gazban

Supposedly Ashton went to the board after the Watford game and said he definitely wanted to go. As he watched the game he must of realised what he already knew. He was surrounded by a poor team that have just blown any chance of going up. Who can blame him wanting to go! The board would also have seen we have no chance with the current set up and rather than pay a fortune in his wages and risk a lower fee in the summer decided to cash in aswell. I think the Watford game was the crossroads for NCFC. A win and good performance and maybe it would of been easier to keep him. Instead we have lost our best player and  any chance of promotion. We will slip into mid-table mediocrity.

OK squad. Dont think so!

I agree loan signings are not ideal, but theScott Parker loan probably saved NCFC. If I remember correctly we won the 4 games he and danny granville played in, which saved us from relegation as Worthy probably wouldn''t have recovered those points.  Also when they left it showed how crap the rest of the squad were and hamilton soon quit. Correct me if  I''m wrong. 

Ity hasn''t stopped him in the past salopian. He has always preferred to buy strikers than any other position, but your right I dont think we need another striker, but definitely a right winger.

he was never even remotely going to sign for us. He would want prem games and he s getting £32000 a week at Brum.  Give me a young hungry striker like Leon or Ashton thanks. In fact why are we even looking for another striker when we have a dross midfield?

I would like to agree, but a player with energy and running about do not get you promoted and make it extremely difficult to fit into a team. You have to admit his passing and control of the ball is poor and how do you play measured football (like we used to) when your team mate is all over the place. I dont think its a coincidence that Reading are doing better without him and we do worse when he is in the team.

Though I would hate to see ashton go our squad is far too small at present. Presumably this is how we have been able to keep the better quality players like Ashton, but with that you need to have everyone around your stars to be at least competent. Unfortunately we haven''t been able to do that with the likes of Brennan, Hughes and others who are sicknotes.  Look at the successful teams such as Reading and Sheff utd this season,  reasonable size squads with no stars such as Ashton or Huckerby but flying high. Having top quality players are what the club should be aspiring too, but I dont think that should be done with out a strong squad around them. Problem is Worthy has got his stars, Ashton, Huckerby, Green etc and some good supporting players Safri, Docherty, Drury, but after that the well begins to run dry. My one worry is that he''ll get the cash for Ashton and blow it.

Please Please Please let this be the last kick of a ball by Brennan at Norwich. He was worse than hopeless today and I cant believe he hasn''t been mentioned. Yes there are some worryingly poor new arrivals at the club, but he has never had a decent run in the team and when he gets an opportunity he flops. Why wasn''t he ditched long ago!   

I believe the reported 7.5 m asking price will make most of the prem teams baulk at buying him.  Only one of the big 6 have that kind of money to spend on 1 player apart from Newcastle who will want to replace shearer, but I wouldn''t expect them to make a move until the end of the season when Shearer retires (if?). They''ll also be wanting a small pacey forward now Owens injured.

We''ll see what sort of manager he is when Hughes is fit again. If he continues to play him we''ll not make the play offs!

I must agree with northern canary we have had that problem for most of the 2 years. Apart from Kevin Harper and Kevin Cooper we have not had a proper winger. I presume johnson was brought in to do that job, but just huffed and puffed. It is our biggest weakness I believe and with Huckerby only now starting get back to his best after a rollicking by the crowd and worthy it has been the main reason why Ashton has not been scoring.  Please Please Please Mr Worthington buy a proper right winger for once instead of keep putting in players who cant play there. It might even save your job!

I must agree the squad is too small, which also means there is less competition for places. The biggest problem I can see is that we are overloaded with the same positions and have nobody in others. We have at least 3 left and 3 right full backs, 4 goalkeepers, 3 left wingers and loads of forwards. But we have no proper right winger and only 3 proper centrehalfs, plus a very makeshift midfield. Worthy must sort this problem out in Jan, get rid of Brennan and Charlton,who are simply not good enough,and bring in a couple of right wingers, a Davenport and another quality midfielder as the ones there at the moment are worringly poor. Or perhaps if he played rossi a bit more he may not need too.