Tim Allman

[quote user="San Miguel"]i''d rather Russell at left back - since our second best player of the year last season hasn''t been named in the starting 11[/quote] I presume this post is a wind up?!  Either that, or you have never seen Russell play at full back. Last season, as I recall, Russell played right back twice. Once was in the home cup tie against Bury, when he looked like a fish out of water, and the other time was at Coventry when he was sent off (as was the Doc, also a right back that day) after Juan Velsasco''s disastrous performance. And you think he would be any better at left back? I desair sometimes at what I read on here. Yes, he played well last season, but not at fullback. I think that Shackell''s selection ahead of Pattison, who played left back a couple of times in pre-season, is more significant, and says much more of what Roeder thinks of Pattison. In my view, Shacks did ok at left back. He got forward when he could, and put one excellent cross over the in the second half. He defended competently, but tended to play too far inside, but that''s only to be expected for a centre half.  Hopefully Drury or Bertrand will be fit soon.    

City made an enquiry about Steve Howard before the start of the 2006/07 season. The previous season he had scored around fifteen goals for Luton, including one of the four goals in the first half debacle at Kenilworth Road. I believed we offered £350,000+ for Howard, and a decent wage.  Derby were also interested in him, and their new owners had a few quid to throw around. They offered Luton around £1million and wages of £18,000 per week. (A pal who is a Luton fan gave me these numbers). Neil Doncaster, at the Caps Q&A, a couple of years ago, said we couldn’t hope to compete with what was being offered and we didn’t pursue any further. He didn’t mention the exact numbers but called the package that Howard was offered as “staggering” or words of that nature.  Steve Howard joined Derby and they gained a place in the Premiership, so it was money well spent. It should be noted though that prior to his last season at Luton he had spent his career in the lower leagues.  He’s now thirty two years old. Whether he’s worth the fee that Leicester want, or the wages that Howard would be asking for is debatable.  

A report is already on Rick Waghorn''s sitehttp://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com/full_article.asp?i=3725

Gory Years – Crystal Palace 4 Norwich City 1 – Date 25th February 2006. This report appeared on the Capital Canaries Website (the old version before it was destroyed by Russian hackers) - it was an awful game and City were dreadful. Much against my better judgement, and trying to not to remember the last few times that I have been to Crystal Palace, I decided, yet again, to make the journey down to south London to see if Norwich could manage to build on the two recent wins against Brighton and Derby. Would I finally see my first league away win of the season or would I witness yet another away day debacle?  So starting with the man in charge’s selections, we were all relieved to see that Andy Hughes had not recovered from his injury. Unfortunately his replacements were worse. If a players standing has ever increased by not playing it was on Saturday.  As this report is more than likely to become a mad ramble, I’d thought I’d also mention that I played football in the park this afternoon with my two girls (aged 7 and 4 ¾ ) and every time one of them mis-controlled the ball or kicked it in the wrong direction they had to say “I’m Andy Hughes”. We had a great time. Next week we’ll be some-one else. Anyway - back to Saturday’s team selection. Dixon Etuhu was promoted to the bench due to Hughes’ injury. Somehow Peter Thorne kept his place and Carl Robinson got his chance in centre midfield. Unfortunately, Carl Robinson played more like Ann Robinson. Never was the phrase “Walk of Shame”, more appropriate than today, as walk is all he did. After the game, he probably took of his shirt, and got dressed without having had a shower, as he did not break into a sweat. Etuhu, who came on for the whole our midfield, Safri, just before half time, did a more than decent impersonation of the Invisible Man than Peter Thorne, which is no mean achievement.  Trying to avoid mentioning the match, I would also like to report that I met a couple of Palace fans from Manchester who had travelled down for the game and were on the 12:05 from Victoria. Sound chaps, the both of them, and the south London slums seem to whiz past as we bad-mouthed our respective managers. The Palace fans thought that their team had been rubbish for most of the season and they were mystified as to how they were so high up the table. They were also scathing of their left back and were particularly anxious as to my opinion on the Norwich right-winger and what effect he would have on the game. I tried not to laugh as I described this player, last seen rounding up a heard of flying pigs, to them.  My lunchtime beer was rudely interrupted at 2:30pm as I realised that I would have to go the ground to watch the game. When we were queuing to get in, the normally neanderthal Palace stewards even had a decent word or two to say as we entered the ground.   Meandering again, I thought I would mention an incident that happened when the Mrs was being searched upon entering Selhurst Park in 1998. For those of you who can remember that far back, this was the game in which we lost 5-1. Lucy, who was heavily pregnant with our first child Gemma, was next in line to be searched by the stewards. “Oi –what you got in there?” one of the South London cavemen grunted as he pointed at my wife’s stomach. “A baby – is that a problem?” was her retort. She was let in without being searched. Back to the game. The pitch was awful, it was windy and the sun made it difficult to see, but this only seemed to have an effect on the Norwich players. From the off, Palace looked well up for it and the only surprise was that the first goal did not come sooner than it did. Johnson, for the first time in years, realised that it was simpler to shoot, than to fall over for a penalty, and ran onto a sweet through ball from Watson to score with ease. The second Palace goal was better than the first with Watson firing home from the edge of the box with embarrassing ease as Palace made light of the difficult conditions. Norwich offered nothing apart from a shot from Huckerby, although we had a decent shout for a pen when Earnshaw looked to be bundled over in the box. The ref gave nothing. Perhaps Earnie should take some lessons in winning penalties from Johnson. The first half was awful, and I was pleased to get to half time only two goals down. Being positive, as I try to be sometimes, I hoped that Worthington might change it around. Get Thorne off, put Johansson on up front and bring on McVeigh to play behind the front two. Maybe push the fullbacks on a bit to bolster the midfield. None of that happened, of course. Johansson who had done ok from the couple of times that he had actually been passed the ball got subbed and Thorne, the Invisible Man and his invisible effin magic hat stayed on playing musical statues until it was far too late. Two goals and fifteen minutes later we were four goals to nil down and that was it. If we had been playing cricket, Ian Dowie would have been on the sidelines clapping his hands, Hughes style, declaring the innings closed to spare Norwich further punishment. But as this is football, all ninety minutes have to be played. Palace lost interest after the fourth goal, perhaps wanting to keep the Norwich manager in his job, and to spare some energy for the evening ahead in the local nightclub. The only entertainment we were offered in the second half was the standoff between Wayne Andrews and Flem. Although Flem’s best days are undoubtedly behind him, he is, no doubt, a very hard so-and-so, and I’d fancy him to come off best in a dust-up with almost anyone. Wayne Andrews, looks like a thug whose best days are neither behind him or in front of him as he’s never had them or likely to have them by way the way he plays. In fact, I’m sure he bears more than a passing resemblance to the steward who growled “Oi –what you got in there?” to my wife eight years ago. Luckily for both players, nothing came of the handbags, and just as Flem looked as he was turning the focus of his attention to Johnson, Dowie subbed off the diving dwarf. It was an eminently sensible move by the Palace manager, but ultimately very disappointing to the City faithful who had stuck it out to the end of the match, hoping to see some retribution for last season. One of Worthington’s summer transfer targets, Darren Ward, who had looked completely untroubled for eighty-nine minutes of the game, scored a decent looking oggy, to give the scoreline some respectability it did not deserve. Ward must be breathing a sigh of relief that he signed on the red and blue dotted line in the summer. So, back to the pub for a post mortem, which consisted of most of us apologising to the Palace fans we met, for not giving them a decent game. They thought we were a good passing side. Yeah – right. We weren’t much better or worse than the game against Brighton last week; we played just as badly, but against a better team.    

In case any missed this, which was posted on another thread, here the view of a pal (s/t holder at Fulham) on Stefanovic.  Certainly past the top of the career bell curve. I wouldn''t expect him to play in the Premiership again as he''s unlikely to get any quicker. Having said all that, if you''re looking for an experienced centre back, who''s good in the air and useful at corners, then he could be worth a punt.    

This is a comment from a pal about about Dejan Stefanovic. He is a Fulham season ticket holder (Steve not Dejan Stefanovic...) and has seen Fulham play competitively on 111 differerent grounds !! Certainly past the top of the career bell curve. I wouldn''t expect him to play in the Premiership again as he''s unlikely to get any quicker. Having said all that, if you''re looking for an experienced centre back, who''s good in the air and useful at corners, then he could be worth a punt.  

As far as I know quite a few people have written the Man in the Stand column over the years. I remember that a poster on WotB, who used to work for Archant mentioned that he had contributed to it in the season we were promoted.  It’s an excellent way for the Archant football writers to be able to write about something they couldn’t do in their own name.  

This might have been mentioned before (apologies if on another thread), but I’m very curious as to why the Man in the Stand has been named as the exclusive interviewer, and not the journalist who interviewed Cullum.  Is it because the relationship between Archant and NCFC is that bad that Archant don’t want to reveal their source? Or something else? Or am I reading too much into it?  

(The quote option is not working) - West London Canary posted " When he offered £5Mn last October to help the Club avoid relegation and was turned down, a little known fact is that this £5Mn would have been a loan not an investment.  Further more, a loan that would be immediately repayable should the Club be relegated to League One." Is this FACT? From what I can understand the details to what exactly PC was offering Delia and the rest of the board are very vague, the Board really haven''t said much at all other than they estimate the club value at 56m, and only wish to talk to Cullum if he make''s a formal offer to buy the club. I don''t think anyone really knows exactly how PC is planing on becoming majority shareholder at Norwich City. The details of the £5 mill loan were confirmed to me by a member of the NCFC staff today. How the loan was to be repaid in the event of relegation, and the potential impact on NCFC is just speculation.

[quote user="Shifty Sid"]A couple of points that concern me about Mr Cullum, that I learned today:1)  When he offered £5Mn last October to help the Club avoid relegation and was turned down, a little known fact is that this £5Mn would have been a loan not an investment.  Further more, a loan that would be immediately repayable should the Club be relegated to League One.  If he loves the Club so much why would he want the loan re-paid if we were relegated? Surely we''d need the money more than ever if we had gone down.  What happens if he invests and we go up?  Does he sell up for a big profit?  Just what is his game?[/quote]The above statement is correct, not BS.  There was the obvious danger, if the loan was accepted, of getting relegated which would have meant administration and a ten point penalty this season.

[quote user="Bubsy Willis"] Anyone else thought that GNG could be Kevin Piper? OTBC [/quote] I think GNG is Miranda Nagalingam, the girl who used to present Canaries World.  

I don’t think that there was anything sinister about the meeting between Charles Clarke and Peter Cullum. He just wanted to do what he thought was the best thing for NCFC.  I suspect he was frustrated with the inertia from the NCFC board as regards new investment.  

I’m just confused by the whole affair.   I can’t understand the timing of the story. We are in the market for new players and announcement of this nature is bound to make it more difficult to sign players within the current wage structure, unless the majority of our transfers have been completed already. This seems very unlikely.  Most importantly I can’t understand how Delia and Michael were playing Russian Roulette with the club’s future by not progressing the offer when the club’s position was at an all time low. It would appear that the fortunes of NCFC were considered to be of less importance than individual ones.  The news is great, and hopefully this will lead to some much needed new investment in the club, but why has it taken so long for an offer to move forward, if it has at all?  

My local non-league (and second) team is Wealdstone. It is a good Saturday if they and City win.

I saw Stewart Houston in Burger King, just south of where the A11 joins up with the bypass. At the time may have been working for Leeds Utd. He was in front of us in the queue. I said hello and asked if he was going to the game to watch Craig Bellamy (this was around ten years ago), and he turned his back on me.

I was at cup match at MK. The penalty that they missed in the first period of extra time almost hit me as it flew past and over the goal. I''ve kept this quote from Nigel Worthington as it summed up the game, well it did in his eyes anyway. “We expected a tough game here and that''s exactly what we got. I thought the teams played very well and put up a good fight. From our point of view our attitude was first class. We passed the ball well, created chances and hopefully, we can carry that on in the league"      

At a guess the last pen scored against us at Carrow Road was Preston Jan 2006. We lost 0-3.

I''d be happy playing away anywhere away in the south, Aldershot would be good or at MK Dons. I''d wouldn''t mind Gillingham away - we''ve had plenty of good trips there over the years. Last season I managed to persuade my wife and two daughters (one of which is a s/t holder) that going away to Rochdale would be a good idea. The only way I could sell it to them was if we went early in the morning for a day out at Drayton Manor theme park,  (its near Tamworth) then onto Rochdale after that. Next day, after an overnight in Rochdale, we went back to London via Alton Towers. It was the most expensive away game I''ve ever been to, cost me a bleedin fortune.

10th April 1971. Norwich 3 QPR 0. I sat in the City stand with my Dad. I was nearly 7. Stan Bowles or Gerry Francis got booked.

Excellent news about getting to 20,000 season tickets.  I wonder how many of these are U12’s paying £25 for the season – the tickets are so cheap they are effectively free. Not that I’m complaining though, my daughter is still only 10.  

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=23&h=0&t=357752

[quote user="Salahuddin"]Burnham is actually rather nice[/quote]Certainly is a decent area. My in-laws all live around there!Burhnam play in the Southern League South & West, one below the Southern League Premier Division. To put their standard into context it is one divsion below the level that Jermaine Beckford played at before he was transferred to Leeds.

The poster from WotB is 100% reliable.

Kenton, NW London.

I''ll start here by admitting that I do have a vested interest, as Wealdstone are my second team. They have a 20%+ sell on clause on Jermaine – he was sold for £50,000 to Leeds from the Stones. Personally speaking I hope he is transferred for a good fee, which will be great for the Stones.Beckford is not the rubbish as some posters would have us believe. Yes, he had a bad game on at Wembley in the playoff final, but he’s scored plenty of goals in League 1 (30 in the last two years).Two years ago he was playing in the Ryman Premier League, and scoring for fun. He struggled to make the adjustment at Leeds, went to Carlisle struggled there and then found his feet at Scunthorpe.He’s scored some excellent goals this year and some equally as good goals at Scunthorpe. He’s an great athlete, very quick and good in the air, and got two decent feet. He has spent a few years in non-league which can''t have helped his football education. He''s got real instinctive talent, buy how quickly he comes to terms with Championship football (either at Norwich or elsewhere) is the key. Is he worth the fee that is potentially being asked for him?. But what fee? Who knows? He may have reached his level at League 1, but whoever pays the fee, which will be at a premium as he is the top scoring striker who was not with a promoted team, will be taking a risk on him. A comparison here is DJ Campbell who came from Yeading, (to Brentford, Birmingham and now at Leicester) who at the time were in the same league as Wealdstone and he seems to have peaked at the same level.I’ve seen him play for the Stones at least 50 times over the years he was there, and he was in a different class.I believe that he wants to go for a fee which will benefit the Stones and does not want to run his contract down and go on a free, if what I read on mail lists and bulletin boards are correct.