Fan Take: Will Paul Lambert Find Things Tougher at Aston Villa?

Paul Lambert decided to make the switch from Norwich City to Aston Villa this summer. The precise reason for the switch remains unknown and is open to speculation, but the Canaries have now moved on by appointing Chris Hughton as their new manager.

Nevertheless, it is worth looking in some detail to what the future may hold for Lambert. Everyone now claims to know everything about Paul Lambert after his exploits with Norwich last season. They are obviously very fast learners, because few people outside of Norwich City knew anything about him at the start of the season.

However, now it seems that the Scot is seen as an excellent appointment for Aston Villa. Clearly, I am a big fan of the abilities of Lambert, and he has done a superb job for Norwich City over the last three years. But like many Canary fans, I am a little disappointed with the manner of his exit.

This may be a controversial point, but I don't actually think the Scot has proved himself as a Premier League manager, and believe that his achievements last season are perhaps not as great as what people think. Clearly, surviving in the top-flight is no mean feat, and it was the aim for Norwich at the start of the season.

But most of that hard work was done in the first half of the season; the second half of the season was actually fairly poor. However, this is forgotten because of a few decent results and the fact that the team finished 12^th in the league.

Nevertheless, the Canaries could easily have finished in the top-half of the table had they maintained their form from the first part of the season. There were also some doubts on Lambert's intentions to finish the season strongly.

A position that seemed strange, at the time, because a higher finish would have resulted in more prize money, but it may have been because he planned to move on. However, his rotation policy went to extremes, at times, that may have made it difficult to get results from certain games.

I think it is fair to say that Lambert is a risk taker; it worked out for him at Norwich, but there may have been an element of luck involved. He may not enjoy the same level of success with risky moves with Aston Villa.

There is certainly a fine line between the managers that are geniuses and those that just seem to be a little bit crazy. I think Lambert still has many things to work out about the Premier League, and there is the danger that he has jumped too quickly.

Aston Villa fans may claim to be happy with a mid-table finish in the Premier League, but they will expect success and Lambert will be expected to be a success. I think this is the first time that Lambert will work under pressure. So, it will be interesting to see how he reacts to that.

He will also be working with some players that will be considered bigger personalities in football, players with big reputations within the game. This will be a new experience for Lambert especially if he acquires some more from the transfer market.

These sorts of players may not be so open to Lambert's rotation policy, so big questions will be asked of the Scot in the season ahead. It will certainly be interesting to see how he gets on, but Villa fans need to remember that there will be many new things for their new manager to learn. Success at Norwich City is no guarantee of success at Aston Villa.

Plenty of managers have found out before that moving clubs can make things much more difficult, Lambert deserves the opportunity, but he may find things harder than what some people think.

James Kent has been a fan of Norwich City since the mid '90s; he is currently looking forward to the new Premier League season, follow him on Twitter and Facebook.