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I think the customer point is a fair reflection of how it feels at times. The club talks the talk about how important fans are but will happily find different ways to try and part them from their money. I think it was @shefcanary who posted not long ago about how in business it isn't a great idea to try and rinse your loyalest customers in this manner- eventually they'll just feel taken advantage of. To me, the potential extra revenue from this (maybe £10-20k, so an absolute drop in the ocean for a club like ours) isn't worth the negative sentiment it generates amongst the fan base.

Starved of any decent Norwich action here in Northern Ireland, I heard at short notice that our Under 18’s are “on tour” and played this morning against the County Antrim Under 18’s in Newcastle, County Down. The Northern Ireland Norwich City Supporters’ Club (membership of 6 - me, a mate and our respective kids!) decided to take the game in and I thought I’d share a few random observations/points: 1. We were 2-0 up, hit the post twice and could have had a handful more. Needless to say, the game finished 2-2. 2. we had the tendency of trying to walk the ball into the net which was quite frustrating, especially on one occasion when our player was only 6/7 yards out and still didn’t shoot. 3. We have some big units, but still lacked physicality. Understandable at that age, but we were bullied by less technically proficient players who were happy for a scrap. 4. The Antrim coach told us that Norwich have “high hopes” for two of the players in particular - Finley Welch (akin to Cantwell in looks and style of play) and Solomon Alidor-Hamilton, who was also a midfielder. 5. We paid £50k to Wigan for our keeper when he was 13! Looked comparatively small and was unspectacular, conceding a penalty… which was never a penalty. 6. Not too many stand outs, understandable given I believe any top quality under 18’s would have been playing for the under 23’s today v MK Dons. 7. Apparently the boys were doing THREE double sessions a day here. Might explain why we faded in the final 30 minute slot (game was 3 x 30mins). 8. The team apparently were very appreciative of our support (banner, flags, shirts and the odd song!). Players signed autographs for my sons and were very friendly, particularly Finley Welch. 9. The supporters club (mate and me) are keen to sponsor one of the under 18’s for the coming season. Used to be able to do this years ago - is it still a thing? I’ve emailed the club asking but thought I’d put it out there if anyone knows. 10. Ref was defo a homer! Never a penalty for their goal and we were denied a stonewall one. 11. We used to send teams over to NI for the Milk Cup youth tournaments but no longer do it. Apparently we want to focus on development rather than competitions. Fair enough, I think. 12. I’ve tried to attach a pic or two but as a technophobe I have probably ballsed it up! OTBC

I'm quite taken by the fact that we've just paid a club record transfer fee at the start of a Championship season. I think it's an exciting sign that the club isn't just tilting at promotion, but tilting at improving the odds of Premier league survival next time around in a more creative way than a panic spend upon promotion.

Cunning?

Not going to post again until @cambridgeshire canary has created a new topic to announce Gabriel Sara. These may be my last words here ever, so please someone else join me in this stance!

Welcome Gabriel.

It's the dozens of those choreographed portrait pictures she's been commissioning - it eventually shows through in what's underneath. The Dorian Gray effect. (That must be my most literary reference in a post reply ever and perhaps my most viciously satirical. Apologies for my immodesty please this once).

Given there are still posts being made suggesting that Dean Smith likes long ball football, that's not necessarily surprising.

You can't win with this one either... Do it to unleash Googlebot from his self imposed prison and run the wrath of those same people piling on you or don't do it and have people piling on you because Googlebot shut himself in a prison and demanded attention for it...

I have no plans to do so as of this second 😉 Its silly really, one minute I get yelled at for making threads the next minute people refuse ri post until I make threads! Make your minds up!

He said yellow and green are his colours. So he should understand "Just lob it up field", well pointed out. 🙂

Unfortunately, because of the exhausting work carried out during the height of the pandemic, most people forgot that the NHS was in a mess. Underfunded and undermanned. Probably funded at levels when people died younger and the population wax 10 million less. Now we are back to "normal", the problem is highlighted, not just by one problem such as covid, but everything else that was put on pause. Should their be another major problem, it could well hit a crisis point. Lets face it, Russia could be flattening Ukraine right now, but its just become normal now. We are consumed by Penny or Liz. Or the Lionesses.

How's about this instead?

No.17 then. If he is half as good as Emi and settles well this first season he will be be a star for us. Love this kind of signing and like that clip and his attitude.

Create a new thread, go on.. you know you want to... It doesn't feel right to have such a big signing and you're sitting in the corner. Where's Patrick Swayze when we need him?!!

I've just been amazed that we have heard precisely zilch from the new health secretary. Not a word. It's like there is no pandemic ongoing or one single care for the NHS. On the other hand both nationally and locally we hear of stories of the health service going under, lots of very worried doctors and nurses ...as well as numerous expert observers and scientists pleading for the public to take simple precautionary measures like wearing masks and keeping distances. Have to say it, it makes me angry really... that the issue simply doesn't seem to matter anymore. Like they've given up. We know there won't be another lockdown and nor do we want any, but surely the least we can expect of our national government is to provide advice and guidance. I keep hearing how well Johnson has done in sorting Covid too.

I can't believe he said that about Hobnobs. 😡

Worth a minute of your time imo 😃

Wow, what a tough time they have feeding that big old **** 🫤

As a Labour (Blair/ Starmer) member I'm mildly amused at the current situation. I was terrified of Wallace and Tugendhat but Wallace wants a different job and the Tories won't vote for Tugendhat. We can beat all the others. It seems extraordinary that 200,000 people with an average age of 70 are going to decide the way forward but that's the system at the moment and this is the best possible reason to change it. I hear the nonsense that suggests we vote for a local MP but the reality is that we vote for a party or a leader. This is the best example I have seen for a written constitution. We really shouldn't be saddled with a leader we didn't vote for. If there is a change of leader there should be a rule that says there is a General Election

Exactly that. Starmer needed to nail his colours to the mast that they aren't going to try and reverse Brexit and then leave it at that for now. Stay on the economy and out of the culture war mud.

Invite friends to watch a stream of a pre-season friendly with Cambridge, and then ask them for £2? It's not Joshua versus Usyk and I reckon I'd soon lose friends if I stood at the door charging them £2 to get in.

Fallen through. Sara pulled out of the medical on the basis that he can’t play in extreme heat. It is forecast to be 38C in Norwich tomorrow, while San Paulo will be a moderate 21C.

But is he a mini cash cow or a far away cash cow?

Then **** off to Brentford then, mate.

I think it is pretty much irrelevant whether he is given a number or not, he is on our books so they gave him a number, he could still go tomorrow if the deal is right.

Not sure if we've got much to teach them! How to sell all your assets and still manage to massively increase your debt? How to use natural resources at unsustainable levels in the knowledge that it is likely to damage the planet you live on? Etc. Perhaps the best advice we can give is don't listen to us as we have been totally clueless as a generation!

Think he saw Tom Wright play for Mulbarton and couldn't cope with being the second best goalkeeper in the village 🙄

Totally agree mate. One of our mates had that green away shirt, and it became known as the 'VIV' shirt because both of the As peeled off 😂 And I think the square looked even worse on the half-and-half home shirt than it did on the third shirt (which I still quite like tbf, my wife bought one and still wears it from time to time).

I've added squad numbers to my EFL Named Squad table to highlight a few things: Barden, McCracken, Soto are all over 21 and haven't yet been given a squad number so assume their destiny for the season is now confirmed as elsewhere. Quite a few of the U21's have been overlooked currently, no surprise there as you would expect a loan out for them (in my table Stewart, Martin, Dickson-Peters, Kamara, Omotoye). So if the three without a number are loaned out, Sara does sign (as assumed above) there are 3 named squad places available for further incomings should budgets be available.

But simple economics suggests unless enough people pay the £10 to pay for the cost, whilst pissing off a lot of people who may now be turned off other cash generating initiatives of the club, the club has lost out and probably made things worse. Whilst a good marketing dept. would have identified the "market" would be better satisfied with either a lower price or even free, where some other incentive to sign up for a later cash generating event was part of the consideration and thus maintained a dialogue with that audience. I'm watching from afar a very schizophrenic marketing team at the Carra' that seems to love the detail of affinity causes or expensive kit launches (where people will buy the kit come what may with a minor tease campaign) but **** it up nearly every time on pretty basic fan engagement activity. That team really need a good kick up the **** and re-focus!

Well this is the problem with limited game time. But when someone claims one of our better passers of the ball is 'limited' what else can you throw at them to objectively show they're wrong in that judgement? Aligning Sorensen to Sargent is totally different because Josh has had a continuous run in the team. And I'm not getting into a "He's limited", "No he's not" to and fro - as it's pointless. If anything goes against Sorensen at defensive mid is his lack of physicality/bite. That's why we're looking at more blood and thunder players like Normann and Hayden as a preference. Anyone who's watched Jacob can see his number one assets are composure and passing ability, surely?! Or have I lost the plot!? 🙂

Signing announced with pictures holding the shirt tomorrow, season ending knee injury announced Sunday.

Odd situation where there are no votes to gain by mentioning Brexit, but votes to lose.

As a student I did a “marathon” sponsored by Guinness along the Grand Union Canal. A 26 mile walk with a beer tent every 6 or 7 miles. It was bad enough walking that distance, let alone running it, but copious quantities of Guinness helped ease the pain.

That's exactly what matters to most folk. I'm sure it is going to dominate the next two years, as Covid has for the last two (with Brexit more in the background but also an ever-present because of N Ireland...maybe Scotland too regarding independence). This Tory leadership episode has been disappointing, no figures of much substance but quite a lot of shallow soundbites. I reckon the quality of journalism has not been too great either over the last decade (or more) - especially the press to the right of centre. Johnson has got away with stuff no PM ever should have got away with and so much has just not been challenged very well. You have to admit that opposition parties are in a similar bracket. Our politicians seem to lack gravitas, possibly because they go into politics as a career in itself. You read about what they are doing in Germany and Spain with huge transport subsidies knowing that folk need to work and be productive. We will need some proper strategy ahead to cope with the sheer economic mess arriving (recession looks odds on) not to mention probable industrial unrest, possibly social unrest too. Whether it's Mordaunt, Sunak or Truss reality will catch up so quickly. For everyone we have to hope they are up to the job. Johnson was so hopeless if you consider it carefully. He has blown a massive majority and despite the number of seats he won even he couldn't manage to stay in power! Despite support from a poor and desperate cabinet and even large parts of the press. The damaged reputation with Ireland, Scotland and Europe also has to be repaired. Approaching all these really serious matters with the vacuous bluster we've heard from the Tory leader hopefuls will not go very far at all. The answer is probably being able to start to build a long term vision with more progressive policies (ideally with a kind of PR system that means parties have to work together). This Tory election is a sh1tty sideshow, it really is time they went, the last 12 years of their austerity and Brexit particularly, has weakened most of our communities and our institutions. Time for a GE surely? Time they left and tried to work out how to be a serious party, time to think less about division. Division is a Johnson legacy. Edit: This lot are a tired brand as well as being tiresome.

Once again, I was guessing and will probably be wrong and then you can jerk off and bump this thread and feel great about yourself so please just shut up for once

I’m not really that interested in watching, but totally disagree - it’s nothing to do with being ‘entitled’ and more about what’s ‘reasonable’. Football supporters quite rightly often feel that they are taken for granted - games moved on a whim for tv, merchandise that’s not exactly cheap etc etc - and this does rather play into that. There may be a cost to the club, but I very much doubt it is prohibitive (considering the hire of a private jet to get the players out to Marseille) and they could surely pass the pictures on for free or for a far more nominal sum if they wanted to. I mean, I stumbled on a free cast of Hartlepool v Hibs on YouTube the other day, if they can do it I’m sure we can. Edit: that game was in Portugal.

But it's just absolutely incessant self-absorbed moaning. You seem to think that you're some kind of noble warrior railing against the injustice of it all, but in reality you just come across as embittered and, frankly, very boring. Maybe you should consider the amount of your time you put into something that clearly gives you so little satisfaction and finds you generally disagreeing with everyone? It'd be much better for your wellbeing to invest some of that time in something that gives you joy.

Not butthurt at all, just think they should remain separate records.. my opinion. 👍

Oh, did that not end well?🤩

FFS confirmed...where's the new thread? 🤣 Apples

Monica? 😉

The confirmation article. https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/gabriel-sara-signs-for-norwich-city Nice little video to go with it

<Sad eyes of Grant Hanley & Kenny McLean>

Exactly, these are only temporary. I don't know when the deadline is for final squad #'s - but guess it's after the window closes. Still good to see him with the #7 though, proper number that one! 🙂

Apologies for double quote, yes Socialism is expensive, but if it is real socialism then the profits of such expense do find their way to those that need it most. Unlike the current situation of self helping vultures we have at the moment.

But that’s why we have medical staff. Assuming they’re not incompetent (and if they were, you’d think it would become clear fairly quickly) they carried out a medical and would have told Webber or whoever that in their expert opinion, there was a certain percentage chance of his injury being severe. That would be balanced against his value to us as a player, what we could do with the money if we didn’t loan him (in other words how likely we would be to find another CDM as good or better that we could afford) and how long it would be likely to take him to get up to speed once he’s fit. You say you wouldn’t have taken the chance on him, but you don’t know any of those factors to be able to judge. It comes down to “feeling bad”. Not a rational grounds for a decision.

Haven't got a freaking clue where that running performance came from. I have ran Torshavn before, in 2018, and did 1:49:38 when not in peak condition. I knew I was in much better shape this time around, but the conditions were more blustery than the breezes that hit the course back then. Suspected I was in decent form and expected to knock three or so minutes off that time and, with a bit of luck from the wind perhaps, get under 1:45. Decided to powerwalk when it got windy/steep for my liking to conserve energy. Had one on the first climb as it was into the teeth of a westerly, to the bemusement of three other runners who'd gone with me. They then realised when I piled past them on the subsequent downhill that my madness had its method. Surprisingly on for a PB with 10K gone, but with three tough climbs to come, and not to mention heading into Kaldbakfjord INTO the wind. Didn't lose that much time, and then a stretch with the wind behind me, going downhill. Made up time, and also got my breath back. Nearly took out the whole of the worst climb on the run, the road away from Hvitanes and at 18km the PB was definitely on, but with one more climb to go coming out of Hoyvik. Most of the rest is a slight downhill, but after seven miles of going up or down (and either into a headwind or tailwind) you're often fighting to keep your legs under you. Cut a long story short, somehow I went 4:25, 4:23, 4:28, 4:28 on my last four kilometres and knocked over a minute off my personal best. 1:42:20 chip time in Torshavn, old PB was 1:43:33 on a far flatter, easier course in Warsaw in March 2019. Pretty damn stoked at that one. 😄