canarydan23

Do you think? Yaya Toure didn't do a huge amount in the final third, Bellingham is all about the final third. He will probably surpass 50% of Toure's career goal total by the end of this season aged only 20.

McLean fluffed one first half as well.

Nunez is looking better and better.

Bamford ran from in front of him, right in his vision, straight past him, and he still looked shocked he was there. Unbelievably bad.

There are only two possible conclusions I can draw from this post; you haven't seen the goal or you aren't using the word scapegoating correctly. He very nearly cost us a second goal.

Such a shame, but for defending that would embarrass a grassroots U10s team from Shane Duffy, we'd have got a deserved point there.

Duffy is so ****. That was absolutely pathetic.

That's weird; despite not having any empirical evidence, just using tidbits and logic, I knew with a reasonable degree of certainty that you weren't going to answer. It's almost as if you can get a good idea of something without having all the data to hand...

I think Gibson had been utter **** since our promotion season, but even I accept he put in a blinder at the weekend.

Gun to your head, shot dead if you're wrong, who are you saying has the 4th highest wage bill in the Championship?

I doubt the numbers are correct, but I'd be willing to bet heavily that the top 5 and the order are correct.

If only no one watched illegal streams and paid for Canaries TV instead, we'd have loads to spend.

Ah, so you believe we spent a huge sum by our standards on a backup and the fact he regularly started with Pukki in the same XI was never part of the plan?

That's called a strawman. At least you included a question mark at the end of it. They failed to spend adequately to achieve their goal of Premier League survival and Josh Sargent was a big part of that failure. That doesn't mean I'm hating on the guy, that doesn't mean I think he's cr@p, that doesn't mean that he won't turn into a club legend. It means exactly what I've said. The money we spent on him was wasted money in the goal of immediate EPL survival. The idea that Webber and the club sanctioned over £8 million on Sargent thinking, "Oh, he'll suck this season, but then he'll have an ok-ish season in the Championship before looking like a great player for the level below the one we're currently at" is lunacy. I'm not entirely sure why saying this is a reason for people to get their pants all twisted, but then we are on the PinkUn.

Was anyone reacting to that? Sounds to me like your applying a twisted perspective. Personally, I was only responding to this; "It’s almost like the professionals at the club know more than the posters on this forum. Weird." Can't see much celebrating one of our own's recent achievements and trajectories in that comment, but hey ho. No one really made any negative comment until that was posited. It's almost like negativity breeds negativity.

"The only signing they did do well with, as mentioned, was Gunn. And that was because he was almost certainly signed with an eye on the future and not to achieve that elusive aim of Premier League survival." That was literally in a quote tweet to you. And you're now telling me that was spent almost 20% of our transfer budget on a backup player? That's either a stupid strategy or not true; given the fact that he featured in every game he was fit for bar 4, and the vast majority of his appearances were starts, it would strongly indicate that "not true" is the correct conclusion. Even I don't think Webber was stupid enough as to make our third most expensive signing in our most expensive ever transfer window a backup player. And I think he's pretty stupid. He was a key arrival in a transfer window that was meant to help us survive in the EPL. We came nowhere near achieving that aim. There's no twisted perspective there, it's just facts. The fact that it doesn't gel with YOUR perspective should tell you something. Put it this way; with the benefit of hindsight, knowing what would happen after that god-awful summer of recruitment, would Webber have signed Sargent?

I'm happy to concede on that. It was Webber's fault.

Exactly, I love the bloke now, and like you believe we would be top 6 right now if he had stayed fit. But he was signed to contribute to a Premier League season and was never, at that stage of his career, able to do that. Therefore in the context of the reason he was signed, it was a failure.

He was signed to contribute to a campaign that was meant to lead to Premier League survival. He was never equipped with the skills needed to achieve that. I'm not speculating, I'm not applying any pre-conceived prejudice, I'm just stating facts. That shouldn't fry anyone's mind.

Eh? RvW never played in the Championship. Ditto Hooper?! He averaged better than 1 in 3 for both us and Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship and at S****horpe managed 19 goals in 35 appearances. He was absolutely not rubbish at this level. Naismith certainly crashed and burned whilst he was with us, but again, the idea he was "completely average for Hearts" is another nonsense. He was their top scorer and player of the season in his first full season there and following on from that went on to become the captain and whilst he was involved in a relegation, stuck around to help get them back to the Scottish Premier. I've no idea where the idea that he was "completely average for Hearts" comes from, but it's not from any Hearts fans.

Certainly, but it still wouldn't alter the fact that he's fulfilling his backup, worst case scenario objectives. He was signed by a team with the aim of keeping us in the EPL and was woefully ill-equipped to achieve that aim. Ok, the price we paid for him does not make that a given, but the fact that we paid a similar amount for another flop so could have pooled the cash and bought someone much more likely to do something at that level makes any praise for the recruitment team that season very misplaced. The only signing they did do well with, as mentioned, was Gunn. And that was because he was almost certainly signed with an eye on the future and not to achieve that elusive aim of Premier League survival.

Even if you're right, spending the best part of £10 million on a player who turns out to do well in the Championship isn't something particularly worthy of praise. Whilst spending 8 or 9 million on a player is far from guaranteed to get you a player who will perform in the EPL, spending that amount on a player who flops in the Championship would be a pretty catastrophic failure.

The professionals who signed Sargent to keep us in the Premier League and never intended for him to be playing for us at this level?

I'm starting to get mildly concerned that I'm due to be on a Greek island during the playoff final...

No, sounds like he's on yours.