Paul Lambert knew his Norwich City connections might rub some Ipswich Town fans up the wrong way.

Lambert opted to cross the East Anglian divide last month, to replace Paul Hurst at Portman Road, after a hugely successful spell leading the Canaries from the depths of League One to the Premier League earlier in his managerial career.

The Scot has since had mixed results at Aston Villa, Blackburn, Wolves and Stoke but feels he can work his magic at the rock bottom Blues, who host West Brom in Friday's televised Championship clash.

'I'm a football manager and I was out of work,' he said. 'You have moments where you think long and hard about what you want to do, but I met (owner Marcus Evans) and got on really well with him from the beginning.

'I knew the history of the club was huge and I spoke to a few people here about the area, how fans would react and whether they would hold it against me. All those things went through my head, but I'm really happy to be here.

'Maybe some people aren't happy I am here but no-one can take away what we did there. Time moves on and Norwich was seven or eight years ago now. It's a long time but we gave them some great moments and I want to give this club the same.'

Lambert's Carrow Road exit, back in 2012, was a sour affair and speaking to Sky Sports he admitted his Villa experience had left him bruised.

'I was quite downbeat when I left Aston Villa, but then you have to think, 'What am I going to do now?' he said.

'So I went to Real Madrid when Carlo Ancelotti was manager and then over to Germany to visit Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund when Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp were there.

'I went to a lot of European teams to watch them train and to speak with the managers. Every trip I went on I came away with a book full of stuff to learn from.'