Hayden

I don''t post often anymore but read with amazement how quickly things change on this message board. Persoanlly I think Roeder has made some good signings and we will be stronger this season than last and will be able to build as the season progresses. We lose one game last night (ok it was Spurs and it was 5-1) and you are all screaming and shouting and slagging players off. UNBELIEVABLE. It was a pre season game, it meant nothing and the Spurs guys (especially Bent) had a point to prove to Robbie Keane etc so were well fired up. That Spurs side had been together a while whereas Norwich had a lot of new signings. Looking at other pre season games do you think Notts Forest fans are going "We are going to win the league" as they drew with Everton recently? or Everton fans (who are heading into Europe) are going SACK MOYES!!! as they can''t even beat newly promoted Championship side??? of course not. Newcastle lost to Doncaster and so on and so on. Arsenal won 10 - 1 last night.....they must surely be nailed on to win the European Cup then??? They are friendlies against mismatched teams with different agendas. What if Norwich shut up shop last night and played for a draw?? or not tried anything new?? You would all be going "Whats the point, we might as well of gone for it" etc etc. The point of friendlies is to learn to play together without fear of the result. Ok we got hammered but I bet Roeder learned more about his players last night than if we had drew 1-1 and both teams played in a reserved fashion. Spurs are class on their day. Don''t worry about it Seriously, get behind the team, allow the new players to bed in and I am confident in what Roeder is trying to do. Its the best side we have had in ages.

if you want to see what its really like just pop up to Colney on the morning after a game (Assuming they still have a gates open policy). Me and my mate went up there after they had got a hiding and we waited in the car park for ages until any player even showed. Then they started to filter into the car park in their flash motors and you wouldn''t believe it. Two of them (Who were shite on the Saturday) ambled past laughing and joking........then three more followed (again without a care in the world) There body language was "We can''t be arsed" and the weekends result wasn''t really weighing on their minds. Then the then Manager saw them, stared at them with his hands on his hips, and trudged off into the building without saying a word while the three of them stood outside chatting and laughing right in front of us......the attitude at the club stunk and its no surprise they had no bottle on the pitch. I haven''t been up since Roeder joined but I tell you.....pop up there and see their body language.......scary stuff 

Sorry if its been discussed elsewhere but I have read the comments from Doomcaster / Munby  about the strict selection process etc, tough interviews andl all that stuff which was critical to take our time to get the right man...convinced?...me neither..... Becuase surely Grant got through the same process and landed the job and he was crap...or did we not do such tough interviews for him? and if we didn''t then the board need a kick in the ass Perosnally I quite like Roeder...but don''t give it the Big I am about how tough it is to get the NCFC job when the same people who employed Roeder employed Grant.....

I haven''t posted for ages but after reading various thoughts I just thought of the following: 1) Do you want Grant sacked becuase the team he inherited did sod all and then the team he has put together is worse? 2) Because if you do, a new manager will come in with equally poor credentials and blame the team he inherited is rubbish 3) So then he will ask for money.......... 4) So then you want the Board sacked becuase the rose tinted "We run this club brilliantly" crap has finally been exposed as smoke and mirrors.. all the family silver is gone, no assetts, no quality players, no more prem payment, no real money for players. Oops, Great run club is 17 million in debt.....and its going to get worse..... 5) But the board refuse to budge, claim there is money available (which is lies, I mean, I have a Quid available but we need millions) and sit tight hoping that our new manager is Arsene (bargain) Wenger who can make a team worth sod all develop into a real force 6) But then you should all worry about the fact that all our scouts seem to be hunting around the Scottish Second Divison and we couldn''t probably find them to use them properly So our team remains poor, with another new manager, with another unfamiliar squad (but hopefully one who won''t pass up on somebody like Danny Mills just because he was an ex City player despite being the best available) the board saying "We need to be careful, invest where we can" etc and hope for a miracle while the manager says "Let me build my own team first before you judge me" (Question...build it with what? Cardboard, Sticky back plastic? Loads of those shatterproof rulers we all had at school......Build it With What?) Managers only leave clubs these days if there is somewhere better to go to, because clubs treat them like s**t and sack them willy nilly. Supporters going "UGGGG" mean nothing to managers these days. So its down to the board to do it but their recent run of appointments is hardly great is it? Come to NCFC, no money, no quality.....no hope......apart form the sack.....even though we won''t give you any cash to work with. And the board aint going anywhere......  This is reality, its professional football where money talks, and I mean Big Money. The fans are an assett to be milked and boy oh boy are you and I being milked. But most of all in football these days you need.....wait for it..... AMBITION And we haven''t got it at our club at any level. Apart form the fans. Its crap, but its the truth. And we are going to have to sit and watch the same "Worthington" scenario role out again and again until we get real money from people who love football........Don''t hold your breath. Thats why I haven''t posted much, its the same problems as we faced months ago and months before that too.....its frustratingly predictable!  

Blimey, we have used 37 different players this season! How many did we use in the championship winning season I wonder?

I agree with Jas Drury has not had a great season and he was found out badly in the Premiership so I am surprised at some of his comments. If Norwich aren''t the team for him then there are only a handful of Championship teams who do fit his needed criteria and even then one of them has to be interested in signing him. Don''t get too big for your boots young man, you were a good player in a great team when we won the championship but you need your ''big boys'' to stand up and be counted when things aren''t going your way and quite frankly mate, you haven''t measured up to that need in the last three seasons. Sort yourself out 

We waste so much money!!!!! the trouble is we have far too many also rans in our team so I believe you need to take risks on players in order to actulaly do something......Steve Howard was a million quid and £15k a week.........but we had four of five crap players in our squad at the time who were never going to really do anything this season (Huges, Robbo, McVeigh, Thorne) apart from hold a squad number, take their cash and hardly play. Divvy up £15k between them 4 and the odd hundred grand or four wasted here and there and we have easily wasted more money than Howard would have cost. Aaaahhhh its so annoying...Come on Granty, clear the deadwood out, they are bleeding us dry!!!!!! sorry, got distracted there You have to sign match winners and good players who have the potential to do something in a game. Our policy of buy cheap and hope apart form the odd Earnshaw or Ashton is badly flawed. You know what they say..........buy cheap, buy twice (or three or four times in our case)

Only signing one striker (cheapo option and not exactly goal machine Brown) was a huge error. And if we need Dublin up front, then sign a bloody centre back, not let one go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And no, I don''t who we should have signed before you all go WHO? WHO? WHO? as I am not a manager searching the leagues (I''ll say Rooney and Terry if you like)  My point is that to survive we need to score goals, we are leaking like a sieve at one end so you have to bang em in at the other end. Earnies out, Dublin is likely to be needed at the back, Jarvis not given a chance, McVeigh can''t be arsed, Etuhu can''t score, Saf bless him can''t either, Thorne....nuff said, so we are in the S**t.  If Hucks is injured (god help us) then as the Wolves game showed, we are going to lose games or draw games we need and should win. He is the only player who can create or score goals for us. The new signings might steady us up but I can''t see both of them contributing 6 or 7 goals from midfield can you? oh yeah, and Crofty couldn''t hit the net if he ran between the posts and threw himeslf at it Hucks is the messiah, a very naughty boy or not, and he needs broad shoulders because without him we are down  

Question. Doomacaster goes on about stability, no risks etc. What would you prefer the club to be, "a bob along mid to lower table championship club" (which we are now, don''t kid yourselves that we are anything else) or A "go for it, lets get it on baby, all out assualt on hitting and keeping the big time with ambition as our primary mentality"?   Don''t get me wrong, I don''t want to see the club go to oblivion, but I would rather a bit of exctiement than a go through the motions season year after year with little or nothing to get exctied about

Crap in Boots

didn''t want to be in it anyway (sniff)..........and I was a great shephered back in ''82.......I totally owned the stage apparently, so good in fact I landed the role of jesus the following year in ''Return of the Nativity, the Wise man Strikes back''  

Have you hear Granty speak on the radio or on TV? I a not surprised at all, I have never been able to understand a bloody word he has said AAAHWEEMARK THE MAN JOCK or whaterver it is

agreed Jas, sad isn''t really?

I think it was easy to say that, he knows the fans wanted Sutton so he is just making a statement when he knows he doesn''t have to put his money where his mouth is. Bit of thinly veiled PR if you ask me. He''ll say he likes the look of Rooney next............

I think his comments summed up his mind set.....does he say "Great opportunity for City to get into the romance of the FA Cup?.......NO!!!, does he say "What a great opportunity for the Club to get exposure???.....No" He Says: We are running at a loss on cup games this year and it will bring us back on budget!!!!! Not a football club, we are a business, no passion .

Mystic, I don''t disagree its what the board want, in fact I am sure they would be absolutely bloody delighted! Fact is the season we got promoted we were going along nicely and the team were perfomring out of their skin (everything was clicking and although investment was minimal we were right up there........there''s the banking on getting lucky bit coming into play) then Hucks and Crouch came in (on loan) and only when it seemed that promotion was very realistic and  that not investing in making Hucks permanet would have made a huge fan backlash did we go for it. Not complainign about it because obviously we got promoted...hurrahh and all that.  I am not even that annoyed anymore, I have just become very realistic. Granty will build his own squad and if he builds a quality team on a shoe string (which is what he will have) then brilliant. But we ''don''t deserve to be a Premierhsip Club'', you have to earn it, and some clubs quite simply want it more than us.

Lets face it, as a football club BANKING ON GETTING LUCKY is what we are about..........we have a decent set up and can attract decent (ish) players. When we financially commit to something or take decisive action we can attract very good players (Huckerby Ashton and Earnshaw) but this is very rare. The board are happy for us to be a team that can survive in the Championship and if it all goes well and a bit of luck comes along then they will take the play offs and promotions and all the cash that comes with it, but thats not the business plan. The business plan is to be a consolidated championship club. The trouble is that the strategy doesn''t add up as occasionally when we do flash the cash it is not a full blown commitment so you end up with one or two outstanding players in a team of ok players instead of investment throughout the team. So what happens???? yep, those good players leave (Green & Ashton, and maybe Earnshaw?) and the team gets gradually weaker over a  few seasons until our championship status becomes questionable and the fans get p***ed off (this is whats happening now) So then we sack Worthington who has completed his cycle and we are onto Grant, who is expected to ''get lucky'' on minimial investment and then, and only then, will we open the purse strings to see it through before bottling it and turning the corner back onto the downward spiral again. Its the same plan employed by Watford, West Brom, Sheff Utd etc......only teams like Wigan who are loaded and who have invested throughout the team survive with the big boys, we didn''t and we got relegated. There is no point expecting us to bounce back into the Premiership as that isn''t the expected path.....Worthy himself said he was not given any objectives remember...... Bugger   

This season I went halves with me dad, and he doesn''t really care if he goes or not so I got my ticket halp price heh heh. I did consider not renewing but you have got to support them haven''t  you? You can''t bitch on this board about lack of investment if you aren''t prpepared to chip in yourself......    

But bums on seats brings in the revenue that should hopefully go toward buidling a better squad..................you could have 3000 people shouting loud but the club will be skint and hence the squad would be rubbish. Season tickets are the financial bedrock of the club on which they can specualte how much they can pay out in wages etc 

Do you know what, that is so spot on its frightening

hello fellow Mirror Readers! I did laugh at the Pizza one especially and Neil Adams

Digging through pics of me as a wee whipper snapper at me mums the other night I came across ''that'' picture, you know the one, when you are a kid and you have just got your first footy kit.....amd not just the shirt, you get the socks (pulled right up with no shinnies on) and the shorts too and want to wear them all day, irrespective of whether you spill your dinner down it or get grass stains all over your backside. You''ve got your arms folded and a foot on aYellow & green football as welll.....oh memories. Anyway, the kit I had on, and to  my memory it was the first NCFC one I owned was....... A change NCFC strip, it was all white with green Mitre (I think?) arrows down the arms, white shorts with green arrows and socks. It was pretty tasty actually, the sponsor was PollWithy Windows in red writing. Remember it, own it? What was yours......ah, nostaglia (retro reproductions don''t count by the way!)

classic gut reaction to a group of players who have their moment in the spotlight, play out of their skins and suddenly become must haves for every team in the division...despite the fact that in previous weeks they couldn''t raise their game for a league clash in the rain and all played c**p! What I would agree with is the quality of the crosses swung in by that left footer of theirs on the wing, if only we could put in crosses like that eh?

we''ll get murdered..........4-1 (our glass jaw will let us down again)

[quote user="FilletTheFishWife ."]It looks seriously to me like Grant''s continued criticism of Hucks is paving the way for his departure which will be the greatest travesty at the club for many years.[/quote] I am with you on this one FilletTheFishWife, Although I said a while ago that players should be bale to accept criticism, Granty does seem to be going after Hucks quite a bit, especially in the EDP again today. Not quite sure what he is trying to prove by picking on him more than most but if Hucks decides to move on it would be a huge mistake. As a fellow poster said to me last time (can''t remeber who), what you say behind closed doors you shouldn''t make public and I am now inclined to agree.