• Malky Mackay and Chris Hughton favourites for Norwich City
• Lambert's assistant Ian Culverhouse expected to follow him
Malky Mackay and Chris Hughton were installed as favourites for the vacancy at Norwich on Saturday after Aston Villa officially confirmed the appointment of Paul Lambert as their new manager.
The move came two days after Lambert had ensured his availability by tendering his resignation at Norwich, and was made public in the briefest of official statements, which read simply: "The board of Aston Villa are delighted to confirm that Paul Lambert has been appointed Villa manager."
The Scot has signed a three-year contract and is expected to be joined in the Midlands by Ian Culverhouse, his assistant at Carrow Road. Rumours that Villa had already agreed a £1m compensation package with Norwich, who had not accepted his resignation, were refuted by Lambert's previous club. Norwich insisted that they "will continue to discuss this matter privately with Aston Villa", and added that they had already been "inundated with applications for and interest in leading this great club forward in the Premier League".
Lambert becomes Villa's fourth manager in two years, and succeeds the wildly unpopular Alex McLeish, under whose guidance the club finished two points and two places away from the bottom three last season. He will hope to continue four years of constant personal success since he resigned as manager of Wycombe after their elimination in the semi-finals of the 2008 League Two play-offs. He impressed during 10 months at Colchester before resigning again in August 2009 in order to facilitate a move to Norwich, then in League One. He led them to back-to-back promotions and to 12th place on their return to the Premier League last season.
The Villa midfielder Barry Bannan said: "He has done very well with Norwich and the clubs he was at before then. He has a good record up until now so hopefully he can be as successful with us as he has with his previous teams.
"Obviously last season wasn't the best for a team as big as us. We should have been way higher up the league and I think [the board] see Lambert as an up-and-coming manager who is doing really well, so it is going to be a massive lift for everyone, the fans and the players as well. It is a fresh start for everyone and hopefully in pre-season everyone is going to have a chance to prove their worth to the club."
Villa were determined to appoint a promising young manager, and held talks with Molde's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who decided to remain in his native Norway, and with representatives of Wigan's Roberto Martínez, who had turned down the opportunity to move to Villa Park last summer, before focusing their attention on Lambert.
As a player Lambert's finest hour came in the 1997 Champions League final, where he created a goal and successfully man-marked Zinedine Zidane as Borussia Dortmund beat Juventus 3-1 in Munich.
Ottmar Hitzfeld, who managed Dortmund in that final and is now the coach of Switzerland, said yesterday that "it is no surprise that he has become a successful manager".
"As a player, he always thought like a coach. He was a leader," Hitzfeld said. "What was most critical is that Paul was a very good team player. That is one of the most important qualities as a coach and manager of a team. Paul was one of the players responsible for keeping a good mood in the dressing room before a game, and after a defeat he was one of those who knew how to address a situation or any problem."
Mackay, a former centre-back who played at Carrow Road for six years from 1998, is considered favourite for the job Lambert left behind having impressed in his first two managerial posts, at Watford and Cardiff, where his first season recently ended with defeat to West Ham in the Championship play-offs.
Two other former Norwich defenders may come under consideration, in the shape of Steve Bruce – unemployed since his being sacked by Sunderland last November – and Mark Bowen, who is assistant manager at Queens Park Rangers. Celtic's Neil Lennon is the bookies' third-favourite. Read More
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