Rickie Lambert - A Southampton Legend

Day 1

Well we’ve had four or five days to get used to idea but it doesn’t make it any easier.  Today, Sir Rickie Lambert left Southampton to transfer to Liverpool.  Whilst ‘player leaves football club’ is not really headline news or worthy of much comment – this is Rickie Lambert we’re taking about here.  This is a player who has done more than any individual player to get us from League 1 to 8^th in the Premier League.  'Gutted' doesn’t even begin to cover it to be honest.

The feeding frenzy on Southampton from the vultures was always going to happen but I initially thought that Rickie wasn’t going to be part of that.  He’s 32 and the perception to those outside Southampton seemed to be that his lack of pace would mean that the only clubs who he could have joined, wouldn’t have fancied him.  Of course, the worst club (from our point of view) who could have been interested in him was Liverpool.  Rickie, as everyone knows was born in the city and supports the reds and has their badge tattooed on his shoulder.  It really is the dream move for him and no Saints fan should begrudge him the move.

It’s been a well documented story – the rejection by Liverpool as a kid, the beetroot factory, the trips round the lower leagues and at 27, signing for Saints and scoring goals in every division as we rose through the leagues, scoring with his first touch in an England shirt and getting selected for the World Cup.  At every step up he’s taken there have been so called experts who said he wouldn’t be able to do it at the latest level he was at and every time he’s proved them wrong. You don’t get better stories than that and now he’s off to Liverpool, his hometown club and a massive club.  It’s an undoubted step up for him in the same way that joining us from Bristol Rovers was a step up.  Rovers fans were gutted at the time and we are now.  There are a couple of things that stick in the throat though.

Liverpool have undoubtedly been tapping him up and there are rules against that.  Will anything be done about it? – of course it won’t.  Let’s not kid ourselves that this doesn’t go on however – it’s been going on since transfers were invented and it will continue to do so.  The media have been a complete disgrace over selling off Saints players this summer and this reached a peak when a wanker from Sky took Sir Rickie by surprise and shoved a camera in his face.  Rickie did well in saying nothing controversial but the wanker with the microphone had to ask about ‘other team mates joining him’.  Rickie just walked off.  He’s class like that.

On and off the pitch he is complete class and always has been and will continue to be so.  His open letter to the fans of Saints is fabulous and so obviously heartfelt.  Compare and contrast to Pochettino’s effort.  Here you have the difference between someone who cares passionately for a club and its fans and someone who doesn’t give a shit.  Also class was the statement from the Saints Board which explained why he was allowed to leave, highlighted his contribution to the club and said he’s always be welcomed back.  The club have class now under Katharina Liebherr it seems and have this class in the face of the Great British media who in the main have none.

It does appear on one level that Saints have been trying to offload him.  With the signing of Osvaldo, the club probably thought Rickie would play less but the lunatic Italian was just another fly for him to swat away.  There were rumours of him moving to West Ham in January and if they were true, the banishing of Osvaldo put paid to that.  I can deal with him bettering his career at Liverpool but for him to end up at West Ham under Allardyce would have been a travesty.  Allardyce would have used him as a target man in tandem with Andy Carroll and wasted 99% of what Sir Rickie is about.  Brendan Rodgers knows what he’s buying.

On the face of it, getting a few quid for a 32 year old makes economic sense but as everyone should know – there are some things that you cannot put a price on and Rickie Lambert is one of them.  His contribution, aura and way he carries himself and continues to meet all challenges is something you can’t put a figure on.  Could we have kept him once Liverpool came calling? Probably not but I feel that we could have driven a harder bargain, especially in the face of their tactics of leaking everything through the media and issuing ultimatums which they have a history of doing.  You can’t buy a centre forward for £4 million who is going to do anything at Premier League level unless you get very lucky.  We nearly paid that amount for Mayuka… there you go.  I know there are add-ons but Liverpool in control of those and are we ever likely to see any money from them.  I guess it depends what the add-ons are but we all remember those 9 minute appearances for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as 10 minutes constituted an appearance and one appearance nearer to Arsenal having to pay us some more money.

I couldn’t write anything new that could do justice to Rickie Lambert so we’ll go with a personal top 5 moments from his time at Saints.  I’ve included a short section of how I’ve ‘reported’ these 5 moments in this blog.  It’s quite cool to think I’ve blogged his whole Saints career.  117 goals and loads of assists and these are five moments off the top of my head.

5 – First Saints hat-trick away at MK Dons in League 1

The second half started with Davis sending a big boot downfield which was headed straight up in the air by the Fake Dons centre back, the goalkeeper, our old mate Willy Slice it Gueret came for a punch and was comprehensively outjumped by Sir Rickie who headed it into the recently vacated net. Willie should be referred to as Super Willie Gueret from now on – a) because he’s Super for us every time we play them and b) it sounds like a porn star.

Davis had to be at his best a few minutes later as Jermaine Easter managed to acrobatically hook it goalwards, only for Super Kelvin to take off and turn it away. This was a bit of a key moment as following a corner up the other end, Fonte ended up on the left wing and decided to have a run at the full back. He beat him on the outside and forged into the box where he was shot by a sniper. To be fair, I think it was a foul but he sure made a meal of it. Up stepped Sir Rickie and buried the penalty bottom left, despite Super Willie going the right way.

On 75 came the final nail in the Fake Dons coffin and made sure of the 4 wins out of 4 when Sir Rickie expertly controlled another Davis bomb and having chested it down, volleyed it over Super Willie (who was not having a good day) from 40 yards. The ball went miles up in the air before crashing down to earth and bouncing down behind the line for a quite stunning goal and what a strike to seal Sir Richard Lambert's first hat-trick for the mighty SFC. You really can’t attach any blame to Super Willie for the goal as no keeper on earth would have been back on his line at that point.

http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/league-1-match-37-mk-dons-0-southampton.html

4 – Goal in FA Cup against Portsmouth at home – because we went completely mental.

Back came the Saints and four minutes later got a free kick wide on the right. Sir Rickie stayed in the box and here’s why. Harding’s left footed kick was straight on his head and he nodded in powerfully past James who had in truth, kind of come for it and gone back again. SMS went mental in a way that makes you love a derby game – but only when you’ve scored. Pards - Sir Rickie is like a magnet for the ball when he’s in the box and he knows where the goal is and is much more likely to score from a header than anyone else in the team so get him in there and get Lallana and Schneiderlin to practice set piece delivery.

http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/fa-cup-5th-round-southampton-1.html

3 – 2 goals v Ipswich away in Championship showing he was a force at Championship Level.  (By the way, The King of Porn is Paul Jewell)

Saints started with the confidence of a team that had won their last 8 games and tore into Ipswich and it took all of 4 minutes for Saints to carve them open as Sir Rickie played a neat 1-2 with Connolly and lost Edwards who totally failed to track him (like most wingers playing at right back) and buried it under Stockdale for 1-0.

The King of Porn responded by switching all his midfielders into different positions and putting on some 70’s music but the climax came from Saints on 10 minutes as Lallana took a pass from Cork and passed to Sir Rickie who calmly curled it round Stockdale and in off the far post for 2-0.

http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/npc-match-3-ipswich-2-southampton-5.html

2 – Goal vs Man City – benched by Nigel Adkins, proved with 5 minutes he could handle the Premier League

And so it came to pass that Sir Rickie started the move and plays in Lallana whose scuffed cross breaks to JWP who gives it back to Sir Rickie.  His attempted 1-2 with Guly bounces back to him off of Lescott and he sidefoots it first time past Hart and into the corner and we all go absolutely mental.  The celebrations are brilliant as Foxy attempts the high jump record and falls off the top of the pile of bodies and over the advertising boards which earned him a booking for ‘jumping too high’ as it will no doubt say in Webb’s report – he didn’t do it on purpose so to my mind, that booking is absolutely ridiculous.

Sir Rickie scoring is a massive thing and the confidence it will give him is immeasurable

http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/premier-league-match-1-manchester-city.html

1 – Goal vs Scotland, 2 minutes into his international debut

We all saw it – Sir Rickie Lambert came on as a sub for England and within two minutes, scored the winning goal against Scotland with his first touch, a thumping header that no keeper on earth would have stopped.  I was watching it on the TV with two of my kids who were both wondering why Dad (Aged 44) hit the roof and was then crying. 

http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/lambert-and-england-not-bad-start.html

An then of course there were the penalties which he never missed – here’s one of those at Wembley in the JPT final

Antonio had started up front with Waigo on the right but when Antonio found himself on his natural right hand side for the first time, he put over a cross towards Lambert where for some reason, the centre back flapped it away with the palm of his hand. From where I was you couldn’t tell what the ref had given but it was as obvious as you like. The only debate was whether he should have been sent off or not. When Sir Rickie is on the pens, the centre back may as well have caught it and thrown it in the net himself as there is only ever one outcome. Bang, top right, 1-0 despite goalkeeper Collin being about five yards off his line when the kick was struck.

http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/jpt-final-carlisle-1-southampton-4.html

And he odd free kick as well.  This one against those odd Dorset chaps.

Totally failing to learn their lesson from earlier, Pearce - another Bournemouth player without a booking - lined up Chamberlain and hacked him down becoming the 3rd Bournemouth player to be booked for hacking down one of our wingers. This one is about 25 yards out and level with the edge of the penalty area. Up steps Sir Rickie for an attempt at his 25th free kick miss of the season and bang – over the wall and into the top corner as Jalal slides along the goal line on his backside. At the time, I was told it had hit the side netting by the complete Goons on Solent... truly mind-blowingly awful radio commentary, totally ruining the moment. It’s funny, on a day when it appears that local radio may be under threat; they produce two of the worst bits of radio football commentary ever.

http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/league-1-match-34-bournemouth-1.html

So thanks to Sir Rickie Lambert for his contribution to our rise through the leagues and helping establish us in the top flight.  It’s been said often that we’re as high as we can go now and that may be true.  It’s also been said frequently by many who haven’t got a clue that Rickie Lambert was a high as he could go.  He’s proved everyone wrong every time and by moving to Liverpool, he’s given himself the opportunity to prove that he can scale even greater heights.  Now he’s set his sights on the World Cup and the Champions League.  Don’t bet against him unless you want to lose your money.  It’ll be a bit of kick in the guts seeing (Liverpool) after his name on the England squad list but he’s a Saint.  He won’t have kicked a ball for Liverpool before he plays in the World Cup so he’s a Saint now and he always will be.

Legend.