Taxing

I guess he''ll be happier at a big club.

Wait and see, the Saints fans will be thoroughly chossed off with him by the end of the season. Good player, bad attitude and bad attendance record. I''m not going lose any sleep over his departure although there will be the nagging fear that the PWAP''s who run our club will have let him go for next to nothing. I feel sure that, had they sold him for a decent sum of money, the PWAP''s would have disclosed the fee.

[quote user="Polar1990"]Just had a look at the team photo on the o/s safris missing, am i just being blind as a bat? [/quote]   Gone to the dentist.............

[quote user="ellis206"][quote user="Baron Bludgeon 1"] Good to have him back, we should never have let him go in the first place. I remember seeing him run Portsmouth ragged when we beat them at Fratton Park the season  they were promoted. Can anybody recall what we sold him to Stoke for ? [/quote]   I thought we lost to them 3-2 the season they went up? cracking game though i remember it being on sky! [/quote]   Sorry, must have been the season before. Wet, muddy Sunday afternoon game. I think we wone 1-0.    

[quote user="Baron Bludgeon 1"] Good to have him back, we should never have let him go in the first place. I remember seeing him run Portsmouth ragged when we beat them at Fratton Park the season  they were promoted. Can anybody recall what we sold him to Stoke for ? [/quote]   Ok, just seen below that we gave him a "free". Incredible if that really was the case. IMO, Russell''s arrival paves the way for Safri to go, hopefully for £1M plus.      

Good to have him back, we should never have let him go in the first place. I remember seeing him run Portsmouth ragged when we beat them at Fratton Park the season  they were promoted. Can anybody recall what we sold him to Stoke for ?

[quote user="Sttt, Strv, Starh,......Dave!!!"] No... He''s doing his best for the Club.  I think so anyway.   No one disputes that the Board is doing its best for the club. The point at issue here is that their best efforts just aren''t good enough. For crying our loud, look at the Board''s and the Club''s performance over the last three seasons.   However, no doubt the loan signing of Smith will excite and reassure supporters such as yourself that "all is well in the best of possible worlds".

[quote user="JC"] No.  This is utter mindless drivel.  Wake up and grow up.  [quote user="Baron Bludgeon 1"]Anybody else agree. If he reads this MB as I am told he does then lets show him what we think of him.[/quote] [/quote]   Not mindless drivel at all although this description may well more appositely apply to your own message.  If you read my messages on this thread you can only infer that I am endeavouring to be constructive. What you cannot deny is that over the last three seasons the NCFC Board has presided over consistent decline and repeated failure. It has been akin to watching a loved one slowly dying from a progressive disease whilst the doctor merely prescribes palliates in response to occasional protestations and pleadings from close family whilst other more gullible relations murmur that the doctor knows what he''s doing (because of course he''s a doctor and therefore anachronistically a figure of authority who must be respected) and everything will turn out right in the end. There is nothing that can be done about the shareholders who have also, of course, presided over the decline in the club''s fortunes but, in my opinion,  fresh, new direction and leadership is urgently required at Board level. If you feel that what I have said is mindless drivel then I respect your right to be an idiot.    In my opinion what the club needs

[quote user="Old Shuck"] ND  can''t win. If he had said that, because of the sell on clause, we decided to let a player go to another club and didn''t sign him, he''d be castigated for all the usual reasons-no ambition, we should have made the effort to sign the player, another one missed, we have no intention of signing players etc. Basically he''s damned if he does and damned if he doesn''t-as is the club with a lot of people, no matter what those running it do or say, it will be criticised. To those that accuse the board of lacking ambition and not signing quality players, what would happen if the club suddenly spent £10-£12 million on new players, quality players from the Premiership, on Premiership wages and contracts, answering those questions once and for all....? Well, there would be posts on here condemning their economic madness, saying they had put the club at risk, no-one thought of the fans, prices would go up  to pay for these players etc etc-more moans and groans, but on the other side of the spectrum! So, Doncaster to go now? No.     [/quote] My desire to see ND go hasn''t been provoked solely by the transfer of Etuhu or for that matter Earnshaw or, indeed,  Ashton or because of his totally irresponsible (in my opinion) public castigation of Huckerby whose loyalty and huge importance to our club is self-evident. My belief is that he has presided over a chronic deterioration of our club over a period of years. There has been an air of general malaise at the club since the Premiership debacle. The club has consistently declined year on year from the giddy heights of the Premiership, when the infamous clarion call of "prudence with ambition" was first heard , to the lower reaches of the Championship. At one point last year, further relegation to the 1st division was a distinct possibility. Etuhu, Earnshaw and, without doubt, Safri moving onto other clubs can only be interpreted as further proof of the decline and lack of ambition of our club. My view, and of course it is only my view, is that no one can possibly deny that the only memorable feature of the last three years has been one of consistent and shambolic failure and that the time has come to make changes at the top, at Board level, where strategy is formulated because it seems pretty clear to me that the club has absymally failed in this direction....... and is likely to continue to do so.      

[quote user="ob1"]No.[/quote]   Your complacency brings to mind the image of Nero continuing to quaff wine whilst Rome burned not realising the awful disastrous reality of his situation. In fact, the analogy or similarity with Nero could be applied to the Board of NCFC because Nero’s reputation was as an ineffectual, neglectful and brutal leader – replace ‘brutal’ with a different adjective such as autocratic, dismissive etc and perhaps replace ‘leader’ with control freak and the similarity blossoms. Our club has been in decline since our promotion to the Premier league. This chronic decline is gathering pace and the views of fans like you, although undoubtedly genuine supporters, only serve to give succour to the very people whose incompetent mismanagement is ruining our club.

Anybody else agree. If he reads this MB as I am told he does then lets show him what we think of him.

[quote user="chicken"] No one will agree with you either untill you start telling the truth. You too LIE. The club said that it does not NEED to sell not that they will not sell. With Etuhu and Earnie this is out of their hands to some extent and at least they tried to keep Etuhu by offering a new contract. At this time some clubs are being inspected for dodgy deals - why oh why is no one looking at these two. Two offers of bang on the money have come in for these players - seems suspect to me. The only player you could claim to have been forced out of the club is Safri. The strange thing is a lot of people on here predicted that Safri and Earnshaw would be on their way in the summer. Now that its looking to be true people can''t quite believe their own words. I am totally gutted - I really am. But its difficult to know who to blame. You can blame the board if you like, if you think you have enough evidence to blame them. Personaly I blame the last manager for making such a pigs-ear of the contracts. [/quote]   You are aptly named Chicken. Presumably you are running around with your head cut off ...... like so many other gullible and "in denial" posters on this board. Only that can explain your reply to Mr Whittle.

I''d have CW at Norwich tomorrow given the chance. Love him or hate him no one can dispute his passion and commitment both of which he manages to instil in his players. I like his "never say die" attitude, the fact that his teams always have strong, hard and ugly defenders and his irreverend opinions of the FA, Sir Alex "Norwich only a small club" sneering Ferguson and the like. Mind you, I think that Grant has similar qualities and I''m quietly optimistic that he will build Norwich into a tough to beat team (finally) but one with some flare in midfield and a real cutting edge up front.

[quote user="ncfc1"]Huckerby wont get you half the goals Earnshaw will , if we have any ambition to go up Earnie must stay , unless he wants to leave then let him go . Anyway if he is sold do you really believe Grant will get the money to spend on new players ? very unlikely .[/quote]   Spot on NCFC1, the only change I would make to your post would be to change  "very unlikely"  to  "of course not".

Good question Sheded. Has Martin signed a professional contract yet ? I seem to recall reading that he had been offered a contract but he hadn''t yet signed. Surprising really, I would have thought that Downcaster would have had him signed up the moment he started reading good reports on hin in the press preparatory to selling him off for a nice, fat profit.

Great idea, have saved your site onto my favourites. Thanks very much.

"Doherty welcomes challenge Norwich''s Gary Doherty is looking for the perfect pick-me-up against table topping Birmingham at Carrow Road tomorrow after defeat in the Valleys." That''s the kiss of death then !

[quote user="Web Team - Pete"]That''s total goals but he''s only scored 1 FA Cup goal and 14 League Cup goals in his career, so mostly League goals.[/quote]   Not the 20+ per season player he had been made out to be then but not a bad record over recent years although the trend was obviously downwards. I can understand why Worthy though he might be a good partner for Earnie.

[quote user="Web Team - Pete"] Peter Thorne''s goal tally: 96/97: 10 97/98: 16 98/99: 11 99/00: 30 00/01: 19 01/02: 12 02/03: 16 03/04: 13 04/05: 14 [/quote]   Thanks Web Team Pete - pretty damning if you ask me - were these all league goals or a total of league,  cup and appearances for Cardiff reserves ?!

[quote user="Marty"] [quote user="Baron Bludgeon 1"]IMO Robert Rosario is the worst player ever to play for Norwich.[/quote]   no way, he actually scored some goals including a cracking goal of the season against Southampton. [/quote]   Maybe I was unfair but my memory of Rosario was that he did everything but actually score - hit the post, the bar, the side netting, miscued in front of an open goal and so on. I''m sure he did score a  few goals and one of them might have been a cracker but my recollection was of a big, tall, gangly striker who just couldn''t "stick them away". Where did he go after Norwich ? Remember another striker who scored a cracking goal ....... Justin Fashanu''s goal of the season against Liverpool on the strength of which, so legend has it, Brian Clough paid Norwich £1M for him.

[quote user="jas the barclay king"] Crap players tend to be crap wehever they play... Thornes Record at previous clubs is good and its a shame he couldnt of replicated that form with us... he used to be a 20-25 goal a season man... not a bad player by any means.  Can only speak from the players i have seen but the worst has to be a defender we had called Kevin Scott, i think Walker signed him? he made Steve Walsh look like Fabio Cannavaro! Trevor Benjamin was shocking too! jas :) [/quote]   I reckon that I have kept myself  pretty well informed of the Championship over the years but although I keep reading that Thorne used to score 20+ per season I have to say that I had never heard of him before he came to Norwich. Did he regularly score 20+ per season or was this a one off in one particular season ? Does anybody have the stats on how many league goals he scored in his last 6 season ?

IMO Robert Rosario is the worst player ever to play for Norwich.

[quote user="nutty nigel"] It was us Blackpool or Bristol City who were going to have that "honour". So it''s interesting that although the FA''s stated objective is to use the FA Cup to redistribute funds throughout the game neither of us was selected for a live game. There are 10 premiership clubs and 6 championship clubs playing this weekend but of the 8 teams to share the £2,120,000 Live Broadcast Fund only 1 (Preston) is from outside the Premier League.   [/quote] Good point well made. Yes, so much for the "romance" of the FA Cup. Both Saturday''s games are all premiership matches and the sort of matches that are served up on Sky weekend after weekend. Arsenal V Blackburn seems to me to be a poor and uninspiring choice and not one that will fire up the imagination of any neutral supporters. And, it''s not as though Arsenal are rarely on TV, their matches always seem to be "Live On Sky".

Thank yous for the loyalty and commitment you have given our club for so many years. Your dedication to the cause has never been in doubt and you have always impressed as a thoroughly decent person. Best wishes to you and your family for the future.

The huge monetary incentive should provide additional impetus to bring in new signings .........................  and Riordan wouldn''t be cup tied !