usa nick

i''ve been doing it since 1981. then i was lucky that sometimes the sunday papers would carry english football scores and you might come across a u.k. paper a week after the fact. now i can see norwich''s goals on fox sports world and follow the matches on the internet. god bless progress ( and Huckerby of course)!

also - just because you buy a Huckerby doesn''t mean that he suddenly becomes valueless!! lets say we buy him for 1.5 million (everyone pays in installments anyway) pay him 400,000 in additional wages and he scores 15 goals and we go up no problem. If we miss out we can make the decision to keep him or sell him on. Based on his performances to date there will be a market for a player like him in the summer. If we let him go back to Man City and we have to sign another loanee to replace him we are on the hook for the new player''s wages anyway so potentially our only exposure is the interest for six months on whatever amount we initially send Man City (worst case is a career ending injury but that is why god invented insurance companies). Sometimes you do have to spend money to make money! and if we are never going to take any risks then barring divine intervention we will be no better than an average Division One side for an awfully long time.

Perhaps one idea might be the following: If Huckerby proves to be the second coming, and we are well up with the leaders at the end of the three months with a better than even shot at the playoffs, or even automatic promotion the board might be able to finance his purchase based on the premise that no one pays the full transfer fee up front and if we go up the payment and wages won''t be the issue they are in Div 1. If things go pear shaped and we miss out, we sell Huckerby on in the summer. It''s risky in that his value might drop or the transfer market go even further south but the alternative is to invest a good chunk of change short term and then with the team flying high let one of your best players leave at a critical juncture (Xmas and Norwich recent history anyone?!) - it also would probably be very demoralising to the rest of the team if this were to happen - and half the game is confidence.