In today's cynical modern game its not often a genuine fairytale comes along, but if Super Rickie Lambert gets an England cap next week then surely that is just what will have happened,
When Rickie Lambert became one of the first signings of the new era at Southampton in August 2009 there weren't many who would have predicted that 4 years later, almost exactly to the day he would be named in an England squad, indeed on Saturday 8th August 2009 Rickie was scoring in his last ever appearance for Bristol Rovers in front of a 7k crowd in a 2-1 home defeat to Leyton Orient, within days he was on his way to Southampton and scoring again on his debut for the Club in the Carling Cup against Northampton and then the consolation in an away defeat at Huddersfield.
There is a tendency to think that Rickie started in a flurry of goals for Saints, but that isn't quite the truth, after these opening two, he would only score 1 in the next six games as Saints got off to a faltering start in the league, but then he hit a couple against Yeovil, both penalties and from then on he didn't stop scoring, his long range efforts being his trade mark.
By the end of the season he had 36 goals in all competitions for Saints in only 58 appearances and a legend was born, he even had a song, one line went "He''ll take us to the premier league Rickie" it was a good song but nobody really believed that it would come true.
In 2010/11 Rickie was less prolific, but in fairness the goal burden was eased with the emergence of Lee Barnard and Rickie the provider was coming to the fore, he still hit 21 in the league which was a more than reasonable return, but there were those who doubted whether after a career spent in the lower divisions that he would be able to make the step up to the Championship.
But he proved the doubters wrong and hit 27 Championship goals and to be honest to a more greater extend than the previous season many of them made a real difference, as Saints started to falter in February up stepped Rickie to keep the promotion challenge on course, a hat trick at Watford, the winner in a one goal rear guard action at Leeds and a goal against Ipswich that got a point, if we want to look at what got us up February was the month when Rickie played his part, in March we started to show we were a team and not a one man band, but a hat trick at Millwall in a 3-2 comeback pushed us a step closer the top flight.
In the end we crawled a little over the line as Reading & West Ham chased us down, but a brace at Palace just kept us going forward and discouraged them at the right time, with Billy Sharp hitting the goals Rickie still played his part and his game had changed drastically from a year or so earlier, back then he was very much a hit them from anywhere type of player and noted for long range goals, in the Championship he altered his style of play, used his team mates more and the team benefitted for it.
But the summer of 2012 again brought the doubters to the fore, surely Rickie couldn't prosper in the Premier, the answer was swift with a well taken equaliser only minutes after coming on as sub, if people thought that Rickie wasn't up to the Premier then they were sorely mistaken.
It would be a good season in the Premier for Rickie 15 goals plus a number of assists made him a valuable member of the team and indeed the highest scoring Englishman in the Premier league and that being the case an England cap would be a fiitting end to this fairytale and a fairytale it most definitely is, 20 years ago players taking Rickie's route to the top flight were common place, it wasn't rare to find even clubs like Liverpool taking players from the lower leagues and turning them into top flight players, even International ones at that, but in the last decade that has become increasingly rare, the sad fact is that the lower leagues aren't scoured as they once were for talent, teams preferring a quick fix foreign signing, indeed even a club being promoted from the Premier rarely sees too many of its players without top flight experience staying in the team for its Premier adventure so all of this makes Rickie all the more unique.
For Super Rickie Lambert to get an England cap would truly show the footballing world that you don't need to be a cosseted prima donna, feted by top clubs from the age of 8 to make it to the very top, you can still do it by hard graft and determination, perhaps this will also teach some clubs something as well and that is that if the England team is going to prosper perhaps its the Rickie Lambert's that are needed to be signed for the Premier League and not the carlos kick a ball's.
One thing is for sure on Wednesday though and that is that if Rickie Lambert gets to pull on that England shirt on the pitch against the Scot's then he will show a lot more passion and pride in doing so than a dozen or more players that have done so in the last few years and who only consider an England game worth playing in if it is against a top country in a competitive match, just as Rickie has restored Saints fans pride in their team over the last four years, perhaps he can do the same for England fans.