1st Wizard

I think the problem lies in the fact that people are only judging him on the fact that he isnt scoring goals. If you look at all good strike partnerships, you need one big hardworking centre forward who holds the ball up and one smaller quicker type striker who poaches goals. We have that poacher in Cureton and Strihavka and Brown are the two target men who work hard. At the moment Brown is playing the better of the two so should be in the team...Yes he has to start scoring soon but people also have to realise he is more a 10-12 goals a season striker rather than a 20-25 like Cureton!

1. Sheffield United 2. West Brom -------------------- 3. Charlton 4. Watford 5. Preston 6. Norwich -------------------- 22. Blackpool 23. Scunthorpe 24. Colchester

If you look at all transer fees for British players these days they are all over-inflated, Dyer to West Ham was called off because Newcastle upped the price to 8million! I mean how can he really be worth that much when Man City pay 4.8 million for Martin Petrov a similar player of maybe an even higher standard! This is also the case in Darren Bent who cost 16.8 million and he is not even first choice striker for England, then you have Shaun WP who was a mere 23 million! It is no wonder these days that managers would prefer to go abroad!

I think it is very unfair to say Jas that ''hooligans'' are cowards, I''m sure it takes a lot of guts to take part in some of the brawls especially back then when often weapons were used as well! Do you think it may have been the ban of terracing, which meant heightened stewarding at games that eventually led to the downfall of football ''firms''.

Do you think we are going to be getting in any new players before the game on Saturday then?

There is actually more about Norwich than I expected, I''m sure there are some people on this forum who used to partake in activites such as this.. anyone got any stories?  

I am going to stick my neck out and put us at 6th behind 1. Sheffield United 2. West Brom 3. Charlton  4. Southampton  5. Cardiff

Ahh that is what i thought, it was just I had never heard of any in Norwich.. Then again some teams who used to have bad reps were so I was told not the worst ones.. i.e. Millwall! Anyone else out there no anymore about Norwich Football Firms of years gone pastt..

That is what i was wondering, however when Grant spoke about it he did not seem too worried.. The other thing I have noticed is Grant seems to like playing Martin as a second striker who links the midfield to the attack, thwerefore could this be a possible line-up;                        Marshall    Otsemobor   Dublin   Shackell   Drury             Russell   Brellier   Lappin                         Martin                   Cureton   Brown Subs: Gilks, Spillane, Croft, Chadwick, Strihavka    

Just out of curiosity, i know it is a backdated thing now, but during the supposed ''glory'' days of football hooligans did we ''little old'' Noriwch have any kind of firm or group?

Good workk, hopefully you wil keep it going throughout the season! =)

I agree at the West Ham friendly the other night I would have to say he aswell as Chadwick and Croft were our best players.

Might as well start the first of these posts for the season seeing as all the pre-season friendlies are done now; I would guess that Grant is thinking of using a 4-4-3 formation after his comments earlier today but who do you think will play in each position? my guess is...                          Marshall Otsemobor   Doherty   Shackell   Drury         Russell   Brellier   Lappin/Fozzie            Cureton   Brown   Huckerby Subs: Gilks, Dublin, Lappin/Fozzie, Martin, Strihavka

Man United Chelsea Liverpool + F.A cup Spurs Newcastle Arsenal + Coca Cola Cup Portsmouth    West Ham Everton Blackburn Man City Middlesborough Aston Villa Fulham Sunderland Wigan Bolton Birmingham Reading Derby      

The only teams that particularly stand out as better than us for me are Sheffield United, West Brom, Charlton. I would say we are then in a pack of 7 fighting for the other three playoff positions including; Norwich, Southampton, Preston, Sheffield Wednesday, Watford, Cardiff and Stoke. I would say on paper we are better than Preston, Sheff Weds and Stoke so only time will tell if its us or Cardiff in that final spot.. That is my prediction!

On a current squad i think we need about three new players before either the start of the season or end of August and the transfer window! I would be looking for a centre back to be brought in permanentl as a first choice, someone like Sam Sodje for 750k possible.. I would then concentrate on another central midfielder, likely pairings would be Brellier or Russell with Smith or Fozzie ( who i thought played well the other night), however i do still think we need one more to provide a real class option.. maybe Bowyer on the cheap for 1 million, he would really lift the camp being an ex- top premiership player when he was at leeds! I would then sign Smith on for end of season when his loan expires in December.. Finally, I would concentrate on getting some left sided cover in maybe George McCartney on loan from West Ham and use him as cover for Drury and then Lappin as Huckerby''s cover! Your thoughts...

I am really hoping that Brellier has an absolute stormer and lives up to his no nonsense style and shows Safri what it really means to be a holding player.. someone who gets stuck in and doesnt have a game off for Ramadan or fatigue!!

This is what my table would look like if i was predicting: Charlton Sheffield United West Brom Wolves Preston NORWICH Southampton Watford Leicester Preston Stoke Sheffield Wednesday Cardiff Crystal Palace Coventry Ipswich Burnley Plymouth Hull Bristol City QPR Scunthorpe Colchester Blackpool Barnsley

Marshall Otsemobor   Baptiste   Shackell   Drury Chadwick   Etuhu   Lappin Eastwood   Strihavka   Cureton Subs: Gilks, Dublin, Huckerby, Croft, Martin

i''v noticed a lot of you are saying scunthorpe is quite far away.. in fact not much further if not the same as somwhere like coventry! i go regularly what with having family there and it can be done in 3 and a half hours on a bad day.. there are good motorway links up there aswell!

If you get the chance do Colchesters Layer Road although it is like going to a local league foootball team facilities wise the atmosphere is very good, with the Colchester fan''s singing ''welcome to layer road'' etc.. it really was quite electric and you can tell they are passionate! Another good reason is the fact that you won''t see grounds like this for a long while! I did Sheffield Wednesday and thought that was pretty damn good very traditional and also very big! What did you think to Stoke and Derby? I''m thinking of doing Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Bristol City, Wolves and Southampton next season..

surely we are playing sheffield wednesday!

Outgoings Safri (500k) grant clearly does not rate him and frustrated by injuries and fatigue, will do a good job for someone upper midtable i.e. sheffield wednesday Ryan Jarvis (100k) has failed to make such an impact at leyton orient after a brilliant start and can see him making his move there or another league one team permanent i.e. doncaster Matthew Halliday (nominal) has not made any mark on first team picture and will be got rid of to league two team i.e. rochdale or grimsby Jurgen Colin (250k) grant is obviously not a fan and will use his departure to free up funds, will go to another championship team i.e. coventry Gary Doherty (200k) terribly inconsistent and is a liability for a team challenging for play offs, will go to a newly promoted team or lower midtable team i.e. scunthorpe or hull others to be realeased: fisk, henderson, mcveigh, mlj and gallagher all on bosmans Incomings Otsemobor (free) first choice right back and will act as cover for centre backs Russel Anderson (Aberdeen 250k) experienced head at 29 years old to work beside shackell as first choice centre back partnership Lee Hendrie (free) will provide the much needed guile to the midfield along with etuhus presence Marshall (Celtic loan) season long loan as first choice with lewis as back up Kevin Nicholls (Leeds 500k) holding midfielder to replace the departed safri Luke Varney (free) young striker who made league one team of the season Squad Goalkeepers Marshall, Lewis, Arnold Defenders Otsemobor, Hughes, Cave Brown, Shackell, Anderson, Dublin, Drury, Rossi Jarvis Midfielders Croft, Chadwick, Etuhu, Hendrie, Nicholls, Fozzie, Spillane, Eagle, Lappin Forwards Earnshaw, Brown, Varney, Huckerby, Martin Starting 11 Marshall Otsemobor  Anderson   Shackell   Drury Chadwick   Etuhu   Hendrie   Lappin Earnshaw   Brown or Marshall    Otsemobor   Anderson   Shackell   Drury    Etuhu   Nicholls   Hendrie Croft    Huckerby Earnshaw      

I was watching The Championship this morning and Sunderland''s featured game, where the commentator said the attendance was just under 41,000. This is massive, bigger than all the Premiership teams apart from; Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle. Just made me wonder, if we had the stadium to accomadate that many supporters, do you think we would fill it? thoughts...

1. west ham versus millwall - just becuase of the passion of the two sets of supporters 2. newcastle versus sunderland 3. southampton versus portsmouth 4. leeds versus man u 5. scunthorpe versus lincoln