Old Boy

[quote user="Canary Pirate"]We are the loyal, gullible fans. Newcastle are the loyal fans and............ Ipswich fans just turn up for the big occasion ! [:D] [/quote]NUFC fans not gullible? These are the idiots who thought that Keegan was the messiah..... Let''s face it, football fans anywhere aren''t the brightest, but the Loony Toons are the dumbest of the lot.

[quote user="pennywise "] if i was drury i`d have a conveniant  hamstring for the away match .. then again he probably will have anyway[:D][/quote]Credit to Drury - he doesn''t do that. He had yet another bang to the head, and after that they targeted him, with goalie kick-outs and attacking moves. He looked shaky after the injury, but did really well in the second half, I thought.

This is pretty much what I saw, Boyo'', except that I think that for a percentage of times there were other outlets, to Lappin or McVeigh, but Nelson and Askou didn''t look for them either with directed headers or with passes to feet. It seemed to be enough for them to get the ball outside of 10-metre circle around themselves, and they didn''t care who picked it up. But for the majority of times, you''re right, our midfield never countered the well-organised Walsall tactic of getting tight when they lost possession. And, as I''ve said before, Holt was almost marked out of the game by the big centre-half, so even if the hoofs were by some miracle in the right direction, Holt hardly ever got to them. As with Worthy, I don''t believe Lambert told the team to play like that because it just never works, I think it came from lack of ability and/or lack of experience playing together.But this is all work-in-progress, and to boo a scoreless draw under those circumstances is pathetic and sickening. Give me 20,000 supporters who support the Canaries, and let the others watch Man U or Chelsea on Sky. Morons.

In the game I saw, Walsall played some good passing football when they had the ball, and pressed us in midfield when they lost possession, which meant that the back four felt they had to hoof it upfield and bypass midfield. It''s possible that Lambert had told them to do that, though why anyone would do that is beyond me because all those balls were just passes to a Walsall player: if your defender isn''t capable of making long-distance passes, that''s what happens. Playing Cureton alongside Holt does make you wonder though - hit-and-hope to Holt, knock-downs to Cureton. Whatever, it didn''t work because Holt was marked out of the game, the balls were usually misdirected, and Cureton was never in the right place.If that''s Lambert''s tactic to get out of this Division, it won''t work. And if we drop down to Division 4, it won''t work there either. Long passes from defence to striker can work, but hit-and-hope never will.

I thought Askou had a bad game on Saturday - hoofing the ball away like Shackell at his worst. But the mistake was partly down to him having his heels trodden on and losing a boot. The header (and Lappin''s delivery) was great though.

Thanks - sounds genuine, or at least very credible. Maybe we''ve finally got the hard men at the top we''ve needed for a decade or more.

[quote user="nutty nigel"]Imagine a situation where message board posters had to be accountable for their words. For some reason the Pink Un message board published your true identity and reasons for your views. Not as far fetched as you might think? Over the last few months I have seen posters make themselves known to others at meetings and gatherings to discuss concerns about our club or even just socially to enjoy the company of other fans. Yes, people have left the club. Proud people with proud reputations. Since 2006, because that seems to be about the time that most people agree Smith&Jones turned evil, the previously evil Worthy and Bazza, the sainted two Ike&Tina, Peter Pointer, Roedent, Cullen, Doomy & Mumbles have all left without a whimper of ctiticism. Meanwhile the in-house legends such as Stringer and Gunn keep schtum from the inside knowing when this due dilligence finally happens they, along with MicktheChick will be tainted by association. Or of course the situation could just be that Delia is a genuine person with good motives for whom it''s all gone wrong and she''s stuck between a rock and a hard place. [/quote]^^^^applauds, whistles, stamps feet^^^^

[quote user="Destort"]Goes back to the days of the Worthy out banners everywhere. [/quote]They weren''t such a great idea in retrospect.... Oh well, live and learn. Or not, apparently.

[quote user="iniesta"]middle class plastics infesting the game.[/quote]Hardcore. I''m impressed

At last - a good football-related thread with no personal abuse or pointless rumours.I like the look of your outline, but the only thing is, you''re talking about players with top-half CCC ability, so how do we attract them and/or keep them? I do think that we shouldn''t build a team for this division, full of big skill-free lunks. That would be like resigning ourselves to permanent Div 3 status.

They are probably both very nice people, but they screwed up too many times on the important things. Huge sums of money were squandered, and they seemed clueless as to how to stop that. They gambled on managers because they hadn''t done enough homework, then used the fact that they weren''t football experts as an excuse. When you''re in positions of power like that, excuses are irrelevant.

[quote user="Andy Larkin"]A measured and reasonable responce Old Boy…However, I am sure that you can at least agree with the fact that if a large majority of the fans at The Valley were heard to be singing "Sack The Board (I know its not physically possible) instead of "City Til I Die" and applauding the team, then the message would be so much clearer to Delia and Michael would it not? I think they must get some pretty confusing signals from us lot? We don''t all stay to applaud the team at the end of the Reading game, but nor do we protest en masse either? Had that been the Chase Days there would have been blood on the streets… we all know that!Maybe they are sticking around cos they think there are more for them than against them.Well, the fact of the matter is that we are now in Division Three. That, to me, is nothing short of scandalous. And the only consistent in our steady decline has been our board of directors… two of whom have been there through it all.Now then, in order to stop mob rule having its way… what is your solution?[/quote]I''m not pro-Board, but I am pro-Norwich City. I''m not a "blood on the streets" person - there''s no reason for it. This Board''s incompetent in some areas, not criminal. Inciting personal hatred is just wrong, but that doesn''t stop some football fans, who persecute managers and players who fall out of favour, and their families. And these fans think they''re doing their Club a service, when in fact they are being incredibly damaging. We can see that now with our Club. Posters on here have been abusing Delia and MJW for years, when they have no idea at all who would be be willing and fit to take the Club on and do a better job. The same posters (by and large) also got rid of Worthy without having a clue as to who we were likely to get who would do a better job: these people thought that just because Worthy over-achieved and got us up into the Premiership with a squad full of lower-league players, plus a couple of class players, we had everything in place to be a Premier League Club. And we didn''t. We came back down with a bump, and the flaws began to show. But instead of mending the building and strengthening it, these posters wanted to tear it all down with no clue as to what to do then. And it''s not even within their power to tear it down, and yet they still bleat on about it. For sure, we need changes in the Club. The weak areas need to be strengthened, and this includes the senior management on the football and non-football sides. People have to made accountable, but not through a mindless hate campaign. I hope that the Chairman and the Chief Executive, who are really the people responsible for the failures of recent years, will resign. We need to replace them with competent people who realise the importance of appointing the right football manager, and will understand and do the diligence that''s due to that crucial choice: and every manager who''s likely to come here now will have flaws, and the Chairman and the CEO should accept that they will need to assist in those areas. Our current chiefs have failed at both those things - they''ve employed flawed managers and then thrown them to the dogs. And then we need to hope that we can eke out what little money''s left until we get back to winning football games....This isn''t a "solution" - there is no "solution" that I or anyone can force on the Club as it''s constituted now. Sadly, we ordinary fans are powerless to be constructive these days, we can only be destructive. And I love the Club too much to destroy it.

[quote user="nutty nigel"] Well I was there and I didn''t see anyone around me applaud the team off after the match. What I saw and heard were boos, "you''re not fit to wear the shirt" And as I pointed out out on another thread, there were some individual performances where some fans thought those players were in fact fit to wear the shirt. These players acknowledged that the fans were fit to wear the shirt and some fans acknowledged those players in return. But once again the focus on here turns to the fans. Folk who weren''t there allow the media to distort what actually happens. The players "who didn''t turn up" certainly did get the message from the fans during and after the game. A message that was loud and clear unlike the muttering from the high and mighty embarrassed fans who were watching on the wireless.  [/quote] Thank god for some sense from nn. "Sack the Board"? - the most pointless chant ever. The Board is in an impregnable position, nobody can sack them. They are watching their shares and the cash they''ve invested, as well as the assets of the Club, dribble away, but the only way to get them out would be for the fans who chant "Sack the Board" to front up with some money to buy out the shareholders (all of them, apparently), or to use guerilla warfare against them. Neither of those is going to happen. So why should people "watching on the wireless", the wireless warriors, tell the people who paid their money to go to the games this season how to behave, and accuse them of somehow giving the Board an easy time? nn''s earlier post, about the changes of manager since worthy, was also very sensible. I argued strongly at the time against the "Worthy Out" morons on here who had no idea of how to improve things - they just wanted a victim. And this is how it''s ended up: they got what they wanted - Worthy out - and only what they wanted. The Board, like those WOers, were clueless as to how to progress, and that was what I feared would be the case. So it went from bad to worse, with the Board getting weaker and weaker each time against the mindless mob, and it ended with the appointment of Gunn, purely because he was cheap and appealed to the mob. He is less capable as a manger than Grant, in my opinion, so well done the mob.

[quote user="The Butler"]She will walk away pennyless and make money out of a new dish encompassing flying bacon. They are MAJORITY share holders SIT ON THE BOARD that makes the decisions. Employ Doncaster, who the hell else is responsible? Just heading off to chat up another newt, bound to get a more intelligent response than from you Od boy! [/quote]Let me get this right - you think she''ll make money from her involvement with NCFC? Have a word with yourself. I said there had been mistakes, and she''s implicated in them but not directly responsible for them. But she will pick up the tab and she''ll lose a lot of money. What will you lose? I''ve no doubt that she feels a least as strongly about the Club as you or anyone else on here, so less of the ranting please. You wanted Worthy out, you got Worthy out: you wanted Grant out, you got Grant out: you wanted Roeder out, you got Roeder out. But if Worthy had been in charge now, the worst it would have been was mid-table. That was where Munby and Doncaster really got it wrong - listening to you. Face it, your judgement looks a little bit ...... shaky. And you''re no doubt just as wrong about Delia, given your record so far.And when I say "you" I don''t necessarily mean you personally Butler, I mean the many self-appointed guardians of Norwich City Football Club whose idea of supporting the Club doesn''t actually involve anything other than posting poisonous crap on this forum.

Just applauding an elderly woman who''s put nearly half her net worth into our Club and now will probably lose most of that. There have been serious mistakes made (appointing Gunn is just the latest one), but she hasn''t been personally responsible for them - it''s the Chairman and the Chief Executive who should carry the can because they''re the ones supposedly with the professional skills. They''ve made the really big cock-ups, but Delia will pick up the tab. And she''s had to put up with the poisonous (but anonymous) insults from all manner of pond-life on here. Really, she deserves more than applause.

Just like his Norwich team did for a few years. Well done NW

Snakepit 1 - 0 Barclay this time. And I sit in the Barclay...Well done the Snakepit

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"] Its not those guys ability thats in question - they CAN all do it,  yet lack the bottle to do so.   [/quote]That''s the key to it. Of them all, the one that makes me most angry is Russell. He''s basically a brave, gutsy player, he''s an athlete, and has a decent level of skill. On his day he can be right up there with any central midfielder at this level. You''d think that, after coming through from the Youth team here, he''d care about the Club. But literally 3 games out of 4, he doesn''t seem to give a stuff. Shameful.Clingan''s gone right off the boil - he''s obviously busy packing his parachute. Fozzy''s hopeless and always was. As has been the case for many many seasons the heart of the team, central midfield, is weak. When that happens, defence and attack both suffer.All this crap about the loan players being the problem is just masking the real problem. It''s players like Russell and (now) Clingan who are really letting us down - they''re taking our money, they have the ability but they just don''t care.

[quote user="WeAreYellows49"]Thanks for the reply YH, just one question, if he''s your daughters godfather, why would you have to book a slot to see him?  I''m a godparent and regardless of what I do in life my godkids parents would never have to ask me to spare time to talk to me.  I am good friends with my godchilds parents, that''s the whole idea surely that you personally know them well enough to care for your children if, god forbid something were to happen to you.   [/quote]He''s not the godfather - he''s a business acquaintance of the godfather - it''s in YH''s post.

[quote user="JohnoBono"]Take Darrel Russell''s season. Thanklessly played out of position for a chunk of the season, then cast aside in favour of a vastly inferior player in Killen. Then you sit on the bench watching a midfield combination that has never really gelled or ever looked like being the answe Russell is not the only one who has been forced to play out of position either, and then being dropped for not turning in the ''expected'' performace. All it does is errode away players condidence, esteme and selfworth. [/quote]Sounds like good sense. The only thing is that I''ve seen Russell play both as a striker and in his "best position" this season, and I''ve seen him play brilliantly in the first and dismally in the second. He''s my pick of the bunch as "Under-achiever of the Season", and seemingly Gunn (and Roeder before him) feel that way as well. When he can be arsed, Rusty is as good as you''ll find in this division: the problem is that for 2 out of every 3 games, he can''t be arsed.

[quote user="CanaryJames"]4 games unbeaten with Marshall and Russel. Two players you have openly criticised, on a regular basis. So what''s it to be?[/quote]Doherty has been the key element - immense effort, trying to cover for Otsemobor (flaky at the best of times), Grounds (very inexperienced) and Drury (understandably rusty). And who''s said he boos Doherty? The wizard fella.We''ve taken a lot of those points despite Jamie being in the team.

Roeder was right all the time.

You''re missing the point - it was never the ability of the Jarvises, Spillane or Martin that Roeder (and before him, Grant and Worthy) questioned - it was their attitude. Lazy sods who thought they''d made the big-time and didn''t need to try any more. Maybe this has woken them up, and that would be good for all concerned.

We were basically overrun in the first half, but even then the big difference for me was that Otsemobor, Bertrand and Fotheringham, who massively under-achieved under Roeder, tried 100% harder. And about bloody time. Other than that, we looked nervous and toothless, with Neither Cureton nor Russell getting into good positions. In the second half, and particularly after the first goal, we started to gain in confidence, and got better and better through to the end. It''s amazing what difference having a working pair of full-backs and two committed central midfielders makes to the performance of a team. Well it''s not amazing, but it''s taken a long while to get it together.And Lupoli''s cameo was great.

[quote user="city till i die"]im 25, and am a trainee barrister!!! [/quote]Trainee barista - you see them in Cafe Nero serving skinny lattes. Hope you qualify soon ctid.