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Staying in the premier league was best for the long term stability of the club yet they somehow managed to convince a lot of fans that relegation was a good idea!

Someone from Turkey maybe?

Hi Guys, Hearing we are about to sign Godfrey? Not heard much about him to be honest but a few guys on the Everton forum seem to rate him. Hopefully you'll get good money for him for whatever he's worth. Hopefully you come back up this year to lads, good crowd at Carrow road... bit of a journey but we always have a laugh when we get there. Sorry for Naismith :-)

Kit man. Kit man. Kit man. Kit man. Kit man. Kit man. Kit man. Kit man. Kit man. Kit man. Kit man.

They just found Dippy Donald's notes on his lectern:

I have nothing but sympathy for the backroom staff at this time. We are supposed to be preparing for the season ahead, with a settled group all on board and secure until at least January. I appreciate things are tight given the congestion of the season but Jesus a transfer window should never continue so deep into a season again! We find ourselves in the league below, with a crop full of young players who for the most part performed well in the league above last season; earning themselves good reputations individually at least. It is undoubted that we are now one of the hardest hit clubs with rumours and general disarray in the team as a result of premier league interest and turning heads. Problems which of course are compounded by this overlapping transfer window. We've had 'bids' (Cantwell and Aarons) coming in to the public eye on the very mornings prior to our last two league games, players going out to get interviews about their future behind the club's back, players being dropped out of the side completed due to poor conduct in training. And on top of that all of that, for some reason we have fans seemingly rejecting the narrative coming from the club entirely. Even in leu of this clearly dire situation for the club. What do you guys want the club to actually do here? Did we announce Barcelona's interest in Aarons before the Preston game? Did we organise Buendia's interview? Did Farke make up that Buendia and Cantwell hadn't been getting their heads down in training? Can we actually even keep players against their will with good money on the table? Does any championship club do that? Is it our fault if we sell players who don't want to play for the club? What messages do we therefore want to send to other young players looking to join or currently in the ranks? Why are we criticising the club for having to deal with this very difficult situation, when nothing has even happened yet? This has nothing to do with 'we don't need to sell', I truly don't think we do, but how we can turn down good money for players who want to leave the club and aren't prepared to continue performing in training? What is the way around the current situation? We're simply in a very terrible spot right now until the window closes. That's it. I'm sure if we end up losing a couple, or more, we will look to replace those players. However with the window nearing it's end it's going to be extra difficult to find ideal replacements. But can we at least reserve the criticism until we actually sell any of these players under par and then don't replace any of them? As Farke said, I cannot wait for this bloody window to close!

I think we can and must force unhappy players to stay unless an acceptable bid comes in. We have to remember that everything we do sets a precedent for other young players coming through. If we let Cantwell and Buendia go for £15m apiece just to quell the current stormy waters, Idah, Mumba and Martin would see their behaviour as a viable tactic in the future. I also don't think we are in a particularly "terrible situation". We have some of the best talent in the UK on long contracts and a very strong squad behind them as back up. Maybe we should give credit to the club for creating this situation and ensuring that none of these players can walk away cheap which truly would be terrible.

How have we been lied to? They clearly said if big offers came in they would conisder them but are not financially obligated to sell. It's not tough to grasp unless you're an idiot who just wants to moan about the club.

Any bid from Everton for any of our players has to have at least an additional "Here's the money back for Naismith, sorry about all that" £10m added to the price.

The thing is, these figures are absolute nonsense. We probably spent that alone on the loan fee for Fahrmann. As soon as we went up we incurred a significant amount of promotion related bonuses paid to players. We gave a bunch of players significantly improved contracts so that we could realise sale values of £20m plus precisely in this scenario, and to reward success. In relation to the Emi Buendia purchase from Getafe, we incurred a £3.5m payment in a promotion-related add-on to the deal. We signed several players on loan added to Fahrmann, all of which incurred wage and loan fees. Drmic would have had a substantial signing on fee. Rupp was an undisclosed fee.

I think we have the replacements with 4 other CBs here already. We bought before we sold this window I think.

There are hundreds of correlations one could make between things. Things that are not causal though. There are other factors such as income inequality, housing density, the built environment etc etc. But that would be far too complex to consider. Why not just voting patterns? And if you were to look at those two maps in reality they do not overlay exactly. There are huge variations and indeed a granular study may reveal the claim is not even valid! But...I think rather than reply in any further material way to this post we should all just take a minute's silence to reflect on what this poster is really saying underneath his headline words.

I know that wasn't aimed directly at me, but of course I will; that's fair comment. If you're claiming to have inside knowledge that all four of our young assets will be sold before the window closes, I'll keep my powder dry until that point. But naturally, if we sell Aarons, Godfrey, Cantwell and Buendia before the end of the window and don't replace them, I'll be somewhere between very disappointed and bloody furious.

Thats exactly why I try not to add to the negativity.

I don't know if its' the fact that we can't watch live football or not. But seeing the sham, of a farce, of a travesty that the game is becoming means my love of the game is on the slide. Don't get me wrong, being Norwich born and bred, I love the City, the area, and my football club - and always will. But seeing what is happening to the game is just turning me off. VAR will be the death of football unless it is radically overhauled or even scrapped - although have come this far and spent sooo much money I don't think anyone can be seen to 'lose face' over the charade. If the faceless wonders running our game think this what the fans want they are sadly wrong. It is not working full stop, and I'm finding some of the Refereeing to be embarrassing. the fact that common sense has now been withdrawn means the fans are being seriously short changed. Penalties are being given where no players are appealing for the decision. The handball decisions are ludicrous, all you needed at Tottenham yesterday was a crocodile with a string of sausages in its mouth, running across the penalty area and the Punch and Judy show would have been complete. In the old days it was simple, if the ball struck your hand or arm and there was no intent to block or propel the ball forward it was not handball. We saw first hand last season that VAR is not for the smaller clubs, Pukki's goal against Spurs being disallowed because his eyebrows were past the last defenders. That is a complete nonsense, the decision was so close no assistant Ref could have spotted that with normal vision - and that's probably why he didn't flag for it. And again there was no appeal from the defenders. I always though forwards were given the benefit of the doubt to encourage attacking play, pulling them back for millimetres might be the correct decision, but that's something we've never had, and even then is it actually right? Now, with lots of rumours about Buendia and Cantwell swirling around I don't know if we'll ever hear exactly what is going on with them two. If, as some have suggested they have 'downed tools' they are being very badly advised. And this is another problem with our game...Agents. There is now so much money swilling around the top end and too many people being greedy to claim their 10%. My advice to them two would be don't believe the hype. if you are as good as you think you are you would already be at a bigger club, there hasn't been a stampede for your services yet - but I do realise this is no ordinary transfer window. The money - coupled with the appalling VAR - is tightening the big clubs grip on the game. So the chance of us finishing in the top half of the Prem is virtually nil.

He didn't say defensive midfield player?

Developing and selling players like Maddison, Lewis, Godfrey, Cantwell, Buendia and Aarons is the business plan for goodness sake. It allows the next crop of young talent to come through and in turn be sold at premium prices. As talented young players see that we can launch them into top flight UK and European football the demand to come here will continue to increase. That's our path back to the EPL, not grimly hanging on to what we have. Whether these players leave now, or later, they will leave. As we already have so many players, IMO I think we should rebuild the City Stand with the funds - call it the Ben Godfrey stand if you like....

If our scouts are half as good at unearthing players as you are at starting sh*t threads we should be more than fine.

It’s not a f**king plan it’s just a means of ensuring our wonderful owners can continue to own their plaything for years to come without putting any actual money in and continue to stonewall potential new owners. we get a once in a generation crop of young players come through and what do we do? Attempt to establish ourselves in the top flight and build a team around them? No, we put in the most pathetic, disgustingly weak effort at staying up ever seen and then cash in on them all at the first opportunity. And many of our fans seem to be more excited by selling players to clubs who actually have ambition than anything that happens on the pitch.

God you're so dumb. It wasn't the Independent playing it down, it was the host of the TV program who played it down: "...anchor Felicidad Aveleyra warns in Spanish, “This isn’t a scientific poll." No indeed! it was a phone in/twitter poll, nothing like a properly constructed survey of opinion. And you somehow forget to mention the properly constructed poll mentioned in the same article a few lines down: "In general, Biden retains a decisive lead among Latinos, with 62 percent supporting him over Trump, according to a mid-September the Wall Street Journal/NBC/Telemundo poll." How thick do you have to be to link to an article which demonstrates the very opposite of what you are claiming. It's like shooting fish in a barrel with you and Swindon

I am honoured while feeling a slight fraud, as it was only three weekends. The really good news is that we had 34 PUPs taking part. The more the better.

Hopefully there won't be a clear out of your talent in this window.... being an Evertonian of some years, I know what it's like when we've struggled in the past, it was never great seeing young talent leave like Rooney, Stones, Barkley, Lukaku and Fellani leaving. Hopefully they'll be less of it with this manager. Good luck for the season, hope you come up.... you wouldn't be believe it but my last name is kinnair.... (canaries) my nickname in school was "canary"... maybe it was because i had a big nose too .....he, he

More of a sensible soccer man than fifa. One button does everything, simple 😉

Hi everyone, york fan here just wondering if a official bid been put if for Godfrey yet? watching with interest as we get 20% sell on fee. Massive for us.

Godfrey as Will be a Everton player soon good luck to him has not kicked up a fuss Will work under one of the best Managers in the world Up coming team it seems as Ancelotti will not be there unless there is money to be spent Will at least double his wage or more and a good profit for us now we need to go and BUY a really good young centre half with the money over to you Mr Webber

The club currently makes it necessary to sell in order to sustain the self funding model which if repeated season after season will merely have us treading water with a continual transition within the squad therefore not building for a progressive future on the field. The yo yo club nickname will become synonymous with Norwich City which i for one find rather sad and annoying as i think we could achieve a lot more than we are currently aspiring towards.

I think a lot of posters hoped we could hold on to the majority of our golden 5, but I don't recall anyone thinking that we would keep ALL of them? It was obvious we were always going to lose one or two IMO. It is disappointing that it now looks likely to be more than that, but I certainly don't hold the club accountable. What do you think we should do about Cantwell / Buendia if both of them are downing tools in training and bids start rolling in for them? What do you think the club should do about Barcelona and Bayern Munich interest in Max Aarons if that then materialises in more bidding?

We do - that's why a 17 year old who we brought from York City for an initial fee of £30,000 went on to Captain England U-21s a few years later. (But your eyes are shut and you refuse to see it).

Yeah I agree. I guess the part I'm grappling with with us is the more existential (sorry for being pretentious) idea of what success looks like for football clubs in the 21st century. It used to obviously be trophies. Now though, with finances so skewed, that doesn't really work- we all know Norwich City have a basically zero % chance of winning the Premier League without a very sudden change in finances. So how do we celebrate success? Is it being a financially stable club who can punch above its weight? Is buying a player young and selling him for substation profit in a couple of years a success? Or is it all part of wider end goal to become something more?

Even in the prem you have clubs like Southampton who have had to rebuild 2-3 separate times after losing their prized assets - mostly to Liverpool. Often losing multiple players in a single transfer window. And that's in the prem, where they have more financial power and pulling power in terms of the league they are in to say no! Yet it's only us who sell out every time. Absolute ****.

They say you get the government you deserve. I think John Crace in the Guardian summed up Boris the best, that technically he doesn't lie because he doesn't understand or even pay attention to the underlying detail, he pronounces what he wants to be true and hopes he can will it into existence. How on earth the Conservative party or even the country could elect such a chancer is beyond me.

Everyday in every way.

But there are no guarentees that he would go on to become the player that we hope, he could just as easily stand still. And if he does stand still, and he's currently as good as he is going to get, then he isn't going to be worth £25m in another 18 months because he'd cease to be a 'prospect' or great hope and would very much just be seen as a slightly above average centre back. This is what the club have to weigh up when deciding to cash in now or not. Yes it is possible that we could go back up, he could look a lot more accomplished next time in the Premier League with us and then go for Ake/Stones type money, but there's also the chance that we don't go back up and he doesn't particularly impress in the second tier, in which case the amount we can realise by selling him is only going to drastically fall. I think we should take £25m as long as we're protected by a good sell on clause in case he does become a £50m player (e.g. 20% of profit would give us another £5m down the line). A lot of people think he may have been a bit over hyped, and if correct he will be found out. Prospects can only remain prospects for so long (apart from Lingaard who has got away with people not noticing his age). Some of us remember when Francis "Fox In The Box" Jeffers went for huge money after a really good first couple of years in the sport, got an England cap as well. Retired on 52 career goals, a lot of those in the Championship. David Bentley another example, incredible prospect at Blackburn and labelled the new Beckham, 7 England caps, effectively burnt out and finished by 25. Sometimes keeping a player is a big gamble. Godfrey is 23 in January, gets away with being called a prospect now but for how much longer? At what point does he just become another player with football moving on to the next exciting centre backs? At £25m I'd take the money and reinvest a decent slice of it.

And yet Parma, all us young lads wanted to be footballers playing for City. As far as grounds went they were poor but we got what we paid for. Footballers understood the pecking order especially after the abolition of the maximum wage. The wages to be earned were no different between clubs like Manure to WBA so you didn't have to leave and certainly didn't need an adviser or agent. In fact there was an almost egalitarian feel to each division. Club chairman were oligarchal in the way they ran the clubs but were saying this is my product and if you want it here it is. Football was no different from the factory floor and so life. All the isms you accuse it of existed around so many tea tables in Britain. Yes, we have moved on for the better in so many areas and we never want to go back. But progress doesn't always mean better of course. So while as a printer, of course earning more than many, in 1972 I was earning half of what Graham Paddon was. Today, it would a twenty fifth. While printing has improved with technology, at the expense of so many well paid jobs, I don't believe football has merited its increase in reward. It has been handed it on a velvet cushion of course. And Alan Sugar, the Tottenham Chairman at the time, begged club owners at the time not to let the players get their hands on the money. Put it to use in better grounds, youth academies and community support so as to not start the inflationary process we have now. My club excites me still but the rest do not and the creation of the elite has led to the elite hijacking the game.

With the right offer and add ons etc then all of them would go. I know Godfrey gets stick for certain parts of his defensive game but I personally I think he has it all to be a excellent player and probably at international level too. Put him in a more experienced back 4, with a good coach and take away the pressure of starting every game then he will go far. Surprised others havent been linked to him.

This might sound rich coming from someone who has repeatedly said that i donlt think McClean should be in the side but i think some of our fans need to lay off him and indeed all of our players at the moment. The club just tweeted about him being called up for Scotland and immediately half a dozen of our fans replied saying how sh*t he is or asking what dirt he has on the Scotland manager to get selected. We seem to have a lot of fans for who seem unable to distinguish between saying a player should not be selected at the expense of other players and "that player is sh*t." I don;t think Kenny should be starting for us based on his form at the end of last season and start of this (indeed I think we've always had more effective players in the squad) but I also donlt think he's sh*t and I dont think our fans should be giving him abuse when its evident that he does at least care.

So we've still only sold Jamal, then, as I said. Thanks for clarifying.

If i was Farke and We sold the crown Jewels without Reinvesting a good chunk of Money i would Walk After last season without Investing which i am sure he would of known and accepted before we went up But we have No excuses this season for Not backing him with good replacements

Hopefully the OP likes other sports. Rugby maybe. It's just a lot of negatives have happened all at the wrong time and the envitable changes increase the longer you go on. In Farke we trust,

He's better than John Stones if you believe @Indy_Bones. Literally no one else agrees though. But John Stones isn't a bad comparison. Lots of the same skill sets, but perhaps not quite as refined when he moved from you guys to Manchester. He's a good lad and I hope you treat him well 👍

Yep, just what they told me too. Cancel the DD and my ticket would be cancelled and seats would be put on general sale. I even had an official from the club ring me at home to verify. There was a window to pause the DD but that passed and DDs were to be restarted.

Great thread 👍 Not sure how I missed this one. I’ve had a good year spotting birds. Hobby, peregrine, red kite, buzzards (of course), avocet godwit. There has been an osprey over on my manor at Burgh Castle, although it may finally have left now. Heading to Carlton Marshes hopefully catch the cranes or the great white egret. Lots of migrants starting to arrive too...

We’ll never win the premier league working to this model

What an utter FVCKWIT you are SWINDO.

I’m happy to carry on paying my DD, worst case next season will be “ free “

Entirely predictable. What a sham brexit is and was. I've said it before but we need an angry version of schadenfreude.

I remember before all the money came in to football, transfers could happen throughout the season. Teams were prepared for it, well as well as they could be. But it wasn't as savage as multiple players leaving. I think we are in a position because Cantwell, Godfrey, Aarons, Lewis, Buendia and Pukki are on the radar at the same time. Seasons before it would have been 1 or 2 of our players, so again it does highlight our success and also that when we wetn up in to the Prem by not buying other players to compliment these players we are now in a position where all are of interest as we are now in the Championship. The club has to honour our philosophy at times which is selling players, when the value is right, as this is model we are proposing to new signings and as our ethos. So I have no problem with that, it is just that all have interest, or agents interested in striking when the iron is hot. I am quite happy to sell players who deserve the opportunity, proven their worth and a transfer bid meets our expectation. All parties are happy, at the moment we may have players who do deserve the opportunity, proven their worth but at the moment no clubs bids have met our expectations. We will not want bad eggs and trouble with multiple players. With the window open it does give us time to negotiate with all parties and we have time, which is good. The right bid may come in, the player may see our position more clearly etc. If this happened after the window had closed I would be more worried and frustrated. But right now we have time to let some of the dust settle and hopefully if a player wants to leave and the bid comes in we can move on, if not the player and club need to discuss both positions and note that playing in a first team and achieving is the best way to get that move they want and our clubs ethos is built around.

Lets not be silly. Large conurbations with people living in close contact are obviously areas where contagion is more likely.

Someone help me I'm finding myself agreeing with TVB alot these days.

Then it just makes our attitude and approach last season even more of an utter disgrace. The model is frankly a crock of sh*t if you have to accept losing all of your talented players after relegation. No way are we going back up “stronger.”