Turnaround specialist Lambert is the top bhoy

On a day of debuts it was former Celtic skipper Paul Lambert that emerged as the top bhoy as Norwich steamrollered his old club Colchester United 5-0.

Davie Moyes and Gary Caldwell also enjoyed good wins whilst former Celt Colin Healy looked very comfortable helping Falkirk to a 1-1 draw on his first return trip to Celtic Park.

It's hard to imagine a bigger turnaround than reversing a 7-1 home defeat into a 5-0 away win, add in some local rivalry and a promotion place and it makes Norwich's win all the more remarkable.

There were predictable chants of Judas aimed at Lambert from the home supporters but that won't be bothering the Norwich boss with his new side now sitting just three points behind pace-setters Leeds United.

The grudge match attracted Colchester's biggest crowd in 42 years but Lambert played down the significance of the result afterwards.
He said: “The lads were brilliant, they really were, considering all the things that have been going on and have been said, they kept their heads and kept their game going and I thought we were worthy winners.

“We came here to try and win another three points, which we've done. I thought some of the football we played in really bad conditions was exceptional.

“Some of those players were beaten heavily at the beginning of the season and I'm pretty sure for some of them it was at their back of their minds but they never ever showed it.

“We came here to try and win another three points, which we've done.

"I said to the lads you've got to change your game for certain conditions but I thought some of the football we played in really bad conditions was exceptional.

“We had 2,000 fans here today and we could have had a lot more, as I've said before they have been fantastic for us this season following us everywhere in their droves.

“I'm pretty sure that today was sweet for them after what happened on the opening day of the season.

“We will do everything we can to try and go up this season, but for this moment in time I hope we gave them something to feel happy about today”

Norwich have now won seven of their last eight League One fixtures and are clearly looking more towards automatic promotion rather than a play-off place.

Sitting four places behind Norwich is Simon Ferry's Swindon who beat Gillingham 3-1 at home with Paul Caddis expected to move to the County Ground on loan before the end of the month.

It was debut day for Barry Robson, Willo Flood and Chris Killen at Sheffield United but they were unable to prevent Middlesbrough losing 1-0.

Gordon Strachan's side are 13 points away from an automatic promotion place and six behind Sheffield United who are in the fourth play-off spot.

After the defeat Strachan said: “I know what has to be done and I have to change it.

“It's not great fun, it's not nice, I wouldn't recommend it for anybody but you have to deal with it.

“Fortunately I've been about for a few years in this job but I don't think it would be great for a young manager.”

In the Premiership Davie Moyes became the first manager to defeat Roberto Mancini's Manchester City with a 2-0 win at Goodison while Caldwell made a winning start to his Wigan career with James McCarthy a scorer in the 2-0 win away to Wolves.

Official Rangers website turns on Fleck and Wilson

Is the financial meltdown underway at Rangers?

Every day there is fresh news coming out of Ibrox which paints an increasingly bleak financial picture.

This morning the official Rangers website is highlighting the fact that John Fleck and Danny Wilson have both turned down new contracts.

Both players still have 18 months to run on their current contracts, there is probably less than 50 players throughout Scotland that have contracts beyond June 2011.

The official Rangers site said: “Rangers could lose both Danny Wilson and John Fleck to English football after manager Walter Smith revealed the pair turned down new contracts.

“The 18-year-olds, who both have 18 months left on their current deals, were offered lucrative new contracts but have been advised by their agents to turn those offers down and look to further their careers down south.”

Condemnation of players is virtually unheard of through official publications, in contrast they can usually be relied on to put a positive spin on even the most depressing news.

During the last week Kris Boyd's contract offer has remained unsigned with doubts emerging about whether Rangers could honour the pay rise that was greeted with such enthusiasm last week.

News has also emerged of an apparent bid for a club with £100m plus of assets for a knockdown price of £18 with two of the potential investors currently sitting on the Rangers board.

Strangely it has been claimed that the bank, Lloyds/TSB, rejected the offer despite David Murray having control of 90% of the clubs shares.

The Rangers Supporters Trust have predictably been quick to criticise the bank which seems a dangerous policy since it appears to be the goodwill of the bank and their sensitivity over bad publicity that is keeping Rangers from administration.

Should there ever be a change in ownership of the club they could find themselves struggling to find bankers willing to take on an account where they may be publically criticised despite their apparent generosity.

As soon as Fergus McCann took over at Celtic he moved the club's account from the Bank of Scotland to the Co-Operative bank to register his disapproval at the way they handled the clubs business.

It seems that everyone from the bank to teenage footballers are to be sacrificed in the blame game for Rangers troubles.

As yet there appears to have been no bids made for any players halfway through the January transfer window- during the same period Celtic have sold four players and signed two.

There are signs of panic coming from Rangers which will be noted by clubs monitoring their better players.

The January transfer window is notorious for clubs moving into action in the last days and hours, the panic messages coming from Rangers suggests that they will be in no bargaining position if last minute offers come in for any of their players.

Selling Fleck and Wilson seems inevitable with the club website apparently readying the supporters for their departure.

11.45am update: Rangers have only been able to name six substitutes for today's game at Hamilton

Rangers website story

Get over it Gary

Gary Caldwell is now a Wigan player, a Premiership star alongside Titus Bramwell, Mario Melchiot and other anonymus millionaires at the DW Stadium.

Money is the motivation for 90% of footballers and Caldwell has reportedly signed up to a four and a half year deal worth £25,000 a week- three times his Celtic wages.
Mission accomplished.

Caldwell has made good use of the Bosman rule just as he did at Hibs where he signed a pre-contract agreement before moving to Celtic on a free transfer and pocketing another significant rise.

There isn't really any need for Caldwell to go bitching on Celtic's offer or lack of an offer to keep him.

Whether it was the moneymen or manager that made the decision Celtic have clearly decided that they'll get better value out of Jos Hooived than Caldwell.

The new Dutch signing is quite happy with the terms on offer at Celtic which makes Caldwell's comments today seem silly. Hooived is preferred by Celtic while Wigan have also got their man.

Claiming that Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell forced him out Caldwell said: “You have to ask Peter and Dermot if they underestimated me as a footballer.

“They judged me and their judgement was a little bit off from mine. I have no regrets, I had three and a half years there and they were great for me.

“Hopefully I was good for them but the boss had one opinion and the club had a different one. I think the club won in the end.

“The gaffer told me at different times he wanted me to stay. Ultimately we came to a crossroads and it went the wrong way for me and my future at Celtic.”

Caldwell can now concentrate his energy and anger into proving Celtic wrong starting tomorrow in the glamour clash away at Wolves.

Over the piece Caldwell did a good job at Celtic, probably the most successful example of the Bosman ruling but being chased by Wigan and Middlesbrough is probably a fair indication of his ability.

Captaining a Celtic side in which a number of his team-mates were earning three times as much as he was was clearly something that rankled with the defender.

Keeping things quiet and in house may have earned him a better deal at Celtic, a significant rise in salary had been on the table for over a year but he chose to rufuse exactly as he did at Hibs.

Caldwell chose at times to discuss contract matters in public, a tactic that may grab some headlines but unlikely to go down well in the Celtic boardroom or win over supporters split over his ability.

Life goes on for Celtic and Caldwell, Hooived probably has no idea the expectations that are being invested in him by the Celtic support.

A mixture of Johan Mjallby and Roy Race will be hard to live upto- playing his part in reclaiming the SPL title shouldn't be asking the earth.

Wealthy Rangers fans £18m bid to buy the club is ko'd

A group of wealthy Rangers fans are reported to have offered £18m to buy the club from Lloyds/TSB.

The report comes in today's Daily Record and has clearly been leaked by those with a vested interest in the matter.

The price to buy Rangers, where David Murray is the main shareholder, has been something of a mystery but the £18m valuation is surprising and is similar to the value of a decent but hardly spectacular Premiership player like Gareth Barry.

In the recent past Dave King and Joe Lewis have invested a total of £30m simply to gain a seat on the Rangers board alongside Murray. With deals like that in mind it is no surprise that an offer of £18m has been rejected.

Over the last month or so the vibes coming out of Rangers have been surprisingly warm and positive- almost totally at odds with Walter Smith's revelations in October which set a litter of cats loose amongst the pigeons.

There was no need to sell any player Rangers fans were reassured, talks would begin to offer Kris Boyd a lucrative new deal, more lucrative new deals would be offered to Nacho Novo and Kirk Broadfoot with even more lucrative offers made to John Fleck and Danny Wilson.

Putting all this together you could easily think that a well run financially secure club was being discussed, not one whose management team have agreed to work on without contracts.

The truth is out there somewhere.

Valuing a club that has assets of over £100m in Ibrox and Murray Park at £18m seems almost comical although any new owners would also be buying up £31m of debt.

Most interestingly from the Record story the bid seems to have been rejected by Lloyds/TSB despite claims from all that the bank aren't making the decisions at Ibrox.

The report also nods heavily towards new Rangers director Donald Muir for behind the scenes manouvres at Ibrox.

Having came out with a statement denying their role at Ibrox after Smith's October outburst the bank may again have to repeat that statement in the light of growing speculation that Muir and the bank are the real decision makers.

The remaining days of this month will show the true financial picture at Rangers.

Despite the speculation on new deals for players it would fly in the face of banking logic if further spending was sanctioned.

Selling players who can leave for free in five months time makes more logic, bringing in nominal transfer fees and saving wages is a safer bet than hoping that players stay free of injury and contribute towards on-field success.

Meanwhile the turnover that has been long hoped for at Celtic is well underway with an unprecedented four players being sold yesterday.

Jos Hooived has already replaced Gary Caldwell in the numbers game but there is no need to go into the market for squad players- only players to go straight into the first team are required.

Other than the wide positions where Aiden McGeady, Shaun Maloney, Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt are available, every outfield place could be strengthened.

Rangers issues clearly impact on Celtic however Celtic need to have a focussed plan to get back to being a force of sorts in the Champions League- capable of beating the best at home and competing for a place in the knock out stages of the competition.

Two or three well sourced signings similar to Hooived would give the whole club a lift as financial mismanagement begins to bite deeply at Ibrox.

Swindon prepare Caddis loan move

Paul Caddis is set to join Swindon Town on loan until the end of the season.


A deal is expected to be completed by the end of the month that will reunite Caddis with Simon Ferry and Ben Hutchinson.


Swindon boss Danny Wilson said: "Paul is one that we know about and we are hoping to bring him in.


"It won’t happen until the end of January and will hopefully be a loan deal until the end of the season.


"He is a very good player who can play in any position across the back or the middle of the park, and that is perfect for what we want.


"We know where his assets are and what his best positions are, and that is anywhere down the right-hand side.


"It is important for us because we are bare down there. You saw it the other week when Kevin (Amankwaah) had to go off injured, and if anything happened to him again then we could be struggling."


Swindon are currently sitting in sixth place in League One and were knocked out of the FA Cup after losing 1-0 at Fulham.

Bizarre Behaviour of Owen Coyle

My admiration for Owen Coyle has required some questioning over the last week, his comments today about Celtic after being appointed Bolton manager were bizarre.

Coyle has almost always been savvy and streetwise but the saga of his move across Lancashire from Burnley to Bolton didn't have to re-cycle their way through last summer's Celtic vacancy.

There's no doubt that Coyle was in the frame for the Celtic job but whether he was actually offered- and turned down- the job is open to interpretation.

The hunt for Gordon Strachan's replacement would have involved various informal contacts sounding out the thoughts of candidates which would likely have included Davie Moyes, Roberto Martinez, Coyle and Tony Mowbray.

Only once there is genuine interest from a candidate are serious talks likely to begin and offers made.

After Burnley's play-off promotion Coyle was off on a family holiday to Florida. He would have been well aware of Celtic's interest but would also know of the other candidates in the running for the job.

Having pledged himself so publically to Burnley he's had a lot of explaining to do to justify in public his reasons for the move which hardly seems much of a move up the managerial ladder.

Bringing up the fact that he 'turned down' the Celtic job to stay at Burnley is unlikely to satisfy the Burnley fans whose dreams for the season have been left in the lurch with the clock ticking away through the transfer window and a dressing room full of players at Turf Moor who bought into Coyle's plans for the season.

Clearly aware that Burnley fans believed the move was all down to cash Coyle responded saying: “Celtic were the team I supported as a boy and I spoke with Celtic in the summer. They offered me the job and I turned it down to stay at Burnley. I think that puts to bed anything about finances.

“When I came into the job at Burnley I was probably in the bottom three in terms of salaries in the Championship.

“It did not faze me because money has never been my motivation. If I had wanted money I would have taken the Celtic job and trebled, maybe even quadrupled my salary.”

Going into such detail about finances is unusual in football.
A fall-out between manager and chairman- ask Jim Jefferies- is much more likely and believable with Burnley looking to avoid the financial disaster of a one season visit to the Premiership which allows the money from Sky to escape out the door into the pockets of players sitting on fat contracts.

Nodding towards that theory Coyle added: “On balance I had to look at if we'd (Burnley) achieved survival, come the summer is there going to be that investment?

“I wasn't sure there was. In a transitional period I was trying to move things along quicker than finances would dictate.”

Highlighting his new club's set-up Coyle explained: “If you look at the infrastructure of the club, the academy, the training centre, everything is geared for top flight football and my job as manager is to make sure that happens.

“I must say, Burnley have still got a Premier League team as well. We really galvanised the club and took them to a level that is always going to be difficult.”

Moving to Bolton looks very risky for Coyle. He wouldn't have been blamed if Burnley had been relegated, if Bolton go down he'll be held responsible.

Relegation with Burnley would surely have brought him offers from elsewhere with his achievement in gaining promotion outweighing relegation from the Premiership.

Coyle suggested that managers move on through choice or are moved on by clubs when he was introduced as Bolton boss. Wise words.

In 1995 Mark McGhee, another young highly rated Scottish manager, quit Leicester City after a year in charge for the brighter lights of Wolves to be followed, not through choice, by moves to Millwall, Brighton, Motherwell and Aberdeen.

I don't expect Coyle's career to match McGhee's but keeping Bolton in the Premiership and and above Burnley is essential if his decision making is not to be called into question.