Since his £1m move from Bristol Rovers to Southampton, Rickie Lambert has lazily been compared to his former Rochdale strike partner Grant Holt and has been singled out for praise by opposition managers, even if it was in spite of Saints. When chasing promotion to the Championship, Southampton ended the unbeaten home run of already champions Brighton and Gus Poyet paid homage to the striker, in a less than complimentary way to his club: “[Southampton] play the same kind of football as Dagenham and Redbridge. The only difference is they’ve got (Rickie) Lambert.”
In likening Nigel Adkins’ side to Stoke, Poyet enthused over his own team’s style of play and in highlighting their accolade of winning League 1, the Uruguayan said it would be his team remembered in the history books. Although far from gracious and modest, Poyet’s successes were admirable and were recognised Sunday night at the Football League awards hosted at London’s Brewery Restaurant, with the award for Outstanding managerial achievement. But, it was the enigmatic Rickie Lambert, who has scored six goals in six games against Gus Poyet’s side since being at Saints, who took home the main trophy.
The Championship top scorer, who has already surpassed his total for last season with 25 goals and last week was identified by West Ham manager Sam Allardyce as the man that could’ve already sealed them promotion in the same week that Ipswich boss Paul Jewell had revealed he tried to sign Lambert in the summer, beat Peter Whittingham and Adam Lallana to win the Football League Player of the Year award.
Since joining Saints in 2009, Rickie Lambert has justified the expensive price tag paid for a player that had never competed above the third tier of English football. To take his transfer fee and divide it by his goals tally, the 30-year old striker has cost Southampton Football Club £12,195 per goal and with an estimation of his wage and goal bonus, £35,000 per goal. If Lambert’s goals fire Saints back to the Premier League, then it was possibly the best piece of business the club has done in recent years.
Either way, his place in Southampton’s history books is nearly established, with this season’s count taking him to within 8 goals of Southampton’s top ten goal-scorers of all time. On a personal level, the Liverpool-born striker is just a brace away from a double century of career goals and if Saints are promoted, the #7 will have his chance to score in every tier of the Football League.
Looking at previous winners of the prestigious award and their team’s corresponding success, Rickie Lambert looks destined to indeed get the chance to net in the Premier League. Out of the past six winners – Adel Taarabt, Kevin Nolan, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Kevin Phillips, Jason Koumas and Phil Jagielka – all six have finished in the top six and the four most recent winners were promoted with their clubs as champions.