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McLean didn’t cut it in the PL last time round but then he had no PL experience and I don’t think he played a major part in our last promotion either. This time it’s a lot different though. I’m not saying he will cut it, but I certainly think he stands a much better chance of cutting it than before. I think he’s done very well for us this season, and in our last PL season he played in all but one of the fixtures (37), so does now have some PL experience. Like others have already said, why do some fans still underrate him? I don’t think he’s our greatest player, but I certainly think he’s a decent part of our squad

It's a beautiful day Teemu, go take the kids to the beach ⛱ and enjoy the weather and the fact you live in a place with endless sand and sea. Letting the transient nature of close season / transfer window get to you only tells me you need to get your head away from it all. It is only footy and it really isn't that important.

Ed Balls

Mixing up ‘Oliver Skipp’ with the human embodiment of a ‘burning skip’.

Why is Kenny still under rated by some?

Good post WBB. I don't think anyone can really state you are not neutral on most things but you're wanting to find the truth really (it's out there somewhere!). The trouble with posting any opinions though is that one always risks some come back. That said, it's far worse on the football side of this forum than this non football section! Before I ever post something (on my thoughts about team selection or formation etc etc) this is now my procedure.....(note my segway to your PPE quote 🙂).

You have to bear in mind the division was much weaker back then with several basket case clubs who were on life support as PL teams. Bolton, Blackburn, Wolves, QPR, Sunderland, Villa and Wigan were all absolutely abysmal at the time, mid table Championship by todays standard. I think if you stuck our current team in the 2011-2012 PL season we'd finish in or near Europe.

Not a problem. Because of global warming pretty soon if there is any grass left it will be a parched brown colour...🔆

The way I look at it is are we stronger than when we went into it last time round in the PL. Forget last season for the moment, but the PL last time. GK: Krul/Farhman/McGovern Vs Krul/Gunn/McGovern = stronger. CB: Hanley/Klose/Zimmermann/Godfrey Vs Hanley/Gibson/ Zimmermann/ Omobamidele + another = Evens, but stronger if another is brought in. FB: Aarons/Byram/Lewis Vs Aarons/Giannoulis/Mumba/Byram = stronger MF: McLean/Tettey/Vrancic/Leitner/Trybull/Amadou(L) & Rupp in Jan Vs McLean/Rupp/Sorenson/Lees-Melou/Gilmour & another = stronger in quality, weak on the DM. AM: Cantwell/Buendia/Hernandez/Roberts(L)/Duda(Jan L) Vs Cantwell/Dowell/Rashica/Hernandez/Placheta & another = better strength in depth IMHO, so stronger, marginally. STR: Pukki/Drmic/Idah/Srbeny Vs Pukki/Hugill/Idah & another = Stronger, Hugill is better than Drmic. Srbeny made only 8 sub appearances that season, and you would have to say adding another striker is likely to improve upon that. If you look over the last few seasons you can see what they have been trying to do. Slowly but surely expanding the pool of genuinely capable players in the squad. Some of the first choice players may have remained that way, for good reason. But their understudies have improved.

Ben White has been capped by England and currently plays for a Premier League side. Ben Godfrey was nowhere near the England squad when we sold him and was playing for a Championship club.

Max is an excellent player but right backs aren't worth as much as a player who provides goals and assists, like Buendia. Especially at a time when there are so many talented rb options out there.

It is pretty ridiculous to read anything into the first preseason game, particularly given the new signings have barely trained or are still in isolation, others aren’t back yet, we have several injured players due back and we know there will be several new faces before the season starts. Nothing new in thinking Aarons might be off - the latest link is with Atletico Madrid; hasn’t everyone said it pretty much all close-season? It’s who or what we do to replace him that’s key.

Fair point. I was in a foul mood last night I apologise

Is that Placheta making the decision to do that himself or is he following instructions? Max overwhelmingly does that on the right wing, it could we be an instruction regarding keeping possession and only making runs like that in certain circumstances.

McLean has improved every season he's been at Carrow Rd. Selling him would be as daft as that time we sold Bradley Johnson.

I know Nick fairly well, he is a top bloke and maybe he'll get a break from this with his painting. Good luck Nick!

Don't forget his ability to change a game by getting sent off. 😀

I really hope it's Cantwell, he definitely needs rewarding for the way he got his head down and got back into form last season

Anyone else get the impression Gilmour was like Leitner, but faster in moving it?

I am sure if they make a ridiculous offer for Kenny we would sell, but the rest of your thread is trolling I guess. If he wasn’t any good in the EPL, guess you think he wouldn’t be very good in the Champions League. If he thought he was moving why would he help get his friend Billy Gilmour to sign for the club ? If only you were Stuart Webber we would be in League 1

How? Norwich can afford 13.5 million, we just don't want to pay it. If we thought it was worth it, we would have. Brentford had a different valuation, that could be for a variety of reasons. Brentford could think he is a better player than we do, they could be more desperate for a player in that position, they could have fewer well scouted back-up options, we may have a player in another position who we think will cost alot and who we want more than a CB (a DM for example), or he may fit their planned tactics more than ours. The idea that one of us is correct in our valuation and the other is incorrect is rubbish. Opportunity cost applies.

At 21 it will be his potential we would be looking at. Anyhow, take a look at this - https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/josh-sargent-maturing-into-werder-bremen-s-main-man-usmnt-13685

You're kidding right? The key bit being "and they reached the level of deal we have got to". You understand that means that there was back and forth. In other words, we dug our heels in and squeezed for more money. It certainly doesn't mean we accepted the first bid and ran for the hills. It's literally there. The evidence isn't what you want it to be, it's contrary to what you are trying to say.

Actually I think we're being asked to agree with Teemu and feel an ickle bit sowwy for him cos he's having to self isolate with ' freedom day ' just around the corner and the sun shining.

Well done you have just changed the word that was used from ‘ admitted ‘ to ‘ admission ‘. There were 55,000 admissions on particular days and 12,000 admitted, the word that was used. I have already said if I misunderstood his point fair enough, so don’t call me an idiot thanks 1. he said admitted 2. he said 55,000. Nice as well that you have made rubbish up about my stance on lockdowns, I was for them initially, then probably against them, but at the moment I am on the fence, but am happy to wait and see. I have worked on vaccine sites and on wards full of COVID positives on a voluntary basis, I was at Wembley 3 times in the last couple of weeks once in a crowd of an estimated million people in a small space. I am not really sure why you are claiming I am scared of COVID, used to be terrified, now I am not, maybe it’s your ego. To take this one step further I do weigh up risk, personal and business. Where I currently work ( I am retired really ) I mix with hundreds of people that in two days time will become unmasked and amongst them will be people who have tested positive and really don’t give a dam about passing COVID to others. I have been asked to apply for a job at a hospital in an area helping put on and remove PPE for critical care unit doctors and nurses. On assessing the two risk factors I have actually assessed the hospital job as much safer. The only beef I have at the moment is the removing of the legality of wearing a mask in confined places, as do the majority of the public. My information on flu immunity, again you have made up that I have mentioned the immunities of other diseases, as a for instance you have not mentioned babies born in lockdown, that do not have their normal immunity, comes from flu experts. As they point out your immunity to flu dwindles every year and the flu strain also changes each year. If you get the strain right you win, if you don’t you have little immunity nothing to do with COVID. If they have it right this year more people than ever will have had the jab, if they don’t as any other year we will have reduced or little immunity. I have great faith in our scientists getting it right so not really sure why in your words there is scaremongering. Below is the definition of an admission, if that’s wrong blame the NHS not me. I am happy to debate and will challenge things when I feel they are misleading, but if it it’s your opinion and you are always right then that’s not for me. Hospitals today provide both outpatient and inpatient services. Outpatient services mean that you are not ‘admitted’ and you typically go home the same day that you visited the hospital. Examples of Outpatient Services include: Imaging (CT scans, MRIs, X-rays) Lab (blood draws, called ‘phlebotomy’ in medical terms) Procedures (colonoscopies, upper GI endoscopies) Other Testing (cardiac stress tests, echocardiograms) Surgery (carpal tunnel release, ovarian cyst removal) Infusion of some chemotherapy for cancer Inpatient services mean you have been admitted to the hospital, and you will stay overnight, several nights or even weeks to months. Generally, inpatient services can be broken down into two categories: Surgical and Non-Surgical.

Placheta's coaches back in Poland said they eventually saw him becoming a wing-back/left back

Such a beautiful season. I remember going to Stamford Bridge early in the season with no expectation other than a day out and seeing a team that played to its strengths and had belief in itself. They lost but that fighting spirit was in evidence that would give them enough to survive. As a direct comparison, who was better? You'd have to say our current squad, player for player is superior. We have to see whether they make a better team

Why have you changed what I said ? ‘ People like you’ That was what was used. If the peace process is broken and trouble starts again, unfortunately people will use violence. You don’t have the power to break the process, but those that have are egged on by people like you, who both not understand or give a toss. Would you be brave enough to go to Ireland and preach about something you clearly don’t understand or give a hoot about. A similar scenario is the taking of the knee, the government for their own gain wanted to ‘ stoke the fires ‘. They were egged on by their supporters. When it all went wrong on them after their ‘ opinions ‘ gave the green light to racially abuse a number of black players they quickly changed tack.

Yes mate! Thanks for the tip offs. I need something new in that vein, it’s been too long!

Hopefully he was wearing a mask at the time.

Or he ran out of blue sharpies and sneezed while using the red one.

Also we were facing a season of behind closed doors football with an unvaccinated population so gate receipts had to pretty much be written off for last season. And they are overpaying at £50m IMO.

Meanwhile, Giannoulis thinks "hello, the latest Greek tragedy is that you forgot me!"

Hanley v liverpool Why did I just get some kinda PTSD flashback

If I read your post wrong I apologise guys but I read it as 55,000 admitted into hospital as in staying there. COVID cases will need a bed, along with around 12,000 others at this time of year.

Some countries base their whole legal system on books written millenia ago conveying the rules handed down from some imaginary friend that lives in the sky. People are strange. Full stop.

Agreed Placheta has shown nothing to indicate he is anyway near the needed quality at this level, we need to put him out on loan to the championship next season, monitor his progress and if no good move on next summer. As for Zimm I really don’t see him more than a number 4 CB , Omabamadeli is streets ahead of him and is ready to start in the Premier league, he will go all the way. Mumba will follow a similar path as Aarons so we have another excellent back up in him. Concerning the CDM , not sure if the new French signing will bring the needed physical strength and presence needed in that position? It seems he could have the physical athleticism needed for the premier but how he adapts to English football is the big question. As for the front line , fully agree that is now the other critical position to fill as the alternatives to Pukki are not yet (or never will be upto Premier standard) , lets hope the window will still deliver us a proven striker, a very strong CDM and one more CB then I think we have the basis to have a good go next season.

And that is why hospitalisations/whether hospitals will be overwhelmed is the key, with the point WBB inadvertently made also showing why unlocking during the summer might not be a bad idea. WBB’s link suggests in England during July-September, the average across all days is around 16k admissions a day. The overall average you’ve linked to shows across the whole year, it’s around double that a day - therefore in the winter months it must be over 40k a day (inc weekends). Given we’re going to have an increase in not only covid hospitalisations but hospitalisations from other things too (due to reduced immunity), I’d suggest trying to deal with some of those ‘other things’ when hospitals are less busy makes sense.

Maclean has grown as a player every season he's been with us. Has occasional lapses in form , but in plenty of matches last season was superb. Would be surprised if he doesn't have another great season for us.

He’s quite frustrating to watch to be honest, I just want to see him attack the flank full throttle, but he doesn’t seem to want to take players on at pace, knock the ball past them and cause a bit of panic, or certainly not to the extent I was expecting anyway. Appears lacking in genuine belief, though I might well be wrong.

Ate there last night . Forgotten how good the Yellows Burger is ! Great service too.

Omobomadiele and Sorensen were my picks, think both will have parts to play this season and both look more than likely to be heavily involved in the first team. Mumba also looks very decent, not that we didn't know that if course. Nice to see Idah score, looked hungry when he came on and clearly wants to prove he's worth a space in the squad. Gilmour shew glimpses of passing ability but felt like we missed Skipp, such a shame he won't be back in city colours Same frustrations with Placheta, needs to start showing improvement as we haven't really seen any yet. Plenty of pace and promise but no end product and poor set pieces. Hard to tell on Rashica yet and felt he didn't really get into the game as much as he'd have liked. Cantwell looked excellent in the second half, a class above Overall a good fitness exercise, a good first win and nice to see some fans back watching the boys!

It's you!

Of course it matters with regards to squad building, but you don't have to name eight in a squad; that's my point.

Some context. On an average Thursday 55k people are admitted to hospital in the UK, about 700 were Covids patients

Therefore, the truth is undoubtedly somewhere in the middle ground. Which implies to me that you've soiled your nappy waaaaay too early, as usual. Go and get some fresh air, for Christ's sake.

Cant say I'm massively shocked. Of course, had we pipped Brentford, spent £18 million and he flopped, he'd be on here demanding Webber be sacked...

The attitude was more 'we can't afford to spend any money so we will have a go but we'll probably go down' which is fair enough and what happened. I know we'd all rather have heard more positive noises, but I think, rarely for football, but normal for Webber and our ethos....he was just being honest. You can see that in the way we aren't saying that this time. We've even had players coming out and saying we're gonna stay up. Honesty and positivity.

Can I phone a friend? Oh wait, I don't have any friends Or a phone.