Fakenham Canary

[quote user="ricardo"]Mulumbu for Jerome was the correct move. We had lost the midfield and could easily have lost a goal had AN not shored things up.[/quote] Finally some sense. Thanks Ricardo, I thought I was going mad. I''m as frustrated as the boo-boys at the lack of a striker, but AN can only work with what he''s got. This was the absolute right substitution, and the only one he could make to try and stop the flow towards our goal at that point in the game. We looked like we were going to concede at this point, we were losing the midfield battle and Mulumbu was the obvious choice, to get a foot in and break up their play. This I think he actually did very well, making 4-5 good interceptions and getting us moving again. It resulted in a couple of chances too which had looked a mile off 10 minutes before, without the ball. Surely bringing off Jerome, who had spent the whole half offside and just wasn''t having a great afternoon, was the best choice. Naismith for me had looked the best of our forward players and probably the most likely to snatch a goal or set someone up. Therefore push him up and see out the game. I think personally that the sub earned us a point today. As AN said post match - there is no point bringing on a striker if you haven''t got the ball. Booing was ridiculous. Everyone knows, including AN and the board, that we are very short up front, but today with the resources available we got a decent point against a good team, without playing very well.

Think folk are right about Klose as a candidate, but unless we''re ten points clear at the top come January, its going to be hard to keep him whether he''s captain or not. No-ones mentioned Wes. He''d be my pick. Longest serving player, likely to be involved in most games [probably bossing most of them]. And going back to the Howson point, Ive lost count of the number of times ive left a game thinking ''we''d never have won that without Wes''. He seems to have become more like that all-action captain-material type of player too.

Had an email from an Owls supporting friend this morning, who was at their pre-season friendly against Benfica last night with Kean in goal. "We looked pretty good apart from a dodgy goalie that Norwich have foisted on us – Jake Kean – who looked and played like someone we’d borrowed from a pub team"

1. Agree 2. Agree but can someone explain how this works - I thought cancelling by mutual consent meant player agrees to just that - if the club had to pay up what was left to run of the contract, would seem pointless letting them go even if they werent playing? Plus side for player of cancelling is then the fact they are free to sign a deal elsewhere without the need for a transfer fee so if they have other options available, everyones then happy. Im guessing KL probably doesnt have other options available. 3. Agree 4. Away 5. Not knowingly seen McG play a league game tbh, and the euros can make average players look amazing over a few games [Robson-Kanu] so Im not sure how much I agree with that! 6. All three and we''d be straight up. One might be realistic, in which case Assombolonga for me 7. Agree. But Jarvis injury has possibly just increased the Murphy''s chances quite dramatically. 8. Agree. Managed to finally persuade myself not to bother with either of the main friendlies this year after reading too much into them in the past [remember watching RVW & Hooper at Brighton a couple years back and getting excited!], though I''ll prob change my mind at the last minute!

hilarious valuation if any truth in it, cant see how he has gone up in value at all - what did we pay for him exactly? Seems bizarre that Hooper has apparently devalued by £2 million but Grabban hasnt. Guess its just a supply and demand thing and the fact Bournemouth want him means he becomes worth what they are willing to pay. I think for £8 million the club should charter a Sanders Coach to drive him round to Eddie Howe''s place right quick.

Well done AN for making the right substitution while there was still time for this lad to effect the game. And what an effect! He summed up in 30 seconds what Redmond had failed to show in two matches - showed confidence, power, pace and looked straight away to take his man on and won a corner. Brilliant lay offs for Wes'' chance and Tetteys goal. You''d have to think he''s got an excellent chance of starting the next league game

Would be a good signing for us, looking forward to a transfer window that isn''t either underwhelming, totally disappointing or both! Him and Jarvis would make a great start, let''s hope the defensive frailties are suitably addressed too. A question though - who makes way to fit Naismith into our current set up? Presumably the only way we''ll get him is through offering some sort of assurances regarding his involvement, since that is his main issue at Everton. Where would this leave Wes, who has been one of our best players? Don''t think Naismith is suited to playing properly wide or as the striker so would we look to change our shape to fit everyone in? Maybe a 4-1-4-1 could accommodate both centrally behind the striker.

Vos - exactly. Yes he crossed for the first goal but that aside it was a very frustrating performance from him yesterday AJ - think you''re probably right there. I can see everyones point regarding Brady being our best left back option, but we just got so much more from him when he played higher up the field. More than Redmond offered us yesterday IMO. As for Redmond ''obviously being told to cut inside'' yesterday I disagree - why would you tell your best wide player to cut inside into a packed central area where he is less effective than when he goes past people on the outside? We had Mbokani in the box, you would think crossing for him would be the obvious option. I just think he lacked the confidence to take the bloke on. Be interesting to see what happens when Jarvis is back

Just wonder what the purpose was of dropping Olsson to the bench yesterday in favour of Redmond playing left midfield in front of Brady? Rotation due to fatigue? When I saw team I assumed it was tactical in order to target Hutton with Redmonds pace but Redmond never wanted to go past him! I don''t care if Redmond is right footed or not, if he can''t go past the man Russel Martin keeps out of the Scotland team then he isn''t going past anyone is he.?

Well for what its worth, I flew into Norwich Sunday afternoon on the 1650 flight from Amsterdam and Alex Neil and Gary Holt were sat five rows in front of me on the plane. As Utrecht''s home game against Ajax was the early KO, presumably they were there watching this lad. I was rather hoping they might have been scouting a defender!

stunned by this transfer. He may not have started many games this year but would have been so important to have around the squad. It just doesnt make any sense. Only Norwich could manage a deadline day like this - we''ve had some shockers but this must take the biscuit. Something must be going seriously wrong in the background and you cant help thinking the reasons behind Lamberts departure are just surfacing again. Amazed how many people think a replacement will be coming in by 8pm

From what we saw of Wisdom today I think we should be grateful Whittaker is only going to miss one game, he looked poor. We are threadbare in that position for sure but we didnt see anything at all in Wisdoms performance to suggest he can be anything other than average back up to Whittaker. Maybe it was just a poor game to judge him on given the fact everyone bar Tettey was pretty poor, but was hoping Wisdom would want to grab this chance to oust Whittaker with both hands and give us something positive to take out of the game. He didnt do that at all

A few of you probably heard this yesterday, guy came on to talk about watford''s transfer policy and was distraught by the fact they have signed so many players that are proving difficult to integrate and that it was costing the club its identity. He was asking why on earth they couldnt have gone with the squad that got them promoted, perhaps just adding 2 or 3 quality signings to add depth. It made me smile because a few people on here were jealous of watford''s signings and it just goes to show that there are fans out there who are jealous of our approach too! With fans of Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sunderland, Chelsea etc etc all sounding very disgruntled, it made me wonder how many sets of fans are NOT panicking ahead of the window closing? its easy to live in an NCFC bubble and not realise that actually, most of the things we worry about the rest do too. I dont think we rate our own players enough sometimes. Mbokani coming in, perhaps shifting a couple out and a last minute defensive signing, and I reckon we should be adding ourselves to the small list of clubs that dont have anything to moan about..

Whits deserved his place in TOTW, we see flashes of that side of his game every season, lets hope against the weaker sides at least, that we see more of it. Watching the Man City v Chelsea game last night and thinking about our right back berth - we all agree I think that Whittaker is better going forward than defending and some have said he isnt good enough and we need to upgrade, but how many full backs in the division are actually equally as good at doing both? How many wouldnt get caught out like Ivanovic did last night against the pace of Sterling and strength of Kompany? Im not too sure there are any that dont have weaker sides to their game, and maybe after Saturdays display we should embrace the fact we''ve got Whittaker and try and play to his strengths as we did rather than complain about his weaknesses. He''ll be on toast against Sterling, Hazard etc but against most he''ll do OK and if he can chip in a couple of goals and assissts as well then so much the better.

We were excellent yesterday but Sunderland were almost certainly the worst team we''ll face this season and we wont get an easier game. The space they gave us, as Feed The Wolf says, was unbelievable. The third goal typified that but they did it all over the pitch and at times I dont think we could believe how much time we were getting on the ball. As well as defending woefully as a team in their inability to press or win a second ball, they also had some shocking individual performances such as Van Aanholt who had a right mare - his afternoon unravelled after he mis-controlled on the left touchline twice in succession in the first half much to our crowds enjoyment. We scored two brilliantly worked goals though, and some of the link up play around the box was a joy to watch. But I think its a valid point to look at Sunderlands ineptitude because I for one cant remember watching a worse performance against us away by an EPL team in recent years?

[quote user="ruthers1"]Beaten by Rotherham then - that''s 90 minutes of your life I''ve just saved you all.[/quote] Come on ruthers, we could at least take them to extra time so I reckon you''ve saved me a minimum of two hours...

[quote user="alartz"]How tight our board is all players have been told to play honest and fair so the club avoids hefty fines. Keeps the Christmas bonus pot nice and large for the turkeys[/quote] Surely we get free turkeys? Arent half our team sponsored by Banham Poultry?

Away to Rotherham

Yep done that every time as well!!

So you are judging us against 3 sides that have had a consecutive longer run than us in the top division, and you don''t know anything about their financial backing or situations, and still can''t, maybe, see the obvious answer? Fair point Morty that they have had longer runs than us but Swansea [that went up with us] at least could be considered on a very similar pegging in that they only have one season more than us under their belt, have a very small ground and are also stuck out in the ar*e end of nowhere. Yet they dont seem to have had the same problems attracting good players. I couldnt believe they signed Ayew this year and look at Michu, Sigurdsson, Shelvey [not everyone likes him I know], Bony, Gomis, Montero etc etc. So no, I dont know the answer, thats why Im asking you and others to tell me!

I really hope you''re right GB and that it isnt just another Becchio/Kamara 5 minutes to midnight job. The Championship is getting harder to get out of with every season that passes and we might not get another chance again so soon should we go back down. Balancing the books is great but its a whole lot harder to do in the lower leagues. There are teams below [such as our beloved neighbours] who would sell their souls to have a crack at this division with a promising young manager. Lets hope he keeps us up with what we have and he gets a comparatively similar budget next year to that presented to Hughton prior to the relegation season.

Lots of talk about what signings we need this week and who we should be looking at. We have been in the Prem for four out of five seasons, and the TV money this year is reported to be the biggest ever, yet we still seem unable to compete financially with even the top few Championship clubs. Look at what Boro are spending this window to have a go at promotion. We get there, and then seem reluctant to spend any money. If you compare us to other so called yo-yo sides, normally on the second coming they blow a bit of cash to try and reach that fabled mid-table mediocracy - look at WBA and West Ham as examples, two clubs which arent that dissimilar to our own club in size. When an opportunity to try and progress has presented itself, they have taken it with both hands. Look at the way Swansea, Stoke and Palace have spent and developed really strong squads - I dont know what financial backing any of those three have specifically but you dont hear about them being close to bankruptcy because they have over-spent? So why exactly are we so cautious? One thing that crossed my mind is the selling on of players. It is a very long time since we have sold someone on for big money, and while we made a bit on Fer and Snodgrass last year neither went for big money. You wonder whether we have been a bit unlucky compared to some of these clubs, all of which have sold players on to top teams for good money, which has presumably facilitated the subsequent development of their squads. When was the last time we have been able to cash in on a coveted player? If Redmond plays as well as we all think he might this year and someone comes knocking in January with £25 million, then maybe that could be the type of reinvestment catalyst we need. Three £8 million players to bolster the squad for the rest of the season. Until something like that happens I fear we are stuck in a rut of uninspiring transfer windows.

Why do people keep mentioning Charlie Austin? Pretty sure the club has a business model that they will not deviate from, which is why we are only ever in for a certain level of player. We are capable of making one ''big'' signing per year while in this league of 7-8 million which we have already done, anyone else coming in now is not going to be worth more than that. The idea we would even be considering a 15mill bid for Austin, not even considering his huge wages, or the fact that he wouldnt want to come here anyway, is a joke. I wish we were in the market for this type of player, but it just isnt going to happen while the current board is in charge. Loan, inconsistent/unproven overseas import looking for a route into EPL or someone from the Championship looking to try and make the step up is our market whether we like it or not. It is not Austin or Soldado.

I think the Wisdom deal will conclude our defence for the season, I would be amazed if we sign another defender of any sort - who could we realistically get that would be better than what we have? if we sign another defender it would only be further backup and as has been said earlier in the thread we already have back up to Bassong and Martin who will undoubtedly start as number one choice pairing. Brady is obviously now the cover for Olsson even though he hinted in his interview that he prefers to play ''further up the pitch'' so i dont think we''ll be seeing any reinforcements there. A journeyman goalkeeper, and just possibly some sort of underwhelming striking option in the last 5 minutes of the transfer window (eg Becchio, Kane, Kamara), would be about par with our last 10 or more transfer windows wouldnt it? Is there any reason to think it will be more exciting than that?

Agree with this and all the other pro-BJ replies. It would be a disaster if we let him go. We may well have ''better'' midfielders than him in our squad but the bottom line is BJ is in the team more than the rest of them put together because he is consistent and not injury prone. He has been the anchor in our team this season, discounting his goals, and I cant think of another player that brings his level of commitment to the field. I dont care if he''s a bit slow or prone to shooting high and wide - we would need to spend a lot of money to replace him, and people saying they would snap off hands for a million quid are living in some sort of dream world.