Interview: Paul Lambert
Credit to the photographer who took this photo. Source: @PremierLeague Twitter.
Follow Stadium Astro on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to get updates on the next football legend arriving in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Thank you to the good people at Astro SuperSports for extending the invitation towards padangbolasepak.com to interview a former professional football player, a professional football manager, and an overall humble human being, Paul Lambert. And thank you to Paul Lambert for being an eloquently perceptive individual around the interview. The questions asked were about attributes, attitudes, mentalities, developments, and spirit in football. During his time as a former professional player and as a professional football manager. With limited time, the following was the conversation,
Question: A career that spans from the mid 1980’s until today. As a former professional player and as a professional football manager. How much has football changed since when you started and presently? Style Culture, and professionalism.
Answer: The game of football hasn’t changed a massive amount. It’s still 11 v 11, ball is still round. Of course, certain aspect has changed, offside, tackling, back pass. All those things changes, and everyone adapts, everybody evolves. But the general basics of the game hasn’t changed. The media attention is absolutely vast. The actual game. I don’t think it has massively changed.
The whole structure, academies. When I was growing up, we had to do the job, we had to help. Cleaning the dressing rooms, cleaning boots, wash cars, paint walls. We were brought up that way, it was called ground staff. Which helped the groundsmen, we helped the physiotherapist. A lot of things like that has evolved.
Question: Does that helped imbed the identity with the club? The love of the club, doing all that grounds work.
Answer: Yes. If you look at the great All-Blacks, Rugby team. They still clean their own dressing room. They make sure everything is tidy. There’s great ethics there. Of “This is what we do.” There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a really good thing to have. The discipline, this is our club. We are going to treat the club our way.
Question: How do you cope with the stress? What role does external criticism play? I imagine as a manger and a former player you filter out almost all of it. But what do you let in?
Answer: You try not let stress have a build up. If you are the focal point of the football club, the manager. You know everything is going to rest on your shoulders. A pressure there. The criticism, the praise, the awkward questions, the media side. You got to take it. As long as it doesn’t give you a level of flatness. I think that is important. Stress management, I am not going to let the stress take me that level. I think stress management, very very important.
Question: What was the hardest pre-match or post-match interview?
Answer: When I was a Aston Villa, we lost 8-0 against Chelsea. And you go thinking, “What am I going to say?”. You have to think outside the box. What you are going to say, there’s not real defence, when you are 8-0. You just have to be honest. That was a difficult one.
Question: On the flip side, what was your most joyful post-match interview?
Answer: When Norwich got promoted, was great! When Wolves beat Liverpool in the FA Cup. When people didn’t expect it.
Question: As a former player as well as a coach and a manager. What is that one key trait do you find in a fellow teammate, as well as manager looking on to your players and your coaching staff?
Answer: What you want people to do is to trust you. Trust in a manager that you believe in. What you want tactically. What you from the staff. And what the club wants from you. They have to trust you. That’s one of the big key element is to have trust with everybody.
Question: We see on social media, how professional players are, displaying their lifestyles. Yes, it may not affect their gameplay. But it does pose a particular aspect to the incoming generation. What aspects of modern professional footballers, you do not want to spill over into the incoming generation?
Answer: The way the game gone’s now. Especially for young players. There’s a lot of distraction, especially through social media. Everybody can have an opinion. The social can be dangerous as well if you get embroiled into an argument with somebody. I think for young players, hopefully it gets monitored. There not any chance social media overspilling. However, it can be used into good ways. Can go both ways. There’s a lot of distractions in the game. The finances are higher. The prestige is higher. I think there’s got to be a balance. Between overspill and overkill really.
Question: What is that one advice that you will give to incoming players around the world?
Answer: Best word you can use, is balance. Balance everything out, if you have too much success. Don’t be aloof. Too much failure, don’t let it get you too down. There’s got to be that balance of “This is what I am going to be, if I am going to be successful, don’t go too high. Low, don’t go too low.”
Never treat anybody with disrespect. Always be humble. Humility is important for everybody. Just because you have achieved things. And somebody has not. Don’t try and compare, you don’t have to. Encourage.