Paul Lambert responds to Chris Sutton tweet after his on-air Celtic criticism

By David Walton

October 6, 2021

Former Celtic captain Paul Lambert has responded to Chris Sutton’s tweet after his criticism of the club last week.

Lambert was critical after watching Celtic lose 4-0 to Bayer Leverkusen last Thursday. The former UCL winner talked up the importance of winning at Celtic and that nearly results simply aren’t good enough [BT Sport].

This would lead to Chris Sutton addressing Lambert on Twitter post-match. Sutton defended Ange Postecoglou, stating that he had taken over a s***show in Glasgow’s East End.

But Lamber has now given his response and it’s fair to say he was in no mood to budge.

As quoted by the Daily Record, Lambert said: “The difference is that Chris didn’t really experience any barren years there. I did. I was there for a couple of years when we weren’t winning trophies and it wasn’t pleasant. Chris can have his opinion but my opinion is if you want to be a Celtic player then you’ve got to win more games than not.

“I’ve been there when the club wasn’t winning enough and you’ve got to have really thick skin to play through that. You can’t hide under the radar. You have to be prepared to stand up to be counted because the club is too big and you can’t allow losing games of football to become the norm.

“You have to perform every week. That’s the pressure that comes with the shirt and it’s the best pressure that any player can ask for. these players have to understand they are at Celtic for a reason – they have to win. They have to handle that pressure. That’s half the battle.”

Paul Lambert and Chris Sutton both spot on; it’s a complicated picture at Celtic

Despite a wee bit of good-natured back and forth, both are actually correct in what they’re saying.

First off, you have Lambert talking about the importance of winning. That Postecoglou needs to get it right quickly if he wants to last. That can’t be denied. After all, look at how critical everyone was after the month we had in September. You’ll have found more than a few questioning his ability.

Equally, however, Sutton doesn’t miss the mark either. Postecoglou did indeed take over a total mess of a football club in the summer. We all admitted it at the time and acknowledged this wasn’t going to be a quick fix.

You also have to take into account the departure of Dom McKay. Publicy at least, he seemed to be Postecoglou’s closes ally at Celtic Park. Having to deal with the exit of a CEO whilst at the beginning of a massive rebuild can’t be ideal.

Postecoglou will be given time to turn this around. But that comes with a condition. In the meantime, he has to win the games he should be winning. We shouldn’t be losing at Hearts and Livingston with the squad we have. We shouldn’t be drawing with Dundee Utd with the clear talent in the Parkhead ranks.

So not everything can be chalked up to him needing time. The manager needs to get some consistency against the sides he should still be defeating. Hopefully, the win over Aberdeen will help to achieve just that.

In other news, Kyogo Furuhashi discloses his big Celtic target this season to Japanese media