King Bee

****e?

Know this sounds obvious but in the Premier Leagues newly promoted teams like Norwich, Watford and Brentford will survive by bei g strong playing, playing a bit dirty at times and being tough to beat and score against - conceding at least two goals every game makes the task virtually impossible especially when that's to a substantially weakened teams as Leicester were today (I doubt there will be a better time to play them this season). As I said last week, (and I know the transfer window is still open), but failing to substantially improve what is a championship level defence as a number one priority and to still be in that position three games in is suicidal and incredibly poor planning by the Norwich management. The investments up front appear solid and look to have real potential - but without a solid backline and midfield behind them then the club is sending them into a hopeless battle.

Fully agree. We have been very fortunate to have an owner who has really invested in the club over the last few years. Has you asked me in 2010 whether Brentford would be in the PL in 2021 I'd have told you to stop messing about. The point of my post was not about money / investment per se - more an general observation that I think the Norwich Board and/or Stuart Webber have so far made some poor judgement calls with the funds they do have (or additional funds they could realistically have screwed out of Villa had they held onto Buendia fornlonger) by not prioritising investing in quality at the back. As someone noted above it appears you are paying a big loan fee for Williams - that (along with perhaps some repriorising elsewhere) could have gone to making an improved bid to nab Ajer and prevent us from getting him, which would have given you a much stronger defensive base to start the season and build confidence (in my opinion anyway). Anyway thanks for everyone's contributions and like I said I do wish Norwich well for the rest of the season and hope we both stay up.

Now whilst I must confess to being a Brentford fan and I known this post may not be popular, I have always had big respect for Norwich as a club. After taking an interest in your first two games as a fellow promoted club, I do think that your board has let the board down with some very poor judgement calls again. Specifically: 1) To once again get to the start of a Premier campaign with absolute zero strengthening to your defence is just suicidal. This has to be the one department most critical to any newly promoted team, given that they will probably spend a good deal of time against top sides defending. Two games in and our purchase of Ajer is looking very astute - he has been solid and composed, with zero shipped in two games - and i do think your board will really regret not pushing the boat out a little further to land him early on and bed in solid defence before the season starts. 8 goals shipped says it all and looks like it could have easily been many more, and a late emergency loan from Man U is not going to address that; 2) It would appear the Norwich boards somewhat one sided and blinkered love affair with Oliver Skipp has backfired and wasted the majority of the transfer window leaving no Plan B and scrapping around to bring in a solid CDN after the season begins. That's pretty shoddy planning. I know the first two games were probably no hopers but to come out 0-8 on aggregate is going to be: 1) massively sapping to team confidence; and 2) is hardly going to convince the kind of quality you need to want to join now; and 3) To sell your best and most creative player on promotion. Just bizarre and for so cheap as well - why not hold out a bit longer and get the price up? Yes I get they replaced Buiendia with some new up and coming talent that may come off in due course, but its a pretty naive strategy by the Norwich board in my opinion - particularly when given the inability to invest properly in defence means you will need established players capable of scoring/creating at least 2 or 3 goals a game just to win, if the opposition continues to be able to carve through the defence with the same ease it did in 2019/2020 which looks to be the case. Now I am not saying Brentford will stay up, I still think we will run out of steam and get relegated and will need time to consolidate and give it another go. And I really hope Norwich stay up to - but I feel you have been really let down by your board (and manager with his tactics) yet again who don't seem to learn from past experience and have made some very odd priority calls in the transfer market - because on current form and without a decent defence you'll be cut well adrift by Christmas. Good luck with the rest of the Transfer window.