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Lambert: My daughter could've thrown a harder punch

Christian Benteke clashes with Roberto Soldado shortly before being sent off for raising a hand to Ryan Mason © Getty Images

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Paul Lambert has become the latest football manager to pick on a female member of his family in order to denigrate one of his players, prompting the question: why don't they pick on somebody else for a change?

After Christian Benteke was sent off for raising a hand to Ryan Mason in Tottenham's 2-1 win at Aston Villa, Lambert claimed his daughter could have thrown a harder forearm.

Villa had been leading 1-0 through Andreas Weimann's strike - their first goal in 547 minutes of football - before Benteke saw red, but Lambert claimed his striker was provoked into shoving Mason after a clash of heads.

"You cannot condone what he did, but it is not like he [Benteke] threw a Mike Tyson punch," Lambert told BBC Sport. "My daughter can punch harder."

Lambert later told reporters: "The sending off changed the course of the game. I didn't see it at the time but, what was it, a handbag thrown?

"The lad puts his head in Christian's face and I've played the game - the natural instinct is to raise your arm to push it away and that's what he did. He's been punished for that.

"If you put your head in someone's face I can understand why he did it. I don't condone it. We didn't deserve to lose because we were excellent."

Lambert's outburst brought to mind Harry Redknapp's famous claim that his wife Sandra could have done better with a chance than his then-Spurs striker Darren Bent.

"My missus could have scored that one," said Redknapp, after Bent failed to find the back of the net with a late header during Spurs' 1-1 draw with Portsmouth in January 2009.

Redknapp revealed that Bent asked to leave the club after the remark. Bent was sold to Sunderland at the end of the season, with Redknapp later saying: "It was only the truth, wasn't it?"

Perhaps it's time football managers stopped using these tired old jokes and excuses. Indeed, maybe Lambert should point some of the blame at Benteke for his rush of blood to the head.

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