Cloughie

It seems that Bunn''s offence of a handball outside the area is worse in the FA''s eyes than McManaman''s at best reckless, aggressive tackle. One is dismissed and banned the other gets away with it.

Well you should be. Simply having thousands of posts does not excuse the continual excrement that you post on this forum.

Came through the Middlesbrough Academy played in their 2004 FA Youth Cup victory partnering David Wheater who has broken through this season.  Initially believed to be the more promising of the two.  The infamous photo was posted by his ex girl friend shortly after she discovered that he had been playing away!!  I haven''t seen the guy play but we need to trust the manager after all his other loanees have been a success.

It was always said that the only reaon for Rangers selling Fleckie to us was that his face spoiled the team photograph!

It shows that Steve Gibson is an outstanding chairman and a good communicator.  He really has put his hand in his pocket and frankly deserves more success than his club has achieved.  Perhaps our board should consider following his example so that the ambition is at least equal to the prudence.

The guy seems quite rational and is not out to cause offence so why bar him.  I find it slightly odd that anyone would want to join a forum to which he has no obvious affiliation but it is a free world.

Rather than name the team I would just prefer to forget the night.  Sat on the rickety seating behind the goal with the most inept display I have ever seen from a Norwich side.  There you go you have just dredged up something that I hoped had gone from the memory banks!

Whether you are optimistic or not a lot has changed.  The inept midfield set up ( Ethuhu and Robinson gone)has changed radically and we now have more options up front.  Whether these are better only time will tell but they cannot be any worse.  At least we have done something about the goalkeeper situation.  I guess I would like to see at least one good central defender, another left back and a new permanent central midfielder before I felt really happy.

Not to worry Mr Doncaster will spend hours in his car trying, sadly in vain, to sign players.  Mr Munby will be trotting out with a cry of we are holding our money for the January window.  Come January we can''t sign anyone as they are overpriced.  The money will disappear into black hole and despite full houses, a small squad and little spent on transfers the debt will go up.  There is no wonder that loyal fans become disspirited!!

Boro were demoted in 1997 for failing to fulfil a fixture at Blackburn.  The original game was cancelled as Boro claimed that they had insufficient players due to illness.  The irony is that they lost the replayed game and were relegated because of the deduction of three points.  The relegation cost them players such as Ravenelli and Juninho. Small wonder on Teesside that there is disbelief that a flagrant breaking of the rules by West Ham gets a relative slap on the wrist whereas the inability to raise a team is punished by points deduction.  Let''s be honest there is one rule for the London teams and one for the others.  As Paul Jewell said yesterday what would have happened if he had played and ineligible player. I believe that promotion and relegation should be decided on the field of play but having set precedents with other clubs Boro, Accrington Stanley etc why should West Ham be treated differently.

A very fair report and in agreement with what most people around me thought.  I sometimes think that people go to games with fixed opinions and it would not matter what certain players do in the course of 90 mins they will already be cast as heroes or villians.  Previously I have castigated Dickson Etuhu but yesterday he was very good.  Similarly Andy Hughes who has looked a plank in midfield had an excellent game at full back.  I do feel positive about next season but as 1st Wizard so correctly says let''s have more ambition from the Board.

The Board does not seem to have realised that this period was a vital one in raising giving some kind of hope to supporters and persuading them that renewing season tickets was a wise move.  A club with a fan base of 20, 000 +, parachute money of several million pounds and profit of two million pounds from summer sales is still fiddling around in the bargain basement looking for someone else''s cast offs.  We have seen that investment in quality players eg Ashton and Earnshaw not only pays dividends on the field but also gives potential future profit.  The money wasted on players like Etuhu, Robinson and Hughes will never be recouped whilst the money wasted on the wages of Thorne and MLJ would have purchased a quality player. We now have had two transfer windows where "everyone is trying hard" and "making lots of phone calls" but yet again nothing happens.  It is all very well investing millions in the infrastructure but if seats are empty then it is all to no avail.  I could have handled all the above if someone had been honest, had admitted they had got things wrong and said they would put their faith in young players but hey presto when the crisis happens all the youngsters are on loan.  To say it beggars belief is a crass understatement. Will I renew my season ticket well probably but it is despite the management not because of it. I now feel better having vented my spleen, thanks for listening.

A fair summation Zippers.  I think a caller to Canary Call summed up Etuhu "he didn''t make many mistakes"; too right he rarely got within 5 yards of the ball and frankly he should be ashamed to collect his substantial wages.  As you correctly say at least Hughes tries hard he makes errors but doesn''t spend 90 minutes hiding.  We have no midfielder who makes runs; roll on January because some major surgery is required.  If the board continue to fail to invest in their team then they could be faced with a much reduced supporter base next season. At least the manager didn''t blame the fans this week for the rubbish on show.  Just as well as I think some supporters expended more energy collecting their half time coffee than some of the players in 90 minutes.

Of course; the supporters were responsible for playing Huckerby on the right, not playing Safri, continuing with a mid field which can only go sideways and/or back to their own goal. I, along with many in the crowd, must admit I missed a lot of passion which the players showed and most of all we saw very little skill.  I guess it makes a change from blaming the players and as it could not possibly be any fault of management then it must have been the mugs who turn up week after week paying good money. Wouldn''t it make a wonderful change for the manager to say I was at fault with wrong tactics, wrong player selection and for not engaging my brain before putting the mouth into gear.

This could have been a good post, your making a good point, which I agree with. Please try talking proper english though, instead of lazy text talk, it makes you posts more credible, understandable and people won''t think your winding them up. Plus ease up on the exclamation marks we will still get the point if you just put one. Anyway yes your correct it far to easy to get carried away with the excitement but we are only 3 games in and need to remain focused and if it continues theres a good chance we will win the league but the question is will it last. Please assure me UEA Canary that you are not reading English!  The words stones and glasshouses spring to mind.

I was born on Teesside and my Dad took me to watch Boro from being 5 years old. I supported them until work took me to Germany where I used to watch Schalke 04.  When my job brought me and my family to Norfolk I went to watch City v QPR ( City lost 2 - 0 ) with my son who was then 7.  We were hooked as a pair and bought season tickets the next season and have been season ticket holders now for over 20 years.  The big test was last season when we 4 - 1 down to Boro because I was shouting louder than anyone when that 4th goal went in.  I think it is important to support your local team and for those who have never changed area it may be hard to understand but you do take on loyalty to your local team and the locality in general. So now I look with interest at Schalke 04 and as Norwich are in a lower league support Boro on the telly buy now I see myself as a true City supporter despite my early childhood. 

I totally agree.  Whilst I am more than happy not to have wasted the money on Howard, I do think it is fair to query where the money goes.  The squad is not large so either there is a big black hole down which money goes or else the wages paid are disproportionate to the abilities of players, management and executive of the club.  Why are all clubs so reluctant to publish salaries?  I think we know the answer to that one.  Jimmy Hill on his show on Sky said, when talking about professional referees, that who would want to do a job for only £50,000 a year:- sadly that shows how out of touch these guys are with the real world. Perhaps Mr Worthington may decide that he will have to play football on the ground now that he has been thwarted on his giant up front.  Perhaps Plan C might even be to pass the ball on the ground, an alien concept perhaps, but it just might work.  Perhaps, and this may be a step too far, we might see young players given a chance, I know that I am being fanciful but didn''t Ryan Jarvis play well on those occasions when given a chance, wasn''t Rossi Jarvis the only one in midfield to shape up against Wolves and Michael Spillane looked good when he played full back. And please if there is some loot available  spend it one good player rather than a plethora of journeyman pros who are no better than the players we have, restrict the progress of the younger players and sap away the lifeblood of the club with those huge, unwarranted and unpublicised wages.

I have argued for Mr Worthington but now I am afraid enough is enough.  He had the chance to strengthen the squad last season, compare his imports with those of Wigan!  This year the transfer policy has been even worse.  He clearly has lost the ability to motivate the players and must do the honourable thing and go whilst there is still time to do something to repair the situation.

Sorry but I do not consider myself a doommonger.  The question I asked was a simple one ie What monies have been received for the sale of valuable land.  The reason I ask is that when the new Jarrold Stand was planned it was stated that the cost of the stand would be covered by the sale of land.  In the same way I remember that we were told the cost of the infill would be 3/4 of a million pounds and it seems to have escalated to 4 and a half million.  As the club seems to be bringing fewer and fewer home produced players into the team is it reasonable that £12 million has been spent on buildings and a small fraction of that on players.  If that is doommongering fair enough but it does seem a reasonable question.                  

I also am interested in these debts.  We are told the cost of the stands but no mention is made of a cash inflow from the sale of the land around the ground.  Have I missed this one or is the normal plea of poverty emanating from the club?  We also received parachute money yet the only money spent was equivalent to the fee received for Jonsson.  If the figures are true then what would the debt be if promotion had not been achieved?

Who was it said "better to be quiet and thought a fool rather than speak and prove it".  You have too much time on your hands mate.  Let''s be honest if our much vaunted strikers had scored the goals from some relatively easy chances then we would be much higher up the League.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion but frankly hearing the record stuck in the same groove is boring.

Having watched him last evening I thought he showed a good attitiude (as did Francis) and would suggest that he should certainly be part of the set up for the coming season.  I also thought that some of the younger players on show showed considerable promise and at least one of them could force his way into first team reckoning. 

Surely a question for Mr Olsen where is the team for whom Thomas Helveg should sign.  Patently he will not make it into the Premiership and is he being serious if he thinks playing in the Danish League is a step up.  Would it be such a loss anyway?  Surely as well as gaining promotion there should be a focus on building a defence that is stronger than the one that conceded so many goals last season and ultimately led to relegation.  If that is the case then is Helveg the man for the number 2 shirt in anything but the immediate short tem?

Of course Green is a very good keeper and it would be stupid to say otherwise.  The bigger question is "Is he irreplaceable?" and of course he is not.  The argument may well be that Goalkeeper is the one position with cover so the sale of Robert Green may well bring in the funds to allow scope in the transfer market.  But he is a good keeper and will be for the next 8 to 10 years.

Most definitely IN.  If anything can be gleaned from the debacle it is that the defence must be strengthened.  Don''t let Mr Doomcaster rattle on about how poverty stricken the club is Craig Fleming needs to be replaced and some semblance of a defence built.