'I played for Liverpool and scored for England - then claimed speaking to water cleans it'

A former striker who scored on his debut once claimed that speaking positively to a glass of water would help clean it. Rickie Lambert had a distinguished career in the , spending most of his time at Southampton before moving to Liverpool in 2014. He only stayed at Anfield until the following summer, when he joined West Bromwich Albion.

Lambert scored three goals for the Reds during his only season on their books and was also involved with England at international level. He opened his account for the Three Lions with his very first touch, diverting the ball home against Scotland just minutes after coming on as a substitute. The former striker won 11 caps for his country between 2013 and 2014.

Since retiring from football, Lambert has been outspoken and previously claimed that showing gratitude to water would make it clean. He made the outlandish statement in a bizarre interview which did the rounds on social media back in 2023.

"They've done a test where you spoke positively to one glass of water, froze it, spoke negatively to another glass of water, froze it, then [they] examined the ice," explained Lambert.

"The negativity water was full of holes and blackness. The glass of water that was spoke to positively was full of crystals. They've done experiments to the word, to the word, and the water responded the same way every time if you spoke to it a certain way.

"The one word where water responds in the most beautiful way and [produced] the most beautiful crystals is showing gratitude to water, so everything I was saying about manifestation is down to showing gratitude."

A year later, Lambert became involved in a public and bitter row with Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville. He equated Neville's campaign to introduce an independent football regulator with the Labour government supposedly trying to 'destroy our way of life'.

Responding to a post on X (formerly Twitter) in which Neville outlined his ideas, Lambert said: "It's becoming clear exactly who and what you are.

"Instead of using the footballing community to come together and stop what is being implemented onto us, you are using your position to try and persuade them to accept the corrupt, cowardly shadow government's plan to destroy our way of life and society."

Neville simply replied by asking Lambert if he was feeling okay, to which the former Liverpool man responded: "I'm good Gary, you seen what your mate's doing to this country? Why would you let them anywhere near our game?"