The Judge

Precisely my point PMY... Our current board have sat on their hands the last 4 seasons "hoping" that things get better while alot of us saw this situation arising a number of years ago if they stuck to the strategy they were so intent on adopting and following... Thing is if they approach people seeking investment themselves - they potentially weaken their bargaining position (i.e. the amount of control they are prepared to relinquish, and the amount they ask for their share)s, however if they wait for people to contact them they are in the position of strenght (i.e. if you want to invest it has to be on our terms, are you the right sort of person we want, you will have to stump up £xx etc etc).... If (and I state "if") the only investment strategy our board are adopting is waiting for people to contact them, then you have to question if Delia and Michael really want to sell up, or are they just looking for additional investment with them remaining in total control... Time will tell.... (and hopefully not too long to wait one way or another now..)  

Interesting that he states they are willing to speak to anyone contacting them regarding investment and doesn''t specifically mention they are actively contacting people themselves to seek investment. Probably just an oversite.....

Squit - Sensible end ? - according to who ?? you I guess. So thats the end of that debate...no need to be so defensive - and yes I will ask... Just wait until we see a quote from the Queen, the Arch Bishop of Canterbury and the Pope on the official site stating "Delia is doing such a wonderful job at Norwich the people there are so lucky to have her - God bless her". They appear to be adopting a seige mentality which tends to happen when people know they are in the wrong but want to hold onto power regardless of what anyone (dare I say the majority) says.

Though Cluck is definately at one end of the Delia out spectrum, squit you are at the other. I have never seen or read a more ridiculous press release - no one would ever have guessed it was posted on the official Norwich City site eh..! If Delia and club really believe statements like that are going to make fans feel "oh we are so lucky to have you Delia and the fact that you have financed these deals yourself is too much -you must really really love Norwich and you have so much ambition for the team it brings a tear to my eye"...absolute rubbish. As the title of this thread says - they must be worried to come out with such badly thought through drivel. As pointed out by other posters if true - this statement raised a number of questions the Board/ Doomcaster need to answer... Why have they had to finance these deals themselves ?? - we can only assume that the rest of the transfer pot has a) either been used up already or b) it is ear marked for other players to come in the next week or so. I assume b) otherwise we are in deep trouble. Is this the investment Delia was only too happy to spout off about at the Norfolk show ?? - if so whoopee doo. Hardly going to make us promotion certs is it..      I can only think that with all the job cuts at Carrow Road this summer they must have sacked everyone in the press/PR dept as what they are coming out with (or not coming out with) could have decided by and written by the cleaner. Unless of course they have employeed one of Robert Mugabe''s press team (or that bloke in Iraq who kept saying Iraq was winning the war whilst bombs were dropping all around him) it is so bad its funny..

Regardless of the facts/basis of Cullums offer or the reasons for Delia''s rationale to decline - the very sad result is that the current board have failed to come to a compromise with the 40th richest man in Britain (and one that meets all Delia''s extremely tight investor criteria to boot!). As I said on another thread yesterday - in today''s world of football who do NCFC have the best chance of future success under - Peter Cullum worth £1.7bn or Delia Smith worth £20m ? Fair enough Delia wants her money back and no-one would begrudge her that - and may be Cullum''s offer didn''t allow her to do that.  Unfortunately, and regardless of the facts, people expectations/hopes were understandably raised by this opportunity and will ultimately blame those failed to make it happen. If we have a poor start to the season, or are unable to bring in some quality signings over the next weeks/months the fingers will point. I don''t think this is over yet, infact I do believe this is another nail in the current boards coffin. Cullum, has shown his interest, regardless of his initial offer and what it entailed, people will remember this and I do feel that an agreement will  reached in the future whether this be amicable or not. Lets just hope for the future of the club its sooner rather than later and doesn''t get too nasty inbetween. As to Doncaster''s comments - sorry but every time that man opens his mouth rubbish comes out. Why should we trust Delia Smith ?? - where is this investment she so smuggly talked about at the Royal Norfolk show ?, apparently according to Delia there are no "idiots" who want to invest in championship football clubs ?? They say they are "actively" seeking investment yet what is their track record of bringing money into the club over the last 10 years ? Forgive me for not holding my breath. They constantly used the signing of Hucks as a measure of their great ambitions for this club - yet we now know that if it wasn''t for Carl Moore who helped finance the deal it wouldn''t have happened. We have been promised investment in the team year after year but have made trading profits on player activity for the last 5 seasons. NCFC have made a profit of £10.9m over the last 5 years (one of the best in the whole of England) yet our team and by default our league position has constantly got worse over the same period, whilst any money available (i.e. Premiership money) has been pumped into off field activities (therefore increasing values of shares). I could go on but I think I have proved my point. Delia etc have got to produce something, and something pretty special in the next few weeks to appease the fans - otherwise fans will turn - and unfortunately for them - rightly so in my opinion.  

Agree Branston - the vast majority of us do not know and will never know the full ''in''s and out''s'' of the offer or the conversation yesterday. However I really feel Delia & MWJ have created a very big rod for their own backs now. They have failed to come to a deal with one of the top50 richest people in the UK and a person that met all the other stupid criteria they have mentioned in the past...Success in football 99 times out of 100 is down to money - who are NCFC more likely to have success under Delia Smith with her £20m or Peter Cullum with £1.7bn ?? - sorry regardless of the rights or wrongs, type of deal on the table etc - for me there is only one answer to that question. Unfortunately it is very clear that regardless of what she says Delia likes her toy and doesn''t want to let any one else play with it - regardless of the potential for success for the team and us fans in the future. She has control and she wants to keep it - some of us with longer memories will remember that when she first came onto the board she made a catagoric statement that no-one would ever have a majority shareholding of NCFC again - but surprise surprise she has one and she is now not prepared to let it go. I appreciate it isn''t as black and white as that as it all about disposable cash, offer on the table etc, and if Cullum really loved the club surely he would invest some money without a controlling stake....?? - but some deal should have been done If we don''t get news of other "significant" investment over the next few weeks, and see some really good and exciting signings over the next month and have a good start the atmosphere against the board will be very hostile and rightly so in my opinion. Whether it is right or wrong expectations have been raised and people will want these met. We have one of the best supports in the division we deserve more success than our current board are really willing to try and get for us.

[quote user="GazzaTCC"][quote user="JohnoBono"] It has still been getting to me how the club went on about how this proved how ambitious they were, pushing out the boat to get Darren Hucherby and how it was going to make the rest of the division sit up and take notice. Whats more how Delia and Hubby paraded Huckerby on the pitch as though it was their doing that got him to the club. Then I got thinking... Whatever is/was behind it all, this was indeed still a defining moment for Nowich City. It provided the imputus to propell us onto promotion. Whats more were they pushing the boat out as far as they could at that time? It had cost good money to secure Hucks, Crouch and Harper on loan, and it was indeed a master stroke. At the same time as they signed Huckerby on full time they got in Svensson and Mckenzie. The latter two were to also have a major impact on the season. Perhapes knowning Mr Moore would bankrole Huckerby gave them the confidence to get the other players in. In hind sight to me and with due consideration it looks like good management from the board. If someone comes along and offers to finance you getting the one player you are pretty certain, and already proven capable of getting you promotion, no way are you going to turn that down. No wonder Delia and Hubby were so happy as they stood out there on the pitch with Darren Huckerby. They were starting to live the dream of what it could possibly mean for Norwich City. Bottom line the rest of the division did sit up and take notice. Huckerby had already been putting teams to the sword while on loan. They all knew what it would mean it he signed on full time because City inspired by Huckerby were heading toward the top of the table. Then Hucks put our nearest chalengers WBA in their place when he turned them down to sign for us. That again was a message of intent and a physcological victory. The rest is History as we stormed to the title.     We could do with a few more Carl Moore''s this summer. We could do with the board showing that same kind of bolness. It''s a shame they did not show it once we got promoted. As a foot note I still shudder to think what might had happened if Worthy had signed one those strikers he had been chasing at the start of that season and blown the cash. Very likely there would had been no Huckerby (Crouch & Harper) and no promotion.      [/quote] I think this sums it up perfectly. I don''t think it''s as "black or white" as the Judge makes it out to be, the fact is they made it happen and other benefits resulted from it. Are we really interested in how these things are "spun"? Do we really expect chapter and verese on every single deal we did or didn''t so? The answer for the latter has surely got yo be "No"?  [/quote] No Gazza I for one certainly don''t expect chapter and verse on every deal and also accept things aren''t as black and white as they sometimes appear...However the main trust of my original post remains and that is the cornerstone that the Board have used time and time again in defence of challenge from all corners around "lack of ambition" was the signing of Darren Huckerby -yet we now know that this would not have happened without the generosity of an outside investor - so what will they now use to answer the ambition questions ?? - hopefully this summer will tell ...  

[quote user="Mook"] [quote user="blahblahblah"][quote]I think you should actually read the article before you get on your high horse about the truth - what it actually says is ''he readily agreed to help meet the total financial cost'' - so both Carl Moore and the Board did ''invest'' and ''gamble'' on Huckerby, thank goodness.[/quote] Oh, and there was that lanky chap, forgot his name, gets an occasional game for Liverpool now, forgot his name, he agreed to play for the contents of all the buckets full of pennies collected at Carrow Road - just as well really, otherwise there wouldn''t have been enough money for more restaurants and car parks. Utter drivel that with no basis in the stark financial reality of the situation. [/quote] Why on earth would you want "stark financial reality" when we can all have a jolly good moan about how badly mis-managed we are? Anyway, I thought Moore mostly stumped up for his wages rather than transfer fee? Haven''t read the article yet, probably should ... [/quote] And here are the apologists still going strong to the last !!!  It was indeed mostly Huckerbys wages that Carl Moore stumped up the money for. What I was saying in my original post was that the board have used the signing of Huckerby on endless occasions when defending themselves against challenges around "lack of ambition" and pointing to this and taking sole credit for his signing and consequent promotion to the Premiership that this gave us. If it wasn''t for Carl Moore we wouldn''t have signed Huckerby - plain and simple. So despite having got ourselves into a fantastic position that season with the early season loan signings of Huckerby, Crouch and Harper (yes funded by the board I know before you come back at me) - with out this offer of financial assistance the board would not have taken the risk (prudence with ambition) to sign Hucks permanently - so in my book thats not ambition and the fact they have hidden behind this for the last 4 years is wrong. Take Huckerbys signing away from the last 5 years and where can you tell me the current board have shown any ambition for our football club ? Even when we got in to the Premier league (off the back of Hucks signing)  we showed no ambition to stay there - and since we have come back down - where has the ambition been to get back there ? So the ONLY thing the board have used to hang there ambition hat on - is actually untrue and it wasn''t them - its was some one elses ambition for the team he supports...basically they have been consealling the truth for their own benefit. I don''t want this to sound like its some big conspiracy theory - but as you can probably tell it just gets my goat having to lisen to Doomcaster etc, and some of you posters supporting the board around this ambition thing when it basically isn''t and wasn''t true. Appreciate you can only show ambition within the financial constriants that you have to work with - but when the money was available from the Premiership why was it invested in less risky off field activities than an ambition to have the team playing in the Premier League again ? Time for a cool beer and a lie down......  

I find this really interesting. Not the fact that Carl Moore funded the Huckerby transfer as I knew that through contacts with people who know the family, but the fact that Doomcaster has now come out and admitted it. What the Doomcaster fails to mention, or apologise for, however is the number of times both he, Mumby etc used to trot out the line that "they" invested, gambled "showed ambition" when Huckerby was signed - when it wasn''t the club at all, it was Carl Moore. So to all you board apologists who have also used this defence, when others have rightly accused the board of lack of ambition - what to you say to this now the truth is out in the open. All I say to Carl - is thanks a million fella - shame you haven''t got a few more million in the bank you could use to get a place on the board and show the current incumbants what ambition really means....  

You are wasting your time fella - i''m not against you protesting if that is the thing you want to do. However if you do, think about the following: 1. We finally have a manager and coaching team at this club which the majority of people believe is a massive move in the right direction. Hound him out and we would be back with the likes of Grant, Duffy, Worthington etc.. 2.The majority of fans know that the ONLY reason we are letting Hucks go is finances. We haven''t got enough money to keep him and undertake the massive squad rebuilding job that needs to be done. Keep Hucks and we would have to make do average players around him like the last 2 years and where has that got us ?? If you want to protest at anyone protest against the board, Smith, Doncaster, Turner etc - they are the ones who have put us in the financial situation we find ourselves and are therefore the reason why Hucks hasn''t been offered a contract....think about it, Roeder has been given a budget to work within, he needs to massively rebuild and bring in numerous quality players, we as fans have realised this and been shouting about the need for more quality for years, he has a player on £14k a week - what would you do as a manager ?? put all your eggs in one basket ? what if he is injured all next season ? 3.Fantastic player Hucks is, where have we finished in the league the past 2 seasons ? Not Hucks fault alone - its because the squad isn''t good enough - see 2 above. Don''t get me wrong I think Hucks is a fantastic player and am extremely sad/angry to see him go. He is the ONLY creative player we have in our ridiciously poor squad - BUT if you are going to protest - for gods sake protest against the right people....Yes Roeder ultimately made the decision - but if you were in his position you would HAVE to do the same, even if you didn''t want to. Keep Hucks and bring in 10 low paid "no-ones" and we have a much greater chance of being in the same situation we have found ourselves this season.  

Agree with some of what you say Branston, however the thing is how much money was invested in the catering side of the club to make that £400k profit ?? I don''t know the precise figures but I know it will have been in the £millions Same with all the other off field investments - yes they will provide much needed incremental revenue over the years to come, but what we have seen over the last 4 / 5 seasons is that any monies generated from the Premiership and player sales has gone to these ventures rather than the team - and we have all seen where this has got us this season - the brink of relegation. So what do we have now as a club ? Great stadium and facilities, restaurants making £400k, but no money in the bank and no player assets to cash in on to invest in future squad building. How many players is £400k going to get you ? I''m not saying to invest in off- field activities is the wrong thing to do - but to spend the vast majority of income on these projects in such a short period of time, at the expense of the team, i believe has been our undoing. These decisions would have been conscious decisions made by those with the power to make them and therefore they need to be held responsible. If after making these off field investments they no longer have the wealth to make the necessary and required investments in the team to give the fans (and the stadium) the standard of football they deserve, then they (in my view) need to step aside and invite those that do take over. Otherwise all the off- field investment would have been a waste of money as the income generated by these will be directly impacted by the success (or lack of) the team on the pitch.  

[quote user="Polar"] i know they are hate figures and all, and there is an element of failure in what they have done. BUT didnt they back Grant last season? how many did he bring in? just because most of them were pretty rubbish isn''t the boards fault but more like the managers. Whose to say they won''t back Roeder like they did Grant?   chorus of "you don''t know what you''re doing" would be hilarious however, someone film it please. [/quote] Thing is though Polar this is same line the board trot out aswell - what they, and it seems you and other forget is - how many did they let leave or get rid of  last summer ? Well i''ll tell you - we actually brought in fewer than we let out, whilst making a profit in the process (i.e. Earnshaw £3.5m and Etuhu £1.5m to name just 2). So yes they could have pocketed all the transfer fees and given none to Grant - but to say they fully backed him last summer is just plain wrong, just like they haven''t invested in the team the last 4 summers (and winters for that matter) - and don''t use another piece of board spin saying we brought Earnshaw for £3.5m didn''t we ? - we only brought Earnshaw when we had sold Ashton for £7.5m - so another nice profit there. Personally I think we all should sing the chant - as it would be excellent and give a clear indication that we aren''t prepared to accept the same again - if he doesn''t like it - he could always resign....

[quote user="McCanary"] Two more words....Your opinion!!   Whilst everyone  (including me) is entitled to an opinion on this, I`m getting a bit tired of speculation being presented as fact. [/quote] Agree McCanary - but this speculation is just a valid as that from posters who say money is available and will be spent in the summer. Howver as I have said on another thread, recent history suggests this speculation is more accurate than some would like to believe.

Sorry Blah agree with what you are saying and really hope you are right - but I don''t share your optimism. The money we have made on players in the past has been used for other purposes such as paying installments on the outstanding loans for off field investments, office reburbishments, roads etc - these debts still exist and need to be serviced. We will also be getting less in season ticket revenues next year which will have to be budgeted for - and where will the money for that come from ? Personally I don''t agree with the season ticket pricing policy as this to me gives a sign of little or no ambition - appreciate the club wants the ground full - but who is to say it wouldn''t still have been full if the prices all around the ground when up alittle. If they stated the money was going to be used to strengthen the squad then i''m sure people would be willing to renew regardless. I''m also very sceptical regarding the Turners. Surely by now they would have invested significantly if they were going to. Basically they have both got themseleves a place on the board for the amount of interest they would have got on their £2m if they had invested it elsewhere. They have given a £2m LOAN. Working in the financial services industry I know their business will have been severely effected by the sub prime loan market collapse. I hope I''m wrong but I don''t see them as the financial saviours of our club going forward.  Life is full of optimists and pessimists, however as stated in my original post - history with our board would show i''m a realist.

Well the transfer window has now closed and we have secured the services of 4 new young loanees and exended Ched Evans loan until the end of the season. I am not dissappointed with these young players that we have bought in as they will provide competition for places, cover for injuries and suspensions, and who knows we might be able to tempt one of them to sign permantly in the summer. We are all but safe, and with these loanees should secure our championship survival, which taking into to consideration our position in November is a fantastic achieve by Glenn and the players. January prices are ridiciously over inflated (in a world where all average players are over valued all the time) and the fact that only a few players are available just pushes the prices higher and higher - the power is with the selling club, agents and players.  Pressumably those of you who are now saying we will rebuild and spend in the summer are the same people who said "judge the board at the end of the january transfer window". I''m sure Doomcaster and Mumbles will be saying the same as season ticket renewals loom ever closer - the same people that were saying all of the money from the sales of Earnie, Etuhu, Ashton, Green, McKenzie etc etc would be put in to the managers transfer kitty. Do you trust and believe these people ? What concerns me is that we are all now assuming there will be money to spend in the summer - to me this is a very big assumption if the same board is in place. How many times over the past 4 seasons have all of us hoped for signs of ambition only to be let down every single time. What GR has done in this transfer window is absolutely right IF, and ONLY if we have the money to strengthen in the summer - but forgive me about being sceptical on this as history would suggest we will be let down again. I will renew my season ticket, in hope that we do have money to spend and strenghten, as this is my club, my team, and without hope you might as well not bother. But unlike others i won''t take this as a "given" as I have been let down by the incompetence of our board time and time again. Who knows how much money we will have to spend ? I don''t, you don''t, all I know that it is relatively easy to manipulate and move money around within an organisation to make the accounts look different to what they are. History and comments from our board make me feel there will be less than we want and need to push forward. A pessimistc view I know but I believe more realistic than those of you who are already banking on the fact there will be a magical pot of cash for GR to spend in the summer. What will make me optimistic for the future of our club, is the news of new investment in the club, a shake up at board level with new ambitious people with a real determination and desire to push for promotion - not people that spend on infrastructure and off field activities and HOPE the team produces. Thats the difference, we as fans hope for success, those on the board have the power to deliver it - if they can''t they must (as Richard Balls and numerous others, including myself) move aside and let people who can take over.

I also tend to agree that we have little or no money to spend. However if Roeder is unable to get the players he wants with the little money he has, then he is right not to pay over inflated Jan prices for average players. I do however feel disappointed in that we are having to resort to reserve team loans. I bet the board are rubbing their hands that Roeder & Clark have worked miracles and got us in to the league position we have, because if they hadn''t they would have been under significantly more pressure to get the players in that would keep us up - and our transfer budget (or lack of it)  would have become very transparent indeed. Yet now they will get the spin masters out in force over the next few weeks with season ticket renewal looming large, saying that the players we wanted were unavailable, to expensive in the january window, etc etc and give us the promise and hope of good signings in the summer. This may be true - but how many times over the past 4 / 5 seasons have we all looked forward to the transfer windows with hope that the board will finally change their colours and invest in the quality needed only to be let down and disappointed time and time again. This is my worry for the summer aswell. No doubt those on this forum who said "wait until the end of Jan before you start having a go" will now take in the spin from the club and look forward to the summer for all those fantastic signings we will make then. One thing we now know for sure is that the Turners aren''t prepared to invest significant amounts of cash - otherwise they would have done it by now. We have seen absolutely no improvement in our transfer fund since their involvement and money from the sales of players both in the summer and now seems to have gone to the same place as other transfer income in the past despite the fact their £2m LOAN was there to ensure no players had to leave !! I am in no doubt that the issues with sub prime loans and the financial impacts on the success of their business has to be taken in to consideration - but a £2m LOAN for a place on the board of one of the top 30 football clubs in England is a joke. Basically all they are foregoing for a place on our board is the interest they could have got on their money if they had invested it somewhere else - not bad eh.! New investment is vital for NCFC to move forward and if they can''t/won''t give it, they need to move aside a let someone who is. Lets not kid ourselves, if Roeder and Clark don''t get the funds and backing they deserve - they will go. Other clubs will see what they have achieved at Norwich and the calls will come in. Perhaps them leaving is the only thing that will make some realise the board are fundamentally the thing that is holding our club back. Investors are out there, Derby have yet again proved this to be the case, yet we don''t get a sniff because of the entrenched views our board hold true.  Still we can all look forward to the summer when we will see the money being spent can''t we...............  

Sorry Ridgeman - going to have to take you up on this one. Agree hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing but successful businessmen are paid alot of money to make the right decisions - and they are judged by looking back at the those decisions and the subsequent success or failure of there businesses. Hindsight is everything and is the only way anyone will be judged a success or failure. I guess Gerald Ratner wishes, "in hindsight", hadn''t said his companies products were a load of tat. I guess, "in hindsight", the board at ENRON who are now in jail for fraudulent activity wish they had over inflated the value and performance of their business....and there are many more examples i could give. Let me turn this round on you - what good decisions has Doncaster made that we can look back at and say that was the right thing to do. In Nov we were adrift at the bottom of the league, £17m in debt, a squad worth vertually nothing due to the fact it had been consistently weakened through player sales over the past 3 seasons, we had used up all our premier cash and parachute payments on infrastucture developments, and were basically skint. The crowds are consistently the best in the league and better than alot of premier teams yet we have been sold short season after season through spin and talk of ambition. The team (the life blood of any football club) had been consistently been left to fester in some dark corner of Carrow Road like some annoyance to the board, whilst any available monies had been used for land purchases, corner infills, roads, office refurbishments, loan repayments etc. Now in my book being CEO of NCFC and taking a salary in the region of £170k, i expect someone to make the right decisions for the club and the team. A football club can only be judged on the success of the team - when we hit bottom that, for me, was exactly what Doncaster and our board deserved for the decisions they, and only they had taken. OK they have now redeemed themselves abit in appointing GR, and in this man they have someone who, given the backing, could rebuild the fortunes of our club. Key is here that he must be given the backing, if through their past decisions we don''t have the finances to do this I can see GR moving on sooner rather than later, unless we get new investment. Doncaster & the board in my view have made appaulling decisions for our team and as CEO Doncaster is the one that should be held responsible. In any other business he would have been out of a job long ago - yet we keep him.!!    

[quote user="Attack Barclay 2nd Half FFS"]Look use your brains. All the "where''s the money gone" brigade take note too...... When clubs know you have money because you''ve been gobbing off about it (Scum & QPR for example) the they are going to lay hardball to get tha money off you. Fortunately our board are a little smarter. By not disclosing the amounts available the other clubs involved have to play a much more cautious game. There has always been money available... thanks to the board. its just very basic, very obvious business sense to keep your cards close to your chest. Very very simple As for "and why didn''t he spend just 250k more to get Taylor?"...... Roeder put a valuation on hoim and thats that. Its nota question that the club doesn''t have the £250k, its that Roeder does not wish to exceed the valuation. Quite right too. £250k is a lot of money. I sincerely hope we dont give it to Brady [/quote] Hope you are right - we will only see for sure at the end of the transfer window. Personally and I hope i''m wrong - I actually don''t think we have too much to spend. The sale of Lewis, an up and coming talented keeper backs this up - especially as he was sold rather than asking for a move. Too me this looks like GR is having to sell before he can buy - not the sign of a club with a significant amount to spend this January. I guess - and it is a total guess, that we don''t have more than £1m to play with (left over from the sales of Earnie and Etuhu in the summer) - this has now been enhanced £400k by the sale of Lewis. GR is looking to enhance this further with the sales of players like Brown and Murray. Gallagher has already gone, saving a wage (replaced by Pattison or Camera loan wages). This is why we haven''t increased our bid for Taylor - we can''t afford to with the other players GR wanted (Pattison included). As others have said, its all very well being linked with players, buying them is another matter. I am sorry for being pessimistic but the board have let us down time and time again, they have spent their money but primarily on infrastructure rather than the squad, there is not alot left in the kitty - unless the Turners, or another investor is prepared to put their hands in their pockets

If we do sell in my opinion its a clear sign we don''t have too much in the kitty for purchases this transfer window. We are obviously trying to raise funds before we can purchase/extend loans. £400k for a one of our very very few promising youngsters doesn''t seem good business to me. Where are Mr & Mrs Turner ? Where is the remainder of the £5m Earnie/Etuhu transfer fees that "went straight in to the managers kitty" at the start of the season ? Interesting questions eh - will we get an answer ? - I guess not...but then again it is nearly season ticket renewal time. I can see this deal going through to fund the purchase of Taylor - the board and Glenn Roeder will see this as the short term imperative - however what it shows to me is the sorry state our board have got this club into in that we have to sell one of the countries biggest goalkeeping prospects for £400k. I''m sure Roeder given the choice would have wanted to keep him - but in the circumstances you can understand why he may be forced to let him go.     

The unwillingness, or inability, to sign Taylor is the first indication that the Turners will not be the force that alot of people - including myself - hoped they would be. OK we don''t know the details of the deal, we don''t know what other players Roeder has on his shopping list for January - we will only know that on 1st Feb. What we do know however is that the fee was around £1m and the player wanted by all accounts to come here. The only thing we would have been negotiating with Birmingham on is the fee - the players wages would be between us and him/his agent. So it looks like we weren''t prepared to pay £1m for a central defender, who we have been been looking for - for over 4 seasons, and one that wanted to come here aswell (so none of those crap excuses about the difficultly to get the player or mrs to come to Norwich). Dissappointing to say the least. Roeder will be dissappointed to - as he was making all the right noises about wanting to keep the player here. Welcome to the mad world of NCFC Glen - i hope you aren''t as principalled as Martin O''Neil and walk when you don''t get hardly anything in Jan - a time when prices will be even more inflated ! I still hope they will prove me wrong - but the early signs aren''t encouraging.   

Whats wrong with the statement today Nutty is that the mood in and around the club is one of renewed optimism, we at last appear to have a manager, and coaching team with the ability to get us playing good football and winning games. Aswell as having the contacts and the pulling power to get players here that wouldn''t have given us a thought over the past 2 or 3 seasons. I''m actually looking forward to going to games again. So what does this PR disarster of a man do - he puts a huge dampener on everyones optimism. In our heart of hearts we knew, that without significant new investment this was likely to be case (we still hope theat the Turners will show their hand), but we didn''t need it rammed down our necks ! - Why did he have to say anything ?, why when the board must know they are still on a very thin ice with alot of supporters does he have to re-emphasise they aren''t going to change the way they have run the club over the past years (and look where that got us !). Investment in players means success on the pitch, that is blatently clear with our results over the past months. It is success on the pitch that each and every supporter yerns for. This board have got it wrong big time over the past 4 years, investing the majority on income we had in off field activities, whilst systematically investing less and less in the team - and where did that get us - the bottom of the championship and looking certainties for relegation. Yet what does Doncaster do in his article today ? he tries to justify their strategy, by once a again comparing us those clubs on the brink of administration. They let the club get into such a perilious position in the league they were forced into taking drastic action to remedy the situation and they must be congratulated for there appointment of Roeder and making the funds available for the loan players. What they must not be allowed to do is think that everything is going to be alright again a go back into their little hole called prudence, because we will be back in the same position again sooner rather than later. If they don''t back Roeder in January and the summer, i can see him taking the same route as Martin O''Neill - and who would blame him.    The man is a muppet

I read with interest some of the comments made by the "billionaire" that is in discussions with Coventry over a possible take-over and would be interested in peoples views. Two quotes from him are;" I''m a film maker and football is not my first love but apparently its a fine club" and, "I''m told its a sleeping giant and a good opportunity, so we are talking". From these statements it is clear that this guy knows nothing about Coventry City at all and does even think too much of football, however it is clear that he wants to invest in football clubs (he already has stakes in other clubs). He more than likely has people work in the UK looking for potential investment opportunities in Football and these people have recommended Coventry to him. Based on Delia''s / our board''s previous comments we would not even entertain the thought of this "billionaire" investing in Norwich. It also further rubbishes their comments about no-one wanting to invest in Championship football clubs. Do you as supporters of NCFC think we should be looking to talk to these type of investors ? My opinion (for what its worth) is absolutely YES. Football is a money game and it is those with money that 99 times out of 100 succeed. If the Turners do indeed deal out the cash we all hope they have, then great, if not we need to get it from somewhere. The foundations are there at this point in time for someone to take this club to the next level. i.e. the infrastructure (for which the current board need to be recognised) and I believe the management team. But do you believe that the current board have the cash and ambition to do it ?    

No they have not be right Ben. It is blatently clear for everyone to see in the last few games, and since the appointment of Roeder, an experienced Manager, with his own back room staff, and the introduction of some decent loan signings, that investment in the team brings results on the pitch. Simple really and its no coincidence. You get what you pay for and you deserve what you get if you are not prepared to pay. Until the appointment of Roeder the board have been incompetently "hoping" (and how many times have we heard them trot out that word) that they could get away with spending the minimum on the more riskier football side of things whilst investing as much money they had available into "safer" infrastructure developments - and they haven''t got away with it - they got exacly what they deserved a team at the bottom of the championship heading for relegation. We are now in a position through this incompetence (and yes it is incompetence) that they are going to have to spend more money on getting the club out of this hole than they would have if they had consistently invested over the past 4 years. January will be a very telling time for this board, will the Turners step up to the mark, will the board throw footballing prudence out of the window an invest in the team, or will we let all the loan players go back and try to struggle on to the end of the season and "hope" we stay up ??? All questions i''m really looking forward to getting an answer to.  

[quote user="Coelho"][quote user="ricky knight"] A rest from what a few comments on a forum. There should be Delia out chants and demos imo, that woman and her muppets are killing OUR club. I really dont believe some peoples mentality, The acceptance of whats happening at City is really pxssing me off, for God sake show some fight and passion, save our club. [/quote] We mightn''t have a club to kill if it wasn''t for Delia and Michael, and people would do well to remember that. I''m not defending the board''s actions in recent years, and I definitely think it''s time for fresh investment (preferably from someone with prior experience of running a football club, irrespective of which team they may support), but they have invested about £9m of their own money into the club over the years. Where would we have been without that money in the wake of the ITV Digital collapse, and with average attendances in the 15,000 region after relegation in 1995? They only have themselves to blame for the stick that they''re getting now due to the continued failure of the ''prudence with ambition'' model (how they must be regretting ever using those words now!), but people are talking like their sole intention right from the start was to destroy the club. If it does turn nasty and we end up with protests and demos against the board then so be it, but a revolt from thousands of angry fans hardly makes us a more attractive investment proposition, does it? If nobody will buy Delia and MWJ''s shares, what happens then? [/quote] "they have invested about £9m of their own money" - probably about the right amount Coelho. Issue is however they "loaned" this money to NCFC, and if you haven''t noticed by reading the accounts over the past few years they have how converted these loans to shares. So in the event of them selling - they will get ALL there money back. Now i''m not saying this is wrong or unfair - but please don''t for one minute think Delia Smith has put ANY money into this club she won''t get back.

Jas - I agree to a certain degree we have purchased generally poor players over the past 3 years - but you can only buy certain quality with the money that has been made available. We do need to strengthen and quickly to get out of the hole we are in - the board have let the squad deteriorate to such an extent that they are now going to have spend more money than they would have had to if they had kept the team up to strength with the purchase of better players over the past few seasons - but its their fault and I have no sympathy for them at all. As I have said numerous times - they got us into this hole and they need to get us out - if they can''t move aside and quickly to give someone the chance to do it. But lets not get too carried away. Watford were by far the best team we have played this season, they were stronger and quicker than us all over the pitch. They will walk this league if they stay clear of injuries. The gap between them and the majority of other championship teams is the same as we saw last night. We have played so much better in the last two games than we have all season, and alot of last season and the season before aswell. Appreciate we didn''t threaten too much last night and the second Watford goal was poor defending/keeping, but at least we gave it a go in the second half, scored a goal, showed some determination and put some good moves together. Agree we definately do need strengthen and we are nowhere near a top 6 side - but to say we are too poor for the Championship if (and its a big if) we play like we have the last 2 games we are good enough.