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Why all this constant stuff about GH not being PL standard? What does that mean exactly? He clearly is and has been in ther past, albeit limited. Not only is he the sort of character that captains are made of he has consistently been there or thereabouts throughout the season when it comes to getting the MoM award. Last night was no exception. He has been a magnificent stalwart throughout this season and those who decry him must surely now put their criticism down to it being a result of the players recent injury record. Some fans seem to expect far too much from a player. Now relieved of the injuries he is a consistent rock. What a good signing for the club. Epitomises everthing we have become used to. For next season in the PL we do, for sure, need one more big centre back signing who will go alongside Gibson and GH. Zimbo, another unfairly derided by some, never lets us down and will be back up as well. Grant Hanley, Player of the Season? Not quite, but don't write him off in the Premier League.

Yes. It's being funded by a radical new plan to steal 3.5m contactless cards per week. When it's yours that's been nicked, just know you're doing your patriotic duty.

The delusion is real

Gt Yarmouth is what you are looking for...............

Your arrogance knows no bounds. You may never have been to Redruth so why you have the audacity to tell me I'm wrong is beyond belief. The amount of development enabled because of EU funding in one of Britain's starkest areas is phenomenal. And that same money would not have been provided by any UK government so it was because of our EU membership that it was made available. I say Cornwall is a stark area because of the wealth gap. Not enough social housing for people on minimum wage but plenty of second home up country owners who add nothing to the area. And many TV programs such as Doc Martin and Delicious portray the area as a bunch of half wits happy that they have **** all. Cornwall is a unitary authority and has already said it will have to abandon many projects because they will lose the EU funding. So print all that on your Union Flag and sovereignty and tell all the happy fish.

Congrats to the Champions Elect. Not taking anything away from yourselves, but the game could have been far more interesting had Canos not missed the sitter, but it is what it is. We offered very little in the second half, and our quality really plummeted at the same time Norwich kept us at arm's length with good organisation and shape. We're gutted, obviously, but losing to Norwich was no disgrace. As the real Thomas Frank said, Norwich is a team who could still beat us if Brentford were on their A game, and we didn't even produce our A game. As a side note, every Norwich fan I've ever encountered face to face have been superb company. Never forget Bees fans getting a round of applause whilst we chanted "Chase Out" back in the mid-90's at our FA Cup win at Carrow Road, and then chatting to Norwich fans about him on the train back. All good-spirited, intelligent chat between football fans. Best wishes and hope to see you in the Prem next season (although I suspect it'll be playoffs for us, and we all know what that means for us!)

I saw nothing to suggest Toney would displace Pukki (in the short-term) and, as others have said, certainly not at the price Brentford would demand

Need to find the current Ivan Toney from the depths of Hanleys pocket before we talk about the next one......

I don't think he's far out to be fair.

All the talk about what we do after our inevitable promotion (ok, let's not get ahead of ourselves, but you can get some seriously good odds if you want to bet against it) has got me thinking. The togetherness of the current squad - the absolute trust and respect they have for each other - is the result of some incredibly skillful management. When did you last see two of our players having a disagreement on the pitch? When do you recall one of the players not working their hardest for the team? When did we last look less than the sum of our parts? I'm not party to the ins and outs of what went on between Farke and these players, but I can safely say that cutting them completely from the first team squad is absolutely part of the overall success this season. By creating a cohesive unit of players all on the same wavelength, who all know their precise role and exactly how it interacts with the rest of the team, Farke and his staff have pulled off a masterstroke. We can all fantasise about which players we'd like to sign or who we'd drop for who. But the job of building a team, getting them to gel and put in the workrate week after week is an incredible feat. At the start of the season I was struggling to imagine a midfield without Leitner being anywhere near as effective as our previous promotion campaign. I had no idea.

To be fair, I put the big words in the title in the hope that it would scare off anyone who didn't understand them. There's plenty of other threads to get your fill of cliché and hyperbole.

Good Evening Pups Welcome to the Six @sonyc which is a heartless mistress that builds you up only to slap you to the ground at the last moment. I've not seeing much I like this weekend, but hopefully In the Belgium 1st Divison B will shine kindly on me - Lommel SK v Club Brugge KV U23 - Home Win For Kathy Luton seem to be low scoring and play it tight away from home so it's fair to say we look like getting a clean sheet, but not running rampant. 2 Nil to Norwich with Buendia to score anytime. And finally we are without our unique Draw Master Wooster. Every Pup helps the cause and we are now a man down, but we go again as we say and it's helping the CSF and the DS boys and girls that Wooster was in for. So I thought we should have some kind of draw bet as a sign of respect and Nutty agreed. I'd also had been thinking of challenging Wooster to a draw off at the end of this season should we both have finished top so it seemed to make sense the other night, but it's just another way to throw money into the pot and have some fun while honouring Wooster. It's actually been pretty tough trying to gauge what will be a draw so credit to you Wooster. RIP.

Farke seems to have a strict code concerning what he looks for in a player's attitude and he adheres to it without fail. He is so rigid about this that he has often seems to put it above on-field requirements. Drmic is the obvious example, but Amardou and Farhmann both came and went in rapid succesion whilst not really failing in footballing terms. Amardou was mostly used as a make-shift central defender and wasn't bad despite being bought as a defensive midfielder. He seemed a useful addition and I was surprised when he went. Quite a list of players have come and gone in quick succession. Oliveira was probably the first to fall short of the manager's requirements.whilst Franke was the first of the many in/outs to have been shown the door one way or another since Farke's appointment. You often get the impression that when a player fails at City these days it's not always just about footballing ability. Perhaps DF was a psychiatrist in a previous incarnation. Perhaps he has a secret degree in psychology. He seems very particular and very rigid, but it works.

Brentford (H) WON Luton Town (H) Sheffield Wednesday (A) Nottingham Forest (A) Blackburn Rovers (H) I'm that close to eliminating Reading, Bournemouth, Barnsley and Cardiff from my table; Reading are 16 points behind us, and I'd be surprised if we dropped more than 16 points between now and the end of the season. This would have been even more fun if not for Kyle Naughton's last-minute con-artistry at Stoke last night, but we're still miles ahead of the rest. Team Played Points Avg Norwich 34 73 2.15 Brentford 34 63 1.85 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Watford 34 63 1.85 Swansea 32 62 1.94 Reading 34 57 1.68 B'mouth 34 55 1.62 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Barnsley 33 54 1.64 Cardiff 34 53 1.56 Nothing frightening in our next four games, and we only need seven points from them to stay on track. I fully expect us to win the next two, but wouldn't be surprised if we had a slip-up against either Forest or Blackburn. Here's another little fun game we can play to count down to winning the league: which teams can no longer mathematically finish above us? So far it's: Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield Wednesday, Wycombe.

I think we also have to thank Ollie for Hanley's improvement. The protection he gives our two CBs is not exaggerated.

Jools seems to believe that the man who lost to someone dressed as a dolphin will take seats away from Labour. I'm not sure what's more stupid, believing it or typing it and posting it on a public forum.

How do you pronounce Pryke 😂😂

TWTD should provide hours of entertainment today.😉

To perform an extremely complex operation to remove Ivan Toney from Grant Hanley's pocket.

After the Covid restart Onel was by far our best player. And I really don't see the point of writing off players like Idah before they have even had the chance to show what they can do.

Astonished to see you here tonight, Keith - must be feeling a bit sad at how things are going.

I'm sure Farke and Webber will find this to be very helpful

Sadly the grammar is unreal.

£350 million a week to The NHS we were told and now it is reccomended that our nurses only receive a 1% pay rise, the people responsible for this should hold their heads in shame, clearly a few fisherman are far more important than our nurses.

Featuring Mclean getting locked out the dressing room at the end

This is a bit wrong.

Love it, although they'll never top the Farke rap.

Nice one Hoggy. You beat me to it. Just about to post the same! 🙂 "You've been done by Emi Buendia"

Fair point Faded Jaded.😀 (It's still lunch dahn saaf no matter what cooks are called.)

As he lost I guess we will never know

What is it you're trying to achieve by constantly calling people who disagree with your politics racist?

Clearly "Giannis" has been purchased as our EPL LB, or will be when we go up. When it comes to Aarrons and Buendia, I wouldn't be totally surprised if either they were still here in August or both had gone. The nightmare is they move on just as the window shuts.

With the added bonus that a number of players live in Attleborough.

I agreed on almost all three points FF 😇😅

Hanley's improvement as a footballer is one of the reasons for our success this year. He was always the blocker tough guy, but he's now added a skill set we didn't see before. His spatial awareness and positioning has improved hugely. He is quick over 5 yards and longer and if he looks like losing out in the first 1 or 2 he uses his body now to gain himself that time and space he needs to either win the free kick or nick the ball. If you look at centre halves who play more languidly than Hanley (Ferdinand, Van ****, even the Beckanbauers of this world), that's what good coaching brings - read the situation, adjust your body shape to buy time, and improve that first touch so that the ball is where you want it. (No, I'm not comparing him to them in ability, just in being able to improve his reading of the game.) Sorensen does this too; so does Skipp. Dare I say even Maclean is learning to do it, and the improvement in his confidence on the ball is remarkable. No one rushes anything anymore; lots of confidence, lots of time. That's why I think players like Aarons, Giannoulis, Idah, Hugill and many others have every chance of stepping up, because they can still improve massively in how they play both individually and as a team. Some of our passing is still not crisp or accurate enough to enable that first touch to be so engineered by the receiver, but we are improving all the time. Brentford last night didn't get near us for most of the game because we looked after the ball and the space so well. A part of me is disappointed that Lewis and Godfrey left - Lewis in particular, and especially since he seems to be having a tough time under a dinosaur manager who is not invested in him. Godfrey should thrive under Ancelotti, but we could have improved him so much more too. Famewo is, I understand, a player with that more languid style - very highly rated by Lee Bowyer at Charlton, though a bit injury prone for a centre back unfortunately. I suspect a lot of our fringe players will be looking for Champs loans next season. Zimmermann is a solid enough back up for Hanley, but we really need another left footer as back up to Gibson.

After living in Norwich I moved out to Caistor St Edmund for a few years, really enjoyed living there, I agree there's lots that are nice South of the City. Depends really on how close to Norwich you want to be and what you're looking for in the actual place you live (facilities etc). Worth looking around a good bit before you buy !

Yep! I have the same thoughts. But when you look at the totality of his posts they do scream out that it's stupidity that motivates them (they don't possess the wit for them to be a wind-up).

Two slightly contrasting thoughts from me: 1) The two seasons that Hanley has been fit, he's been POTS runner-up (to Maddison in 2017/18) and a contender this season and been a key part of our defense that has kept 14 clean sheets so far. He (as well as McLean, Rupp etc.) deserves more credit than he's given. 2) Whilst I would be more than comfortable for Hanley to start for us in the PL, another ball playing CB alongside Gibson could be great for our ability to play out from the back. As we saw vs Middlesbrough, teams will sit someone on BG in order to nullify his distribution. Two ball playing CBs would make us more difficult to play against. As mentioned by @Nuff Said, giving Famewo a chance in the first team is a big call next year, considering our history of CB injury problems in the prem. Would a full season on loan in the Championship be more beneficial than 4th choice in the PL?

I think we will need serious recruitment even if they all stay. To be honest, and I don't mean this in any way derogatory, half our squad isn't really EPL standard, or enough to make a stab at staying up. Our two current left backs, Alex, Onel, Placheta, Idah, Martin, Zimmermanm, Dowell, Mumba, Sitti are either not good enough or not ready yet. But we cannot bring in so many EPL ready players so we will have to go with what we have. Just how things are.

Steady on Tilly, FF will be along later, getting hot under the collar!

Only once he moves to Brentford

Sorensen clearly has a lot of potential, but if he was anywhere near the level of Skipp he'd be playing right now!

Point 2 above https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/04/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/ “The vast majority of global coronavirus deaths occurred in nations with high levels of obesity, according to a new report linking overweight populations with more severe covid-related illness and mortality.” The report, by the World Obesity Federation, found that 88 percent of deaths due to covid-19 were in countries where more than half the population is classified as overweight — including the United States. The organization called on governments to prioritize overweight people for coronavirus testing and vaccinations.”

Lol, this thread is even more cringeworthy than it was when it was first posted.

I just finished the replay and even though I knew the outcome I was on the edge of my seat for those last 15 mins or so and I even jumped up when I thought Hanley gave away a penalty. This is such a solid team all the way around. Listening to the stats of Kruls goals against record, when only last year our defense was a mess, is amazing. I can't wait to see Norwich take the title and give another fight in the Premier league. Many of our players know first hand what they came to the top flight with last year and understand they weren't good enough. I expect a huge fight from the Canaries next year.

Thanks Keith . Invaluable input.

Agreed - those posters know nothing about football and just rush to biased judgements. I went to Goodison Park last season when we won 2-0. McLean played a more advanced role almost supporting Pukki as a second striker. He was outstanding. He is top draw in the air for a midfield player and can play in a variety of positions with intelligence. I would be genuinely concerned in the summer if a club came in with a decent offer that we felt unable to reject. He would be seriously missed.

It's not even close.

I love Wesley but he's not even in top 5. Emi is comfortably better than him. Emi is oustanding, what I like best about him is that he's also a chewy little f*cker and wants to get the ball back. Not just all flair like Hucks was, puts in a shift and chases, harries and kicks people. Love him.

It should be illegal for him to play in the championship, like a game cheat code. Unreal plerrrrrr