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[eatonparkboy]

It was the greatest wake up call this club has ever had regarding the playing side. I went to the Yeovil cup game a few days later which we won 4-0 and to be honest it was just a Grant Holt show. The following Saturday I stood on the terraces at Exeter, witnessing the most weak and tepid of performances and just knew there and then that it needed not just revolution but complete destruction and rebuild. And luckily, that did happen.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

It was the greatest wake up call this club has ever had regarding the playing side. I went to the Yeovil cup game a few days later which we won 4-0 and to be honest it was just a Grant Holt show. The following Saturday I stood on the terraces at Exeter, witnessing the most weak and tepid of performances and just knew there and then that it needed not just revolution but complete destruction and rebuild. And luckily, that did happen.

Luckily that process was successful. When Leeds started to plummet it was like there was a cancer at the club, and despite their talented players, the attitude and culture that had developed was not salvageable. I remember thinking that the only way around that was to gut the club and rebuild so that new players could bring a new attitude in and not be poisoned by their predecessors. For whatever reason, though that happened, Leeds only deteriorated still, and to be honest have never recovered. That could so easily have been us. If Lambert had not been so hugely successful we might still be in League One, consolidated there by mediocre players, crippled by debt with no means to pay it off. We really do owe Lambert everything, and the board for being so ruthless with Gunn (and lets not forget the criticism this got from so called experts)

 

[Beauseant]

Luckily that process was successful. When Leeds started to plummet it was like there was a cancer at the club, and despite their talented players, the attitude and culture that had developed was not salvageable. I remember thinking that the only way around that was to gut the club and rebuild so that new players could bring a new attitude in and not be poisoned by their predecessors. For whatever reason, though that happened, Leeds only deteriorated still, and to be honest have never recovered. That could so easily have been us. If Lambert had not been so hugely successful we might still be in League One, consolidated there by mediocre players, crippled by debt with no means to pay it off. We really do owe Lambert everything, and the board for being so ruthless with Gunn (and lets not forget the criticism this got from so called experts)

I agree, but sadly people forget so quickly. There were quite a number of fans who would have happily seen David McNally hounded out in the summer. To my mind he and Alan Bowkett were the saviours of the club. That's not to ignore what Lambert did so brilliantly on the pitch, but without those two somehow persuading AXA and the Bank to reschedule the loans there would have been no club to manage.

It makes my blood boil when I hear fans talking about City being in the Premier League as if its some sort of entitlement and spitting their dummies when we went down. The miracle is that we've had three years at the top table so close to a period when we were (literally) within 24 hours of adminstration, and now have the chance to bounce back debt free.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

True rags to riches story! I think Grant Holt does need a special mention though. Hard to know how good his season would have been under Gunn (he managed a hat-trick after all), and had Holts level of achievement remained the same despite the manager, Holt could well have pulled us, perhaps not to promotion, but to a level of success. I have left Hoolahan out mainly because (and correct me if I am wrong) but wasnt it Lamberts revolutionary decision to move Wes into the middle from the wing? Im sure he was only ever played on the wing under Roeder, but I remember it being a product of Lambert's genius to turn Wes from a tricky liability into the magician (who cares if he loses it at the tip of a diamond) we now know. Without Lambert's influence, Wes may well have remained the frustrating enigma Lambert inherited and wouldnt have contributed to our League One season in the way he did

 

[Beauseant]

You're quite right regarding Wes. Unlike subsequent managers Lambert realised it was the ONLY position he could be played in!

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Interesting to watch the crossbar challenge link that comes on at the end of that Lawrenson video. From the Roeder era - an unsettling blast from the past...