You reap what you sew

Last updated : 07 January 2010 By Rick Lamb

Colchester fans are enjoying the betting for the Burnley job. Their former manager Paul Lambert, now piloting Norwich towards a promotion challenge that looked so unlikely when his U's side demolished Bryan Gunn's men at Carrow Road, is an odds-on favourite.

Just over a week before the rematch, when Colchester themselves have just shipped seven, things look like coming full circle. But surely not?

Granted, Burnley are, currently, two divisions above Norwich. They are, technically, the best supported club in England. Whether they are a bigger club than Norwich, whether they provide the challenge and the scope for improvement that Lambert has already begun to exploit in Norfolk, is a different matter.

The bookies have had managerial appointments badly wrong before. The Guardian didn't even see fit to mention Lambert in their appraisal of the runners and riders. they did, however, list the likes of Peter Reid in an article quoting Burnley as wanting someone 'hungry and young'.

The Mail have picked up on Lambert, however, and I am a bit worried. Not because I begrudge someone like Paul Lambert bettering himself, but because we got it right with him, and the chances of doing so again so soon after are slim. Unless Mark Hughes wants a challenge.