Essjayess

This very Pink Un says City's first Brazilian born player since Edward Laxton back in 1920...cant say i remember him.

How do we know?...maybe not any Portuguese born players here but maybe 1 or 2 guys could be multi linguist and Portuguese being a language they've learned.

Given its not beyond the realm of possibilities that Hayden's knee may continue to be a niggly issue for much longer than expected and then get any kind of injuries to the likes of Kenny, PLM etc and our midfield suddenly becomes pretty thin and bare..if Mooy is available on a free then get him in for a season..its the Champs and we need a guy like him to be sure our midfield engine is at max output all thru the year...every game counts of course.

Is that Dennis Law at extreme left? ...Teemu may have some good competition right there.

So we agree then, Sara by NCFC standards will not be very cheap, it seems a club record fee could be on the cards for this guy. I have not seen anywhere that says he would be as low as 6 mill but for sure 9 mill and up, the highest being mentioned recently as high as 13 mill (11 mill plus 2 mill add ons).

I had already mentioned that it was said Sara may stay in Brazil until the end of the month yesterday lunchtime in the main Sara topic, no idea why another topic needed to be created. As for your second sentence, Sara in particular will likely not be a loan or be very cheap by NCFC standards.

Seems like if this last hurdle over up front cash can be agreed upon then just the contractual signing is left...which would happen over there?...as its being said he will not fly to Norwich until late July / early August.

Well they would be best highlights if they're just showing his goals, other vids of him are much more balanced and realistic, showing his shots missing etc, but what that highlights is he's always up for taking a crack. Also gives a pinch of his energy and his box to box movement, he does seem to be an energetic workhorse.

So, the first results from last year's census are in, with more to follow. Here are a few regarding population. Norwich..Census 2011 gave 3 different areas, Central Norwich (Parliamentary) 132,512, Urban Norwich (which many reference as main) 213,000 and TTW (Travel to Work) 299,000. 2021 Census for Central Norwich is 144,000, a rise of 8.7%. Urban and TTW for 2021 not yet given. Norfolk...population rise of 58,000 from 2011 to now stand at 916,000. East of England. Rise from 2011 of 8.3%, fastest growing population in all of England and Wales. Dont think anyone could be surprised by these figures, especially here in the city, where central Norwich population only grew by a couple thousand from WW2 up to the Millenium but has increased by over 20,000 in the last 20 or so years. The need for housing here grows more demanding each year unsurprisingly.

At least Purple is the only one in this topic who got a much fuller picture than most who read one sentence then think Pukki is on his way. Yes, so Teemu would like to play in the Prem..is that not the wish of most professional footballers?...It was also said that would be difficult....his age, which yes was mentioned in this topic, but also that he was a star player at this club, that the fans adored him, that he was he was obviously essential for NCFC...he also said Teemu is the kind of guy who respects and honours his contract. Bottom line is, if any club from the Prem offer a fee for Teemu that the club feel is to good to turn down then sure, he will go...is not that the case with any player at any club?...I see nothing new in what an agent of a footballer has said about his client here.

There is that, but i think the odds also do not reflect long term history, only recent history. No club has ever gone up as Champions from the 2nd tier into the top tier 3 times consecutively, indeed City's 2nd Champions titile season before last was only the 3rd time its ever happened two times on the trot. But although there is much uncertainty about the coming season, one would hope we have enough for top 6, maybe even a scrap for 2nd...but as Champions?..Que Sera Sera.

Can have an opinion for or against any player leaving or joining the club of course, but its a fact we need to trim the overall number of players we have and as in most previous transfer windows its the younger guys who seem to get the leave first, followed shortly after by the Hugill or Placheta types and perhaps an Aarons type bigger money move. Can only guess the final outcome of the clubs ins and outs when this window closes but picking purely random numbers it may read something like 10 out and 3 or 4 in..that is what i would expect anyway.

Lets face it, the theme of this topic, which repeats itself often, is pointless (pardon the pun). We all know its not over until the maths say its over, but realistically it was over after 10 games, City were so far behind to catch up to 17th. Year in year out the Prem relegators and Champs promoters solidify and strengthen more certain scenarios that have become standard. The yo-yo clubs, WBA, Fulham City and Watford to slightly lesser extent.. Then the clubs who spend some successive seasons in the Prem and then relegate and dont come back up for either mid term or very long term such as Stoke in recent years and Sunderland a bit longer even. Heck, think of how long it took Leeds even to return to the top tier. Burnley are now the latest to have spent a good few seasons at top tier but ultimately drop again in all likelihood. After 10 games my only thought for this season was to hopefully at least beat the 21 points of 2 seasons ago and possibly at least not finish 20th....and for a time those 2 things looked a long ways off even..now we have a competitive chance of doing so...but 17th?.....pipedream. Some say its the hope that kills you...but not me, i just enjoy the ride and wait to see what the Deano era brings us. I enjoyed the Farke era very much, if Deano brings the same or even more then its all good.

It looks like daily new infections has recently begun to stabilise, perhaps around the 80-90k average will be the normal for the forseeable...be that good or bad. Looking at the 1st dose vax total Ricardo i guess 91.1% is a reasonable figure. It may still rise by a few tenths of a digit but it was always the case about 5-10% would not get vaxxed for whatever their reasons. It may also drop a bit to of course if there ae any more age groups to open up, plus last year's Census stats should be out officially in next few months, so a population increase may to decrease the % a bit. Good to see the gradual decrease in hospital numbers to, that, along with deaths will at some point reach a stable period im sure much as new infections has.

Tbh Aggy i know about as much as you do, i just had read a report saying that the official dashboard would now include reinfections and that it would likely cause a spike mountain in the new cases, but looking at the data Pete above found its getting so dang detailed now with all those rows of stats that it looks as clear as mud to me. I much prefer the more simplified daily read out on Covid that our Ricardo provides each day, even though he likely gets it from the official dashboard to. But better is our Ricardo than any official dashboard i say.

Yes Aggy, that is correct, thx for puttimg me right.

So, today is the day when a new statistic, Reinfections, is added to the daily new cases total on the official dashboard, which will give rise to a daily new infections total to likely Everest proportions. Adding this will make the UK infections total even more accurate but of course no nation can claim absolute accuracy on any stat concerning Covid. While the huge added increase in infections will temporarily seem abnormally scary it will to naturally cause a slight decrease in the % of deaths per head of population. So, swings and roundabouts, which is what Covid is all about i guess.

This for me to. In reality our chance of staying up before last weekend was all but gone, now after two wins our chance is at most slight, but that is a little straw to clutch on to, But i to can live with relegation...you have to anyway being a City fan...as long as we tried our best and more importantly, see some signs that our new guys will have the ability to do good things in next season's Champs. I think the difference from the last two games has been our forward line not giving up...giving it a go..putting balls into the danger zone where anything might happen. All played their part last night. Kenny's slightly over strong pass that a shattered Teemu ran down, overpowering a defender kept in play and just teed it up for that instinctive and improvised action from Josh where the ball could have gone anywhere but deserved the goal it ended up as, Rashica's delicious cross that just seemed to just float across the area like a magnet for Josh to jump onto and bullet into the net and Adam putting a ball into a danger area that created an own goal, just as Josh had done the previous game. Before last weekend we were down with the prospect of a long end to the campaign breaking unwanted records and as fans just even questioning our chances in the Champs next season. Likelihood is still relegation but heck..now we have at least a couple of weeks with us outside the relegation zone...who would'ave thunk that before last weekend.

Omicron continues its global journey (i am presuming ). Japan, one of the more successful nations in keeping down Covid infections thru the different variants today recorded a record daily high for new infections with 29, 850. Seems Omicron will be dominant all round the world at least until the next variant with high contagion topples it.

That annoying but understandable deaths backfill has created the first time over 400 deaths in a day since February last year.. You mention lots seem reluctant to take the booster Ricardo..i dont know what the actual evidence is for the reasons of the current uptake, but ive questioned this before, is there still a 3 month wait required in between 2nd jab and getting a booster?. Anyway, i checked back 3 months to around 16th October and the total having had 2nd jab then stood at around 78%...if around 63% have been boostered now thats a 15% difference taking into account the 3 month rule...if that still applies. A few points should be knocked off that 15% considering how many hundreds of thousands, maybe many more, that are isolating right now. Agree that a certain amount no doubt do seem reluctant to be boostered, but whether its " a lot" i dont know.

Amazing how just one win suddenly has so many looking at other teams fixtures and saying if this happens....if that happens...its really funny considering its all about City and what our team do. Yellowrider at least was most realistic...that 6 game loss was the sequence that will ultimately prove to be the point of no return. Just to give ourselves an outside chance of avoiding the drop realistically means us winning our next 3 or 4 games..any evidence to suggest this squad can do that?...none. But i dont mind anyway, the clubs general financial health is the most important thing and right now its not to bad, although playing once more in the Champs next season will bring restraints as it always does. But for me, the most immediate thing is trying to better two seasons ago, maybe finishing19th or 18th is possible. also beating the lowest season goal tally for the Prem of 20 goals...for me that is going to be hard enough as things stand, never mind having pipe dreams of surviving.

Yes we are now on the decrease to whatever stable daily it ends up as..deaths and hospital admissions maybe at or near their peak hopefully to. Argentina now in the 130k a day mark and Australia recording over 150k today. Global daily case stats clearly show the incredible contagion of Omicron..all thru the different variants global daily cases remained pretty stable between 300-600k a day..but the last 6 weeks or so Omicron has just smashed that out of sight...another high yesterday of 3.2 million

Boosters stalling?...i dont see that at all. Certainly it has slowed down but stalling would imply no increase in the total having had the booster..todays figure say another 150k added to the total...that is not stalling. Also, while no doubt there is a semblance of complacency perhaps, that cannot be recorded and also not the only factor. For example, is it still the rules for for having a Booster that its to be done 3 months after the 2nd jab?...if so then the slowdown is quite predictable as there was a steady and slow decrease in the daily numbers of those having their 2nd jab over time so its just a process equalising itself to the previous jab stats. It would be quite predictable that the first 60% of the population having had a Booster would be much faster than from the 60 to 90% figure. Heck, even first dose, although these days a slow trickle, still increases by one tenth of a percent each few days.

After having made our booster appointments as long ago as December 1st the day had finally arrived for myself and my special needs son to get our booster shot. Having developed a pretty darn painful back strain in the past few days i literally hobbled to the city central vax centre, not helped by steady rain and holding up a brolly that increased my back ache, expecting to stand in a que outside awaiting my turn. But no, no line of people, straight inside, straight into the room for the booster after a couple of questions, jab done, not even a 15 minute after wait as that it seems "has been relaxed for Pfizer type jabs". I casually asked the medical person giving us the booster how quiet it seemed..she replied that yes, more than half of the appointments so far today had not showed or had cancelled..often down to "bad weather". I'm amazed by that if it has even a semblance of truth, a dose of back pain and some typical January rain was not going to stop me from getting my booster. Jab done, back home, a little effort rewarded, can now relax and enjoy rest of the weekend or at least until City get Hammered later on.

Maybe, just maybe, hopefully daily new cases are now at their peak with London showing a bit of a decrease and perhaps the rest of the nation going same route in next week or two. Hospitals hopefully are nearing a peak, at least partial good news on that ventilator front. I recall the Chief Medical Officer saying 2 or 3 weeks back how these numbers would rise very sharply as indeed they have, he also mentioned followed by a speedy decline, based on what occured in South Africa. But i have some doubts about that due to the differences in pop. density here and some other factors. Any decline would of course be welcome but i feel the decrease factor will be a good deal slower here..thats just my general thoughts though, time will give us the answer to that outcome.