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Interesting detail in this piece. Just a reminder that the players are human beings and you don't know what they might be dealing with off the pitch. Wishing him and his family all the best. He has been combining football with hospital visits to see his baby daughter, born prematurely last month. "It [the goal] was a nice moment for me and my family, I'm super proud of all of them," he told BBC Radio Norfolk. "Our little girl is doing really well, she'll hopefully be out of hospital soon, she's been in in intensive care at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, they're absolutely wonderful there. "It has been tough at times, getting the balance between being at home with my son and being at hospital by the incubator, and also trying to be the best professional I can be to perform well on the pitch for the club that pays me." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68126654

Why don't we give him a big round of applause when his names read out on Saturday and give him there's only 1 Ben Gibson, show the man some love support and appreciation. He might not be the best cb we've seen at cr but to be fair to him he's a decent bloke and always gives his all. At least he doesn't score as many own goals as Duffy 🤣

The fans that booed him being subbed on the pitch that game should f*ck off and support someone else.

We sure have been promoted a lot in recent years for a club that "doesn't want promotion". Most unfortunate.

True, but to balance that out you have to include the number of times he's been on the pitch but hasn't played.

My son spent a week in hospital including a spell in intensive care when he was two months old- it was absolutely impossible to focus on anything else so fair play to him for even being able to get to training let alone play. Fingers crossed for them all.

Sorry to butt in, but his name is an anagram of 'Avoid Donkeys, Johnny'. Doesn't bode well.

It’s quite bizarre how it comes across that some are keen for signings to be poor. As ever, I’ll hope he’s good and formulate my opinion from what I see on the pitch over a couple of games.

Who really cares - to each set of supporters the ‘derby’ is their most looked-forward to game. It doesn’t matter if it is us/binners or Rangers/Celtic.

No I don't. Jokes are wonderful things aren't they.

If only he was white and had long blonde flowing hair. And maybe liked dancing on Tiktok. Then we would all love him..

They've put the Colney vegetable patch inside it to keep the frost off the plants....It's now the Soccerbotanical....FACT!.....

If the rumours are true and van Hooijdonk is coming on loan with an option to buy while Idah goes to Celtic on loan without the option to buy I think it is a great idea If Adam does well he comes back here still on a long contract and we can either keep him or cash in with hopefully Celtic facing a bit of a bidding war If van H comes good we can buy If van H is useless we just send back If Adam fails then at least we have a better idea of his potential

The window’s still open…

I've never got the criticism towards him. He's a decent centre half at this level as shown in Farke's second title win (when he had a good CDM in front of him). Wishing him and his family all the best.

Yep, I can imagine that genuine supporters will baulk at winning another Wembley play off. You only have to look at the lack of interest in the Liverpool cup game. Knowing we faced an absolute humiliation. the club was forced to give away tickets and pay supporters to travel. And I expect that should we start winning and find ourselves the top six the crowds will simply melt away, many hiding behind Ricardos sofa, petrified that we might be in the semi finals. The queues of fans wanting to hand back their season tickets would stretch back over Carrow bridge. Ask Sheff Utd fans whether they would want another season in the PL or be back in the Championship I suspect that in reality supporters are the same as me on this. They want to see our club win as many games as possible and to enjoy where that takes them, and to hell with the spineless whiners. Did Luton, the club or its fans take the same embarrassing stance as Sutton. No, up and a 'em. As did Maidstone. Fix the ground and then do your best. was their thought. Sutton of the Antarctic ....."ooh, not going there it might be cold." Sutton climbing Mount Everest, ........"oooh, I might fall off" Sutton in F1...."ooh I might get a speeding ticket."

Absolutely we should. At the very least the dim wits who booed his name at the last home match and / or slag him off relentlessly should shut up and give their boring jibes a rest.

Yes must be difficult for him to deal with. Reading between the lines he was probably not injured in early December when he missed a few games. Let’s hope the days of his name being booed when announced are over.

Why does it? Luton are making a much better fist of staying up than our last two attempts and I don’t believe their squad last season is any better or worse than ours. Farke walked the league and had an appalling record in the top flight, whereas Alex Neil got us up through the playoffs and made a much better stab at staying up. I’ll never turn down promotion as we never know what will happen if we get it.

Sons of famous fathers…. ……I give you Paul Dalglish

I don't think he's done badly at all this season. The amount of starts he's had and still scored 7 goals. Quite decent numbers under the circumstances. And he also has looked much better in his hold up play, running the channels etc. The things a striker should do to help the team. I feel like that side of him has just been neglected in favour of the memories of the two or three chances he missed against Bristol Rovers. 🤷🏻 But hey ho. He's never going to be first choice here but I'd have him in the side over Barnes tbh.

This isn’t a serious thread so I shouldn’t credit it with a serious response…but… We largely saw the same thing with McNally; he came in, swept clean and we became more “hard nosed” (?), and, while it was effective, it was welcomed. Once it wasn’t going so well, he was pilloried. And I think there is an element, perhaps in reverse, with Webber. Farke, irrespective of your personal overview of his abilities, built a togetherness under Webber. Was there a perception that we then went soft? Probably. When Webber went a bit “hard nosed” he became the bad guy. Not that getting rowdy helped him but it’s a bit like we always want our cake and to heartily dine. Ultimately, Webber or McNally or anything inbetween - and we still don’t really know what Knapper is - it’s great while it is seen to be working but as soon as there’s a hint that it isn’t we want the other thing. I think the difference now is that we have a group of fans in their early twenties that have been relatively spoiled - historically in context - with a relative level of success for a club our size. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting more and sustained success but perhaps that context is missing. That said, things are changing, perhaps not at the rate some would choose, but ten years from now we’ll likely have seen the cycle go full circle again.

I agree. Idah is a good striker. Our supporters are overly critical of players IMO, especially young players for some reason. That said I don’t think it’s quite working out for him here, behind Barnes and never really cementing a 1st team place even with Sargent out for a long period. I also understand why he no longer wants to be a bit part player. Maybe a fresh start best thing for all parties. SVH seems a similar proposition in terms of fairly young, clearly has talent from his previous seasons and not working out for him where he is. I can see the logic in swapping one for the other assuming SVH is seen as better fit for how we want to play and we get a good sell on clause on Idah when he inevitably (IMO) comes good.

Tbh he was bullied by his own teammates!

It's clear why SVH has an option to buy clause and Idah doesn't. We all know Knapper wants to lower the age of our squad. At 34 years old, striker Barnes is the eldest player in our squad, and so I think Knapper will ditch him this summer. SVH turns 24 next week, and Idah is 23. SVH is being looked as a possible replacement for Barnes, and Idah has been sent out on loan to try and improve him

So would I because he'll be starting for us in the EPL, won't he?

You need far more than a tin hat if that's your opening gambit, maybe something more like:

Tin hat on... RvW was a quality striker who we completely mis used.

But that's the whole point isn't it? We think lots of things about people in life, but don't say them out loud. And it was a totally vile and abusive chant, which made me embarassed to be a Norwich City fan every time I heard it. I sang plenty of songs about Robert Chase back in the day, but nothing even remotely as brain dead as this.

That was quick!

Have you been on this board long? 😉

Blair certainly won by default; the Tories were the walking dead well before the 1997 general election. John Smith was enjoying 20 point opinion poll leads when he died. It's a tragedy that doesn't really get talked about enough given its pretty far-reaching consequences. Had he stayed around, Labour would still have enjoyed a landslide in 1997 and probably have kept the vast majority of the voters who gave him it with him rather than driving 3 million votes away. I suspect Starmer will do an almost identical thing and get a landslide before his time in office bleeds support. The only advantage he does have is that people were energised and excited at the prospect of a reforming Labour which may have fueled a greater level of disappointment when it did very little to change and actually kept some of the most long-term damaging Tory ideas (PFI, anyone?). There's no excitement or expectation about Starmer, the prevailing anyone-but-blue tide will carry him home. At least New Labour bought in Sure Start and the minimum wage. John Smith's heart-attack ****ed this country more than Boris Johnson and his cronies.

Giving away your age now Branston with such a ridiculous outdated way of viewing football and footballers as it is all about the stats these days.

You really have to ask? It started going wrong for us and clubs like us the moment the Premier League started.

Does it? Oh. I'll do a Cambridge and start another thread tomorrow then.

Idah has improved since the start of the season, which has been great to see. However he is still an awkward fit. He doesn't effectively replace Sargent or Barnes. If he really wants to go to Celtic, and we think SvH will add value to our squad, this makes a lot of sense. We will certainly find out if its a confidence/ application issue from the Glaswegians. Personally I think Sydney is designed to take Barnes place rather than compete with Sargent.

McLean > Sorensen in any position though. Sadly, we only have one of him.

Did Jurgen get wind of this, a little while back ?

I’ve only seen TNC report it as done so I thoroughly recommend taking it with a pinch of salt those boys are about reliable as Cambridgeshire canary’s undercrackers after a mild chicken korma.

I'm afraid Sutton lost me in this article. What a self seeking **** he is turning out to be. He's been rubbing shoulders with Robbie Savage for far too long. Asking for Knapper to speak to the press during a transfer window, as a former professional player, he knows is totally counter-productive in everything Knapper is trying to achieve. If at the end of the window it looks as if things went poorly, then he explains what went wrong. But to do so now will probably cost supporters want they actually crave at the moment, an inward transfer as his focus comes off his main role. Knapper is at this moment dealing with Idah, Rowe, van Hoojdink, Mikey "wassisname", Dimi and probably countless other propsective transfer moves including several inward ones. He has probably been working on these and more without much movement for most of December and January. Let him get on with his job. His job is not reveal all Norwich's cards, that way only financial loss accrues. What we need from the club is some independent authoritative person to speak on behalf of the board and executive during this period, but they seem to be resting on the complete mind**** that was the AGM whilst waiting for the EFL to decide if we can welcome Attanasio with open arms. I agree that relying on Wagner to convey the message is not working because the majority of the fans really don't care what he has to say. But Knapper wouldn't want to tell is in minute detail what most on here seem to want; that is just not going to happen. Sutton should review his "populist" stance and regain his former strong analytical view, Knapper should be allowed to finish his job.

These lying bastards is why a large portion of the country hate brexit. A better link to show the ****housery of these scumbags.

The column is fine on Idah, though hardly earth-shattering. And Sutton should know better than to say "Idah...has played over a hundred times for Norwich" without acknowledging that the majority of those times were as a substitute. It's perfectly possible to make the case without stretching the truth.

Makes sense. Both are loans. Both can be assessed in the summer. Idah looked shot of confidence and generally a waste of a shirt. I doubt that was going to change. Maybe a few months at Celtic will alter that. He’ll certainly have no excuses for not scoring goals up there against some of that league.

Idah wants to leave due to not being a regular starter. He’s on a huge lengthy contract. Knapper needs to generate funds and getting him off the books is a good move. Vanhooijdonk has hardly played in Italy but his record is good in Holland. His attributes seem to fit perfectly and is a definite upgrade on barnes. If it doesn’t work out we don’t have to buy him. What’s not to like 🤷🏻‍♂️

Time will obviously tell. Idah is by no means a bad striker, but given he has had golden opportunities to establish himself in the first eleven and never has, swapping him for a striker who might makes sense to me. Especially if we make money on the exchange and he has a decent sell on clause. It’s probably the best result for all parties unfortunately.

207 minutes and only 2 starts and no goals in Serie A. 175 minutes 2 starts and 1 goal in the Cup. Hardly had a lot of chances to shine. His record the previous season in Holland in comparison was 3067 minutes, 39 appearances and 19 goals.

"Give us an E, give us an L, give us an I.... [half time whistle] "Give us an O, give us an L, give us an U ...

Most of the strikers in the Championship are a downgrade on Idah, or at least no better than a step sideways.

Again, like every individual in a role such as his, you're going to get more misses than hits with transfers. It's just that all his hits came at once and the misses were often entire transfer windows. His legacy is the training ground and the modernisation that (hopefully) will lead the club into the next era when the ownership gets sorted. Good luck to him the rest of his life.

I'll probably be slated for this, but IMO Rowe is a luxury player who will score goals out of nothing, but we cannot build a 'sum of all parts' team around him. Also, it seems as if he is very likely to leave anyway. He's a confident player and I get the feeling he believes he can snatch the moment and is ready for higher things. I hope for his sake he is and he doesn't end up just warming the bench at a PL club. Sara, on the other hand, despite his recent performances being below his usual standard, is someone who could be the pivot of a 'sum of all parts' team. For me, he is the one we must try to keep, especially once Wagner has gone and we go back to playing with a midfield.