Parma Ham's gone mouldy

Exactly that. There is a tendency for binarism and polarity on this forum. Tactics are also a spectrum. Nothing is what it seems on paper. What you gain in one area, costs you in another. ’Don’t start where you finish, don’t finish where you start’ is a classic striker’s instruction for example. Parma

Many football fans see the good things players do. Coaches must focus on the things that could happen if scenarios are repeated multiple times. Good moments burn memories much deeper for fans or invested stakeholders. This is great, though not empirical. Sara makes huge amounts of technical positional errors in any single game. We need him, we must find a place for him, though ‘shielding’ him in the CDM area is a flawed and unnecessary tactic in my view. One must calculate the ‘plusvalenza’ of course. What you gain versus what you lose (or could gain, or could lose). You want that equation to be a positive number. Costing a goal or a good chance is a pretty easy technical mistake to make. Creating or scoring one significantly harder (and rarer). There is just no need to do this with Sara. Parma

I like overloads. They are the essence of the game. Then you need weapons to do something with it. ’Both boxes’ remains pretty good. Parma

…you were taking journalistic notes…🤣 Parma

…you didn’t get the chance…😂😂.….wasn’t wrong though was I? Parma

So Ben Knapper has his feet under the table now… Wagner has done well enough to avoid an uncomfortable early bath - much to the benefit of our overall future vision - which has bought time to look, smell, feel and ponder… So what questions has our sporting due diligence thrown up? What little nuggets of gold has Ben texted Mark with? Here are some questions that I think any empirically-minded Norwich fan who pays a bit of attention might be asking: 1. Has the increase in experience smoothed out the tendency for erratic performance levels and poor game management? 2. Is it a longer term recipe for asset appreciation? 3. Is the current preferred 442 with two false 9s the best use of Ashley Barnes’ or Adam Idah’s (or Hwang’s for that matter) attributes? Does Barnes look comfortable in deep midfield areas (vid second goal given away in the derby)? Does Idah need simple instruction to run off the back of defenders, sometimes into channels and knock people about a bit to warrant a place in the side? Do we use his attributes or are we shoe-horning him into a role and a pattern he isn’t really suited to? Why? 4. Are we repeatedly too open in the central defensive midfield areas? Is Sara (or Nunez) a CDM? Have we got any CDMs? If we include Sorenson and Gibbs are they suitable? Why has Gibbs gone quiet (he looks a good player to me)? Why do we employ a defined tactic that actively exposes our weakest area? Is this logical strategic coaching with the resources available? Do flying full backs exacerbate the CDM issue? Are our particular personnel in the full back areas worth this tactical trade off? 5. If Kenny MacClean has puppy-dog ball-chasing tendencies is his partnership with the defensively and tactically flaky Sara a good combination or an obvious recipe for trouble? Is his move to Centre back actually quite a cute solution (running about less, being forced to stay in areas, using his desire to put out fires of others constructively)? 6. Are we over-rating the impact and importance of Sargent? Whilst a decent enough championship player, isn’t it true that we just lack a bit of cohesion, quality and weapons having hollowed out our previous young assets and occasional weapons? Do we need to buy a lot of players to add ballast or just one or two to help ‘both boxes’ (for unrealistic flavor say Skipp and Nketiah in a perfect world)? 7. I quite like the phrase from Ben Lee that ‘processes create moments, moments decide matches’. Are our processes - the coaching patterns that were very clear from McKenna and less clear from Wagner - a product of the players we have or do we continue to follow a blueprint regardless of available personnel? The ‘inverted 442’ dropping strikers deep to bounce off and inverted wingers going beyond, is sort of interesting and novel when you have 2 awkward, structural players like Barnes and Sargent. Playing any 2 strikers exposes the midfield somewhere, we don’t have a natural CDM and so we drop our strikers into that area as sort of double protection? Is that the idea? Defending from the middle front? Isn’t it just that Sara isn’t and shouldn’t be played in a deep midfield position? We have stumbled on a good idea in MacClean at Centre back, giving him more time to make good progressive, vertical passes with his left foot and stopping him mindlessly running about shouting ‘Mr Mannering! Mr Mannering!’. So shall we just spend our limited money there, fill that structural gap now and be done with it? 8. Jonny Rowe’s agent has us over a barrel. 9. Gibson wouldn’t be bad if he’d take a 50% pay cut. We could do with a change, though left-footed ball-playing Centre half’s are every FM15’s wet dream on Wyscout. Letting him go looks obvious, though replacing him expensive, tricky or…wait…MacClean you say? 10. What do we want to be? Farke? Wagner-Klopp with a bit of Farke? Klopp with a bit of Dyche? Dyche with a bit of Allardyce? Well….anyone? Arteta with a bit of Arteta for me please….and you Ben? Did you WhatsApp Mertesacker like you said you would? Parma …have a rest about half way through @king canary…🤣💪🏽

Well I suppose the 37 screenshots on your phone that you’ve already sent to @Kathy would be something of a comforting memento… Parma

I really don’t see why you would cut me off so abruptly mid-flow…. Parma

Well I’ll send you a pony anyway @nutty nigel…🦮…Merry Christmas Pups!..🎄 …I thought we did quite well, though Idah jogged about without tuning in again, Barnes was weak for the second, Sainz can be careless, Sara is out of position, MacClean is out of position but perhaps in his best position, Batth is out of the picture, Onel can’t see a picture….Wagner sees a picture that I don’t like, no one sees a central defensive midfielder….but…apart from that… Gunn’s good 🤩🦮👍 Good point you boys. Well done. Sort of. Parma

Edoardo, I’ve been summoned by Mx Parma for steak duty…and they’ve got that look in their eye …so … .….….i’ve been through all the excellent suggestions and ….well… …I just can’t get away from the fact that this looks like the most wonderful opportunity to turn around a season, an atmosphere, a mentality, a career, a changing room and a feeling….… …absolutely everybody on this board wants us to win tomorrow..wills it… …so throw everything on a PUPs win and a Norwich win..🏆.. I’ll double the pot and add another pony if we do it….let’s all get after it and create a bit of American will wave positivity…!.. what says you @lake district canary ? At the end of the day I’m just a boy, standing in front of a girl asking her team to win a derby …🙌🙌🏆🥰🦮🦮🦮 Come on you yellows! Parma

Where your PUPs money big boy?… I’ll match any pledge you make for the PUPs @essex canary…!!! Parma

In bocca al lupo 🦮 @NFN FC …ed ai tutti i voi belli PUPetti 🦮🕺🥰💃 …my sister lives in France…I love France (and my sister) so I’m going for: Fleury W vs Lyon W - Away win 🏆 Parma

You are a beautiful man (woman) (them) and I send you Christmas love!…❤️🥰🍾🙌🦮 Parma

I’ve just read the ‘Ipswich Predictions’ thread 👌🙌😂😂 Come and join the PUPS - send Eddie a tenner - and have a bet on Ipswich or bet against me and we’ll all pledge a tenner if we’re wrong: @The Raptor @The Raptor @MidlandsYellow @cambridgeshire canary @TheGunnShow @Creedence Clearwater Couto @daly @daly @Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB @Virtual reality @S_81 @Ken Hairy @Wings of a Sparrow @It's Character Forming @Capt. Pants @HazzaJet @Baldyboy @baldy09 @Coneys Knee @Jim Smith @Yellow Rider @Walcombe canary …come and make yourself at home and find some positive friends at the PUPS…everyone welcome!…🤷‍♂️🕺💃🙌🎄🤩👍🍾🥰🙏🏽 ..I just sent an Eddie another Tenner for the pot!!! It’s Christmas!!… Paypal: canaryeddie@aol.com Parma

I am actually really tempted to lump everything on a Norwich win…..🏆 The odds on a two-horse race are ridiculous at 11-2 and the form….🤩…well which form? …league form over the season maybe 11-2 is right (instill don’t think so)… …recent form?…definitely not…💪🏽..we had some good results and won pretty comfortably last time out…🏆👌🙌 …as for Derby form?!!!????….well!! …we should be overwhelming, dazzling favourites in my view!!….our record is magnificent…in fact we’re a sure thing!! Absolutely everything and more - i’ll throw another Ayrton on the table To double the bet @nutty nigel…on a Norwich win..🏆 … …who are the negative scaredy-cats who are going to pledge against me??? …come on @Midlands Yellow… @Jim Smith… @Keith Scott… all you closet binner-lovers! Let’s be ‘avin ya! Make a pledge for the PUPS against a Norwich win!! 🏆 What about all the economists who have predicted 5 of the last 2 recessions?…. Out from under your spreadsheets @essex canary @PurpleCanary @shefcanary @GMF…..🏆🦮🥰🍾🙏🏽…betfair against me! ..lots of love and happy Christmas 🎄 to all you lovely pups 🦮🦮🦮🥰❤️ Parma

Thank you again for the wonderful work you do driving this PUPs wagon train 🚂 onwards @nutty nigel….🦮👌…it’s a wonderful platform for us to do a little bit of good, think a little bit of others and find a little bit of community beyond our everyday…🙏🏽👌💪🏽 …the figures show that pledges and side bets and donations and little kindnesses add up to the bulk of the monies raised over the years, increasing totals year after year….… ..keep finding excuses to pledge something PUPs…just make something up…ride a feeling wave 👍🙌💃🦮🙃🤷‍♂️…give to the DS boys and girls so they can wear cool kit, take a minibus to away games at Chelsea, feel like a pro representing Norwich City…how awesome is that?… Here’s one: If Norwich beat Ipswich - anyhow, anyway - I’ll send a pony to you Eduardo 🍾🍻 Parma

…I absolutely love doing the PUPs picks…nearly as much as I love going to the Nest and watching the DS team play and train…🦮💪🏽👍🕺❤️ …thank you for the opportunity @nutty nigel and what a brilliant week to be sharing with @NFN FC…what an incredible week that was, unforgettable! Truly wonderful stuff 👌🦮🕺 Mx Parma has instructed me to cook them a fillet with Roquefort sauce on Friday, so I’ll be dancing into the date night 🕺💃🥰..picking nice and late to give you belli PUPetti plenty of time to fashion some miracles 🙏🏽🤷‍♂️🦮 ..did i really see we were 11-2 on a basic anyhow win? Crumbs! I know we’re flaky, but they really aren’t that good and we have been able to score goals…seems a bit generous on a two-horse race?… I like quadcast bet builder types as they offer allow and allow for relatively likely outcomes to be compounded…so I might favour those…mind if anyone can convince me on a stretchy big one I could be tempted…🙌🤷‍♂️🦮🦮 Vai ragazzi! Parma

Just read your own words back to yourself mindfully and see how you feel about them on deeper reflection. Lukewarm at best. Hiding in plain sight. Parma

See the news on SSG and PGA defense vs Al Ramayyan. Interesting circle of friends. All with almost identical modus operandi. All hiding in plain sight. Parma

Read again. Parma

…and here is the answer to Question 1: ————- Attanasio joins forces with Liverpool owner in PGA golf talks Paddy Davitt|11 Dec 2023, 19:01 Norwich City director Mark Attanasio has joined forces with Liverpool owner John Henry and other US sports tycoons to hold investment talks with the US PGA golf tour. Attanasio, who was recently in England to attend City’s annual meeting and will be confirmed as a joint minority shareholder pending Football League approval, was one of the names listed in the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) now in advanced discussions with professional golf’s leading tour. The PGA tour’s policy board released a statement to their players on Sunday outlining SSG are the preferred partner to enter into advanced negotiations over potential future investment. No details on the state of the negotiations or the amount of money that might be involved were released, but the announcement comes ahead of a December 31 deadline to reach agreement with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour over the future of the elite end of the professional game. Attanasio, who in addition to his City involvement, is a long time principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball club, an investor in the Milwaukee Admirals and a member of the committee who helped secure the 2028 Summer Olympics for Los Angeles. The successful businessman is joined in the SSG by Henry and Tom Werner, who as the Fenway Sports Group own the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool and the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. In Attanasio’s first club interview after he became a Norwich director, in September 2022, the New Yorker cited the Werner family as a key factor in facilitating his initial discussions with the Canaries. Other members of Strategic Sports Group (SSG) include Gerry Cardinale, whose RedBird Capital Partners owns AC Milan, Tom Ricketts, owner of the Chicago Cubs and Marc Lasry, former owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. SSG was the PGA tour board’s unanimous choice to negotiate a potential partnership in the new PGA Tour Enterprises. The new for-profit company was at the heart of a framework agreement announced in the summer among the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi financial backer of LIV Golf. The latest news comes as US PGA tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, is scheduled to meet Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment fund, in the coming days as the sides attempt to finalize that initial preliminary agreement from June this year. The split at the top of professional golf has seen the likes of Phil Mickleson, Brooks Koepka and European stalwarts Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter join forces with the LIV Golf tour, while Ryder Cup star Jon Rahm is the latest high profile golfer to recently sign up in a reported £450m deal ———— Parma

Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,000 Posted Wednesday at 23:05 Following the AGM I feel that this sporting thread and the Mark Attanasio financial thread are converging. As I suppose they must. Delia came over a little resigned, disillusioned and deflated before, during and after the meeting. I suspect much that was said by Attanasio, Knapper and others in the audience rather fed into that feeling too. The feeing of an era passing. ‘We do not have to guess if we can read the book’ is one of my father’s wisest sayings. For those who were really paying attention, there was a lot said - a lot of hiding in plain sight - much of which we had speculated, observed and calculated. Delia referred to the past, to rescuing the club, to the fear of debt, to where we have come from. Mark Attanasio spoke of now being ‘Comfortable with the debt’. Ben Knapper spoke of decisions going forwards that could be made ‘on a sporting basis rather than a financial one’ These are both significant changes. Avoiding the extreme cliff-edge of absolutist self-funded Finances allows for Sporting decisions to not be compulsive acts of self-harm. In practical terms this means you sell Buendia after relegation, not in the summer before promotion having promised the squad to ‘come back stronger’. Attanasio is ‘comfortable with the debt’ because it is now internal. Though of course it also floats on a bed of equity. Yes realisable only upon sale - and upon profitable sale at that - though Attanasio was ‘only this morning talking to Australia’ about ‘third-party funding’. He repeated several times that he will ‘later…look for third party funding’. Let me clarify in practice: buy into the club cheaply as it struggles, take overall control, try to achieve success within the nominal equity gain bequeathed, sell minority shares on the up to third parties, end up with an appreciating asset. The club owns its own stadium, its own training ground, further land and the squad of players are liquid assets. It’s a different world we are going into now. Some benefits, some drawbacks. As @nutty nigel has repeatedly pointed out, fan ownership goes with Delia. Local connections go with Delia. It stretches back a long time. The question ‘why would you invest in a baseball club in Milwaukee?’ is a perfectly reasonable one. Here are some positives noises from Mark Attanasio for balance: MA: Finance Committee plus MA Group meet, budget 2 years ahead, ‘comfortable with current debt levels, must compete in your division, must have Premier as goal’ MA: We must be a Premier League Team […to achieve our ultimate aims..] MA: We will later look for 3rd parties to come on board [invest, buy stocks]..talked to Australia MA: 35 of 92 football clubs now have American owners or notable involvement.. MA: Compete…NCFC attractive…community..similar Milwaukee..passion…sport..family MA: Crescent Capital London office..FT editors talked about Norwich! MA: Stadium, infrastructure [Ressler]… MA: #1 Competitive Team…’keep trying to compete’.. MA: Keep adding players…repeatable system…(with BK reports and analysis)..provide finances…younger players…actually costs money…academy not often ready immediately…buy quality MA: We’ll support BK recommendations..firm foundations in place to make sure we stay up… MA: Correlation between money and success clear MA ‘I know how to raise capital…will bring in 3rd parties..about Finance …aligned group at Milwaukee…’ Mark has been talking to Ben for a while. They talk. They text. For anyone left in any doubt at all about lines of demarcation and roles and responsibilities ( @Don J Demorr ) Ben and Mark made it very, very clear. There has been a sudden land grab. All the sporting power is now with the Sporting Director: BK: The Head Coach sets up the team, works with them during week (‘just like the American model in Baseball’)…’all the recruitment is my responsibility’ Of course ‘it would be crazy to bring players the head didn’t want’ and ‘that won’t happen’ …but that role is at my door… The Head Coach - let’s call him Daniel for argument’s sake - will still be the lightning rod for ills of course. This of course exactly suits the smiling Attanasio. He now (already) holds Ultimate power. He’s putting the money in. He may say that he doesn’t fully understand the game, though he does understand data. He can check it. Measure it. Watch over it. Control it. He carefully selected Ben Knapper due to his data background. Knapper referred to ‘Mark’ regularly. There were lots of candidates. ‘CEO types’….Director of football types with more ‘experience’….though someone who mirrors the baseball process, is data-driven, fresh, young and grateful (easily-controlled by the paymasters?) is perfect. Yes I suppose so. I think Ben Knapper came over extremely well by the way. We liked him. Different threads and thoughts often co-exist in football and life though… Ben Knapper stated the following: BK: Deploying assets on the field that are depreciating is to be checked BK: Roles & responsibilities, lines of communication…(all recruitment is driven by me) BK: Age increase in squad was conscious decision [back then]..leadership..reacting to other situations…went too far…[over]reacting to other situations… BK: Oldest squad in league…not good for self-funded..so assets to be injected into the squad…young age = value..that’s the focus going forwards..youth is my personal history…must also give them exposure! BK: Injuries..highest output in league…explosive actions [a lot to ask for oldies?] BK: Long term view is the way that I work BK: Ultimate responsibility for recruitment with SD [Head Coach must be happy and on board] BK: Age profile key ….there will be money from MA to invest in quality youth (not cheap) In case we were in any doubt that Mark’s money is going to change how Ben can act, Anthony Richens confirmed the following: AR: Debt has moved from external to internal AR: ‘Can now make decisions on a sporting basis’…(so couldn’t before)… ’..It’s ultimately still a player trading model ….and always will be..’…(though not sporting self harm as previously) AR: £2.8m historical tax error [Auditors missed?] The questions the Company issued in writing to the club for the AGM were surprisingly not referred to or addressed… 1.‘In light of your investment in the redeemable C-preference shares, your re-financing of other club debt and your notable history in finance – all set in context against a backdrop of the increasing trends and desires in America for consolidated multi-sport franchises - what is your exit strategy? 2. ‘Did you or any of your connected companies take a commission for any of the debt refinancing?’ 3. ‘Given Delia and Michael’s repeated insistence that they would “not take a penny out of the club” do you consider there to be an inherent equity gain in the business and what do you internally value the equity gain at? What will you do with it? ….Though of course they were ultimately questions that were protective of Delia and her legacy - and questioning of Mark Attanasio’s ultimate intentions and motivations. Our belief is that they reached the right ears as intended. Regardless they de-facto got answers at the meeting in any case. Hiding in plain sight you see. 1. Pump some early money in*, increase the value of the overall asset, take on Third Party investment. On the phone to Australia about it this morning ’ (Australia? Not the tightest of criteria then….) 2. Bought C-Pref. Other internal (own companies or finance partners). No mention of charging interest. ‘Comfortable with it’. No mention of under what circumstances such loans or interest might be redeemable. 3. Early funds injected up to £43m (our figures) are riding on Delia’s handed-on unrealized equity gain. This can cover the early cost of buy in, then can sit on the Equity until a major offer appears ‘that can’t be refused’… It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to suggest that Attanasio ‘looking good’ early on is actually doing so with Delia’s money. She has been a wonderful benefactor to Norwich. She gave what she could. It wasn’t enough and as time went on we had to injure ourselves to survive without even much of an overdraft. We were scarred by debt in a world that had fallen in love with it, got addicted to it and used it as a financial game of pass-the-CDF-parcel. It was all a bit of an anachronism and - along with Webber’s desire to polish his own buttons - it cost us Farke, a year of Buendia at the top level when we were on the up and left us with daft players we shouldn’t use, who in the end nobody wanted. Plus of course it cost us the entire positional Play club-wide education. Very expensive that bit I’d suggest. I suppose you could argue that Delia’s relative football poverty is to blame for Webber’s twisted sporting contortions, though goodness me he could hardly have sent us into a worse tailspin if he had tried. As Greg Downes said recently when asking about the import of Josh Sargent’s injury on Norwich’s season: ‘ yes ok….but come on…he’s not a world beater…’ Wagner’s interesting early season model with Sargent and Barnes as double false 9’s was quite interesting. It got worked out pretty quickly I thought and it certainly risked exposing our ongoing Achilles heel of lack of central defensive midfield protection (be it on-field personnel, tactics, zonal or suitable psychological profile). Doing it with Idah, Hwang or whoever looks daft. Knapper-Attanasio will keep Wagner on a while - until something genuinely better can be found and attracted, though I suspect that it will be the roles and responsibilities, lines of communication and internal land grabs that are the major focus for American minds first….lots of control mechanisms now being put in place I’d suggest. ‘I’m not a control freak’ he repeated several times in several interviews. On a personal note - and yes as a counterpoint - It isn’t long ago that we had a Black Manager, a gay Director and a woman owner. A real fan too. Call me sentimental, but I thought that was rather wonderful. Now we’ve got an American financier. Just like everyone else. I have talked before about Norwich ‘solving yesterday’s problems’. Many businesses are unintentionally run like that. Ben Knapper even gently criticized the ancien regime at Norwich for it. I can’t help thinking that the little bit of extra money that Attanasio can lay his hands on was needed to keep Buendia for a year, keep Skippy in the building for another year and keep Farke ‘I don’t understand changing head coaches so often’ and the positional play methodology flowing through the pristine fields of Colney. That’s all yesterday now though. Attanasio might now find himself watching steaming columns of Matrix data, throwing some good money at the worst glitches, though finding we are actually quite a long way away from where we were. And it’s a long, draining and rather expensive journey back to 22nd. And then you’re still a bloody long way - sportingly and financially - from 17th. Though of course Australia will no doubt help you out at that point…. Delia holds her head in her hands when we lose. She had delegated authority and responsibility to others so she could stay a fan. It has cost her in the end. She has had to take Mr Right Now. I suspect she is questioning it all a little… …though the tectonic plates have moved and she is now discovering the power of debt. Parma Edited Thursday at 14:43 by Parma Ham's gone mouldy 3 10

‘We let the managers manage’ Parma

Bravissimo @Indy Parma

Ooh you little beauty @KiwiScot…thank you! I certainly didn’t.. Switch to another women’s game please: Barca vs Eibar - Home win 🏡🏆 Parma