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What's up Jools? Your hero Nigel Farage got special permission to enter the USA, only to find out that Trump's Million Strong Army was whole bunch of teenagers on TicTok and there are only 10,000 people in the arena? Is that why you are deflecting here? Did Nigel get to speak at the outdoor overflow event? Of I forgot that was cancelled wasn't it as nobody came. Hehe he I hear that the President is in a really foul mood. They flew Airforce One over the event hall so he could see how big the crowd was (or not) Over 980,000 cancellations is one hell of a no show. Parscale desperately spinning again I see.

"As we have seen in recent weeks, the Conservative government continues to protect its Establishment associates and to further elite interests at the expense of democracy. Boris. Johnson’s leadership has laid bare the intersection between the media, politics and corporate agendas, In a week where we see the shops opening and the “Buy for Britain campaign”, it seems like high time for a challenge to those who value economic health above the health of their citizens. This is the definition of praxis. Government by the rich for the rich." Evidence of sleaze and corruption is mounting, and this certainly won't stop with Jenrick MP. When you have both the Times and Mail reporting on serious wrongdoing in the Tory party then you know you are onto something. The question is whether Johnson will try (have to) bluff this out, as with Cummings - as the accusations here go far beyond Commings flouting of the rules. This is blatant corruption by a serving government minister - and Johnson is tied up in it. This week should be 'fun'.

Woud rather the season be null and void if this match is what the rest of the season is gonna be like

......🎣

I never particularly like it when an individual player is singled out after a bad defeat. He's had some super moments, especially last season. It was however clear even then that he was a PL back up player at best. Ditto: Trybull and one or two others who I won't mention as they have their fans and there's little need to cause controversy. Needless to say, but Nathan Redmond ran rings around our defence on occasions on friday evening. He looked a class above our entire midfield and he got his fair amount of stick from the support whilst he was here.

The article literally starts by saying that reports 'are understood to be totally wide of the mark'. Farke won't be sacked, and would only leave if a decent Bundesliga side came in for him, and has he really done enough this season to justify that? I don't think he has, in all honesty. He's like the coaching version of Ben Godfrey: clearly has quality and lots of potential, but has shown himself to be naive this season and needs more time before he's ready to move to a big club.

We all need competition for places but suggesting that a player murder the other two is going too far. 😀

What a juvenile post! As a proud city fan I love our club through thick and thin. We don’t glory hunt I support the team I have affiliation with and I’m a ‘football’ supporter too. Ipswich fans are the same, (better than supporting Man Utd or Chelsea or whoever just because they win). They have passionate fans (football fans) too, they’re in a low now and our fans are basking in it, that’s how it is but don’t you think that’s far enough! As our local rivals we have a history and necessarily a future of ups and downs, high and lows... Exactly how is Ipswich’s demise doing the football world (or us their main rivals) a ‘favour’. Be a football fan.

This is not really about chlorinated chicken per se. To explain, Theresa Villiers, as Herman said, is a rock-solid Brexiter. One of the true believers. Daniel ‘Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the single market’ Hannan called her ‘the unsung hero of Brexit’. And being a true believer is an absolute requirement for any kind of position in the Johnson government. So Villiers was rewarded with the promise of a place on the powerful Commons Intelligence Committee. Until she defied a three-line whip and voted against lowering food standards to allow a US trade deal with the likes of chlorinated chicken. And was promptly dumped from the Intelligence Committee. So schadenfreude at poor Theresa being revealed as a useful idiot (one naïve enough I imagine to think that the downsides of Brexit could be limited) to be thrown aside or betrayed once their usefulness is over, but the episode, trivial in itself, says a great deal about Brexit and the real Brexiters, ie those implementing it. For starters, loyalty even to true believers is entirely disposable, and depends on the prime directive, which is to make Brexit happen, and happen without delay, and no matter what the cost to the country. Because the real Brexiters are not just fanatics but fanatics who govern by symbols. And one great symbol of Brexit is a trade deal with Washington, even if it will be horrendously one-sided in favour of US industry and farming. Villiers presumably didn’t understand that inconvenient truths and details don’t matter to the real Brexiters. Only the superficial appearance of getting the job done. Another great symbol is not prolonging the transition period, even though anyone with only half a brain knows, especially with the pandemic, that it is the sensible thing to do. Which is why I have put money on there not being an extension. But this government by symbols hasn’t just applied to Brexit. The ‘handling’ of the pandemic is another example. And it will continue as long as Boris ‘Garden Bridge’ Johnson is prime minister. This is not a government in the old meaning, ie one that boringly implements detailed policies to make positive changes (whether those positive changes are beneficial or not is a question) but an insurgency whose default position is to attack the status quo for the sake of attacking the status quo, without much – if any - thought to whether the new order will be better. There was an art movement called Constructivism. Cummings et al are Destructivists.

Maclean is our best all round midfielder imo although Vrancic is my favourite due to his creativity. Let's not go looking for fall guys although I think that Russell Martin is past it.

In business they talk about being promoted to a position of incompetence, and this has been our fate. When we started the championship last season, a top 10 finish is what most outside Norwich would have predicted, Champions was a truly fantastic (and maybe over) achievement. Our players who performed above themselves at a 7 or 8 /10 level in the championship, were not reinforced in the summer and the same players have become, mainly 5 / 6 out of 10 players in the premier league. Tettey's importance to us illustrates this point perfectly. Generally we have not had enough quality and been exploited. Phases of games we can look good, but teams no they need to hold us in that period and then exploit us when effort levels can't be sustained. We blew up on Friday, possibly after the early endeavours, in the end the match reminded me of the champions league final in 2005 where Southampton midfielders were allowed to run 30-40 metres with the ball unopposed, and also the Colchester debacle where we would vastly outnumber the opposition in the box, but no one would affect the ball. Last season we built a passing style, but our best option for maintaining possession in midfield, Leitner, has been sacrificed too lightweight, and for the need of more athletic qualities. An error in judgement or a necessity, it matters not, in essence we have a set of top trump cards that are deficient in too many areas, and too many defeats impacts confidence. Losing all 17 games we have gone behind in, is a damning statistic. After Friday, Farke's "little miracle" feels now like a "massive miracle". We'll get up and go again on Wednesday, and I wouldn't be surprised if we pick up 3 points, and while that will offer renewed hope, it is likely to be false for the reason's above, but just maybe the team will surprise again. If not, I hope to see a return to the passing game, and that the club learn from the experience and ensure we prepare for top flight football better next time, buying some premiership leadership, experience, nous and resilience in the centre of the park to help coordinate & lead the team on field would be key, but that's not cheap. Over to you Stuart Webber (hopefully if you are still here)!!

It's definitely one of his Facebook friends he got from his Instagram library. 😀

Having had a chance to mull over yesterday's performance, I've had a look around the forum this evening. There's no doubt that last night was as bad, if not worse, than Villa at home, either Man United game, Wolves and probably worse than any of the handful of the demoralising 0-2 defeats where we looked out of our depth this season. For the majority of the season we have at least been competitive and been in the mix for at least a point. While the back 4 certainly didn't cover themselves in glory last night, I still don't believe that the main issues lie there. It's unlikely DF wanted to launch Klose straight back into the starting 11. What choice did he have? The other 3 all have potential but are very much learning at the sharp end. What they learn this season will probably benefit other clubs in the not too distant future. I certainly think Aarons will be gone this summer. I think he's the most likely of the 3 defensive "starlets" to become a regular at this level. Godfrey is a bit loose & has to improve his anticipation & positional sense, but he has a bright career in front of him. Jamal has the raw materials to be a solid & reliable attacking-minded full/wing back. When the team was announced, I was surprised to see a departure from the tried & trusted DF framework. I assumed that Drmic must have been showing well in training but I raised the proverbial eyebrow at a Trybull & McLean central midfield. Was Tettey not fully fit? Or being kept in reserve if Klose went off injured or for general backup? Or for games still to come? For me, central & defensive midfield is where we have been found wanting all season. I love Tetts but if he's still the best we can put out to compete at the top level, particularly now where we supposedly want to foster & play a passing & possession-based philosophy, then relegation is what we deserve. The cynic might say that the club has been preparing for an inevitable relegation since Villa Park just over a year ago! Our midfield options have been Tettey, Trybull, McLean, Vrancic & Leitner. Amadou was signed in the hope of being our Kante/Ndidi/Makelele screener and as emergency backup at CB. Rupp arrived in January. Without using too much hindsight, we simply haven't had the personnel to compete in the engine room. Again. For me, this is the primary reason why we end up under the cosh as games develop. Better midfields probe & suss us out. We cough up cheap possession in dangerous areas. We get caught out of position. We're too easy to counter. Frustrated forward players come deeper to help out & try to make something happen - we lose any threat up top. I think in all other areas of the pitch, we have the players of a quality to just about avoid relegation. The defensive injuries all year have made an already hugely difficult challenge virtually impossible. Senior recruitment last summer didn't work out. There's no doubt that the news about Hanley, Zimmermann & Byram was morale-crippling. Still, last night was especially hard to stomach. Form had been reasonably good in 2020 before the curtailment and the Cup games were a welcome distraction. For me, whatever small glimmer of hope that remained was extinguished early in the second half. It could be seen on the players' faces & in their body language. The general performance was flat, it lacked belief, it lacked confidence, it lacked composure. The ease Southampton cut through to hit the bar in the first half should have rung a warning bell. Instead, without providing any real pressure or raising the tempo in any serious way, they were permitted to canter through at will in the second half and looked like scoring almost every time. Arguably as shoddy as we've looked at any time this season. We're entitled to question and wonder why it went so awry last night. Hopefully we can raise morale, be competitive and win a couple of games or next season's proposed promotion push will get very hard very quick. Perhaps a trip to Wembley might help us forget! OTBC! Apologies for length of post. Just read back there!

Including you, who likened him to a donkey. Maybe we can show the same patience to a player whose been injured all season. I get a Foghorn Leghorn vibe from many of your posts.

The team I saw didn’t look well drilled enough, fit enough or hungry enough to survive. It looked devoid of ideas and lacking any real bite. We are almost certainly going down and that’s because we are one of if not the weakest team. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it clearly is. They took a gamble this year to spend minimally in the hopes of staying up rather than risk a bigger financial outlay. It hasn’t paid off. I don’t agree it was the right approach, but I understand it. We have a squad of players that almost to a man lacks either the experience or the quality required to compete in this division. Managed by a clearly talented guy but who is learning as he goes with probably the worst tool set in the division. I’m a realist, I wish things were different, I wish we’d risked a bit more to try and compete but I don’t really blame the Board for that, especially given the economic shock of this season on club finances in hindsight. Nor do I blame Webber or Farke particularly for the fact they’ve made errors, they will hopefully learn from the mistakes and continue to grow with us as a club. While I’m disappointed by this season the real kicker will be if we don’t make progress as a club next season towards becoming an established PL team. So no I don’t want to see the board, Webber or Farke go personally. Stability is the most likely thing to breed long term success.

Personally, I thought he played better than Godfrey... The reason we conceded three goals was that our fullbacks kept getting caught out of position and the midfield offered the exposed CBs no protection. Better defenders than Godfrey and Klose are going to be made to look like donkeys when they play in the prem with no support.

I was waiting for this, looking forward to another one on Thursday

It’s been a long held dream of mine that they will finally do the football world a favour and just simply disappear, allowing a more deserving club from the lower leagues to take their place. Given the financial situation the globe finds itself in will they finally do the right thing and go extinct?

Hope it's Villa

They're also pretty good at getting back into it

Krul Aaron's Godfrey Klose Lewis Rupp Tettey Cantwell Buendia Hernandez Pukki Subs McGovern Leitner Idah Martin Duda Trybull Vrancic McClean Stieperman or Drmic Any other ideas ??

All over 2-1 GET IN!💷💷🥂

He is certainly a very good championship midfielder and I have no idea how or why anyone would think otherwise unless he slept with your wife or similar, in which case his judgement might be able to be called into question but doesnt detract from his footballing ability.

An interesting read about potential relationships between outcomes from infection, obesity and blood glucose levels:- Taking a closer look at the link between COVID and obesity‍ Data from our COVID symptom study has confirmed that people who are very overweight are more likely to suffer the dangerous effects of coronavirus. Ana thinks that how our blood sugar levels change after eating might be vital to understanding why some people have dysfunction immune responses to the virus, resulting in severe inflammation and life-threatening symptoms. Our PREDICT study showed that even identical twins, who share 100 per cent of their genes, can have very different nutritional responses, potentially explaining some of the reason why people can also have different responses to coronavirus infection. A study of patients in Wuhan, China, showed that patients’ blood sugar levels when they arrived in hospital with COVID-19 predicted how likely to die from the disease, with people with the highest blood sugar levels being most at risk.‍ Further data from the US also shows a link between high blood sugar levels, inflammatory responses to COVID-19, and disease progression in patients both with and without diabetes. How your blood sugar impacts your response to COVID ‍ So what might be going on here? Sometimes, if your blood sugar levels are high for a long time, you can begin to suffer from inflammation. Your cells can start converting glucose using an inefficient, anaerobic method. "This high glucose, anaerobic state can make your immune cells respond in an inflammatory way,” says Ana. For your immune system to function correctly and protect your body from viruses like SARS-CoV-2, it must strike a balance between inflammatory immune responses that help to protect and heal and anti-inflammatory responses that keep a lid on potentially dangerous overreactions. Research suggests that high blood sugar levels can increase the number of inflammatory immune cells and suppress the anti-inflammatory cells, throwing the immune system out of balance. Too many inflammatory immune cells can result in a cytokine storm, an out-of-control immune overreaction that has been seen in many people who have died with COVID-19. Several studies have also shown that people of BAME (black, Asian, and minority ethnic) descent are at increased risk of the deadly effects of COVID-19. Ana believes that this may be due to differences in glucose metabolism between different ethnicities. For example, African Americans are 60 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than non-Hispanic white people. And people from South Asian communities are up to 6 times more likely to have diabetes than the general population.‍ Using data to understand the relationship between blood sugar and immune response‍ Although unhealthy blood sugar responses are associated with being overweight, Ana explains that you could still have unhealthy metabolic responses and be at increased risk from COVID, even if you are at a healthy weight. It’s all about how you, as an individual, respond to food, which depends on a range of factors, including what you eat, our gut microbes, the time of day, your activity and more. For the past three years, our team at ZOE have researching nutritional responses to sugar and fat in our PREDICT studies. Ana is now using our data to understand more about the relationship between sugar metabolism, immune responses, and COVID-19. The bitter truth about blood sugar, weight and COVID-19 Data from our COVID Symptom Studyhas highlighted a link between obesity and severe symptoms of COVID-19. Our scientists believe that some of the links between obesity and increased risk from COVID-19 may be related to how our bodies process glucose (sugar). High blood glucose levels have been associated with inflammation and harmful immune responses, similar to those seen in people with serious COVID-19. We are combining our data from our COVID Symptom Study and PREDICT, the largest study of nutritional responses in the world, to understand more about the connections between diet, health, inflammation and COVID-19. Our experts believe that healthy food choices that are right for your personal metabolism can improve your blood sugar responses, help your immune system to function correctly, and potentially reduce your risk from COVID-19.

Inter 1 up

Yes it's soulless. Fans find tv coverage an absolute ball ache. With the weird kick off times they can feel pushed out to accommodate the tv subscribers. But this shows the fans in the stadium are more important to the tv companies than they maybe realised. Their product suffers for fans not being there.

Wish I could turn Jamie Carragher’s voice off

Gaining promotion from the Championship with a bunch of low level Bundesliga rejects and youth team players was nothing short of miraculous! To then go into Premier League with no financial backing from board and just a couple of freebies with dubious injury records and a few loan players who don’t even get into their parent teams first 11, is it any surprise this season has been an abject failure? Sure Farke has been frustrating in his stubbornness with team selection and ineffectiveness to make proactive changes with subs but given the resources provided even Klopp would have struggled. Norwich could appoint 100 new managers but until there is a change at the top, the club will never progress and is just going through the motions, which may satisfy enough fans to maintain the status quo!

As a blue myself I see no logic in this, I'm the first to admit we are currently bloody awful and if we played you tomorrow we would be lucky to lose by at least 3 goals, the point is though that we all love a local Derby, first game we all look for (when we're in the same division) and whilst we both loath each other I would never want yourselves, or any team to go belly up!

Definitely. If every club spent £100m on transfer fees, then it would come down to wage bill. I mentioned in another thread yesterday that wage bill is generally seen as the biggest indicator of financial muscle and investment, which in turn is a good indication of the strength of the playing squad, as player wages are directly linked to their ability, with very few exceptions. The correlation between wage bill and success is much greater than transfer fee spend and success. Otherwise, Chelsea would've been struggling this season and Tottenham would've been last year, as they didn't spend a penny on transfer fees. Their league positions are/were accurately reflected by their wage bill, however.

Dropping one of the attacking three midfielders might not be a terrible idea. I’d probably play it as a 4321, let the full backs push on and then have Cantwell and Buendia playing close to Pukki. Krul Aarons Godfrey Klose Lewis Trybull Tettey Vrancic (or McLean in for Trybull or Vrancic) Buendia Cantwell Pukki.

Krul Aarons Godfrey Klose Lewis Tettey Stieperman Vrancic Hernandez Buendia Pukki

OK, for clarity I agree that our low spend has not helped our cause and will be a contributory factor to us getting relegated, if you search this board you will see that I was of the view that the club should have taken a bit of managed risk in its spending, rather than the approach it has taken. I have seen no evidence offered yet that directly correlates to the three clubs that spend the least getting relegated each year, my own quick piece of "back of a fag packet" analysis would suggest it is not necessarily the case. A good example of that would be the three teams that went down last season were not the three lowest spenders (Fulham were in fact the second highest spenders). This season, Norwich aside, the two teams that come down with us will not be the second and third lowest spenders and there is a possibility for the second season running a team that has spent in excess of £100M will get relegated. My £100M comment was not about the amount of money Norwich should have spent, it was making the very simple point that if all 20 Premier League clubs started from the same point and they all spent exactly the same amount on players (£100m), three of those clubs will still be relegated at the end of the season, so we would have to look beyond just the financial outlay and see what other contributory factors there were that led to those three teams being relegated......

And just like that. Silence. Time and time again we find ourselves in this position. Did you expect them to actually back something up? One day, they might.

Deliberately, like Boris? 🤣

I enjoy the championship more. It’s just a far more competitive, exciting league. It’s often referred to being the craziest league in the world and I’d go along with that. The premier league is boring, it’s a fact. Everyone knows it. Goals per game is dropping all the time. The decisions made by officials have A touch of Far Eastern betting syndicates about them and the whole league stinks of financial corruption, criminality and general scummery. It’s a bad place.

Think of battery hens...these plants are often human versions I'm told, with people working in very close proximity to each other. Yet, I too keep reading about markets and other animal preparation hotspots that I also wonder if raw animal product somehow attracts the virus? I believe we may see months of localised outbreaks reading all the recent news where the main 'wave' has been managed down to low numbers. I had initial confidence that it was weakening and dissipating but now I'm far less sure. It appears just to be an omni-presence in fact. Otherwise, why would there be these outbreaks? If it has passed and there has been no evidence it is brought in from elsewhere, then it must just be 'around' / 'in the air'. Apologies for my inarticulation in description just here. Yet, it's baffling.

I haven't ventured too far into social media since Danny Ings' shot hit the back of the net last night, but just far enough to get a feeling for the vitriol and scapegoating which accompanies every bad defeat. (I excuse criticism which is truly funny - Darren Eadie, I think it was Darren Eadie - describing Josip Drmic on Canary Call as being 'as much use out there as an Ikea wardrobe', was great). Back to the point - I feel bitter disappointment and maybe a little bit of 'if only we had done things differently', but I don't feel and anger or resentment on any personal level. City have come up short, no doubts, and some poor decisions have been made, but in my mind this does not translate into a cause to personally criticise Daniel, Delia / Michael, Jamal, Todd, Max, Ben, Tom, Kenny or even Josip. As the biting criticism is social media-led it is fair to assume much of it comes from young or very young supporters. Where will it lead?

@paddycanary I agree with much of that and I would also like to highlight that the midfield have a key role to play in our defensive performances. Most reviews have pointed out that Hojbjerg and Ward-Prowse dominated KM and TT and, as you mentioned, something is wrong with our squad if we are this reliant on Tettey. It is with the benefit of hindsight, but our summer recruitment let us down badly. I would also say that it was naive of Farke to play 4-4-2 - removing a midfielder, when we have such an inexperienced back four, was a huge risk. Unfortunately, the rest of the league has realised that we aren't good enough to pass our way through a press and will give away a few chances every game. We just lack the required quality in both boxes, which is no surprise when it was considered a miracle that we got promoted with virtually the same squad this time last year.

Nice to wake up and see Jools has completely missed all of the points...

As you probably know, the reason that they clean chicken with chlorinated water is because of the lower standard of hygiene found on poultry farms in the US. This method isn’t totally effective in removing any harmful bacteria but does make it harder to detect, making it potentially harmful to humans. So it’s not the chlorinated water that is objectionable per se but the poor standard of produce that requires it to be used. BTW I’m not a remainiac-is that your default response to anybody who finds the current Conservative policies objectionable? Is Theresa Villiers a remainiac? Or the 80% who don’t want unlabelled US products in this country? They can’t all be remainiacs, otherwise we wouldn’t be out of the EU. 🤣🤣🤣

Not sure what the point of that is. It doesn't really matter which 2 Clubs get relegated along with us because they will have spent more than us. For the other 17 PL Clubs, who will have all spent more than us, there will be no relegation. The simple fact is that the more you spend the more your chances of not getting relegated. As we will prove in a few weeks time, if you spend nothing then you are almost certain to be relegated.

Whilst Villa and West Ham would be the most amusing....I'm not sure if that would help our cause next season??

I’ve got Southern Comfort far better, especially with Pepsi max.

It's up to you Indy. But why hasn't it happened? A couple of weeks ago everyone was spitting feathers about the money our footballers earn and now they want to pay them more because we lost a soulless game in an empty stadium. Go figure....

I stopped reading here. I've read your posts and always admired your optimism, support for the club and enthusiasm. But calling the reaction received "a bit harsh" and suggesting the circumstances are to blame is entirely ridiculous. Yesterday was atrocious on every level. Team selection, tactics, fitness levels, individual performances, team performance, game management - it was all about as bad as we've seen in years. It's not something as fans we should accept. It's not right that we go down with an absolute whimper. So to see a fan on a prominent message board offering excuses for the club is equally embarrassing and shameful. I don't know if you genuinely believe the crap you've come out with here or are playing up to the reputation and persona you've created around yourself, but it's wrong on every level.

Excellent post @Monty13.....that’s a very fair assessment. Last night was an extraordinary game with no redeeming features that I could conceive of. Farke broke his template and changed the system, rejecting the previously deeply-drilled methodology and therefore tacitly telling the players it wasn’t working. The change horribly exposed a very weak and poor midfield. The players - almost to a man - looked dramatically less fit than Southampton across the field. The second half was akin to watching a pre-season friendly where one side is about to start their League campaign and the other is just starting out building stamina. Truthfully the Norwich players almost all looked a good way short of the required quality and - whilst Lakey is right to point out the exceptional circumstances - these factors must apply also to Southampton. Psychologically it all looked very fragile and unconvincing, leading to multiple basic errors. Without confidence, high risk overloads deep in the defensive areas becomes very vulnerable to a high press. Playing an additional forward makes the linkages weaker and the options for such play less. It was tricky enough before. The players looked demoralised very quickly. Defensively - including defensive midfield - the spaces offered were extraordinary. It is hard to defend that. It looked like collective paralysis. It would be tempting now to play a Brian Clough style wildcard and literally tell the players that they are relegated and to concentrate on the Cup. Knowing players they would very much resent such a suggestion and it might just have a reverse effect if played with a good poker face. Rather than not wanting it enough, I suspect that the players knew how important the game was and felt it too much. I’m not sure a starting line up with Trybull, Drmic a half-fit Klose and McClean through the spine ever looked right (quite possibly to the players themselves). Aarons continues to impress, though that’s about the only positive to cling to really on last night’s evidence. A very, very painful one for any fan. Parma

There's blind faith and then there's stupidity. It's over and has been over for some time. The long break revived hope that the restart might be like a new season, but last night crushed that dream. All eyes should now be concentrated on next season and blooding one or two that will be likely starters when we restart in the lower league.

To be fair whilst it's a bit patronising (it is Lakey, after all) your post has some very valid points. I'm assuming due to lockdown peoples capability of emotional intelligence has somewhat reduced and it's been a ridiculous over-reaction to one game. Suddenly it's Delia Out, Webber's a cheat, Farke's a fraud and none of our young players are fit to wear the shirt. Hopefully as people start to socialise more the ability to control emotions and not diarrhea all over this board will come to the fore.