Inconsistent results behind Paul Lambert's Wolves departure says Laurie Dalrymple

Nuno was the only candidate Fosun spoke – with the owners feeling Lambert wasn’t the man to take the club forward.

And Dalrymple stated that inconsistent results were Lambert’s main downfall.

He said of the managerial change: “In this instance it wasn’t “let’s put the feelers out as far and wide as we can go”.

“This was the man they wanted, the guy they felt had the pedigree and the experience and would play the football and the style they wanted.

“If they hadn’t got him do I think we’d be having this conversation now? No."

Lambert lasted just seven months in the job with Fosun feeling that poor results towards the end of the campaign were a factor in his departure.

Jeff Shi spoke about Lambert in glowing terms in early April after a five-game winning run, saying the Scot had the same DNA as Fosun and was the right man for the job.

Dalrymple said of the change of heart: “When we got to late March, early April, we’d been winning. The hope was we’d continue that level of form through April.

“Whilst the results were probably fairly typical of a mid-table Championship team, what sat behind that was that some of the performance levels weren’t what we wanted to see and were more akin to the levels we’d seen in February.

“There was a balanced overview taken across the season and April typified the previous form.

“That was the reason we went from April, where Jeff had spoken about his feeling on Paul, to the feeling where we did want to finish further up the league and hadn’t.

“I think the interview was as much around describing Paul’s characteristics not necessarily the performance of the team.

“I’ve got a good relationship with Paul and have the utmost respect for him, I wouldn’t say anything derogatory about him whatsoever and I hope we keep in touch.

“There was a relationship bond. It became apparent that as a group we weren’t functioning as consistently as we need to.”

It’s believed that a clash over this summer’s recruitment – with Fosun set to lean heavily on agent Jorge Mendes for players – also played its part in Lambert’s exit.

Dalrymple, though, said that wasn’t the reason behind the change of head coach.

“Paul’s not left because players are being pushed on him or because he’s got a fundamental disagreement with the recruitment strategy,” he added.

“To be absolutely truthful he’s not formed a relationship with anyone outside this football club – so he couldn’t have had a disagreement to form.

“He made comments in the press over the past four or five months about certain recruitment decisions that had been taken. Clearly, as with any coach, he wants an opinion about who’s coming in.

“Was he ever sat there going no, no no, no (to players)? Absolutely not.”