Essjayess

Timm will be fine, its RB position when Pinto is injured that bothers me, as we saw on Saturday, Whitts cost us 2 goals and has barely been league 1 standard  this season. Not been Martins greatest fan, especially in the centre, but Russ does a decent job at RB, he must be there if Ivo gets injured.

Would imagine its far to late for Forest to be able to hijack Nelson, thou with only injury prone Assambalonga their only striker left after Burke went, Forest are as in dire need, maybe even more so, than us, for another striker.Can for sure see them going in for Rhodes or Austin loan, so maybe thats where they may clash with us...presuming that is we are in for one of those two also.

Dont quite understand all you said there Indy, i hope you enjoy your holiday though. If you were saying  you are leaving the forums for a long time, then will miss your contributions, regular  long term contributors are always missed.

Have praised Alex for the players hes brought to the club, including Naismith, but we can look at that guy as a barometer for whats happening  where it really matters, on the pitch at matchdays. This is not the Naismith that played so wonderfully well at Everton, it smacks of something else, of a manager who is simply not good enough in to many ways to manage a team well enough on the field of play.Today had been coming, i was not surprised at all by it, that is a sad thing to say as a heartfelt fan of City. Was nothing to do with us losing, was how we lost, having Whitts at RB when its been clear far to long hes just no good now, was not starting with Laffs, our last recognised striker, comic schoolboy stuff indeed. For me ive  been concerned since our away game at Southampton nearly a year ago, today is a year on and Alex has  not improved his learning curve on team formations, picking right players for right positions, picking right players in general,  weak substitutions and probably most telling of all, players who have no momentum, lacking motivation, looking and playing  much worse than they really  should be, as in SN above. We are indeed going backwards, we are indeed backward of where we were when Alex first arrived.So for me, ive given him a year and i say we need a new manager, someone who can take our mostly wonderful talented squad of guys, to manage them in the right way, get them playing to their potentials. Some on here say give him another 5, or 10 games, or until Christmas, likely our Board will give him that and more, but honestly, do it  once the transfer windows shut, because AN is not learning at all.

Whittaker, Martin, Bassong..id add Turner to that also. Thats the danger of keeping the same old faces together and the reason for it by saying "well theyve been there, done that"...2 years ago City brought in a young unknown manager and his fire  gave City the momentum to squeak us through to promotion, but already there were many fans uncomfortable with to many mistakes being made in defence.To my amazement, Whitts , Martin and Bassong were kept for the entire PL campaign, and defensively we were a long way from being good enough. Now yet another season is upon us, Whitts, Martin, Bassong and Turner are still at the club..just unbelievable. I know Alex is building his own squad, I know   a  club like City dont have a money pot thats bottomless, I know to build a complete new squad  at a club like ours can take 2 or 3 years, I really didnt expect all 4 guys to all go that quickly as replacements need to come in but why, after all these seasons, are all 4 still at the club?...Its been clear to nearly all City fans for far to long that these players are not good enough, indeed not good enough anymore in a stronger, more competitive Champs division. Thats why we wont get promoted this year, thats why ive been saying ever since  last season ended 8th to 12th is our realistic place this year, far to many games such as today will  land us a mid table place.

Not often Alex has been so open before a player has officially signed, but i think  the reasons why this time are pretty clear. Much has been made of Alex and Citys fail to land a permanent since Alex  came to the club (myself included, having whined  on occasion), but Alex already said awhile back nobody but nobody wanted a new striker in more than he himself, so he has opened up now because its a relief to him as much as it is to the fans. Also im sure the signing of Oliveira is at such an advanced stage that Alex  felt was no harm in releasing the news.I for one am extremely happy that City will get this guy, of course we can all but hope he will turn out a very good  addition. No idea if City will land a 2nd striker, but at least one was always essential, so that part is almost done. Hmm, McGovern, Canos, Pritchard, Oliveira....Redders, ONeill, Voo, RVW....with a few days still to go, must admit, despite  relegation, our squad looks more potent, young, exciting than it did before.Alex is starting to build a team thats  his, its far from complete yet,  but hes building it.

Really hope this signing happens, permanently to,   a first for Alex. Im not underwhelmed like  some seem to be, in fact i find it strange anyone can be, considering hes never played for us yet, but if he has 16 caps for Portugals senior side then he must have some  decent attributes.He  can speak decent enough english, so looking forward to hearing his first interview as a  Canary.

Anderlecht Online saying City are interested in signing Anderlecht striker Idrissa Sylla...dont know if finacially City could afford him. If City sign Sylla would we be in the black?

Also contains "des"  so he could Des Lynam up for the other forwards to score, also i note his first names Jordan so im sure someone can come up with a "crossing the Jordan" type linkage.Katie Borkins, dear dear, you put a lot of effort into your OP,  maybe someone should raise a colussus of a KB statue in these forums for you....or then again, maybe not.

[quote user="AJ"]We can probably put this in the same basket as "loan deal agreed for N''Doye" and "Norwich in talks with Rhodes" or "McCormak to sign for Norwich this week" I''ll be waiting until we actually announcing something as I''ve given up with everything else![/quote]I believe there was never any reports anywhere saying N''Doye loan agreed or Rhodes in talks with City, but i do agree with you AJ that until the club themselves officially say something about Oliveira,  then really its neither here or there.What does give this some "interest" is that Graeme Bailey  seems to be the guy who broke this news, and hes stated some stuff thats more than just a gossipy  rumour maybe. The guy being in Norwich, looking at the facilities, a loan agreed, potential end of season signing or even sooner, that seems to suggest more than just an interest.Anyway, i agree with Bethnal, Oliveira could be a very very useful addition upfront, he has  a decent amount of caps for the Portugal first team, hoping theres truth in this report. Its certainly Portuguese weather for him in the City right now, and he has Ivo here to to help him feel at home.

Karanka desribes Rhodes as a wonder kid and is part of his plans...thats the be all and end all.Charlie Wyatts words which had zero concrete content was not even worth this amount of posts. Just 8 days to go now, we may as well all wait until the window shuts then start the whining.

Bethnal you mentioned about last day of windows and Jerome coming in at such a time, well yes that worked out.  But im mostly interested in more recent times, namely since Alex took over. 3 Full windows he has had come this time next week, and he and the club have failed to sign a single permanent striker. Talking of final day of the window, i dont forget  last summers final day, with Gayle allegedly in a City hotel awaiting the  move, only for Pardew to stop it on the day. Thats the kind of thing that happens if you leave it to the end, weve had since May to identify targets and make our move, more than 3 full months, many of our rivals have succeded getting their targets but again we have not.Yes there is always many targets that can fall thru, but Alex has seemingly done fine signing permanent midfielders / defenders, so why this complete 100% fail thru 3 long windows?. Sorry but a week to go and Alex is just hoping and praying?...not good enough, NCFC could be blundering massively financially as a club, because our beloved Cam Jam will run himself to a standstill long before this season ends, and results will absolutely suffer.

Heard the Radio Norfolk guy say today, after the match on Canary Call, that its not the time right now to be trying out new guys, young guys, blah blah, we need existing players whove been at the club, seen it, done it etc...I think not, already i have seen enough of the Wes / Naisy  duo to see its not fully  working. We have two seasons with parachute payments, this is the season for Alex to be putting in Canos, Maddison, Pritchard (when hes fit), to blood them, if we dont go up this season, still next one to fall back on.Cut him some slack?.. i see the same midfield so far...Wes, Mulumbu, Howson et al and seen  many of the issues we had last season as regards the midfield engine room. Yes hes tried the Murphys, thats good, but i, we, want to see these exciting  young players hes signed, not the right time?...so when is the right time?

Wes and Naismith are both good players at this level, but more often than not  playing them together just does not produce  the right result, Alex really needs to see this. Very average today, we have a squad who can win this division, but already  more than enough injuries, some poor  team formations / player selections from Alex and once again lack of signing a permanent striker convinces me that 8th to 12th is where we are headed.

Just listening to Alex on Canary Call, does not seem we are anywhere close to getting a striker in before window ends, ive said since May i would not be surprised to see us getting nobody in, i think at most a loan signing may come in but not a permanent.

If this guys a striker that rules us out then. Quickly he departs for another Spanish club and osusuna the better .

So what are we hoping for here?..Be like West Brom, who are being taken over by  the Chinese?..or a Villa, who have recently been taken over by the Chinese?..or like Wolves, who have recently been taken over by the Chinese? or...Lets stick with how it is, and be more unique as time passes by.

simple  answers to 2 questions?..nope heard no rumours and nope wont sign better striker than Jerome.

A win for them lot Sunday gives them a short fix, nothing more, weve been dominant for the last 6 or 7 yrs, one result doesnt change that. Anyway. i really dont care, more important is the winning or losing of 3 points, and the 42 games that follow. Also more important for me at this time is for City to get a striker or two in before the window ends, thats far more in need than what happens on SundayGame wont be pretty to watch, never is, but we should have more than enough to grab the points. OTBC

I recall Alex saying that during the negotiations over the McCormack saga, it was Fulham being unduly difficult which caused the length of the discussions, so why not be difficult back, tell em they can have Turner instead for free or Bassong for 5 mill straight cash.

Ya still seems very slow today, but better than not at all like yesterday. Their main news stories seemed to load like treacle also yeterday, but thats never helped by the sheer volume of advertisments anyway. Really missed my daily dose of message board squit, hope it at least stays up now.

Alex is infuriating to me as regards signings, since hes been at the club he has never seemed to have any problems getting midfielders, even when we wanted some defensive cover he got Pinto and Klose in January which are turning out to be inspired signings. But on the striker front, its been one failure after another, i.e Gayle, Afobe, McCormack to permanently sign a striker.  At one point Alex had to many strikers, hence we have seen  the likes of Hooper, Grabban and RVW move on, but we are now close to the 3rd full window shutting since Alex joined us and hes failed to sign a single permanent striker. I was posting i had my doubts he would find a striker a month or more ago.Whats his current situation? "Nothing imminent".."Never know when the phone might ring"....that can also mean the phone might never ring...hardly promising . A club like Bristol City can land guys like Kodjia and Abraham..yet we cannot land anyone. There were other guys around such as Grigg and Bradshaw, yet Alex spent way to long messing around with McCormack. Ive said since  last season ended i think City will finish 8th to 12th, with around 65-70 points, this is mainly due to  lack of strikers for me.Was really hoping Alex would help change my opinion but with 2 weeks left, still awaiting that.

[quote user="king canary"]@Essjayess How in the hell is supposed to have shown a clear formula at home after one home game?[/quote]Far as im concerned its not just after one home, thats why i included last saeson, in fact to an extent, ever since Alex has been at City. Last time in the Champs our away record was superb, almost equalling our home record, at home we had one or two very noticeable slip ups. Was a time Carrow Road was a fortress, if our away form was poor we  could often rely on home form to see us thru. Sorry but these days  i dont get the feeling the Carra is that fortress anymore, away we have more freedom to express our intent, especially in the Champs.

This could be an even more frustrating game than Saturday, when Sheffield had their main man not playing and a pretty average Hooper doing nothing. In Kodjia and Abraham, Bristol have potentially the most lethal double act in the Champs, and they get an early goal, it could be a long night.Have no idea what team Alex will put out, he still seems to have no clear formula at home, something that dogged us thru much of last season, in fact im much more positive about City playing away from Carrow Road these days.

[quote user="Move Klose"]No that wasn''t Accam that was Onguéné. There was 3 or 4 pics of him going round last night, one of those being the one in the directors box. Surely a centre back will be off. Personally rather keep Martin over Bassong.[/quote]If any CB is first out the door id imagine would be Turner. If this young lad is signed then Bassong could well help him bed in and feel part of the surroundings as both are Cameroon.