Morph

Keown - why would we want to buy another aging (38 in July) defender? Sure he''s got Premiership experience but are there no younger defenders out there that are worth getting hold of. Parlour - a bit younger with Premiership experience but he''s still 31 in July. Where are all the 20 something players we should be looking at? Petit - a 34 year old in September. He may have the experience but do we really want to fill the squad with 30 somethings? Pennant - yeah. Young eager and wanting to create an impression in order to get into his home squad. If we can get him on a season long loan then go for it. Bentley - again a young player who is eager to create a good impression. Why not get him in for a season long loan. There was a post that noted his performance against Pompey was nothing special, but wasn''t that the sort of comment that was raised against Svensson when he first started? I still believe our biggest need is at the back. Fleming and Mackay have a good understanding but can they stand the pace of the speedier Premiership forwards. That''s why I''d argue against Keown. I''d say look for a Matthew Upson sort of player.

Some food for thought here...... http://www.football-rumours.com/dodgyarchives.html NOTE: the top part of the page states that these are transfer rumours that have been sent in. Actually if you follow some of the other links to rumours there some are quite eye opening. For example, "Robert Green has been touted as the replacement for Lehman of Arsenal. With the young England keeper being brought to give competition for the position. (Rumour likelihood 40%) Fat Brian"

Readers here might want to check out the picture galleries that are available on the Capital Canaries site which is over at: http://www.capitalcanaries.com/ They have a set of pictures from the Preston game as well as pictures from the Watford game.

Found this when searching for news on Bentley. http://www.tribalfootball.com/may/englinews040504.html

Remember the rumours that were about concerning Parma and City linking up to form some sort of partnership. Now with Parma in deep financial do-dos, that looks unlikely to ever happen. However, is a partnership with another club a sensible option for City at this point? About teaming up with old City player and former manager Martin O''Neill and forming a relationship with Celtic?

Found this link this morning. http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/sport/norwich_city/gallery_20040501/home_match_gallery.shtml

How about big Iwan as a replacement? I guess the only downside is that he wants to keep playing. Alternatively, bring in Ian Crook as chief youth boss and have Iwan as his assistant.

Colin Cooper is a centre half that was playing for Middlesborough. Somebody made a point about high paid Wolves players and wanting to sell Cooper to cope with the wage bill. Actually I would have thought it would have been the opposite. Get rid of the high wage bill players and keep the players on a more reasonable first division wage. Cooper might fit in the latter category in which case he finds himself back in with a job.

fool Be aware that you''re looking at two different beasts here. The link you provide for the Sunderland site is based around what is probably a PHP/MySQL implementation and probably on Unix. The Pink''un look to have based their scheme on an SQL Server/ASP.NET implementation on Windows. They may be unable to move to something else.

butch p, Any chance you could link up with a Capital Canary online somewhere and get any pictures you have of the game posted somewhere on the web for us exiles who can''t get to matches like these. Maybe the Pink''un can help us out and provide some space to post people''s photos of the occassion. How about web folks?

I don''t have a problem with the layout of the board although some of the points raised about threaded conversations being available as expanded or non-expanded in a "Windows" directory style would be excellent. The big gripe I have is that I see a lot of SQL Server timeouts coming back when I try to access the message board. Are you reaching a state where you need to split your database across two servers behind your web server(s) perhaps? Or do you have a situation where every post is generating a trigger event in order to have it moderated?

I happen to think that mine was the first game at home against Everton in the 1972-73 season - the first season that the Canaries had played in the top flight. I was 10 at the time and we had just got season tickets for their first season in Division 1. I even followed them to Wembley for their League Cup loss against Spurs in ''72. Last but no means least the club had a summer training camp in the grounds of the private school where I lived in Scratby. So I was fortunate enough to meet all the City stars at the time during their training camp - Stringer, Keelan, Forbes, Paddon, Foggo et al.

Wanted to generate some discussion over the current squad now that City have gained promotion and wanted some help from the posters here in the forum. If City needed to strengthen the squad, some say they do, some say they don''t; but at what positions do they need cover? GK: Green, Crichton, Lewis - need another top keeper - don''t think so LB: Drury, Brennan, who else? Shackell tried but by all accounts had no success. RB: Edworthy, Fleming, Holt? - but where is the other cover? CB: Fleming, Mackay, Shackell, who else? Brondby came in for this position on loan but there have been no other signings to replace the loss of Kenton. LM/LW: McVeigh, Brennan, Huckerby, Cooper (permanent?), Easton RM/RW: Mulryne, McVeigh, Henderson, Cooper, Rivers (or is he gone?) CM: Holt, Francis, Mulryne, Cooper - if you have Holt and Francis injured who plays then? FW: McKenzie, Svensson, Huckerby, Roberts (last season?), Abbey (injury prone?), Jarvis Looking at that list I''d be most concerned about the centre back position as well as cover at right back. That said a couple of injuries to the motor men in the middle of the park might leave City a little short staffed. Who''s coming through from the reserves other than the current crop of Shackell, Henderson and Jarvis?

I''m a Canary exile based near Dunfermline. I''ve spoken to Rob Butcher, Northern Canaries coordinator, a couple of times and he commented that there are a whole bunch of Canary supporters north of the border. He even suggested that a Scottish Canaries group might be in order. You can check out the Northern Canaries site on www.northerncanaries.com. On the ball City!!!

Yeeeehaaaa!!! I won''t be the most distant poster here in the forum but living up here in Scotland I have to rely on all you other guys for the news and info that comes along. It''s been a while but we''re back in the big time!!! Now get that title City!!! /morph A Canary in exile in Dunfermline

DumbleD, You have to remember that for Rangers the season is all but over. Celtic have the title wrapped up and Rangers European journey ended long ago. I believe they have a huge wage bill as well and McLeish has deemed it a good time to clear house. Why he would want to get rid of Ross, however, is anybody''s guess. I don''t see why City wouldn''t be interested if that rumour were true. Mackay and Fleming aren''t getting any younger and getting in a player of international status would probably be a sensible move. He''s only 23 as well. A Shackell - Ross pairing going forward, why not?

Unbelievable I know for a Canary fan to be asking for our local rivals to do us Yellows a favour, but..... A win from the old Tractor Boys tomorrow against the Baggies would do both teams a lot of good. The Blues need the result to get back amongst the mix in the playoff positions and a Blues win would also keep the Baggies three points back with the same games played. Of the rest of the chasing pack I have to say Sunderland are the team that I would keep an eye on. And remember we''ve still got to play them up there at the Stadium of Light. Not a bad ground to go to for all you travelling Canaries. I saw the England v Turkey match up there. So back to the topic, come on Town upset the Baggies.

First off I can''t admit to seeing the game, but the comments already made here probably echo the feelings of a lot of England supporters. If there are going to be England friendlies why can''t the FA hierarchy use the friendlies as a method of trying out fringe players. To some extent Sven tried to do this but I don''t honestly think he gives anyone a chance. Dare I say Sutton!! Based in Scotland I''ve seen Thompson on TV quite a few times this season and whilst he doesn''t have bags of pace he does have a wicked "Beckham-esque" left foot. He seems the perfect fit for the troublesome left midfield spot. So here we are with the second friendly just gone and the poor bloke has only had 70 minutes to prove he''s worth a look. You can say the same of some of the other new faces that Sven drafted in: JL Samuel, Shawn Wright-Phillips, Jermaine Defoe. At least Defoe did enough to merit second thoughts. That said, I think going into this friendly Sven had already picked his squad. In fact, I think he has had the squad fixed for quite a time now. That''s a real shame for all those other players that have been putting in great performances this season who are probably deserving of a spot. I''d also agree that he does come across as too set in his ways tactically. 4-4-2 is the way it''s going to be played. Now it might be a diamond four in midfield but it''s still 4-4-2. Why didn''t he try 5-3-2 against Sweden with two wingbacks?

Why not play Hux and McKenzie up front and force the rest of the team to try and keep the ball on the ground. The downside to having a target man in there at the moment is that the rest of the team believe that a swift punt up the park is the proverbial answer. That doesn''t work against teams that are going to have big central defenders and somebody man-marking Huckerby. Give the opposition something else to think about. Stop with the long ball and go for the ball into feet or beyond the fullbacks. I think, like several of those here, that McKenzie is due a start. With Roberts and Svensson off as options it might make the rest apply a different approach. Plus both Hux and McKenzie have bags of pace. Combine that with McVeigh and Cooper coming from midfield and you might have a speedy attack that brings some threat. Need the three points against Stoke. That 8 point gap to third doesn''t seem like much anymore.

Why can''t you play Hucks in the questionable right-sided midfield role? Put McKenzie on up front alongside of Svensson. That would give you: Green Edworthy, Fleming, Mackay, Drury Huckerby, Holt, Francis, McVeigh Svensson, McKenzie That does leave Brennan sidelined which on his recent showings is probably a bad thing.

Thank you Zipper. I''m going to take DumbleDelia to issue over the fact that it was never going to be a game in which nice attractive on the ground football could be played. I think it was a game in which that type of play would have worked and in fact, the short period in the second half when City did do that it DID work against the Albion. The Canaries just abandoned it too quickly and went back to the ole ball in the air ploy. That wasn''t ever going to work against three sturdy centre backs. Looking back at the game Worthington might have been better bringing on McKenzie instead of Mulryne when Drury went off. Then put both Huckerby and McVeigh out wide and get them to have go at getting around the back of the three defenders. Push McKenzie up alongside Svensson and get him to use his pace to feed off of Svensson.

Having watched the West Brom game on the TV the other night is it just me who is slightly worried about the Canaries lack of guile? Yes, there was lots of huff and puff. Yes, there was another clean sheet. But there were a lot of long "hoof" it up the park passes and a distinct lack of guile and craft when it came to try and open up chances. Apart from a ten minute spell at the start of the second half when the Canaries did really zip it about on the floor there was a lack of creativity in all areas of the park. Three of our four defenders appear to opt for the quick hoof pass rather than a short pass into our creative players in midfield. The only defender who didn''t choose that as his first option was Drury. The Albion appear to have Hucks wrapped up nice and tight with their man to man marking scheme, but the Canaries didn''t try anything different to try and offer Hucks a chance to shine. They continued to knock the ball into his feet only for him to get creamed when he turned. Only once did they knock a ball beyond the defender and allow him to use his pace. At that point he was brought down. Now I will freely admit that I don''t get to see the Canaries very often living up here in Scotland, but a question for the rest of you posters in here - are they always like this? If they are then I''m severly worried that they''re not going to pull in the points they need against the chasing pack to keep them up the top. I sincerely hope they do but on this evidence I''m not convinced.

Actually the Canaries web site has an article under "First News" that the Huckerby deal is set to be completed pending a medical. http://www.canaries.premiumtv.co.uk/page/FirstNewsDetail/0,,10355~467423,00.html Huckerby is eligible for the FA Cup match with Everton on 3rd Jan.

Brewster? Was that a tongue in cheek suggestion? He''s already 37. If Nigel doesn''t think Iwan can do the job why would he even think Brewster would be any better. If you''re going to go for one of the pairing at the Pars then go for Stevie Crawford. At least he''s still got some pace left in him.

Since the Huckerby deal appears to be in the final throes I thought I''d post an alternative transfer suggestion for all readers to digest. Why not attempt to sign the Scottish Under-21 midfielder Stephen Pearson from Motherwell? The lad has got bags of pace, a complete disregard for international ability or experience when he faces his opponents and is only 21.