Christian Benteke committed himself to a new deal at Aston Villa over fears of becoming a big club flop.
The 22-year-old wasn't prepared to risk blowing his hopes of going to next year's World Cup with Belgium by struggling to settle somewhere else.
Fernando Torres famously flopped at Chelsea and Lambert said: "Bigger players than Christian have gone and it's not worked out.
"That can happen. I don't know why it is.
"You still had the same ability when you left the club but for some reason some things don't work out.
"All I could do is put him on the right path and tell him experiences of what people have gone through."