Bristol Rovers striker Rickie Lambert has said he would relish the chance to prove himself at a Championship club.

The 27-year-old is the top scorer in League One this season, scoring 28 goals for the Pirates.

"If a good Championship club came in it would be too good to turn down. My ambition is to play in the Championship," he told BBC Points West.

"It needs someone to take a gamble on me, but I believe I can do it and I believe I can score goals there."

First-team coach Paul Trollope has admitted every player has their price and is unsure whether Lambert will be lining up for Rovers next season.

606: DEBATE You can see in his eyes deep down he knows he wants to play higher & certainly will Sonevafushi

"Any player at any level has a price that's realistic. Whether that comes or not time will tell, but we want him to stay," Trollope said.

"Purely speaking as the first-team coach, I want him here next year."

Rovers rejected approaches for their star striker in the January transfer window and are braced for more speculation in the summer.

"If a solid offer comes in that's when I'll listen to it. I just get on with my football. There's one game left so if anything happens after that then it happens," said Lambert.

Despite admitting his desire to add to the squad, Trollope is keen to keep most of his squad together.

"We've looked at aspects of our play and looked at the top teams and how they do things and how we need to progress to push ourselves up the league," he added.

"Obviously a goal threat and more goals was the main thing last year and we did that. We're hoping now we can do similar things to other aspects of the team.

"We feel that within the budget we've got, we can still make a good step forward with the players we bring in and we're confident that the people we've identified will improve us.

"We would like to keep the continuity we've had over the last two or three years and the core of the group will stay together because we fell we've progressed."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version