‘Who comes up with these?’ - Lambert not a fan of expanded play-off plan
John Hassey says Paul Lambert has brought the fans back to Portman Road Picture: PAGEPIX LTD
Paul Lambert doesn’t expect the League One season to be finished and admits to being less than convinced by proposals for an expanded play-off competition.
Paul Lambert's Ipswich Town were 10th in League One at the time of football's suspension. Picture Pagepix
The EFL and third tier clubs continue to talk this week as they search for a way to conclude the 2019/20 campaign, with Lambert believing the season will ultimately be cancelled.
One proposal would see the play-offs expanded to include eight clubs, with Ipswich’s potential involvement in that remaining unclear. The Blues currently sit 10th in the table but would drop to 11th if any points-per-game model was used to adjust those final standings.
Either way, Lambert is less than convinced.
MORE: ‘Hard luck on Ipswich... no big clubs should get a free wildcard’ - Gills boss Evans on expanded play-offs“The top 10 having a play-off idea, I don’t know who is coming up with these,” he said in an interview with the Daily Mail. “They must lie in bed at night and come up with another great idea and just put it out there. I mean, that one about turning your face away when you tackle, come on?
Paul Lambert's future was a lively topic of debate on our Ipswich Town Open House chat - Credit: Picture: Steve Waller
“What we need here is some clear thinking and decisive decision-making, and we need it now.”
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On the state of play in League One, Lambert continued: “You can’t take people off furlough (which most of Town’s non-playing staff are on) if no one else in the division is going to do it and games aren’t going to be played. We can’t have a training date if we don’t have a start date.
“Football is one organisation - why are we not singing from the same hymn sheet? What’s different? It’s the same game, the same ball. It should be one organisation saying, ‘This is what we have to do’.
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“Personally, I would love to finish, if it is safe to do so. We have five home games left and could finish well. But, looking at it, I don’t see how that’s going to happen now.”
MORE: ‘What you want is some leadership’ - Lambert calls for decision on future of seasonThe Town boss has also doubled down on comments mate earlier this week, when he called for greater leadership from the EFL.
“I think it’s an absolute disgrace what’s happening, with League One especially,” Lambert said.
“It’s terrible, it’s so wrong that they haven’t told us what is going on. There are so many unanswered questions and it seems there is so much passing the buck here and there.
“Will someone just make a decision? It’s badly lacking leadership. They should be saying, ‘We can’t make everyone happy, but here is the decision that we think is best for now’.
“You might not keep everyone happy but at least we can all get our head around it and make plans, be that playing the season now or ending it and not coming back until September or whenever.
“This in-fighting, what’s happening here or there or who wants what, that’s no good for me, it’s not a nice situation.”
