Yellow Rose of Texas

There is nothing wrong, nor incompatible with goals of affordable family football and on-field sucess. But it also depends on your definition of sucess - Reading - Man U ? Given the ticket pricing and general state of crowds in the Premiership over the last few seasons if you WERE a family who currently attend games, it might make you wonder if that league is where you really want Norwich to play? Its also my belief that the TV paymasters of football really will want to develop a 12 team Premier Euroleague, regardless of FIFA''s and the FA''s wishes. If the current Premier has only 4 teams that get all this money, maybe everyone else will be looking for a sustainable business plan that treats its loyal customers well, works hard to build up the next generation of fans, and most of all serves up some great FOOTBALL.

Well one answer to the FA is for all the League clubs to "resign" - declare independence. Then go back to Cardiff for the playoffs ... or is a measly 500K pound per year handoud from the Premier League / FA enough to buy them? BTW I always wonder where the heck the FA got off on declaring everyone a professional a few years back .. is that still the case ?

If Wigan were to beat Sheffield United 2-0 it won''t matter what hapens to West Ham, they would still be above Sheffield on goal difference. Prediction a 0-1 away win for Wigan and 2-0 To Man United. So West ham down on goal difference (with the administrators called in 5 minuted from full time )

Let me guess.... silence ?

Liverpool ? Liverpool aren''t recognising anything - they STARTED this whole mess! I used to respect them. but no more...

Our first promotion to the old Division One was achieved with the boys playing in RED. (1-1 draw at Watford) So its the best away strip color for me... Shame about those socks though - yuck!

Aw comm''on whats so wrong with that interview? Not like SHE said that she was a Norfolk Legand is it? A pefectly innocuous radio interview, but I guess I must be stupid or something, its all part of the Carra Rud spin machine ... The comments about the effect of money on the Premiership were dead on in my opinion.

Well Smudger can''t sack the board, nor can anyone else unless they control the majority of the shares. So unless you want to make Deila and Michael so unwelcome that they do sell up, best leave the vitriol in the bottle. The most direct action - if anyone wants to take it is a) buy up some shares, b) not buy a season ticket and stay home. But if you choose the latter, do the rest of us a favor and let those that do go get a word in? Those of us that can''t go because of distance, work, health or other reasons would appreciate that.

"I had to name the team after one o''clock on the day of the game because I didn''t know who would be fit. "That''s something I''ve never done before and hope I never have to do again because it makes your preparation difficult. "In the end, I had to choose a side of players that were fit enough to play rather than the side I would have chosen." ''NUF SAID.

Where in this whole article are the words "panacea" or woe" used? Who''s spinning? Club - er .....

If they have to pay his contract (wages) until early Summer anyway, might as well keep him as potential cover - if he ever recovers.

How about a new rule moderators? Any individual may post as many replies to a thread as they wish, but every individual is limited in the number of threads that they can start? That way, deliberately provocative posts won''t keep jumping up to the top of the list. Eveyone still has the right to unlimited posts, but no-one can hog attention.

But it doesn''t explicitly say that does it? "As for the final conundrum, if Lappin reverts to left-side midfield and Huckerby heads upfield, that four-strong midfield leaves Grant with a straight choice between sticking with Youssef Safri alongside Dickson Etuhu or give new-boy Mark Fotheringham the chance to show his worth" So it also can mean that he''ll play Safri and Fozzy .... besides I think that its becoming evident that Grant probably does know what he wants to do and is getting the players in to do that. So lets wait and see ?

Such action is probably illegal. I believe that European Community employment rules permit any EC member country resident to work in any other EC country. So you could limit non-EC players (they already need a work visa) but I think that''s it. I do think that the sooner the top 5 Superclubs break away to form their own Euroleague the better. Let them and their American owners set up their football (soccer) equivalant of the NFL in Europe, and let the rest of us enjoy competitive national leagues, the FA cup etc etc. All the advantage of the Premier League monies go to the players and agents and maybe owners anyway - its not like the majority of fans benefit from all of that money sloshing around. And while we are at it lets dump that stupid transfer window too. Maybe that''s also unenforceable under EC rules if it is tested in court.

A top class traning facility and stadium. Great City and fan base - yes, still - unproven but energetic manager, reputation for quality football - yes, still - reputation for developing top class talent - yes, still. Tarnished a bit perhaps, but still true. Frankly if you have little chance of regularly playing in the Premiership against the world''s best talent, a career at a club like Norwich, Forest, Preston, Sunderland seems like a pretty good deal to me..

So what''s the state of play on the pitch got to do with a statement that the contract sitiuation "is sorted" Its either is being managed (sounds like it is) or it isn''t. If anyone has evidence it isn''t - other than Huck''s moan - please go ahead and post it.

So they pay 5p in the pound to reduce their debt to 36m pounds. NCFC has debt of 19.2 (prepaid monies are still prepaid monies) Were is the similarilty here - what has the board done exactly?

Is it time to offer Green a contract extension?. If he''s out of contract at the end of this coming season, why not reward his loyalty to the club with an extension. Seems to me a win-win, he gets a public demonstration of support from the club, the club get security his immediate future lies with Norwich. If we don''t get promoted this year, it will ensure we get a transfer fee next Summer rather than risk an Andy Marshall like departure. At the moment I think we risk carrying him through the Autumn and then holding a fire sale in January as we can''t risk getting no fee when he''s out of contract next Summer.

As has been commented several times, on paper we have one of the most talented squads of players in this division. What we don''t apparently have is them working together as a team, playing to their individual strengths, or determined to go out and destroy the opposition with the type of attacking football we expect Norwich City to produce. I do accept that its almost impossible to reach the playoffs this year, but establishing an upper mid table position, as the form team in the division and with fresh momentum to be carried over to a push on next year should be perfectly achievable. So how could we do that? Change the management structure or wholesale changes to the staff? Fact is, like the manager, most of the key playing staff are contract, and as a result I frankly don''t think we should care what they may think about their right to leave and play elsewhere. For example, would we be better off if we had put Francis in the reserves last Summer until his head came around to the reality he was on a long term contract with Norwich? The players couldn''t possibly lose any more of their transfer value than they have so far this year as a result. And at the rate we are losing games, its doubtful the team would suffer from their exclusion. Financially, Norwich have the best support in the division, and parachute payments for this season and next. We have been told we don''t need to sell anyone, and we shouldn''t. I believe that the team has sufficient quality to overcome it''s deficiencies, but not its tactics. Green, Drury, Colin, Shackell and Doherty should be sufficiently strong to stop the goals going in. Huckerby, Aston and McKenzie are sufficiently talented to score a couple a game at the other end. That leaves three positions in the middle, and if we accept the proposition that we don''t have the necessary talent there for a playoff push this year, I don''t accept that we have so little talent in the club that we can''t organize a midfield combination that can successfully link the back four with the front three. I don''t think that we are going to do a Forest. I''m more concerned that in January we are going to complete the transition of a club that has always sought to entertain and excite into a Wimbledon. Although I''m in the USA, I suspect that there''s a reason 25,000 people turn up each week and that it isn''t to see us win or be in the Premiership (although both are undeniably nice) its to be entertained, and that''s a mixture of winning more than you are losing, and playing with skill at the same time. Right now the depressing thing is we are doing neither. Management''s responsibility is to sort that out. But selling the quality players to bring some others in that can stave off a possible relegation. Give me strength! There is enough talent in the club to pull through. My suggestion to Mr. Worthington and the rest of the management team is that they need to get tough, but not stubborn. Set out a public strategy for success - messages such as at NCFC we have principles and they are a) b) c) etc, and we are going to do that, in this timeframe. It doesn''t mean messages that we just have to work harder. People will work hard and follow leadership, when the rots sets in is when people don''t believe the direction of that leadership, or that the leader has given up. I think that is where we are at now. Either the management can get the team and the supporters united around a common set of goals, or they should step aside for someone else to assume the leadership role.