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Fair credit to the board. Those two signings have turned this into a very solid transfer window indeed- perhaps the best I can remember on paper. Bravo Webber two days have totally plugged the gaps. My bad for doubting! Don’t know much (anything) about Normann but hope he is the CDM we are crying out for. Kabak is a huge signing for us- marquee.

The point is that we've sold Buendia and used that money to practically buy a whole new team. Gibson and Giannoulis were already accounted for in last season's budgets, so we've effectively replaced Buendia (plus the players we let go or phased out such as Trybull, Leitner, Stiepermann, Tettey, Klose, Drmic, Hernandez and Vrancic) with Gunn, Williams, Kabak, Gilmour, Lees-Melou, Normann, Rashica, Tzolis and Sargent. No one of those players can replace Emi directly, so we've bought a bunch of different weapons that should give us a great deal more versatility. Have we improved the team, though? I'm not even going to bother with the subs; I believe it is abundantly clear that the subs in our 20-player matchday squad will be hugely and demonstrably better than two years ago. I've ignored the autumn period with the ridiculous injury crisis, so no trying to claim Tettey and Amadou as a centre-back partnership. I've gone for what I believe to be our strongest possible XI from two years ago. Two years ago: Krul, Aarons, Hanley, Godfrey, Lewis; Tettey, Vrancic, McLean, Buendia, Cantwell; Pukki. Nine of those players are nailed-on starters when fit, based on total number of appearances made; only Hanley and Vrancic started fewer than 25 of our 38 matches. This year: Krul, Aarons, Hanley, Kabak, Williams; Gilmour, McLean, Normann; Rashica, Pukki, Cantwell. Immediately there are so many problems with choosing an XI here. A lot of these players are yet to settle, but what's abundantly clear is that the XI is improved by virtue of being able to choose it from a pool of outstanding players. On paper, the two XIs above look roughly even to me (indeed, six of the starters from this team were starters two years ago). However, the team from two years ago largely picked itself (with the exception of choosing between Hanley and Zimbo at CB, and Vrancic in CM ahead of whoever else). Looking at this squad, there are so many variables and weapons. Three at the back? Four at the back? Double pivot, or three central midfielders? A 4-5-1 with wingers, or narrow 4-2-3-1 with inverted 'wingers' playing narrow, or 4-3-2-1 without a conventional '10'? While any chosen XI from our squad may not on paper appear demonstrably better than our strongest XI from two years ago, how often does your supposed strongest XI play together? Factor in injuries, suspensions, loss of form and the necessity of changing tactics/systems to try and thwart much stronger and smarter opposition, and it's clear to me that over 38 games, our starting XI will be massively stronger than it was two years ago, precisely because of the way the squad has been strengthened. There is absolutely no reason that we shouldn't stay up with this squad. Sure I'd take 17th now, even if Farke wouldn't, but he has his well-documented 'gun', and then some.

Don't worry, it's not this that has made you unpopular...

With Timm Klose exiting, there are now very few of that team from the year that changed everything, the team that surprised everybody to take a group of unknown Germans, free transfers and players from the youth team and make them into a side that surprised everyone, never gave up even into the depths of injury times and gave me and many others one of the best years I've ever had as a Norwich fan. The classic line up was probably: Krul Lewis Aarons Zimmermann Godfrey/Klose Tettey Leitner/Trybull Stiepermann Hernandez Buendia Pukki subs: Vrancic, Rhodes and Cantwell I'm taking a moment to raise a glass to that team and all they achieved that has made this transfer window and hope possible. Hopefully Pukki, Aarons, Krul, Zimmermann and Cantwell will be around for a while yet and the others will go on to enjoy the rest of their careers safe in the knowledge they achieved something magnificent that year.

"Great news I've heard Newcastle United are signing Neymar! That's Neymar defenders, Neymar midfielders and Neymar strikers. (Stolen from a very good friend of mine)" John from Blyth, 20:15 😄

IQs, not IQ's. It cannot be possessive and isn't an abbreviation.

Probably have to leave Tzolis out, he doesn't look very well.

If we built a statue to everyone who had scored in our unbeaten run against the binners then carrow road would look more like the bloody pantheon than a football ground.

Worth a listen from around 1hr 4 minutes. Chris Sutton telling it like it is in response to criticism of City. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000z88q

Well we can't afford premiership experience aside from people who have proven themselves below the standard required. So this is basically a non starter.

Sutton has always talked complimentary of us, so far as I can recall? He's done well for himself. I didn't think he would make a good pundit, and some of his insight is questionable (like most!). But I think he comes across very honest and genuine, which has led to him being very well received.

Not sure I get your logic... looking up/stalking a players ex on social media, because she once dated a player of the club you support is less weird than looking up their current partner? How many ex's back do you have to go before it gets weird? I mean, I find it a bit weird to be looking up players wives, sharing them on a public message board for a very public game of Tinder and accompanying it with a chorus of "corrrrr blimey, PHWWWOOOAARR!". Each to their own I guess.

Probably as expected - good luck Timm, thanks for that goal v the binners!! From the BBC: Posted at 18:01 Klose leaves Norwich in mutual agreement Norwich City Swiss centre-back Timm Klose has left Norwich City after a mutual agreement to end his contract. …..just noticed, that was my 10000th post, too!

The absolute state of this thread. If he was fit why on earth was he not on the bench on Saturday, what was to be gained from fibbing about his availability? Dear me.

Great servant of the club, won't be forgotten👍

'are'? A preposition? Are you sure about that? OTBC

Being from Swindon and going to many games in the past, I remember we signed an Argentine defender called Nestor Lorenzo. Only 1 thing ever got past him on the pitch, either the ball or the player, but never both. I see no problem in Kabak and Normann being here to upend a player, as long as its done with grace and finesse...... 🤣🤣

I saw on Twitter the Take That song and liked it... "Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn't mean it, I just want Kabak for good, want Kabak, want Kabak, yes I want Kabak for good" ...which marries neatly into his loan situation😂

Is that Cantwell trying to "Out Pretty" Normann?

That'd be us. Gunn Williams - Gibson - Kabak - Gianoullis Lees Melou - Normann - Gilmour Rashica - Sargent - Tzolis Good grief - there's never been a transfer window even remotely like it before.

Credit to you for the acknowledgement. But it's maybe a life lesson not to judge the painting before it's been hung on the wall.

But Kabak is a loan to buy based on premier league survival? So win win based on the outcome of our efforts this season? Great business.

The idea that we would loan Sorensen and Dowell out is ludicrous. They are both important members of the first team SQUAD.

Watching the deadline show on Sky . Big Sam. Paul Merson. For a moment I thought I was watching Jurassic Park

But hilarious for us as the scum will have yet another one that got away to whine about 🤣

And this great dummy deep in injury time. Balls of steel....

Doesn't like change but has changed our formation and roles - Cantwell names this in his post match interview. He is one of the most honest managers going - the one thing you know he will not do is go into something he doesn't feel is health. If you don't think he's honest, listen to his post match interview after the Man City game.

The real irony is that Cambridgeo doesnt do irony. His mum does all his washing and irony.

Krul, Gunn, Hanley, Max, Kabak, Williams, Kenny, Gilmore, Todd, Pukki… Lots of prem experience.

It takes a lot of time and effort to be as annoying as I am trust me

One would have to see the new players in action, but I question the whole idea of an ideal starting 11. I don't have the time to look back, but how often in the 2019-20 season could we field our notional best starting 11? Probably not that often. And it is now even more than before a game where substitutes are crucial. How often does a team go through a game without making a substitution? Again, not often. Added to which, Farke's ideal starting 11 against, say, Liverpool is unlikely to be the same as that against Burnley, and that for Burnley won't be the same as that for Brighton. Even without seeing the incomers it seems certain the squad is significantly improved from 2019-20.

Sure are.

I think the best way to look at this is to ask - if this NCFC squad played 38 times over the course of 9 months against the squad from two years ago, which squad would win more? I don't think that there is any doubt that the current squad would win more.

Football twitter is an absolute ****ing cesshole. Can't stand it.

Time will tell it’s too early to judge new players , we will know by December if it’s working

Why would he want to leave for the only team worse than us in the Prem at the moment 🤣🤣

Weather he's good or not is irrelevant... what is good is the tetris song the Liverpool fans had for him:

More the case that 2 years ago Farke way exceeded expectations by getting promoted with no money, using cheap foreign imports and bringing through prospects. This time we have much firmer foundations, it looks like long term planning. This was funded in part by the Buendia money, does that mean the criticism will go away on that?

Personally feel we’ve upgraded the squad. A lot of the players we’ve brought in i wouldn’t groan about seeing their names in the starting line up. Players like Stiepermann, Placheta, Hugill, McGovern, etc have been good servants but i always felt our bench never really had any game changers or were the same faces subbed on in the 86th minute, in which not to change the game but to waste time. Plus barring injury/suspension that would only be their case to start. We now have a more in depth unit with every single position up for grabs so no player is 100% nailed on this time round to start. So in essence, eventually i feel we have improved the starting 11. Might take a few games but by game 10 i’m sure the players playing will be a lot different from the ones that started against Liverpool.

The option to buy has very many advantages. Imagine Ajer has a mare of a season and Brentford get relegated; then they would lose significant money on any future sale (if they could even shift him). If that same scenario happened to Kabak we would lose nothing. Now imagine Kabak has a fantastic season and we stay up; then we get to buy him for the deal already agreed irrespective of the possibility that his value may have sky-rocketed. Seems pretty astute business to me.

Agreed, but at the same time, the aim is to be competitive. Let's not go overboard thinking they're going to gel right away (that's not going to happen with so many players, so Farke is surely going to introduce them in ones and twos), or that we're suddenly going to send lower-Premier sides like Burnley and Palace home with a 3-0 tonking. But in theory we've certainly plugged the gaps and given Farke more options.

Whilst we've used 4-3-2-1 in the first three games, it's by no means certain that we will do so against the 'bottom half' sides in the league. It is conceivable that we will use a 5-3-2 or 4-2-3-1 in those games, in which case we need all 5 centre halves and we will need Dowell and Idah. We need to be flexible and we will need everyone to play a part especially when a few injuries and suspensions kick in. Apart from possibly Klose agreeing a termination of contract I don't see any other exits happening.

Krul as we have gunn and mcgovern. Aarons for 22.5m Cantwell for 20m rising to 30m if he has a haircut and plays 20 games for England by the time he's 24. Pukki as he's now useless... Joking aside, nobody. I'm sure we have enough money stored away in the coffers...

So quiet on here you could hear a cricket fart in China.

Our Summer has certainly been a journey. In 3 months we've gone from this to

I had to google Palindromic I thought it was a region in turkey

Even Jools would be embarrassed by this nonsense.😀 Only a quarter of people think GB News is biased, poll commissioned by GB News finds. https://www.indy100.com/news/gb-news-bbc-news-bias-b1910678

As GJL mentioned above, I wouldn't be surprised to see him start against Andorra, but I can't see him getting a look in with the other fixtures unless it's as a sub when the game is safe. I'll also add I've nothing much against him, just don't think he's very good.

Hungary looked a pretty tough side to beat in the Euros and are probably our strongest rivals alongside Poland. Surely all of your rotation options would make more sense against an Andorra or San Marino type team?

Good point well made. Even if he's still a popular figure and not having a negative impact, you'd imagine he'd be pretty keen to find somewhere that he can play. He's 'only' 33, which isn't ancient for a centre back. I guess the other possibility is that he might stay here while doing his coaching badges, with a view to joining the backroom staff when his contract expires? Long shot, but if he still loves the club then maybe a possibility?