promotions: an achievement spearheaded and encapsulated by one of the key performers of the Lambert era.

After proving himself as a success lower down the leagues earlier in his career, Grant Holt was plucked from Shrewsbury Town for £400,000 having scored 28 goals in the 2008/09 season. He was to be an even bigger success at Norwich with 30 goals for the season in which they won League One and followed that up with another 23 in the last campaign.

His performances have seen him included in the Team of the Year for League Two, League One and the Championship in the last three years – a testament to the hard work he has put in to prove himself as a consistent goalscorer.

Grant Holt's goals have been vital to Norwich's progress

Arguably the biggest contributing factor to Norwich’s promotion was the amount of late goals that they scored. They won 22 points with goals scored after 80 minutes and although title winners QPR had the highest percentage of goals scored after 80 minutes, they were nowhere near as important as those that Norwich scored.

Over the course of the season, there was no doubt that Norwich deserved to go up. They showed three sides to their game towards the end of the season with a comprehensive 6-0 win against Scunthorpe United, a great comeback against an impressive Nottingham Forest and a gritty 1-0 win at Portsmouth which guaranteed promotion.

Norwich like to play good football and have gained a reputation for doing so but you feel that they will need to produce more of the ugly wins next season if they are to stay up. Following Blackpool’s example of all out attack could result in disaster though the general consensus appears to be that Norwich’s defence is a lot better than that of the Seasiders.

One of Norwich’s strengths has been the ability to get goals from all sources. The likes of Russell Martin, Wes Hoolahan, Andrew Crofts and, of course, Holt all made their contributions to the final tally of 83 league goals – the highest in the division.

Simeon Jackson celebrates scoring the goal that clinched promotion

Simeon Jackson also made a telling contribution towards the end of the season with 9 goals in the last 8 games of the season including the goal that sent Norwich up. It was Lambert’s faith in the Canadian frontman, who had been disappointing throughout the season, which saw the ex-Gillingham man come good at just the right time.

Other signings from the lower leagues proved themselves to be more than capable of mixing it with the best the Championship had to offer and now get to have a crack at the Premier League. Players like Marc Tierney, Andrew Crofts, and David Fox all came from League One sides and made the transition to Championship life seamlessly as the Canaries now aim to consolidate amongst the big boys.

Question marks will remain about whether such players have the quality to keep Norwich in the Premier League, many feel that there is a need for the defence to be strengthened as well as the purchase of a Premier League quality striker but Lambert will be given money to spend despite Norwich’s debts.

Lambert will have to spend that money wisely to make Norwich an attractive and competitive outfit in the Premier League. They will be one of the favourites for relegation but, having warded off interest from other clubs with the signing of this new contract, Norwich will have every confidence in Lambert that he can keep them up.

Chicharito Worth His Weight In Goals

Last summer Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that there was no longer any value within the transfer market thanks to the kamikaze spending of other clubs - most notably Manchester City - but one of his own signings has blown that theory well out of the water.

Javier 'Chicharito' Hernández has been a revelation since his move from Chivas Guadalajara of his native Mexico before the World Cup. With hindsight, it is a good job that Manchester United signed him when they did or his value would have skyrocketed after impressing in South Africa.

The 22 year-old was a nominee for the PFA Young Player of the Year award that eventually went to Arsenal's Jack Wilshere but must be a shoo-in for the Signing of the Year award ahead of the likes of Rafael Van Der Vaart and Peter Odemwingie.

At £6m, that's 8.33 times less than Fernando Torres for all of you Chelsea fans out there, Hernandez has re-defined the meaning of the term 'Bargain Buy'.

Hernandez scores his first goal for Manchester United

With 19 goals in all competitions, Chicharito's debut season in England has been nothing short of sensational. Ranging from the spectacular, that back-header away at Stoke, to the downright bizarre, his header (ahem) against Chelsea in the Community Shield, his goals have been significant in Manchester United's hunt for success.

Hernandez's knack of being in the right place at the right time has drawn comparisons with Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer. The Norwegian striker also scored 19 goals in his debut season at Old Trafford but one would suspect that Chicharito will surpass that with at least six games left this season - there is potentially a seventh should United reach the Champions League final at the expense of Schalke.

The baby-faced assassin is just as lethal for his country as he is for his club. He currently averages better than a goal every other game with 14 in 23 appearances for Mexico. It surprises the Mexican people when Hernandez doesn't score for El Tricolor.

Hernandez has been compared to United legend Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer

After bagging the winner in a hard-fought clash with Everton at Old Trafford, Hernandez stated that he would trade every one of his goals from this season for a Premier League winners medal. Were it not for his telling interventions in many a game, United would be well off the pace.

The medal he is likely to receive for United winning the Premier League is surely the first of many in what will be a decorated career for the third-generation star. He may yet end up with a Champions League winners medal, too, should fortune favour United in the coming weeks.

Twenty goals per season, injuries permitting, must be his target every season from now on and, under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson, he can only improve further which will worry defences around the world.

Rey Ronaldo

Real Madrid defeated Barcelona 1-0 after extra time at the Mestalla in Valencia to win the Copa Del Rey for the 18th time.

After the draw that was played out at the Bernabéu at the weekend, it was expected that this game would be a lot more exciting as there was a lot more at stake. It seemed that Madrid had accepted that the title was Barcelona's before a ball was kicked at the weekend but this was the first chance of the season to win some silverware and silence the critics, who had recently turned on a defensive-minded José Mourinho.

What was served up, however, was another poor match. Not that the thousands of Madridistas will care.

Ronaldo's header proved to be the winning goal

Containing Barcelona appears to be José Mourinho's gameplan. And it works just as well with Real Madrid as it did with Internazionale.

In the first half Barcelona didn't have a sniff as Madrid were very compact in their own half, harassing the Barcelona players and not giving them time and space on the ball though the movement from the Catalans was virtually non-existant. A few players seem to be running on empty after a long, hard season competing on all fronts.

Madrid, inversely, were a lot sharper and first to the loose balls which gave them the chance to send Ronaldo away over the top - their only hope from their tactical set-up was to hit Barcelona on the break with the pace of Ronaldo and Di Maria.

For all of the tiki-taka from Barcelona there were no signs of any potential penetration of the Madrid backline and it was Los Blancos who came closest to scoring in the first half; Pepe's header crashing off the post with stand-in goalkeeper Pinto stranded and Mascherano clearing from inside his own six-yard box when Ronaldo had the first real opportunity of the game.

Barcelona didn't test Iker Casillas at all in the first 45 minutes - the seriously off-form David Villa, who hasn't scored in 11 games now, was anonymous and looked like a shadow of the player purchased from Valencia before the World Cup last Summer.

David Villa has now gone 10 games without scoring

Guardiola must have had serious words at half-time because Barcelona came out playing like a completely different team. They stepped it up a notch and Messi began to find space where he could start to cause trouble to the Madrid defence. Casillas was finally tested as Barcelona began to pepper his goal with shots; Iniesta and Pedro went closest with the latter scoring but his effort was ruled out for offside.

Real pushed forward in search of a winner, Ronaldo looked set to score but was denied by a brilliant tackle from Dani Alves and Angel Di Maria's deflected effort was palmed over the bar by Pinto with minutes of normal time remaining. Neither side could find a breakthrough which meant 30 minutes of extra time would follow and eventually Madrid struck in the 102nd minute.

Good build-up play down the left-hand side between Marcelo and Di Maria set the Argentine winger away and his pin-point cross found Ronaldo, who crashed his header beyond the despairing dive of Pinto to put Madrid within 20 minutes of a first trophy since 2008 and a first Copa Del Rey triumph since 1993.

Di Maria saw red for a second yellow card, making sure that a team managed by Mourinho didn't make it through to the end of the game with the full compliment of players again, as time ticked away.

This was Madrid's first trophy since 2008 and their first Copa Del Rey win in 18 years.

Barca pressed for an equaliser but they could not break down a stubborn Madrid rearguard, meaning Los Blancos defeated their arch-enemies in a foul-ridden game to give José Mourinho tangible reward for his efforts in his first season in charge at the Bernabéu. The 'Special One' has now won a trophy every season since 2003 with four different clubs: Porto, Chelsea, Inter and Madrid.

The victory was Real Madrid's first over Barcelona since 2008 and sets things up very nicely for the first leg of the Champions League semi-final which is to be played on 27th April at the Bernabéu.

José Mourinho has his way of playing against Barcelona and it is clearly effective. The Catalans looked frustrated at times last night and don't seem to have an answer to the questions Madrid currently pose. A sign, perhaps, that the balance of power may start to swing back towards the most decorated club in the history of Spanish football.

Wembley awaits the winners of the Champions League semi-final.

The league may be Barca's and the Cup Madrid's but the real fight starts now. Madrid's obsession with the Champions League is not as discreet as they'd like it to be and Mourinho's stranglehold on the tournament leaves them in good stead to go through to the final at Wembley.

As we sit half-way through the war, looking at the way the two games have gone so far I don't think it would be beyond exaggeration to call the 5-0 Barcelona win in November a fluke result. Mourinho has proved himself, again, to be a master tactician and I'd suggest he got his tactics horribly wrong at the Camp Nou. Now he knows Madrid have what it takes to beat Barcelona and the players know they have what it takes, I think the next two games will go in Madrid's favour as they now have the psychological edge.

And, should they make it to the Wembley final with Manchester United, what price a Ronaldo winner?