Northern Yella

What is becoming increasingly obvious to me is that due to City''s very small squad size (17 outfield players) we probably need to make at the very least four signings. This means that we can''t bring in players like Kris Commons unless clubs drastically start lowering their asking prices. As even if Worthy has 2.5 mill to spend (which is highly debatable) then once signing on fees and wages are taken into account thats about 1/2 mill a player which isn''t very much! So its not that we are broke, its just that we have quite a few areas to strengthen, but not a huge budget to play with. Thoughts?!

For a long time my favourite Norwich player, his performance in the playoff final was of epic proportions. Just shame that he was over played last season, real shame to see a club hero become one of the fans most disliked players. I was certainly one who disliked the sight of Gary Holt on the team sheet last season, and was as frustrated as anyone not to see Safri play more. But Holty thanks for the memories, and let''s remember him for his once awesome work rate and 110% determination to win!  

Wolves will def be up there. They are a team that is very difficult to beat, and if they find the winning habit, they will be contenders for a top four finish. We shud still finish above them thou, if we buy a decent centre back (Jagielka?). If Francis goes I hope we go for Steven Sidewell of Reading as I think he is a quality player. If we don''t go up next season I think we can safely say the season has been a failure, especially with the likes of Ashton, McKenzie, Safri and Huckerby in our squad.

Okay, loads of you have been talking about loyalty, what it means and how some Norwich players seem to be lacking it. However, I for one have never and wud never doubt that Robert Green has never given 110% for the club every time he puts on the first team shirt. In my opinion fair play to Green if he wants to progress his career. If you had a chance of going to the world cup, wudn''t you do everything possible to get there?! Also at some point players of the quality of Green and Ashton will leave City even if we get bac in the Prem, as they are players who I am sure have ambition to be international regulars and to play in the Champions League, the latter I wud feel we will never achieve in my life time. As for Francis not giving 100%, Im not so sure. His goals certainly dried up, and his defensive play was not something to be desired, but he was still making his driving runs. Even if his performances were affected, I wud judge it was more to do with him being unsettled, than him not being bothered, or cudn''t care less mentality. Thats my say, feel free to have yours

I was at St Mary''s last week, went with my m8 who is a Saints fan, so had to sit with him and be very quiet when we scored They won the game for Southampton on Sat, the atmosphere was absolutely electric, we were on top, until the fans realised the team was ten mins from relegation, and they literally roared the team home. Liverpool fans did the same against Chelsea. Tomorrow lets forget about everything and just roar the team on from start to finish, lets get the hair up on the back of their necks, send a shiver down their spine, and lets inspire them! Forget about the fact that Palace or Southampton mite be winning, lets just roar the team on to victory. Come on the Barclay, the snake pit and even the South Stand, N&P and City Stand, as Delia herself said, "We need a twelvth man here......lets be avin you"! 

Even if we go down, comments like that are rubbish! We have fought really well all season, and since the Arsenal game have played like a mid table premiership team. Any team that gives away a late goal, but still goes on to win a must win game must be doing something right. I was starting to worry about Worthington as we seemed to be drifting towards relegation without a fight, but he has stood up, like his players and fought hard! To be one point from safety with two games to go, I definitely wud have taken that at the start of the season. So get behind the team, and lay off Worthingtom whatever the end of the season brings.

Okay, reading some of the topics that have been posted around recently I feel like people are way to up and down. First of all any posts about not playing Safri seem absurb as simply if he had not been injured and been playin we wud have been safe already! Same with Helveg, he has been playin really well, and yes shud have been tighter on Camara, but again him and Safri have made all the difference. Also Worthington, fair play to him for coming out and criticising Huckerby, I bet if he plays, Hucks will have a great game on Sat provin his worth, or comin off the bench and scoring. Now am I guilty of being a football fan and goin on the emotional rolercoaster, of course it is in every football fans blood But lets try and keep things in perspective, we support a great club, we have great fans, players who will fight and fight to the end, a great, bold young manager, ex players who come out and express their love of the club (Nice one Iwan and Malky!) and some of the best young English players in the country (Ashton and Green). Yes things have gone wrong this season, and tactical mistakes have been made, whoevers fault it mite be (both games against Palace spring to mind). BUT Lets be havin you on Sat against the Brum, sweet pay back for that fateful day at the Millenium stadium!

There is always a clash of quantity vrs quality when it comes to transfer dealings. You either go the Gerard Houllier route and buy a big squad of average players, or you do an Alex Ferguson and you gamble all your money on one big signing ( Buying the Roo, when it was perfectly obvious they needed a quality goalkeeper and a replacement for Roy Keane (Gattuso in in the summer)). Worthy really needed to do the earlier option, which he did, we had a desperately small squad and as much as I would have loved him to sign a Phil Jageilka, Micheal Dawson or Danny Gabbidon, we simply couldn''t afford the gamble in terms of squad size. It all turned out we had a bit of spare cash thanks to Geoffery Wattling to bring in one quality player and Ashton is a great signing for now and the future. The problems haven''t really been how much we have spent but the way the players are organised into a system. Dowie has not only built a team, but a strong, well organised defensive system, something we definitely have not had. Still its been a good ride and I for one am determined to enjoy the rest of the season, role in Championship glory next year

Looking for reasons to be optimistic about our survival chances, check out this link! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/crystal_palace/4230223.stm Okay we didn''t get a defender in, but having a more experienced member of the midfield, and someone of the quality of Ashton could yet make a real difference to our survival chances.

Unfortunately top of one premiership table, but not anything to celebrate over http://www.physioroom.com/news/table_current.shtml Still think we can get a result tomorrow, I think we will win 2-1, Hucks and Ashton to steal the show

If I had between 1.5 to 2 million to spend I wud want to buy Norwich a centre back. Clearly Doherty runs his heart out, but is not really good enuff to help us avoid the drop. I wud buy Phil Jagielka from Sheff Utd, brilliant centre back, good pace, strong in the air and in the tackle, England U21 international, he has got everything. Yeah agreed we prob need a striker as well, yet to improve on the strikers we already have we need at least 3 mill which we haven''t got. So loaning someone like David Bellion or Ameobi mite be an option. Can''t wait 4 the window to open shud b fun!

Im not sure where I stand on this debate as although I realise another manager could get us going, having a stable club is also very important. However, to say that just because we thought Worthy had made good signings that he it is not his fault they are performing is nonsence. We do not have access to numerous scouts, FA training courses or work with the City players day in day out. Worthy has made some poor signings with the money that he was given, why buy Doherty and Safri if you have no intention of playing them? It was obvious we needed a striker and it simply didn''t happen! Although Charlton was a great signing, that''s about it. Why can''t Worthy get the best out of Bentley? It is obvious that he was enjoying playing for the club, so why not play him? What Dowie has said is that u need to believe in your players and trust them out on the pitch to do the job and I don''t believe Worthy has ever done that this season, and afta him declaring this morn that the players have no excuses, well if we were given the ball away why doesn''t he play someone who can pass the ball in the middle of the park (ie Mulryne). And why bring on Hendo a player who lacks influence on a game wen we needed to make every player count when an opposition has ten! Whether Worthy should go or not, he should be told that at present no win in 12 is not good enuff and that he has to get the team playing to win, not playing not to lose.

Yep, definitely! Im confident in the week leading up to the game that we will record our first win. At the minute convinced we will beat Man City, but prob just riding the cloud of eternal optimism. Yet I think we wud all except we hadn''t won if we were playin badly. But we''re not, in patches we have looked like we cud beat most teams, its just we cannot put a 90 minute performance together. Potentially on our day we cud beat Man Ciy on Mon and beat Southampton and Blackburn at home, but then again nother three draws, please no!

Unfortunately Solskjaer is out for the season so he is a no go. Wud be great to have Sutton back, no doubt, but will be a difficult prospect persuading him to swap a championship chase in Scotland, with a relegation fight in Norwich. I guess Clinton Morrison mite be a possibility, although very similiar player to McKenzie. In many ways I think that it will be harder to buy a beta striker than McKenzie in Jan. In some ways a midfielder who will boss games for us is more of a priority, someone like Micheal Brown who although scored last nite will struggle to be a Spurs regular.

Fair enuff, but def never said John Hartsen was a fox in the box, said he was worth a shout! He def wudn''t add to the movement in the side, but wud probably add to the goal tally. If you want another suggestion how about James McFadden at Everton? He will need games to stay in the Scotland squad when Berti goes and mayb Strachan comes in.

I don''t wish to be negative, but I really think we will struggle to sign a beta forward than McKenzie in the January transfer window. For one there is a severe lack of quality Jon Stead type players in the lower leagues. I really don''t agree that Harewood is the answer, I think he is a good championship striker but no beta. The two strikers that stand out in the league are Nathan Ellington and Darren Bent. Wigan won''t sell Ellington and Ipswich wudn''t sell us Bent. As for players with no prem experience, as we have seen with Jonson and Helveg already they take ages to settle and we need impact players! When watching the game on Sat I realised we need a striker that can be our ''fox in the box''. Severe lack of these available. I reckon we cud do worse than sign Jon Macken or John Hartson. I have also thought about Danny Webber although his goals seem to have dried up of late. Whatever, Worthy is gonna have 2 earn his keep to find the striker we desperately need!

I hate to have a go at players who contributed to us getting promoted, but Svennson is not good enuff to start up front for a Premiership side. We need a player who is going to score goals as well as Huckerby, and someone who is going to hold the ball up, as much as on the floor as in the air. To be honest I don''t think Dean Ashton will cut it in the premiership, he wud be good for us in the Championship next season, but personally we cannot be planning to get relegated, we need to give ourselves the best chance of staying up. We need someone like Malcolm Christie or Jon Macken, Christie will score goals and is good with his back to goal, and will not get a game for Middlesborough. Whilst Macken although not proven at premiership level, has enuff talent to do us a very good job. To be honest I don''t think we need a big target man, we need someone who can hold the ball up on the floor and bring our wide players in2 the game. As for a defender, I think we shud sign Dean Richards, it looks like Doherty is staying as he came on for them yesterday, and Richards is good in the air and will keep most bottom half team strikers quiet which will be our crucial games that will decide our premiership future.

Harewood wud be a great signin if we didn''t already have Hucks, unfortunately they are too similiar. It worked at Forest because they had Johnson as well who cud add a bit of variety to play, so unless we are gonna play Bentley behind Hucks and Harewood, which I personally think wud be incredibly good to watch, no go.

What with Manchester City after Sylvain Wiltord from Arsenal, Kevin Keegan has to sell before he can bring him in. Therefore, he will prob sell one of his strikers we I think we shud def take an interest in. In my opinion we cud never afford Robbie Fowler''s wages so he''s out of the question, so that leaves Macken and Wanchope. Personally I think either of them cud do us a job in the prem. If you had the choice who wud u opt 4?

Personally I think Rivers could potentially be one of our best players, as important as McVeigh, if he wanted it, and he doesn''t, his lack of commitment particularly whilst undertaking his defensive duties are well below the required standard. If Hendo ever needs a rest, be great to see McVeigh on the right and Brennan on the left. I have spoken to some Forest fans and they say how much they miss him. I think he really could do a job 4 us and Worthy clearly sees him higher in the pecking order than Rivers at the moment. As for Easton, he''s okay, but I never, ever want to see him playing centre mid for us again!

I have to defend Mook, in my opinion, and it is only my opinion, it is very unfair to have a go at Worthington. He has been and still is a great manager for us, and no matter if we end up signing Huckerby, crouch and/or Harper, it will not be his final decision, that will rest with the board. He has taken this club on massive strides since he has come to the club and we all have something to dream about again. I relate to a lot of the frustration and expectation of the fans at the moment. We all know that if all the loan signings go back to their clubs once their loan periods end we are going to be very lucky to get a playoff place, but will this really be Worthy''s fault? I don''t think so. He as much as anyone wants to see the club progress and wants to be successful. He proved his managerial expertise by pursuading Hucks, Crouch and Harper to come on board at the start of the season, and we have collected the benefits because of this. Yes, this could be a key couple of weeks in our history and I as much as anyone will be desperate for us to keep these key players, however, with the likes of Jarvis, Henderson and Joe Lewis coming through the future isn''t that bleak is it?

I think it is Kevin Harper see footballtransfers.co.uk, on it is the following: "Watford manager, Ray Lewington: "It was a loan we were after but that was killed straight away and Kevin''s going on loan somewhere else."" Right position, prem player, I wud think Kevin Harper is on his way.

Whilst Rivers is out I wud definitely play the diamond formation with Holt playing the holding role and McVeigh just behind the front two of Crouch and Huckerby. What you all think? I think this wud def give McVeigh the opportunity to do what Andy Reid is doing for Forest right now, his attributes I think perfectly suit this position. Also helps us to fit Mulryne in and maybe a successful counter attacking formation away from home.

Now we have a team that can challenge for automatic promotion, never mind the playoffs! I know that mite sound a bit stupid, but he really is that good and exactly what we have been missing! Our midfield was looking really good, now we have a strike partnership to match it!

All credit to Worthington, fantastic signing! The best player who will have worn a Norwich shirt for ages! Huckerby transformed Forest from playoff hopefuls to one of the best teams in the division, looking 4ward to some away day wins now! We can complain about Worthy all we like, but this more than makes up for a summer of major disapointment. Bring on any team on Div 1 Now!