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It's our new policy, Jim. Smith and Jones and Webber were running out of ways the annoy the h*ll out of you so I suggested signing players who can't actually play for the club...🤓

Hi folks. Firstly, I've cleared this with Pete Raven, and with Nutty from a PUPs perspective, and they're both happy for me to post it. The Norfolk Community Foundation, in conjunction with former North Norfolk MP Sir Norman Lamb, are running a campaign during August to raise money for youth mental health in Norfolk. The EDP covered the story here yesterday, but the short version is that Sir Norman is encouraging people to club together throughout August and collectively walk, run or cycle 500 miles between them in and around Norfolk. Among the ambassadors for the campaign are Delia Smith, Christoph Zimmermann, Alex Tettey, Iwan Roberts, Jeremy Goss, Darren Eadie and Paul McVeigh. As someone who has experienced mental health problems since my teens, this cause is extremely important to me. It's vital that we give our young people the best start in life; a lot of the time, when people turn 18 they are simply dropped by youth mental health services and passed on to adult services, where they often face long waiting lists before being able to resume any support or treatment. As such, I have decided I'm going to have a crack at covering 500 miles all by myself; this would be a modest distance for an experienced road cyclist, but I have no experience of long-distance riding and I'm also clinically obese. I'm hoping that by completing this challenge I will be able to help Norfolk's young people while also improving my own mental and physical health. I'm planning to keep a video diary of my experiences, talking about the journey itself, the people I meet along the way, and my own experiences of mental illness. If anyone else is interested in getting involved, don't hesitate to join the campaign; or if you're Norfolk-based and would like to ride a little way with me, just drop me a PM and we'll sort something out. Even if you can't spare any money, every share and retweet will help to raise awareness. Links below: JustGiving Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter Cheers, Matt (feedthewolf)

Can you spot the owl though?

"I'm so angry we are not signing players!" "I'm so angry we are signing players!" this support base sometimes I swear

OP Could you explain which part of the plan either is not working or is on track as I can only see stuff that has happened ahead of the plan. 1. We were near administration and were told over the next 3 years we would have no debts - Achieved after 1 year. 2. We were told the club would be run without risk to it being destroyed - Achieved even after the Pandemic, had we had not been in the financial situation we were, COVID would have been the last straw to our club 3. We were told that we would have a world leading training / academy after 3 years - Achieved after 18 months 4. We were told 3 would see us producing ONE multi million pound player a year that would keep the club in a financially secure position - Achieved 10 times over 5. We were told we would be promoted after 3 seasons - Achieved after 2 seasons 6. We were told that when we were promoted there would be a likelihood of going up and down for a number of seasons - Achieved to date 7. We were told that the person achieving 4 would be sold to keep us financially secure and our squad would gradually be added to - In my view Achieved as we built a team from the Maddison money to get promoted and then then last year gave that squad the chance to keep us up. 8. We were told over 5 years there would be ground expansion if most of the above were achieved - That seems to be on track as we have now bought and own the relevant land. 9. Players would be brought in who were going to be big names before they got injured, giving them the chance to resurrect their careers with little risk to us - I would say achieved with Krul, Pukki, Hernandez, Byram if he stays fit, whilst those that haven’t cut the mustard were quickly moved of our budget, some moving for a profit. If what we have done to date is so bad why are people remotely bothered about wether we sell any of our players as 7 of those were pretty much regulars in a team that performed worse ( the same people keep pointing out ) than any Norwich side before them. Maybe I have missed something ? Which part of the plan is not on track at the moment ? Had we have finished 6th when we got promoted, then destroyed the Championship last year would you be claiming Webber was a failure now ? One last point we have had parts on here of the Bilic interview. It scoots round the fact that what he said was ‘ our players ( meaning the wba players, not our players ) are more suited to the Premier league, in fact when we played Newcastle 3 of my players came to tell me you get lots more space in the premier league ‘. Word for word that sounds exactly like we thought and did.

What we really need is experience defenders, who don't get injured, can defend corners using the zonal marking system, are good with their feet, don't get booked or sent off, can score from corners, will attend Fan Social nights, are good with sick children, don't waste time on social media and will deliver food parcels during a Pandemic. I'd prefer them to be a Gemini. All of the defenders we've had who've been any good have been from that star sign. 😀

Biggest lesson? Just reflect on the words of Slaven Billic talking about what WBA need to do in the PL next season - "not like Norwich who haven’t even tried anything" That is all you need to learn but I doubt that Smith and Jones are listening.

You do understand how a transfer window works right? The crucial aspect being that deals are not done in positional or priority order. Just maybe the club are holding on prioritising and bidding until they know which defenders are sold? Well done for being yet another person whining about defenders. Why don't you stop until the transfer window shuts?

Our funding arguments always sound like this to me:

I'm not that fussed by the 'achievement' of retaining PL status for 5 seasons. Unless its going to coincide with going for a cup win, it feels pretty meaningless. Give me promotion and relegation fights regularly, something to really get behind

I understand that this signing was very much based upon a strong recommendation from Tom Smith. He's been spending a lot of time with our scouting team with a view to becoming more "hands on" and this is a player he identified early on during that period.

Thanks Sonyc. I had very similar thoughts about the irony of RTB's comments as to 'Scottish' independence as opposed to UK (or should I say England's) Brexit. The big difference is that Scotland knows where it wants to go - has a destination in mind knowing it's a small european country whereas England doesn't. For England, and especially the boomers like me, the last dying flickering embers of empire live large in the memory, the empire upon which the sun never set; and coupled with a bizarre sense of unrealistic exceptionalism led to the Brexit fiasco. As you also note NI already has an escape prized open from the Brexit Titanic. Scotland is lowering the lifeboat and even Wales is starting to think where are the life jackets. Johnson and the Brexiters are of course already irredeemably tied to the mast/wheel and will go down with the ship in true British 'Boy's Own' style. I don't expect history will treat them kindly - the very word Brexiter rapidly joining other select words such as 'Luddite', Puritan, and Cretin in the English lexicon.

A bunch of blokes discussing if size matters 😁

Nothing much we didn't already know I think. The gap from Championship to Prem is still big, some underestimated that Spending loads doesn't guarantee you stay up, spending nothing guarantees you don't Momentum is easily lost but tough to get back We'll learn far more about Farke, Webber and the long term viability of this project next season I think.

Glad to help FTW. Norman Lamb is one of life's good guys (even though he was a Lib Dem) and he's campaigned for mental health for a long time. I hope the campaign achieves all its goals.

It would probably be helpful to the club if you could send them a list of all the players you've heard of, so they have a better idea of whom they can target.

You don't sign top level, household names for the Championship. I really do think some fans have expectations that are way beyond reality.

Had you heard of Maddison or Buendia when we signed them? Me neither. I think that's why we're not Director of Football.

Donated! Good luck to you

Rubbish signing - he's useless at defending set pieces........................

Get out. We don't do logical, sensible posts here.

you can always check what folk do before spouting off here’s a clue - posted a fortnight ago "I am not objecting to others wearing a mask, nor if a shop required me to - their business, their rules but don't let facts get in the way of misrepresenting my views, or more importantly my actions and given that it hasn't before. perhaps it was a bit over optimistic to expect these old duffers to change this time round 🦽⚰️

Can someone please mention St Andrews Hall? I’m playing PinkUn Bingo and I’m down to the last phrase. Thanks in anticipation. GPB.

Anyone noticed that Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a man who has made a career out of being a complete **** and complaining about refugees, who campaigned extensively for Brexit, is now fleeing to Spain, using freedom of movement "because he fears for the safety of his family".... Let that sink in You Brexit ****wits. Tommy Robinson, is using freedom of movement, to move to Spain. A right that you will no longer have after this year because you believed **** like him. You believed him that refugees were a problem. Now he's a ****ing refugee. You really are ****ing mugs if you still can't see the wood for the trees.

No, I absolutely do respect your right to your viewpoint - hence why I was very keen to see and understand your actual argument. I understand why the more insecure fans with short memories would find this season embarrassing, but I personally don't feel that way as it was always going to be a ridiculously hard task given the transformation that was undertaken the previous season. I also have very short shrift for pundits and managers who don't do their research about us and instead just focus on the usual tropes. What I don't respect is your attempt to belittle those with a different view by describing them as "dumplings". The fact you have doubled down on that by throwing out yet more ad-hominem terms such as "snowflake" probably says a lot less about my apparent wokeness than it does about your inability to have a debate in good-faith without a narcissistic edge to your posts.

I’ve just thought - Jim Smith - Tom Smith. Coincidence? I think we should be told. 😉

That's exactly what I thought. Years of being told that taping the radio was illegal (before torrents came along), and now the cheeky ****s find those tapes useful 😆 Can still remember trying to stop the tape at the exact right moments during the top 40 chart to not get the presenters voice, then the ****s started ending the songs early to make this difficult. But no OP, I don't have anything interesting, haven't owned a cassette tape or cassette player for probably 20 years and I'm too young for your desired timeframe. Is this included? If not, it really must be...

Ah! that explains why Uncle Fred, whose balanced judgment is so widely respected, has started singing Tom Smith's praises. I knew there had to be a well-founded reason.

Yeah, even with two friendly caps he wouldn't be close to meeting the requirements as set out by the FA to getting a work permit. But it seems players often get permits despite not meeting the criteria (it is a little bit of a dark art). I have a feeling we might never see Soto in a Norwich shirt, but as he has a high reputation and was available on a free, the club are potentially thinking he could make them a tidy profit in a years time. I'm sure a lot of MLS clubs would love to sign him.

1 that stating we expect to go down is no way to start or continue a campaign in the EPL.... we have to have some expectation and ambition... that we learn from Wilder... we'll give it a go! 2 that eveything has conspired against us... 3 that confidence is imperative... 4 that carrying players in matches is just not an option especially bearing in mind 2 above. walking onto the pitch with the likes of Duda, Drmic, Stiepermann, Trybull, Rupp puts us up against it from the off. 5 that having our offensive creators (Buendia, Cantwell and Hernandez) spending far too much time deep in our half protecting the full back is never going to allow us to thrive. Even Pukki, spent half the season 70 yards from the opponents goal. 6 that we must have alternative options capable of changing a game dynamic significantly 7 that we can tweak our formation from the off to react to a particular opponent. 8 that we make effective substitutions that react to what's going on on the park or whats likely to happen in the latter stages. 9 that we look to pass sideways and forwards much more often.... e.g. Lewis has plenty of options inside but constantly goes back to Godfrey. 10 that we learn how to 'GET RID'. It's been frankly embarrassing to watch some of the pathetic tippy-tappy defending when it needs some aggression to get that ball away from danger.... often that is a midfielder so it's an attitude required throughout the team. 11 that the project is about regular EPL membership and those who couldn't step up need to move on. 12 that we are very inexperienced, (players and coaches) and that the coaches need to show their learning quickly. That includes replacing players that didn't step up, not our best talent. 13 that pace, strength, quality of touch and experience are pre-requisite when signing players. Neat and tidy isn't enough. 14 that Buendia is a no. 10 and needs to play further forward in a free role where he can receive the ball and frighten opponents. His stats this season are off the scale even playing in this set up. Most tackles again but most assists and chances created. 15 we are doing it our way, we are in a much better position than we were when Farke arrived and the project continues.... lots to learn, lots to improve, lots to change - pretty exciting times ahead OTBC

Bloody hell, what on earth is the state of clubs such as : - Cardiff - Swansea - Forest - Derby - Blackburn - QPR - Stoke - Sheffield Wednesday - Middlesbrough - Birmingham - Hull - Ipswich - Sunderland If we can regularly get promoted to the top division in English football whilst being 'rotten at the core', what do you make of these clubs?!

We’ve learnt: That our fans opinions of progression and success differs greatly. That we have very few premiership quality players in our squad. That promotion is pointless without continued ambition. Farke is no wonder manager. Farke is inflexible. THERES MORE TO LIFE THAN FOOTBALL what haven’t we learnt: Our defence is not good enough. Which we already knew from the previous season. Our board don’t speculate. Under our current board we will never sustain premiership status. Football is depressing when you’re not competitive. Although we’ve never seen it quite as badly as we did this time. THERES MORE TO LIFE THAN FOOTBALL.

Managed something we don’t seem to achieve by staying in the EPL for 5 seasons Wish we could even manage a second season occasionally

Spot on Jim, and you are absolutely right to make the assumption that this fan’s attitude is widely shared because Canary Call is noted for its fan participants being wise individuals who are totally clued into the financial realities of football and whose opinions are always sensible and very definitely never normal-for-Norfolk silly...

Daniel Alves 5' 7" Jordi Alba 5' 6" Dani Carvajal 5' 7" Marcelo 5' 7" Roberto Carlos 5' 6" Danny Rose 5' 7" Paul Parker 5' 6" Chris Hughton 5' 6" Many shorter full backs over the years - speed and mobility the key requirements.

Why has the discussion continued after this post? Peter has spoken.

Only if you're thick. They could have said Top 20 - to be in the Premier League. Of course, that's where they want to be, but if you finish 18th, 19th or as we just have 20th, you've met the brief but can't meet it next season which makes no sense. So perhaps they should say a top 17 club but that doesn't account for the very distinct possibility of relegation from the top flight. We don't want to be relegated but as Norwich City aren't Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and at a push Everton, we have to wager that into our thoughts - it's always a possibility - as countless "established" clubs have found to their detriment (see Watford and Bournemouth now coming down in their fifth season). It's not realistic to ignore the fact that we might finish 18th, 19th or 20th. So, accepting that relegation is a possibility, how can we produce a target that accounts for that but still wants us to be as good as we possibly can be? By saying what they did. That the ambition is to be in the Premier League and that if we find ourselves not there then to be strongly challenging to be there; which means being in the top 6 of the Championship. It's not a lack of ambition; it's realistic, pragmatic, ambitious, achievable and the bare minimum that they hope to accomplish. The argument that it lacks ambition is nonsense; what would you have them say? Top 26 not ambitious enough, top 20 we might get relegated still, top 17 why aim for fourth from bottom, top 10 why not target europe, top 5 why only target the UEFA cup, top 4 well if we're going for the Champions League we might as well target winning it...behave...

The whole nation isn’t laughing at us, the only people who think we are an embarrassment are some of our fickle fans.

If history is anything to go by the board will learn exactly nothing.

I'm always curious to see if this cynicism existed when we were winning the league last season, or even at the start of the season after, for example, playing Newcastle off the pitch and go toe for toe with Chelsea. Now don't get me wrong, there have been some real problems this season, some self-inflicted (poor recruitment, wrong tactical decisions etc) but then there has also been factors that we cant control; being in the first year of VAR, having a pandemic make the key home games not home games and ultimately still financially paying for mistakes made by those trying to buy survival for Alex Neil. As for the, explain themselves.. I mean, come on, you can disagree with the approach, you can be frustrated by it, you can wish for other owners, but surely your not telling me you haven't understood what has been repeated time and time again since the summer? Or for that matter, to an extent, last season too. I think if your wanting a change of board/owners there are two things I would want to point out: firstly who is chomping at the bit to buy us? This fictitious person waiting to come in doest exist. The second; We start sacking board members and we could end up with a Jez Moxey again.. be very careful what you wish for. We weren't good enough, we all know why, we will go again. Welcome to how football works.

Some people get it, you obviously don't DCB. Webber said way before the season started we wouldn't put the club under financial insecurity. We are now financially way better off for it. The plan is working!

This season, as stated, has been a total embarrassment. We even have other managers mocking us now publicly for a total lack of ambition, pointing out “they didn’t even try” This is a sentiment shared by my mates who support other teams who think our miserly ambition was a total joke and that we didn’t even try to stay up. It doesn’t reflect well on us as a club. Have us fans be taken for fools? We were told there was a genius plan in place, but following a record breaking season of dismal failure (see the stats) it is hard to believe in. Do we really think we are about to bounce back first time? On what footballing evidence? Add to this the fact that our new mantra “the team needs a shake up” seems to involve off-loading our budding wonder kids and replacing them with more obscure cheapies from abroad. I think the board need to explain themselves better regarding wasting the opportunity promotion gave us. AGAIN! I think they also need to tell us how the “plan” works if we don’t come flying out of the traps and start winning in a few weeks time. As things could turn ugly, quickly. Then what? Was there really a plan or just an excuse for trying to do it on the cheap and trouser the promotion money?

The truth. We can start with the Barnard Castle horse**** if you want.

There is 'on the verge of administration' in spades on the Bilic thread if you need that one...🧐

Lots turn out good, Pukki, Zimmerman, Bundeia, Vrancic, Byram, Krul, Hanley, Maddison, McClean, Klose ( when finally fit ) and you could argue the likes of Trybull and Leitner. We also forget a lot of our young players didn’t come through our academy but were brought in as 16 year olds Aaron’s and Lewis spring to mind. We could have paid £15m for 2 flops or risked peanuts on players where we know 50 % may not work. I know a particular centre half brought in was on such a low wage initially and had to prove himself before getting a pay rise. Far riskier for a club like ours to go down the expensive signings root as with that comes excessive wages and plenty of Naismiths and Rickys about.

'relegation fights' Have we ever fought relegation? 95 - Fell like a stone from a healthy Christmas position. 2004 - had a go, then when it really mattered got thumped 6-0 at Fulham. 2009 - Awful football, and two good hammerings at Ipswich and Charlton when we needed a result. 2014 - Lost 6 of last 7. 2016 Lost 6 of the last 7. 2020 Lost the 10 in a row, scoring 1 goal. We've never shown the stomach for it. Certainly has never been anything to get behind. I get the point regarding promotion, and to counter the abysmal stats above, we do seem to cope with the pressure of getting over the line in a promotion race. But I don't get all the anti-premier league stuff. Seems like sour grapes, or empty words to try and comfort. I want to see Norwich in the EPL every season, regardless of final position. Hopefully one day we can get there and be in a position to make ourselves competitive.

Weird/worrying? considering how Webber likes to speak about how much fan interaction has improved since his arrival.

Thomas and Adshead maybe in the first-team picture as they were both on the bench? Or maybe just a bit of an experience for them.

"History is also now used to expose expectations" Certainly in our case history is selectively used to expose expectations.

1988 14th 1989 4th 1990 10th 1991 15th 1992 18th (good job there were still 22) 1993 3rd You cling on to a couple of seasons, maybe three, in our whole history to judge every other. You are destined to die a very miserable and dissatisfied man.