chicken

I can see this being quite clever. Wisdom is only likely to stay until his loan expires in the summer. At which point we may need not one but two right backs. I don''t see Whittaker as a long term option in that position. There is also the potential, that with Rangers looking favourites to go up, that he will possibly want to return there if the chance arises. This lad is an attacking full back as well. So you have the option of bringing in a player, with cover to allow him a few weeks to bed in and get used to his new surroundings before bringing him into the fold. Especially early on in January so by the end Whits could be out on loan or sold if Pinto gets up to speed quick enough. 25 is a great age and what works out to be just over £2.2million looks like a decent gamble at least. There is also the possibility that he could play right midfield as well. Especially if he has a delivery.

Gayle . . . . why do people keep going on about him? He''s hardly set the world alight! £8million for him would be as big a gamble as when Palace signed him. He''s scored (wikipedia so probably not spot on) 12 goals in 55 appearances since 2013 for Palace. The only reason we would sign him is if he is on less money than Hooper and we could offload Hooper, otherwise in terms of records, they are pretty similar in terms of goals. I can''t help but feel the money would be better spent elsewhere. As for Grabban, people need to move on. I wouldn''t be surprised if he eventually goes in the summer, but at the moment it would appear that AN has him, Jerom and Mbokani as his preferred strikers. Lafferty and Hooper would be first out the door. Four strikers is what you need on the books IMHO.

£2.5million for Jervis is a steal. We''ve missed him since he has been out injured - although I think it is more his positivity than anything else. He goes at full backs which is a good quality to have in this day and age. It makes me really happy with our left hand side to be honest; Olsson, Brady and Jervis. Makes our right hand side look a bit limited in comparison when you consider at the moment it is Redmond, Wisdom and Whittaker with Martin when required. Good solid signing that add''s depth to an otherwise under-stocked area of the squad.

Well, it''s clearly being done in preparation for the move to the new site!!! I mean, they haven''t installed bicycle ranks and we all know that is what is the defining detail for a football ground. (Also, can I just point out that the Norwich Rugby club have just eliminated two of his suggested sites, firstly the club itself as it is being sold to become residential. Also, they are moving to the UEA. As I said before the only space I could see any potential for on that site would be the sports fields opposite the hospital - and guess what? Yes you are right, that is where the Rugby Club is now to be situated.)

Thinking out loud here, but we''ve seen before that the £12million is a value assigned by some tabloid somewhere when there is a player going the other way as well. So, for example, it could be £8million plus Lafferty. If that is the case, would people be happier? I know that sounds daft, as it is the same value over all maybe . . .

I think a CB and another Striker are priorities. Anything more than that will be a bonus. I personally would like to see another right sided midfielder. Someone a bit like Brady to complement the opposite flank. At the moment, when Redmond is deemed not to be the tactical choice (perhaps due to his stature?) we seem short on options. I wonder if we''ll also see Mbokani''s and/or Jarvis'' loan moves made permanent? Jarvis would make more sense as it would free up a loan slot. When looking at those who may leave - E.Bennett, Turner, Hooper and Lafferty would be the most likely. I very much doubt we''ll sign another central midfielder when we have: O''Neill, Tettey, Mulumbu, Dorrans, VOO and Howson who all play in that position. I don''t expect any drastic overhauls of areas, so right full back is not somewhere I expect to see much change unless we see Whittaker leave. If we sign one or two centre backs then we have more than enough cover to get us through until the summer with Martin, Wisdom and Whittaker. The real key this window, is that if we sign anyone, they simply must be better than what we have. They need to improve our squad, make an impact and improve our chances of staying up - a simple task as some people would have you believe!

So Smudger has hit the old campaign trail again, the only man that Donald Trump can look to to feel good about himself. If you feel so strongly about it why haven''t you continued your protests? Is that because no one listens? Is it because everyone else is wrong? Yawn. As for why can''t we find anyone. Why not send emails to the investors of these clubs and ask them why they saw them as viable investments and then reflect that upon our club. Now I will get barracked for stating this but some pretty basic information is already out there. For starters they are located in/around the largest City in the country with international air connections to pretty much every corner of the planet. This makes it useful if you are regularly doing other business around the world (shirt deals maybe, other European sponsors etc). However, it also means that your immediate audience is much larger. Shirt sales for example. Lets say your shirts are £40. If they manage to raise the profile of the club more, or continue to do so at the rate they are at the moment, then sales of things like shirts and other merchandise will rise in conjunction with that. They have millions of people to appeal to - there is competition but the reality is that a sustained period of success for a London club means that they are having more of an impression on the locals. A good example is how Fulham went from the doldrums and up the leagues and grew their support again with success. When you look at Norwich, you have around 860,000 people in Norfolk. Lets say around a third of those are in and around Norwich and it''s urban area. Then you start to see a picture. As a club and as a city we are relatively isolated. The airport really only supports relatively close holiday destinations - or to Amsterdam for connecting flights. The immediate customer base in terms of fans is pretty well established, how much more can it grow with success in terms of return for your investment? A few figures have been bandied about on here, but if you go by the boards assessment, then a 35,000 stadium is probably our ceiling at the minute. Another thing to consider is that Palace already had decent backing prior to this. They have a strong squad in place with the likes of Cabaye and a successful manager in Pardew. It''s still a risk but the chances are, being in London, they''ll be able to offload it should they want to, much faster as well. At the moment, if the board had £30million, I very much doubt it would be spent on the ground . . . . at this point in time that could be well spent on improving the squad. Also, if I get what you are saying correctly, you are suggesting Delia and MWJ to give away half of their shares for nothing . . . . . and if you do, then you need to consider what effect that would have on any potential investor. Why would they want to take up a position if later on down the line, a similar sort of pressure or expectation is placed upon them? Investment is exactly that - investment. Normally the investors will want to see a healthy return. If they don''t they get shot. Far more horror stories than success stories in recent years. I''d rather be steady eddy than free-falling down the leagues like Portsmouth etc.

I do think that the manager has to shoulder some of the blame for a lack in results - in any situation. However, I think people are getting a bit carried away with this loss. We''ve collected 4 points in the last 5 games. On paper just like that it looks pretty poor. So lets add some depth: Man City (away) loss. Swansea (Home) win. Chelsea (away) loss. Arsenal (home) draw. Watford (away) loss. So, the question I have is this. Would people have been as upset if we had lost 2-0 at home to Arsenal but drawn away to Watford? I say that because to me, despite Chelsea''s position in the table, any of the bottom 6-10 sides will be pleased to pick up a point off a top 4-6 side. As we have just been promoted, when-ever we have one of the top sides visit, I hope we are able to give them a good game, in fact our very best game. The issue with this is that usually this will still not be enough. I wouldn''t argue that perhaps another draw would have been good. But I do think people are being unrealistic when looking at those games. Add to that the fact that Neil is still learning and adapting. I think the issue at hand is that he was forced to make changes due to injuries and then seems to have made more changes, a bit of tinkering, and it didn''t work out Vs Watford. I hope he has the strength to realise that perhaps the week before we had a more balanced look and feel and what to bring back into the side to get us back on track.

I have to agree with Barclay seats 48/49. Tettey was injured for a few games and the midfield looked far more solid in possession and defence. I like Tettey but for me, this season teams seem to have targeted him as the weak link when it comes to passing. Against Leicester they tried to pressure the ball to him and then force him into errors, sloppy passing etc. Against Watford I think we saw a bit more of the same and his defensive play let him down as well on the day. In many ways I don''t get why we changed personnel as Watford try to keep the ball down, play to feet and find the space in behind. They don''t have the quality of Arsenal but their approach is the same. So you want to starve them of the ball. Which means you need to retain it more. I''d like to see Mulumbu given a go and O''Neil. Yes, O''Neil may not be as good physically as Tettey but he is better positionally and is more able to turn play, if he wins the ball he can play a good pass rather than have to find someone to play the good ball. Not only that, his set pieces have been of a good consistent quality. I also wouldn''t mind seeing Vadis given a go, whether that be on the wing or as one of the central three I''m not sure.

[quote user="JF"]Quite surprised by the interception stat. Is a strength of Tetteys game and wouldn''t have expected to be bottom of that.[/quote] Actually, I wouldn''t say he is good at intercepting. I would say that he is great at breaking up play and sweeping in front of the back four. As with a lot of stats though, it would be nice to know what the actual definition of an interception is. I say that because some people will consider preventing a pass from being completed. Some will only consider it an interception if a player wins and retains the ball. I have compared stats from different sources before and their idea of what a shot on target is varies greatly. I also watched a game where Bradley Johnson was reported as only putting in 3-4 tackles. I remembered a 5-10 minute period where he put in more than that many tackles. I always take these sorts of stats with a pinch of salt.

People saying that O''Neil for Tettey wouldn''t have made much difference - I don''t agree. O''Neil is a proper captain, he communicates, organises and he is a much better user of the ball. He helps to dictate the tempo as a result. On top of that, he takes a mean set piece. We missed all of those today and he gave us all of them last week. Even if he only gave us the set pieces today we may have got even against the run of play at 1-0 down. I would have him in there over Dorrans or Tettey. Neither gave us much going forward today until the last ten minutes.

Tactical failure in my books. Tettey selected over O''Neil was a poor decision for me. And then subbing Redmond rather than one of the other midfielders the other. Grabban wasn''t good but then he isn''t the sort of striker you lump balls up to. Not a good day all round. Mbokani is IMHO our best all round striker. Why on earth is he not starting games? Tettey is poor in posession, O''Neil has just played some of his best footy for us and then he has to give way? Dorrans is hit and miss. After a great performance against Arsenal, why not keep the best performers in the side?

I''m going to go out there and say I think the article this comes from is a bit error strewn. Fro example - he is a free agent, so technically we could sign him now, or get him to sign a pre-contractual agreement for him to officially sign in January. He''s a free agent, there is absolutely nothing stopping those from happening. I''m not too hot on the exact rules, but I assume that as he was not named in our squad he can''t officially sign for us until January when he could be named for the 2nd half of the season. We certainly have space in the squad. Also, it would be odd, if he was offered a contract by Lazio and other rumours suggest Man Utd interest, if he was to sign for us considering the reason he let his contract run down was to move to a bigger club. No idea if this is just take-a-chance journalism or any high level interest ended with his injury? Would be a bit of a coup if he signed and if he could get back to the levels he was performing at before.

I remember going in the early-mid 90''s and watching players like Goss, Ekoku and a load of others on their way back from an injury, or topping up their match sharpness after being an unused sub etc. Was often only £1-2 which made it ideal for youngsters who hadn''t been to many games before, or who perhaps couldn''t afford to buy tickets regularly.

They have some good players there. However, QPR and Fulham also interested and he turned them down? QPR and Fulham are better placed on 20 and 19 points. They remain 8/9 points off 6th which is a point margin we all know can be hauled back. Blackburn currently sit in 16th on 17 points. 11 points off of 6th which, whilst possible, you would have to argue is unlikely. Strange one IMHO.

Hang on! Stop! Hold on a second there and take a few steps back . . . . . Indy says we musn''t get carried away with O''Neil as Swansea didn''t play very well . . . . . . . . . and then argues that Bennett and Wisdom are better and looked far more comfortable than Martin and Whittaker?!!! Double standards? I think so. Swansea have so far probably served up the worse opposition performance of the season at Carrow Road so far. Not only that but the team were clearly given an entirely different brief. One that would arguably suit Martin''s game better. So if people are not allowed to be happy for O''Neil because it wasn''t a tough game - you most certainly can''t get all happy about Bennett and Wisdom and all down about Martin and Whittaker. Right, back as you were.

Aaaand once again the forum throws up some FIFA/PES players . . . . . who must know it all!!! Ruddy is probably the best keeper (all round) that we have had play for us since Robert Green - who was the best we had had since Gunn. Is Ruddy good enough to be a top 6 keeper? Well Chelsea/Arsenal wanted him. Arguably as understudy, although at that time, I doubt he would have been a straightforward understudy at Arsenal. The thing that angered people when it came to England was Ben Foster being selected ahead of him. Talk about clangers - Foster''s kicking is barely Championship let alone Premier League or international. Is he better than Hart? Not for me. What about his errors? I thought the blame for the goal after his punch out the other week was a bit unfair. No one mentioned Tettey who could have moved towards the ball and shielded it or just hit it out but instead stood and watched as Ruddy chased his own punch out. Arguably, his biggest mistake was following it out. I agree with others in terms of our back four but I also think there is something about our playing style. We tend to be prone to the counter attack which leaves our already shaky defence (at the moment) more exposed than you''d want. We are seeing more errors as a result. But then football is a game of percentages. The keepers in the bottom half are typically more busy in terms of saves per game than those in the top half, even more so for teams in and around a relegation dog-fight. That means that if a top 6 keeper is making, say, 6 saves a game - the chances are a bottom 6 keeper is making 12+. And with the percentages, they are likely to make more mistakes. It''s logical.

[quote user="Jacko"]The summer is the best time to recruit players. Hence why I am pessimistic about our prospects of recruiting quality reinforcements in the January window (particularly if we are struggling). The issues you have in January are perhaps best illustrated by this potential transfer. If hypothetically, Wednesday are in the hunt for promotion in January and we''re struggling then there''s very little prospect of Wednesday selling a key player (if he is as good as people seem to think) to us. The owners are ambitious and want promotion. Selling one of your best centre halves isn''t usually how you achieve that. The player himself may also think what is the point in moving when there is the possibility of Wednesday and Norwich potentially swapping places in 6 months time. To attract players from even the upper reaches of the Championship we therefore must be in a decent position by the time the January window comes around or it will become an almost impossible task unless you are willing to offer stupid QPR style incentives to players to join.[/quote] That all may very well be true, but there is one issue far more burning than that. Next season the new TV deal kicks in with even more money on offer. This January will see some of the most hiked prices yet as a result. Quite rightly, SW will want a price that compensates them adequately in that if he helps keep us up then he will have probably made back his fee in a matter of months. And then you have to think of how they see it. Is he worth selling when he could help them achieve that pot of gold as well? Their team at the moment is going to be worth far more than anyone could pay for it due to the amount promotion is worth. As for prices not being high in the summer - £15million for a CB from Europe?!!! That''s not high to anyone?

Bradders is a good player. Is he a ''big'' loss? It''s really hard to say. Looking at the squad we have now - who would you play him ahead of? Especially when you consider that his most successful spell last season was left midfield. It would be harsh on either Jarvis or Brady to play him ahead of them. Both have played well in that position so far, Jarvis being almost undroppable IMHO. Then you look to CM. We have five; Tettey, Howson, Dorrans, Mulumbu and O''Neil. I think you can say that Howson is an attacking midfielder but has the engine to be box to box and hatfuls of skill and passing ability. Dorrans is similar but appears to be more of a CM and prefers to be a little deeper. Mulumbu is not as defensive as Tettey perhaps but is a better passer. Tettey is an out and out defensive midfielder - and certainly has the drive and steeliness that Johnson has, but not the attacking ability even if Johnson''s was more brutal than finesse. So, as I said at the time that he left. I just don''t see where he would get into the side. He may have been used as a sub but even then if you have four or five midfielders you are still looking at having two of the other five on the bench, and whilst he may have been ahead of O''Neil, it''s questionable that he would have been ahead of Dorrans/Mulumbu or whoever else doesn''t quite make the starting line up. And that''s before you take into account Hoolahan and VOO (who could just be that physical presence for us as well, but with the finesse as well). In fact, our bench alone is really competitive at the moment. Rudd is a dead cert. Then you have Mbokani/Jerome depending upon who is starting. If you start two strikers then Hoolahan and Grabban/Lafferty take a further two slots. If Brady starts at full back then Olsson is another.

[quote user="nutty nigel"]We should remember that downgrading Etuhu for Russell and Earnshaw for Cureton (even though the two coming in had legendary status compared to the two who departed) were two of the main reasons Hucks had a strop and was ultimately proved right. [/quote] Safri as well I believe. I think Huck''s was also annoyed with Worthington going - mainly as a result of fan pressure. He was proven right in the end, we didn''t get a better manager in place until Lambert and being a division lower. Roeder and Grant stripped the club bare.

When you look at the players they signed, he was to be a direct back up to Wilson and arguably play in the hole behind him or out wide. What he offered them is what he also offers us, the pace and movement to stretch teams, and to pin them back a bit when pushing forwards. When you play against a pacey forward line you are always a bit cautious about stepping up to high and surrendering he space in behind too easily. That £6million is more like £9million now, in their predicament. Again, if we sold him and he scored only one goal, a goal that had the effect of relegating us or keeping them up - it would cost us more than the £3million profit we could have made on him, and would be worth a lot more than the £6million they could have paid for him. We now have four strikers - Mbokani, Jerome, Grabban and Lafferty. I think it is fair to say they all offer something different, they all offer a different sort of threat. And that''s what you want. Come next summer, it may well be a very different line up. But then I suspect that with AN, he''ll push to improve whenever and where-ever he can.

[quote user="hogesar"][quote user="mrs miggins"]ellis206 wrote the following post at 22/10/2015 3:15 PM: A tall CB? He''s the shortest CB at the club. 2"s shorter than Martin and 3"s shorter than Bassong. -------------------------------------- If thats true then I''m really confused then why he''s a better header of the ball. Perhaps its just that Martin can''t jump?[/quote]I''m not sure he is. He looks taller, which is weird because according to the official site player profiles:Martin : 185.4cmBassong : 187cmBennett : 181cmSo I don''t think Bennett is any taller than our current CB''s. Not sure he''s any quicker. He''s certainly not better on the ball. It''s starting to look more and more obvious why he hasn''t got himself into the first team as of yet.[/quote] According to Wikipedia, which I agree could well be a lot less accurate than our own club''s information, Bassong and Bennett are 6''2" with Martin at 6''1". Also, defending crosses and set pieces is as much about positioning and decision making as it is about height and heading ability. Against Newcastle, Whittaker let his man run in front of him to meet the ball. That''s not a height issue. Players were then left unmarked on other occasions - that''s communication and perception. Doesn''t matter how tall you are if you are not in the right place at the right time. I do get why people are suggesting Bennett, he''s our only other choice at CB and to a degree, you have to wonder why he hasn''t had a stab at it when others appear to be struggling. However, and I don''t do scapegoating, the issue is at RB. AN is persisting with a more attack minded fullback in Whittaker, but defensively he has been short in recent games. Wisdom appears, in the short time we have seen him so far, to be another full back who is better going forward. Arguably he was better in that sense than Whittaker in that Whits often struggles to serve up consistent delivery into the box. It''s made somewhat frustrating when you look at left back where we have two quality players who can play that role in Brady and Olsson as well as a young player in Toffolo who is looking like he could make the step up to that sort of level as well. Part of me wonders if there will be more changes elsewhere other than CB.

Our problem wasn''t in the air today. Also, Ryan Bennett is 6''2", Russ Martin is 6''1".

[quote user="mrs miggins"]We can drop players ANF. Next up we are against a Pulis team, therefore we know what we''re getting; long balls up to their strikers. So do we: A) stick with Russel Martin at CB who doesn''t win as much in the air or B) move Martin to RB as Whitts was once again terrible and put a taller, stronger, quicker Ryan Bennet in? Those are the most obvious choices, with B being the most obvious answer imo.[/quote] Whilst I don''t disagree with the sentiment in switching Martin to RB and Bennett into CB. You are so wrong with your assessment of Martin. He was the quickest back on several occasions today, certainly more alert as well. If he is slower than Bassong, it''s not by much. From what I have seen of Bennett, whilst he is arguably stronger in the air, he''s not that quick, certainly not so much faster that it gives him an edge over Martin or Bassong. I think the injuries have put paid to that.

[quote user="Ricky Spanish"]The defence is obviously going to come in for some stick tonight. I still think the midfield was worse though! Never seen Dorrans, Howson and Tettey so bad and against a 2 man midfield at that Tactics were completely wrong, players didn''t want it as much as Newcastle, Defence woeful but our central midfield needs a whole new expletive to describe it today. They all looked hungover or something[/quote] This, in spades. Olsson was good, Bassong couldn''t have really done much more, Martin''s only real error was to not stay central to defend the 4th (or may have been fith, I''m seething so can''t remember the order, perhaps shocked is a better word). It''s almost like AN wanted to get in as many of the ''on form'' internationals as possible. Midfield was so much worse than the defence. Dorrans and Tettey were meant to shield the back four and be the basis of where our attacks started after breaking up play. Tettey was back to the days when he hits a five yard pass like it''s going 25yards, his distribution was very poor, when put under pressure he didn''t look like he wanted it and was always looking for the easy five yard pass out. This invited pressure on our own side. Dorrans was poor by the standards he has set. Was reckless in the tackle and again, poor (admittedly bar one very good pass to Redmond) in terms of distribution which isn''t normally a problem. Brady, bar the shot off the post looked indifferent. Howson looked good in periods, as did Redmond who often ran back and covered what most people would call a marauding Whittaker. I don''t want to describe it as that as it would suggest his forward runs came to anything, they didn''t. At half time you could have taken Brady, Dorrans and Tettey off without anyone moaning. Possibly Howson as well, although perhaps harshly. Mbokani was fantastic, a complete world apart. Constantly caused problems for his markers all game, go in ahead of them often and when he didn''t, he snapped at their heels and forced mistakes or used his strength to win the ball. The thing that really irks me, more than any other. Newcastle didn''t play well at all. You can''t say they pressed high up the pitch - they didn''t. You can''t really say that they really applied a lot of pressure in the middle third either, we had the lions share of the ball, and worked it around nicely at times, just somewhat aimlessly. I think AN got this one wrong. I think he saw a team low on form and possibly confidence and thought if we got at them we could get on top of them and make them crumble. Sometimes league position is not the be all and end all. They have a manager who is relatively proven, at the very least has shown he can be astute. The writing was on the wall very early on, it was far, far, far too open and we stuck with it. It reminds me of when Lambert went with three at the back and we got stuffed. My fear is that teams are now starting to spot our weaknesses and they are the few players that play week in week out - Whittaker and Tettey being the two key ones at the moment. Last week Leicester seemed to force the ball to be played to Tettey and then forced errors from him. Today it looked the same, and they looked to try and force him to make more intricate passes than he is confident in making. Did not help that there was very little resistance from the rest of midfield for me, bar Redmond who is never going to be the strongest in physicality. I think on that performance, we need to get Jarvis back in the side at the expense of Brady, give O''Neil the nod ahead of Tettey and consider something at right back. Whether that be slide Martin across and play R.Bennett or to play Wisdom. If Mulumbu is fit, possibly start him ahead of O''Neil, he has far greater ability on the ball than Tettey. I''m not scapegoating by the way, I just can''t believe that some players can continue to be given the chances after a performance like that!