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Personal
Fullname: Paul Christopher Lambert
aka: Paul Lambert
Height: 5.11
Weight: 9.10
Born: 7 August 1969
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Signed: 7 November 1997
Left: 1 August 2005
Position: Midfielder
Debut: […]
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 40 caps
International Goals: 1 goal
Biog
| “He’s got great courage on the field, great moral courage. Paul doesn’t hide.” Martin O’Neill on Paul Lambert (2003) |
Paul Lambert’s career started at St Mirren where he amassed 227 appearances for the club and had a Scottish Cup winners medal tucked under his belt before he left for three seasons at Motherwell.
If rumours are to be believed, Lambert and Motherwell parted company over the trifling matter of a request for an additional £50 in his weekly wage packet. One wonders how Fir Park aficionados must have felt as they watched a triumphant Lambert lift the European Cup with Borussia Dortmund only 10 months later, a triumph in which he played an important part and was lauded by his fellow team mates and by the management also.
He nullified the great Zinedine Zidane in the final against Juventus, also creating an assist for the first of Karl-Heinz Riedle’s two goals. He became the first British player to pick up a European Cup winners medal since its reincarnation as the Champions League. He was also the first British player to win the European Cup with a team outwith of Britain.
A combative midfielder, no one would have predicted that Lambert would go from being a Motherwell player in 1996 to a European Cup champion in 1997, in one of British football’s most unlikely fairytales.
Although there is no doubt that Lambert was worth that extra £50, he returned from Germany to Scotland after 15 months at the Westfalen as a completely different player and was suddenly a mainstay in the national side. He moved to Celtic to the surprise of some as he had supposedly grown up as a Rangers fan.
How did it go? The following eight seasons with Celtic saw Lambert achieve four league winners medals, 2 Scottish Cups, 2 League Cups, a Football Writers’ Player of the Year Award (2002) and another appearance in a European final. He was quite simply a magnificent professional who gave his all every week for Celtic.
He played a crucial role in the wonderful 1997/98 season that saw Celtic stop Rangers “Ten-in-a-row” bid, and his joy as Celtic beat Rangers in the crucial New Years game was there for all to see, especially as he scored the spectacular second that sealed the win and turned the season around for Celtic. That game was pivotal and he more then played the part.
It wasn’t all plain sailing though with injury curtailing his time during the gloomy one season under Barnes/Dalglish (a blessing in disguise for him possibly). The lowest point, came in one match against Rangers, his cheekbone was smashed and teeth knocked by Jorg Albertz in a tackle (must add it was NOT a malicious attack by Albertz). A sorry situation, and without using any common sense or tact, the Rangers manager (the aptly named Dick Advocaat) raged that Lambert was at fault and should have been red carded for it. Pathetic, and Celtic lost a penalty on the back of it. Unbelievable. Likely enough to shake out any remnants of sympathy for Rangers from Lambert if ever any remained.
He recovered, and under new Celtic manager Martin O’Neill, Lambert experienced a golden period in his career for Celtic, and he was a fundamental part of the whole success. Some queried when players like Neil Lennon were recruited if that would potentially relegate Lambert, but actually as the consummate professional he was, he adapted and worked perfectly well with every colleague.
The treble in 2000/01 was special and in some way revenge over Dick Advocaat after his disgraceful comments in the previous season. Onwards from there were successive league victories and then the high note with Celtic in reaching the UEFA Cup final in 2003 but lost.
Lambert was pivotal in the success and a major boon for Martin O’Neil. A great leader who led by example on the pitch, he helped to shore up the side and give Celtic the added edge over opponents. Experience in Germany meant he was well taught, and Celtic heavily benefited from his presence. Fair to say that he was one of the finest midfield players Celtic had over the past twenty years.
However it was also as a person that he was respected, and perhaps the greatest testimony to the man comes not from these achievements but from the fans of all the clubs for whom he was such a consistent performer. The Dortmund support stayed behind after his last match at their club in Germany to show their appreciation with countless banners and messages of gratitude, and he is very fondly remembered down Love Street way for his part in their halcyon days of the late eighties.
We wished him all the best, a great player the Celtic support had the privilege to see have played for the club.
Post-Celtic
Lambert stepped into management, but resigned as Livingston player-manager in his first stint, but gives further insight into the man and his character. In a move that was as humble as it was brave, he resigned as manager in the hope that someone else would be able to save the club from relegation, inflicting potentially irreparable damage to his fledgling managerial career. This despite assurances from the board that his job was safe and amid widespread belief that his was an impossible task. His modesty, however, told him that there may be something that another individual could bring to the club to save it from relegation.
Lambert recovered from this blow to his managerial career when he was named as the Wycombe Wanderers manager in June 2006. He left Wycombe at the end of the 2007/08 season. He was then appointed manager of English League Division 1 side Colchester Utd on the 9th October 2008. Within a year he was continuing on his upward trajectory and took the reins at Norwich City. After guiding the canaries to promotion in his first season, he was rumoured to be linked with the Celtic job when Mowbray was sacked.
Paul Lambert – who at one point was reluctant to work in the goldfish bowl environment of Scotland again – remained at the Canaries as his former midfield partner Neil Lennon was awarded the Parkhead job. He guided the Norfolk club to the Premiership at the first time of asking and cemented his place as a legend among the Carrow Road faithful. Facing life in the English top flight was to be a tough challenge at Norwich, a well supported and genuine community club but one with a modest budget compared to many of their foreign owned rivals. However he succeeded and his name was repeatedly linked with the top jobs in England. He left Norwich for Aston Villa in 2012, but that stint was unsuccessful and he was unceremoniously sacked in 2015.
He went on to continue to have mostly uninspiring managerial stints across a number of clubs (Blackburn Rovers, Wolves, Stoke City and Ipswich Town).
In 2021, he was questioned about the vacant management role at Celtic, and replied that he would unlikely ever take up the role himself as he would not like to risk spoiling his memories & time at Celtic. A cynic would retort that actually after his various failed stints in management, he’d likely not have been considered for the role anyhow.
He may never get the chance to manage Celtic’s first team, but in front of 48,000 supporters he was the ‘manager’ for a ‘Celtic Legends‘ select side at Anfield v their Liverpool counterparts in a charity match in March 2023.
[…]
Quotes
“I think everybody wants to play in the Premiership and Grant Holt is no different. To be honest, the Rangers bid was nowhere near our valuation. But I told Grant what was going on and he gave absolutely no indication that he wanted to go and talk to them. If he had, it might have been different. A move to Rangers might have been attractive to a lot of players, but they are not as strong as they used to be. Holt has waited a long time to get to the Premier League and it’s great for him to be playing here, considering where he has come from. So while it was a flattering offer for him, I never expected him to want to leave. Mind you, if it had been Celtic, I would have driven him up there myself!”
Paul Lambert (Norwich manager, Feb 2012)
“I found Paul [Lambert] an immensely likeable man in most respects, although remarkably opinionated and stubborn.”
Jock Brown
“He’s got great courage on the field, great moral courage. Paul doesn’t hide.”
Martin O’Neill on Paul Lambert (2003)
Macca: “Heh wee man, do you smoke?”
Lambert: “No Man!”
Macca: “Do you drink?”
Lambert: “No Frank”
Macca: “Do you go with the women?”
Lambert: “No”
Macca: “Well then, you’ll never be a ‘flipping’ player”
Frank McAvennie to then youngster Paul Lambert when both were at St Mirren (c1985) as retold by Lambert in an interview in 2020
“Sorry Paul couldn’t have been more wrong!”
Frank McAvennie in reply to the above story on his reply to Paul Lambert (2020)
Playing Career
| Club | From | To | Fee | League | Scottish Cup | League cup | Other | ||||
| Livingston | 01/08/2005 | 14/05/2006 | Signed | 7 (0) | 0 | 2 (0) | 0 | 1 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Celtic | 07/11/1997 | 01/08/2005 | £ 2,000,000 | 179 (14) | 14 | 20 (4) | 1 | 10 (2) | 2 | 43 (3) | 2 |
| B. Dortmund | 01/08/1996 | 07/11/1997 | Free | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 3 (0) | 0 |
| Motherwell | 07/09/1993 | 01/08/1996 | Signed | 103 (0) | 6 | 1 (0) | 0 | 3 (0) | 1 | 2 (0) | 0 |
| St Mirren | 01/08/1985 | 07/09/1993 | Signed | 227 (0) | 14 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Linwood Rangers BC | 01/08/1984 | 01/08/1985 | No appearance data available | ||||||||
| Totals | £2,000,000 | 516 (14) | 34 | 23 (4) | 1 | 14 (2) | 3 | 48 (3) | 2 | ||
| goals / game | 0.06 | 0.03 | 0.18 | 0.03 | |||||||
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||||
Honours as Celtic Player
Scottish Premier League
Scottish Cup
Scottish League Cup
UEFA Cup
- Runners-up 2002-2003
Scottish Hall of Fame
- 2009
Pictures
KStreet
Articles
Interview: Stopping 10-in-a-row – Paul Lambert’s greatest moment in career full of highlights
Hugh MacDonald Published on 2 Jan 2010
The Herald Newspaper
It is a career that should belong only in the fevered imagination of a schoolboy. A Scottish Cup winner’s medal at the age of 17 was followed by negating Zinedine Zidane in a Champions League final and laying on a goal for Karl-Heinz Riedle.
His return to Scotland was festooned with four league titles, three Scottish Cup wins and four league cups. He also captained Celtic to a UEFA Cup final. This is a career with so many highlights it could double for Mo Johnston’s hair. Yet Paul Lambert has no doubt about his greatest achievement. “It has to be stopping 10-in-a-row,” he said. The statement was made when the midfielder was inducted tothe Scottish Football Hall of Fame in November. His judgment of the campaign of 1997-1998 owes nothing to any narrow bias. Lambert, a product of Linwood Rangers Boys’ Club, was merely reflecting on a period when winning was not only accompanied by jubilation but was liberally laced with relief.
“The pressure was hugely intense,” he recalls of the season when Walter Smith’s side were thwarted by a resurgent Celtic under Wim Jansen.
“That is what made winning the league very special. Everybody was talking about 10-in-a-row. We all knew that we could not be the Celtic team that allowed Rangers to win 10 consecutive titles. That would have been etched in Celtic’s history. Out of all the cups and all the leagues, that title win is simply very special. “I do not say that to annoy Rangers fans, I just say it because I have never felt so relieved in football as I did when that championship was won.”
Lambert, of course, won the Scottish Cup with St Mirren in 1987, lifted the Champions League trophy with Borussia Dortmund in 1997, and went on to win four titles with Celtic.
“It is hard to categorise every accolade you have won,” he said.
“Getting into the Hall of Fame is great. It is fantastic to be recognised by your own country. To be part of the history of our national game is simply humbling. And it will always be there, which is an incredible honour when you see the people in it.
“The Champions League is the pinnacle of anyone’s career, but stopping Rangers winning the title was certainly up there because of the pressure and that is why I mentioned it at the Hall of Fame dinner. The supporters of both clubs were desperate in that season so imagine how the players felt.”
Lambert, a highly technical player with virtues that sometimes went unnoticed, eschewed the spectacular for much of his career. He was more concerned with being an important part of a team rather than a maverick who stole thunder at the expense of the efficiency of the unit. Yet he scored goals in two of the most important Old Firm matches in recent history.
His magnificent strike on January 2 1998 galvanised Celtic’s battle for the title. He slotted home the third goal in the 6-2 defeat of Rangers on August 27, 2000, which signalled that Martin O’Neill had immediately constructed a side capable of snatching a title from Dick Advocaat’s team. The New Year strike was Lambert’s first goal for Celtic. “We had to win that New Year game,” he said.
“There was no room for error because of the points difference.” Celtic were already four points behind Rangers and knew the gap had to be narrowed. Craig Burley’s slick finish was complemented by Lambert’s shot from 30 yards. “I still get reminded of the one I whacked in the top corner,” said Lambert.
“It was one of those ones that you see coming at you and you decide just to have a go. The bounce was right, it felt right to hit it and it went right into the top corner.” The goal in the 6-2 game suffers in comparison with the extraordinary lob conjured up by Henrik Larsson as O’Neill’s team laid down a marker for the season.
There was much pre-match talk about O’Neill being content to take time in constructing a side capable of winning a title. His team knew this modest ambition was strictly for the consumption of the press. Every player was left in no doubt before the match that O’Neill expected victory and a championship by the end of the season. “The big thing about that match was that we knocked out Ajax in a Champions League qualifier that gave us great confidence,” he said.
The victory over Rangers was the satisfying appetiser to a treble-winning season. “I guarantee you a lot of people at Celtic would love to see that team back again,” said Lambert of a side built on solid virtues. The Champions League-winning midfielder was surrounded by Larsson, Chris Sutton, Stilian Petrov, Neil Lennon, Johan Mjallby and others who had skill overlaid with a winning mentality.
“I was talking to Bobby Lennox and he told me that he didn’t realise just how good that team was until it was disbanded. That was a massive compliment,” said Lambert. “That was a team of men. Anybody looking at the team could see there were brilliant players. But they were proper men, they would not wilt, they would stick together. Everybody says we were strong physically, and we were, but we could play the game. That is how and why we won things.” But how is triumph grasped from the frenetic atmosphere of an Old Firm match?
“The occasion is great but it should not be overwhelming. First and foremost, you have to play the occasion. You do not want to get caught up in that incredible atmosphere and get sent off . You have to keep 11 on the park to have a great chance of winning the game. And you need a bit of luck.”
Lambert also acknowledged that the testing experience can pay dividends in later life. Now managing successfully at Norwich City, he said: “We have pressure at this club. We have 25,000 fans at every match at Carrow Road and they quite rightly have expectations.”
Lambert, who has managed at Livingston, Wycombe, and Colchester, is meeting those expectations as Norwich sit in third place in League One. He is enjoying the pressure of leading his club back to prominence. Does the experience of being an Old Firm player help one deal with pressure?
“Absolutely,” he said. “Every big moment has stresses and lessons that you take into your managerial career. You can pass it down to the lads who work under you. And everybody knows you handled it.”
* Path to glory
Born in Paisley in 1969, Paul Lambert enjoyed a career of extraordinary footballing achievement. He won the Scottish Cup with his home town team in 1987 and 10 years later helped Borussia Dortmund lift the Champions League by beating Juventus 3-1. Lambert also gained 40 caps, playing in the 1998 World Cup. He started his managerial career with Livingston. He then moved to England where he coached Wycombe Wanderers and Colchester United before taking over at Norwich City earlier this season.
Honours
SPL title 1997-98, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2003-04.
Scottish Cup 1986-87, 2000-01, 2003-04, 2004-2005.
League Cup 1997-98, 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2005-06.
Champions League 1996-97.
Scottish Hall of Fame 2009
Not The View – Paul Lambert
http://www.ntvcelticfanzine.com/farewell%20then/fwl%20lambert.htm
How fitting that the end of the O’Neill era should see the end of Paul Lambert’s Celtic career; Lambert, along with the likes of Sutton and Thompson, was one of the O’Neill’s stalwarts. But when you’re trying to sum up the career of a great Celtic players in the aftermath of giving the league away you’re more inclined to view things with a critical eye and I can’t get away from the idea that I, along with 60,000 others, paid several hundred pounds for a season ticket to watch the home games this season while Paul was paid something like £1m to do the same thing (and he got free tickets and travel to the away games as well).
Not his fault he didn’t get picked, not his fault he was offered the contract, but he did say that he was going to Germany to study for coaching badges, thereby reducing the possibility of first team football (but not reducing the weekly wage). Value for money? Maybe in 15 years time if he becomes a successful Celtic manager, but for now we’ll just have to ask our questions.
Of course these are the thoughts of a fan after a horrendous turn of events and shouldn’t cloud the fact that for the past eight seasons Paul Lambert has been strapped to the front carriage of the Celtic roller coaster, during which time he’s collected eight winners medals, become the captain of his country and been only the second man to captain the team in a European final. Not bad for someone who spent his childhood being taken to Ibrox.
Lambert’s career prior to Celtic was notable for a number of things; his first winners medal in 1987 when the Buddies beat United 1:0 in the Scottish Cup Final, his pivotal role in a tremendous Scotland U-21 side that won through to the semi-finals of the European Championships in 1991, and the bizarre fact that Motherwell were prepared to let him go for nothing as a result of a £50 pay rise.
Of course that turned out to be the best thing that happened – Dortmund and a Champions League winners medal awaited him. The following season he had to take stock of his position in Germany; on the field things were fine but off it life was a bit more complex; his wife was finding it difficult to settle in Germany away from her family, especially when his son came down with pneumonia. The press began to speculate that he would head back to Scotland. Both Celtic and Rangers were in a bit of a state at the time.
We were rebuilding after the Tommy Burns years, Jansen was still building a team and it was felt that would take a couple of seasons. Even though he’d already bought five or six players the midfield still looked light given that McStay had hung up his magic wand in the summer. Rangers were in the final year of the Walter Smith era and he had already announced his intention to leave. Jansen still had access to the cheque book. Smith had already spent something like £25m and given that he was leaving even Murray was unlikely to sanction any more buying. We looked like the favourites.
The man charged with the task of setting up the deal was Jock Brown, the newly appointed general manager of the club. The press didn’t much care for Jock (the fans weren’t exactly leaping up and down with delirium when he joined either) and the story quickly got round that Jock had put the kybosh on the deal because he didn’t think Lambert was worth the money. Lambert himself appeared on Scotsport (in its pre-train wreck format) telling the world that he didn’t care what Jock Brown thought of him as a player, plenty of other more respected football people rated him. Someone in Celtic Park agreed, the deal was back on and soon he was paraded in a Celtic tracksuit having finally signed for just over £1m.
The start to his Celtic career suggested that luck wise Paul Lambert was the equivalent of a black cat with a knack for smashing mirrors; played two lost two. Just to rub it in, the first was against Rangers at Ibrox, the second was at home to Motherwell (both were Regi Blinker horror shows – first he turned to jelly against the huns, then he got himself so wound up about making amends against Motherwell that he was sent off after 10 minutes).
Oddly enough his third game was also against Rangers. This time a last second Stubbs header gave us a 1:1 draw on the night Gascoigne finally saw red.
Two weeks later Lambert had his first winners medal, appearing as a sub at Ibrox when the Hoops beat Dundee United 3:0 in the league Cup final. Of course this was the season to end all seasons. Rangers were going for 10-in-a-row. The unthinkable. On January 2nd they came to Celtic Park. A win for them would have sent them 7 points clear at the top. They had only lost one league game all season while Celtic had lost five.
The first half was a fairly even affair, both sides having chances but neither could find the net. After the break Celtic quickly gained the upper hand. Lambert, Burley and McNamara in particular took hold of the midfield and after 66 minutes Burley drove the ball under Goram to give us the lead. Three precious points could be on the way. With seconds remaining and the fans screaming for the final whistle the ball bounced out to Paul Lambert, and he planted it into Goram’s top left hand corner. His first goal for the club.
He got his second the following week, another spectacular goal, this time at Fir Park. They might not have been very frequent, but you have to say that his goals were often of the memorable variety.
The demise of John Barnes the following season has often been pinpointed to the moment Henrik Larsson broke his leg in France, but even after that Celtic weren’t that disorganised . The loss of Lambert at Ibrox really hammered a few nails into Digger’s coffin, so important had he become to the team. Burley was transferred not long after and the wheels really came off.
Having outlasted Barnes, lambert went on to play an integral part in Doctor Jo’s midfield, this time doing a lot of the spadework for Lubo Moravcik, although during this time he was often afflicted with ankle problems which would restrict his first team appearances. Who knows what might have happened during the Doc’s short reign had he not been deprived of Lambert and so many other vital players for long spells because of a succession of injuries.
MON became Lambert’s fourth manager in as many years in 2000, by which time he was a fixture in the first team and a key component in much of the success we enjoyed during the first four years of O’Neill’s time in charge.
Initial doubts as to whether he could play in the same team as Neil Lennon – a similar type of player – proved unfounded as they both played outstanding roles in the UEFA Cup run of two seasons ago.
Having made his intentions clear about concentrating on the coaching side of the game this season, his playing duties have been negligible and he has made just seven appearances in the first team during 2004-05. To put a positive spin on this arrangement, the club’s indulgence of his semi-retirement status could be seen as some reward for eight years of outstanding service.
While he was never a Paul McStay, Lambert’s contribution as a team player couldn’t be understated. He was loath to waste possession and his work ethic seems to have been the product of somebody who rose up from the bottom ranks of the game and who appreciated every success he achieved. It also says a lot for him as a person that he was hugely respected by the supporters of every team he played for.
My own favourite recollection of him was when he gave his Celtic jersey to someone in the disabled section – after his goal against Rangers if I’m not mistaken.
He’s bowing out of Celtic Park – with the best part of 300 appearances to his name – to take on the thankless task of managing Livingston. Still, he was never one for shirking a challenge, even if it meant a trip to the dentist afterwards.
Who knows, if he makes a go of it we might well see him back some time in the future.
He leaves with our best wishes and our appreciation for everything he’s done to bring success to Celtic during his eight seasons. He has been a credit to himself and the club.
The Celtic screamer that changed history, not owing Zidane’s shirt and why he nearly left Paradise – Paul Lambert Interview
By Tony Haggerty @ahaggerty10
Paul Lambert
TheCelticWay
PAUL LAMBERT proudly owns the shirts of Lothar Matthaus, Rivaldo and Gheorghe Hagi but not Zinedine Zidane’s.
He’s not a souvenir hunter.
He has won the Champions League, four Scottish Premier League titles, three Scottish Cups, two Scottish League cups and been inducted into Scottish football’s Hall of Fame.
He’s not a glory hunter.
The former St Mirren, Motherwell, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic, Livingston and Scotland star describes his career as “mad”.
It is you know. Bonkers.
The player took a gamble on himself in 1996 because according to folklore Motherwell would not stump up an extra £50 a week for his services.
READ MORE: Paul Lambert recalls how Martin O’Neill’s Celtic side humbled Ajax in the Champions League qualifiers
After leaving Motherwell, an agent arranged trial spells for Lambert with both PSV Eindhoven and Borussia Dortmund.
He impressed Borussia Dortmund boss Ottmar Hitzfeld so much he penned a deal with the Germans. Lambert’s gamble paid off big style.
He shared a Dortmund dressing room with a who’s who of European football – Matthias Sammer, Andreas Moller, Jurgen Kohler, Stephane Chapuisat, Karl-Heinz Riedle, Paulo Sousa to name but a few.
Celtic Way:
Within a year he had won European football’s biggest prize as he helped Borussia Dortmund win the Champions League in 1997.
Lambert played in the Champions League final as a defensive midfielder, quelling the influence of a certain French playmaker called Zinedine Zidane. It was Lambert’s cross that set up the opening goal for Karl-Heinz Riedle as Dortmund won 3–1.
He became the first British person to win the European Cup with a non-UK team and the first to win the tournament since its reformation as the Champions League in 1992.
His brief German sojourn ended when Celtic came calling in November 1997.
The £2 million that Wim Jansen shelled out to secure Lambert will rank as one of the best pieces of business the club has ever conducted, especially when Juventus and Besiktas were also keen to lure him away from the Westfalen Stadion.
The deal which would eventually be sealed by Celtic General Manager Jock Brown was cemented in the most unlikely of places – Pittodrie Stadium – as Wim Jansen and Murdo MacLeod made a last gasp attempt to convince Lambert to sign for Celtic.
Paul Lambert said: “My football career is mad, isn’t it? It is real fairytale stuff the way it all panned out.
“When I left Motherwell I took a chance. They didn’t know where I had gone and looking back it was probably not the right way to conduct my business.
“If I wasn’t going to sign for Motherwell then where was I supposed to go?
“I was on trial at PSV Eindhoven first and then Borussia Dortmund. The latter was such a high level of football, it was absolutely incredible.
“I immersed myself in the German football culture. I had to speak the language of the dressing room. I just decided to go for it and see where it would all take me.
“That’s where the mentally strong thing came in and stood me in good stead as I knew I had to fend for myself. I was programmed to cope with pressure and used to winning big games.
“When I look at the players that I played with in that Borussia Dortmund team they were world-class. Dear, oh dear, they were a cut above.
“You had guys who had won the highest honours in the game – World Cups, Bundesliga titles, Serie A titles – you name it they had won it. They were an unbelievable team with an unbelievable manager in Ottmar Hitzfeld.
“When Celtic came in for me I was happy in Germany. Juventus wanted to sign me on the back of my display in the Champions League final. Besiktas also came in and they were clubs all over Europe trying to get me and I kept saying no because I was really happy at Borussia Dortmund.
“I was with the best team in Europe and the supporters were a massive pull.The fans were just ridiculously good to me and I have a lot of affection for them to this day.
“Celtic came in for me and I initially resisted their overtures. Then Wim Jansen and Murdo MacLeod came to Pittodrie to watch Scotland when we played Belarus and they came into the dressing room before the game.
READ MORE: Jock Brown on plugging Celtic dressing room leaks, saving a fortune on Larsson, Jansen mistakes and debates with McCann – The Big Interview
“They told me that they were going to try and sign me and I told them to do what they had to do as I had a game to prepare for.
“That’s how it all transpired. The Dortmund episode catapulted me into a level where I could handle anything that was thrown at me on the biggest stage.
“I never swapped jerseys with anybody or looked for players in the tunnel. I always thought it was a sign of weakness or that you were somehow inferior. If I swapped a jersey it would always be a mutual thing.
“I’ve got Lothar Matthaus’ jersey from a game when Borussia Dortmund played Bayern Munich in Munich. The ball was bouncing and I made a turn against him and he wiped me out with a scissors tackle.
“After the game, he came up and touched my shoulder and he said to me ‘there’s my shirt’ and I gave him mine.
“This was a World Cup winner and he asked for my shirt, it was all a bit surreal. Even the likes of Rivaldo and Zinedine Zidane, I never ever went looking for their shirts. I never went looking for things as I knew I was at that level myself because of what I was doing myself.
“When we played Brazil in the 1998 World Cup, Scotland boss Craig Brown told me that I had to take care of Rivaldo.
“I was in his vicinity all the time and at the end of the game, we just swapped shirts because we were near each other nothing else. I wasn’t looking for him.
“I played against Gheorghe Hagi and he was the best player I ever played against from a standing start.
“He was as fast as lightning and we played against Galatasaray in Turkey and he was going through on goal and I pulled him down by totally wiping him out.
“He hit the free-kick which hit the junction of the post and the crossbar and just went over and we beat them 1-0 over there.
“A few months later I played in a World X1 game in Turkey and I walked into the reception area and Hagi was there.
“He remembered me right away. He recognised that it was me who had made the tackle on him! I have got his shirt from that match but again it was a mutual thing.
“The best player I ever played against was Zinedine Zidane but I never swapped shirts with him. I met him a few years ago in Madrid and we spoke about the 1996 Champions League final but I was never really a souvenir hunter.
“That came from the Borussia Dortmund era as I was playing with such great players. Being in that dressing room just made me become one of them and I thought like one of them.”
That’s why Lambert admits that the transition to Celtic was in his own words “easy”.
The thought of a Glasgow derby did not faze him especially when he had knocked out the likes of Manchester United and Galatasaray in European competition as well as performed the ultimate man-marking job on Zinedine Zidane.
Lambert was a confident player but never arrogant or cocky.
With Lambert alongside Craig Burley in midfield and Henrik Larsson banging in the goals upfront Celtic would topple a rampant Rangers off their lofty perch.
The men in green and white under the Dutchman shattered Walter Smith’s Rangers hopes of achieving 10-in-a-row.
It’s a feat that Lambert believes deserves more recognition, especially around Celtic Park as there is very little to commemorate the enormity of the task that Wim Jansen had masterminded.
Lambert believes that Wim Jansen deserves far more credit for preserving Jock Stein’s legacy.
In a pressure cooker of a campaign, Lambert like Jansen took it all in his stride.
He admits that for a spell when Wim Jansen quit the club in the aftermath of winning the title that his own Celtic future was hanging in the balance.
Lambert said: “Once you have played alongside the calibre of player that I played with at Borussia Dortmund then a Celtic vs Rangers game was easy to handle.
“I never felt under severe pressure in derby matches. I never felt an inferiority complex at all with regards to Rangers when I was a Celtic player. We lost a few of them when I was at Celtic but we won more than our fair share.
“If you look at Wim Jansen’s era Rangers were a brilliant side as well and you cannot take that away from them. Some of the Rangers players were my teammates with Scotland and we had a good bond.
“Celtic was up against a top Rangers side during that 1997/98 campaign. I have always said that Wim’s title-winning Celtic sides achievement was colossal. I don’t think he ever got the credit that he deserved for winning that league championship.
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“That team was cobbled together, built in a season and had to compete against one of the best ever Rangers teams. To win that title and stop 10-in-a-row was an unbelievable achievement.
“That is the most pressure Celtic have been under in a season probably since 1967. Those Celtic players were playing to preserve a huge piece of football history.
“My mentality that season was a German mentality. Nothing really fazed me about playing against Rangers or being in Glasgow. I knew the pressure was there but I didn’t need to think about it.
“I never felt the pressure like other players did at Celtic that season as when I was at Borussia Dortmund we had to win games against Bayern, Schalke, Juventus, Manchester United, Galatasaray…I was used to that.
“I wasn’t used to losing as I had that mentality to win. My job was to win games and that’s what I tried to do.
“Wim was excellent during that time. There are not too many reminders of him at Celtic Park which is a bit sad really. It was the hardest ever title for Celtic to win.
“He protected the history of that great Celtic side under Jock Stein as that will never be bettered.
“That is why I think it is disappointing that there should be more made of him and to celebrate that achievement, especially around Celtic Park not for anybody else other than Wim.
“It was terrible when he left the club as I knew there were all sorts of stuff bubbling away in the background and things weren’t right.
“When he did go, I wasn’t sure about my Celtic future as I kept thinking I didn’t come back for this. I came back to win the league. I did not return to Scotland for turbulence and turmoil. I did not want that in my career.”
Celtic Way:
That same season saw Lambert enjoy one of his huge career highlights for Celtic. A stunning 20-yard screamer against Rangers in the New Year Glasgow derby of 1998 cemented a priceless 2-0 win.
It was not a bad way to celebrate your first goal in the Hoops. Lambert knew then that Celtic had the title bit between the teeth and it was game on in the race for the flag.
Lambert said: “We beat Rangers 2-0 at Celtic Park and that was a huge win for us. We knew we just had to win that day.
“I scored that screamer which was my first ever goal for Celtic. When you look at that match I would have said that had Craig Burley’s goal won the game then I would have been over the moon. Then my moment came.
“I have smashed the loose ball and it has flown into the top corner like a bullet. It had to be something special like that to beat Andy Goram given the way he was performing against Celtic at that time.
“It was the moment the team, the players, the management and the supporters realised we could win the title. At that point, we all said we have Rangers in our sights again.
“It was going to be an unbelievably close-run title race. We all knew it was going to the wire and Wim was brilliant as he kept an unbelievably cool head throughout it all.
“He never got flustered as he had played in World Cup and European Cup finals and he knew exactly what was at stake. We were up against a rampant Rangers, there was massive pressure on Celtic to win the league.
“We had 14 or 15 really strong players and most of us kept fit that season. I think that played a hugely significant part in Celtic winning the title.”
For every ying, there’s a yang and the following season, Lambert was carted off on a stretcher in November at Ibrox in 1999 after trying to stop a howitzer from Rangers German midfield powerhouse Jorg Albertz.
In the third minute of first-half injury time Lambert slid in to block Albertz in the penalty area. The German hit the deck, referee Kenny Clark awarded a penalty to the hosts and the Celtic star left the field minus four teeth for his troubles as the match ended in a 4-2 victory for Rangers.
Lambert takes up the story and insists that he still blames then Celtic goalkeeper Jonathan Gould for the incident as he felt his shot-stopper was suffering from an attack of the jitters.
The 52-year-old said: “The funny thing about that Ibrox game when we lost 4-2 is that it all happened because of Jonathan Gould.
“Gouldy and I have a laugh about it all now. He was saving shots that were going wide and I have looked at him at one point and asked if he was alright?
“He told me he was fine but I wasn’t quite sure as I thought he was very nervy.
“So Jorg Albertz winds up for that shot and I thought I’m going to have to throw myself in here as I wasn’t 100 per cent sure that Gouldy was going to save it.
“I threw myself in and as everybody knows I was sent off, left the field on a stretcher and lost four teeth because of it.
“Do you know what? I would do the exact same thing tomorrow.
“That is the level of the game as you have to do everything that you can to win football matches.
“I think Dick Advocaat had one drink too many before the game or something because if he thought that was a penalty then he needs to look at some other things that have happened.
“My genuine gut feeling about that incident is that’s the game. My job is to try and protect the goal. I would do the same thing all over again given the chance. I don’t have any regrets about doing that.
“But I always tell Gouldy that it was his fault that I lost my teeth that day at Ibrox!”
It was the infamous season that saw John Barnes in charge of Celtic but Lambert reckons the former Liverpool star was way ahead of his time when it came to coaching.
Yet Barnes’ time is arguably best summed up by the Inverness Caley Thistle debacle when Celtic was humiliated at home 3-1 by the Highlanders and dumped out of the Scottish Cup in 2000.
Lambert said: “That was the John Barnes managerial season at Celtic and he always gets slated for the Inverness Caley Thistle defeat in the Scottish Cup.
“We started that season as an absolute whirlwind and then I got injured and so did Henrik. That was unfortunate for John Barnes.
“I watched the TV recently and people were raving and talking about how Ralf Rangnick at Manchester United was playing a 4-2-2-2 system.
“John was doing that at Celtic over 20 years ago with the likes of Eyal Berkovic and Lubo Moravcik in the team. Nobody can reinvent the wheel.
“I would never have a bad word to say about any manager I have worked under in my football career.
“They have all played a huge part in my development and they all made me the player that I went on to become.”
John Barnes understandably fell on his sword as the Martin O’Neill era was ushered in.
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Lambert describes O’Neill’s five years at the Paradise helm in one word: “Relentless.”
He reckons that the dressing room that O’Neill went on to build at Celtic was akin to the one that Ottmar Hitzfled had assembled at Dortmund.
And he insists that every Celtic player could hold their own in both domestic and European company. There were no shrinking violets in O’Neill’s side.
That much was true as Celtic went toe-to-toe with some of European football’s biggest heavyweights of the time.
Lambert is the first to admit that Celtic Park was no place for the faint-hearted under O’Neill, John Robertson and Steve Walford which largely explains why no youngsters broke through the ranks.
Lambert revealed that O’Neill never worked on team shape at all because he trusted his players so much to carry out his instructions on the park.
Like Hitzfeld at Dortmund, Lambert believes O’Neill’s greatest strength lay in the fact that there were no coded messages from the manager and how the Northern Irishman simplified everything.
Lambert said: “The Martin O’Neill era then came along and there is one word I would use to describe that time at Celtic Park and it is: Relentless “What a team that was.
“Celtic were a proper football team back then and we had really good players all over the pitch. We were relentless in training under Martin O’Neill, John Robertson and Steve Walford every day.
“We were all experienced and there were no young kids breaking into that Celtic team. Youngsters would have found it impossible to break into that Martin O’Neill side. They just wouldn’t have got in.
“Sometimes young kids came into the training set-up and it was all too much for them and Martin would move them back down again.
“We needed a manager like Martin O’Neill to come into Celtic at that time. If you ask anybody the O’Neill era is the strongest era domestically and in Europe that Celtic have had for many years.
“Players buckle under the pressure of playing for that club and cannot handle it. I am talking about players who have come to the club with big reputations.
“There is a mentality needed to play for Celtic and players either sink or swim. The irony in all of this is that Martin O’Neill drummed it into the Celtic players of that era that football was a simple game.
“He made it easy for us. Celtic never did shape work or anything when Martin O’Neill was the manager. We all knew what to do!
“We all knew where to go on a pitch or where the danger was and we knew how to attack as we all knew the game.
“Wim Jansen was the same and so too was Ottmar Hitzfeld. Top players know where to go on a football park.
“He would speak to you a few minutes before a game and if you were to ask Martin himself he would say that he had top players playing for him. Great managers never complicate things. That’s why they are brilliant to play under.”
Celtic Way:
Two players shone out like beacons though during O’Neill’s five-year tenure at the club – Henrik Larsson and Lubomir Moravcik.
Larsson bagged 242 goals in 315 games for Celtic and is rightfully lauded as the ‘King of Kings’.
Lubo became known simply as a gift from God. Both monikers are equally apt.
Lambert said: “I loved playing with Henrik Larsson as he turned hopeful balls into great passes with his runs.
“I knew where he would be on a football pitch at all times. The biggest thing Henrik had was his work rate. He pressed and led from the front and he wasn’t one of those strikers who let it go by him.
“Henrik was brilliant and he is judged on his goalscoring ability because that is the end product of your game but what a player he was. You just knew if Celtic got a chance nine times out of ten, Henrik would score it.
“Lubomir Moravcik was another player who was magnificent.
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“Dr Jo Venglos told me before anybody that Lubo was coming to the club.
“He asked me if I knew him because he had played in German football with Duisburg.
“I told him I didn’t know him but he was going to sign him despite the fact he was 33 years of age.
“Lubo comes in and if you look at his first goal against Rangers in the 5-1 game at Celtic Park in 1999. He didn’t know where he was or what to do or what all the fuss was about as the crowd were going mental.
“My God he could strike a ball with either foot, couldn’t he?
“Technically, he was the most two-footed player I have played alongside. You could not tell what was Lubo’s strongest foot. He was absolutely brilliant and what a fantastic player he was for Celtic and a cracking guy as well.
“The Martin O’Neill era was strong and powerful as Celtic had everything that you would want in a team.
“Rangers just found it hard in the first few years to get a grasp on us at that point.
“It’s true what they say Celtic and Rangers will always be judged on what they do against each other.”
Celtic Way:
Lambert though has one big career regret.
It will come as no surprise to the Celtic supporters when they learn that it is the 2003 UEFA cup final in Seville.
Despite an awe-inspiring display by Super Swede Henrik Larsson, O’Neill’s side agonisingly lost 3-2 to Jose Mourinho’s Porto.
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It robbed Lambert of the chance to possess two cherished European football winners medals.
Lambert said: “The only regret in my career is not winning the UEFA Cup with Celtic.
“I have the big one from my days at Borussia Dortmund but to have completed the set of winning the two main European medals would have been a wonderful career achievement.
“It is my biggest regret in football not winning the UEFA Cup for Celtic that night in Seville.
“I don’t have too many other than that. We just fell short and you have to give Porto credit as they did a job on us.
“We needed a wee bit of luck and we could have played a wee bit better than we did as a team on the night.”
Therefore it beggars the question of who would win between Ottmar Hitzfeld’s Borussia Dortmund class of 1996/97 and Martin O’Neill’s Celtic class of 2002/03?
Lambert said: “I have been asked that question so many times.
“The answer is it would be a bloody close-run thing. It is really hard to explain what that Borussia Dortmund team were like.
“That Dortmund team were so good. My answer to that question is always that Celtic and Borussia Dortmund were two good teams to play with.
“I had the pleasure of playing for two great clubs who have a wonderful affiliation with each other.
“One reached the ultimate pinnacle of what can be achieved in European football with an incredible side. One fell short of being a UEFA cup winning side.
“The best way I could put it is this: Borussia Dortmund were a special team. Celtic was a great team.”
So how would Paul Lambert reflect on his eight-year stint at Celtic?
Lambert said: “It was just me doing my job and I would not look for any credit for it.
“My job was to win games and to help the team and the club to be as successful as possible. My job was to do the best I could in my career. People either like it or they don’t, it’s as simple as that.”
Paul Lambert was made in Scotland. He was honed in Germany.
His name will feature on many Celtic supporters all-time greatest X1.
He was one of the most talented and influential midfield technicians this country has ever produced.
For eight years Paul Lambert was the Scottish epitome of “Vorsprung Durch Technik” as they say in Germany.
Wunderbar!