10 Bryceland

Am I mistaken or was Gunn the Head of Player Recruitment prior to being manager?  Is so then doesn''t some of the responsibility for the players signed or loaned belong to him? Having said that although I did not want him for our manager now that we have got him we should all back him to the hilt next season.

A good attempt to provide a reasoned perspective.  All the clubs quoted as doing better than us, Preston and Burnley for example, are enjoying success now. But over the years they have also had lean periods.  Look at the number of clubs that have been in the top league and are now struggling.  Oxford, Luton, Bradford could all have been quoted as examples of success at one time.  Enjoy success when you get it but be prepared for the hard times.  Having a wealthy backer and throwing money at a club does not guarantee success either.  Man City and Newcastle spring to mind  in this category.  QPR haven''t set the world alight yet either and they now have very wealthy backers.  The board have made mistakes in appointing managers but what club hasn''t?  Can anyone realistically draw up a specification for the next manager to guarantee success?  Same with the board.  What are the criteria for their replacement?  We have been assured that we are not in danger of folding and going into administreation.  As long as this remains true then the board have had some success and may be seen to be more realistic than many give them credit for.  Should this change then the board really will have lost all credibility.  They may have made poor decisions on the managemer side but I believe they have backed their appointments as best they could.  Hindsight is wonderful but constructive support is much harder.  So...... Give me  specifications for successful board and manager and then match candidates to that spec. Or carry on ranting without responsibility.  It may be good for the soul but the time for anger and hurt is over.  We now all need to work together for the future.  

We are one of 12 clubs to be relegated this year, once the First Division (aka the premier league) is settled.  Fans of all these clubs will be going through the same pain as ourselves and calling for the boards to resign, clear out players etc.  There is no doubt that our board has made mistakes but they are the board we are stuck with until someone else comes along.  I do not hear anyone saying I wish to join the board or put some money into the club.  If we wish to change the board we will need a viable option to fill the void.  The whole of Norfolk and beyond must know by now the depth of our sorrow and anger but when we protest in whatever fashion let us be constructive and offer alternatives and suggestions for the way forward.  The club will not go into administration and has a sounder financial base than most.  This is a start.  We need to go forward and use our meagre resources well.  Therein lies the problem.  Football does not come with any guarantees.  Managers, experienced or rookie, rearely meet with continued unqualified success.  Players come with glowing reputations and fail to live up to them.  Whatever direction the club goes in will be a gamble.  For my own part the management team assesmbled by Bryan Gunn tried and failed.  The standard of play, attitude,and performance did not improve over the course of 19 games.  As head of recruitment in the Roeder era Gunn must have had an eye on possible players.  However almost without exception the players he brought in on loan flattered to deceive and failed to live up to early promise.  Some failed even to display early promise.  The constant tinkering with players and positions continued to the extent that yesterday the best central defensive partnership available was broken with disastrous results.  The management team see the players in trainng, we must make our minds up during matches and as such the choice of players, positions. tactics and substitutions made defy my understanding. We must go forward.  There will never be universal agreement over managers and players but whatever the future holds for us let us back the club to the hilt.  If no-one comes forward to replace or join the board we must abide by their choice.  Come July I wich for us all to be united in support of our club.  Let''s not destroy ourselves but work to a common and glorious future.  Lets start with those willing to join or replace the board and work from there.  Any names please?

I stayed and I clapped despite my previous feelings on the subject.  I did this initially out of respect for Bryan Gunn.  He came out first and walked around alone. Whether this was to take the flak form the fans who were left and deflect it from the players I don''t know.  I just feel this was a brave action.  I also clapped the players because we are not down yet and I need to feel I did everything I could for the club.  The time for reflection will be at the final whistle Sunday.  We, the supporters, are the club so lets get behind it until then.  After that well ....

As tonight is the last home game I am assuming that, whatever the result, the players and staff will lap the pitch with a banner thanking us for our support this year.  Unlike previous years I do not feel like standing around and clapping them as they go past.  I fee totally let down by the players.  I would like to leave immediately.  I have never, and will never, boo a City player during a game but feel my disapproval of their attitude and performances over the season should be recorded.  However, I believe we will still have a good chance of avoiding relegation after tonight.  So what do I do?  Should I disappear immediately after the game and leave them to it or should I grit my teeth and applaud them in the hope of inspiring them on Sunday.  And speaking of Sunday, do we applaud them after the game when we HAVE avoided relegation?

I cannot disagree with your statement but there it stops.  How about looking to the future and being positive?  We may have made a profit in past years but it has been swallowed up by inflation and the circus that is professional football today.  The best that can be said if our assests are that we own the ground and training area and have facilities that are the envy of most clubs in any league. That must count for something.  How about constructive suggestions about how to attract new income or a new board.  The  current board have made managerial decisions that have not worked out.  So did Robert Chase, Arthur South, Geoffrey Watling etc.  My understanding is that whenever a new manager is appointed various apparently knowledgeable footballing persona are canvassed for advice and opinion.  The fact is this has not given us managers that have been successful.  Blame the current board by all means but at least offer a way forward for the current or future board to go about appointing a manager who will guarantee success.  After that can you supply the appointed manager with a shopping list of affordable players who will regularly perform to the standard required.  Or a list of players not to sign?  I am appalled by our current plight but also realise that football by it''s very nature is unpredictable and success cannot be guaranteed or sustained.  Success tends to go in cycles and even the so called top clubs have had periods of decline.  After all ''big'' club Newcastle, with all their loyal support fantastic finances etc are facing relegation.  And this after having Rpeder, Keegan, Allardyce, Wise, Kinnear and now Shearer as managers.  See it could be worse.

Could you please clarify what ''funds'' the board have starved management of.  Where is that money being held?  Does it appear in the balance sheet?  If there are funds why do we lose money every year and remain millions of pounds in debt?  The reason we are where we are is that a succession of managers have failed to assemble a squad of players that are capable of winning more games than losing.  The players are the ones who ultimately hold the key to our fortunes.  Despite the odd collective and individual ly good performance the players this year have not been good enough to consistently perform to the standard expected of NCFC.  The board need help until such time as a viable alternative appears.  I do not see that alternative at the moment.  The number of season ticket renewals shows support for the club, not the board.  Unlike Charlton we are not relegated.  Let us all support the club in the next two matches and after that if anyone wishes to replace the board then work towards that by giving us all details of who are the genuine contenders.

So give us the names of the people who will put money in the club, the name of the manager who will buy the players, and the names of the players who will guarantee success for us.  The beauty and the pain of football is that nothing is certain.  To criticise is easy but to offer credible solutions is harder.  The board may have made mistakes in appointing managers but what board haven''t.  They have left the playing side to the managers for better or worse.  So come on then give us names we can agree on, thrill to, and give us success in the poisoned chalice that is the Premier League.

Crystal Ball time again.  At the end of the season re-visit your prdictions and see how many you got right.  If you are right in the majority of cases the you have a right to make the comments in the bullet points.  If you are wrong then admit that there are no certainties in football and that with the best will in the world you need to be in the right place at the right time and have luck on your side.  The bullet points you make are made continually by posters of every club in the land.  At the end of the day if your income does not cover your wage bill all the transfer money in the world will not keep you solvent.  Nobody invests in a club these days without strings attached.  We may be in trouble but football is goes in cycles.  We may be down but we are not out.  Instead of being negative lets get positive and tell the world what we are going to do to help the club in our time of need.  I don''t like our position but I will be there this year and next year come what may.

Does open-ness mean agreeing with every conspiracy theorist or telling it like it really is?  Football in general has no money and those who are spending what they haven''t got are living in a fools paradise.  The board have kept this club afloat financially in troubled times.  They have backed a succession of managers as best they can.  No manager or team is guaranteed success.  There are many clubs who envy what we have achieved over the last 50 years.  This isn''t being complacent as I am not happy with the recent managerial and on field soap opera but I hope a realistic view of a difficult position.  If you are going to criticise at least offer a realistic, achievable and possible alrenative please.

As always it is easy to criticise than offer a cast iron certain solution.  I challenge all those crying for the board to resign to propose the a solution that will please all the fans and guarantee success.  This means finding  replacements for the board.  People who will pay off our debts and give the club as much money the new manager wants.  Their choice of new manager will satisfy everyone, they will have unlimited funds to but players from wherever they want.  These players will sweep all before them and we will eventually rule football. And all within the next 10 days! Easy isn''t it. Now reality.  We are a club in crisis.  So are many others.  We have no money.  Neither do most clubs.  Our gate receipts do not cover wages.  Ditto most clubs.  We survive on the generosity and business acumen of the current board and bank.  As do most clubs.  Success is never guaranteed and goes in cycles.  We need to get behind the club in this time of trouble.  The board acted to remove an increasingly unpopular and out of touch management regime.  We need to bury our differences and get behind the team tommorrow.  We have precious little influence in the choice of new manager but we can demonstrate our love of the club from the stands tomorrow.  The club need us as much as we need the club.  So, who will take up my challenge above?  

Whilst I agree that Mr Roeder appears to have non existent public relations skills and his team selections and tactics, such as they are, appear increasingly bizarre but surely the article and posters have only addressed half the problem.  Carrying on the theme, could someone answer the following: Who will fund the sacking of the manager and probably his management team? Who should be appointed to guarantee success?  Who will fund the inevitable changes in the playing staff?  Which players should go?  Which players should be signed to guarantee success?  In the meantime, keep you on a troshin'' 

I want us to win and I will be there cheering as always.  One fundamental point that appears to be missing on this tread is that it is thew performances on the pitch that has got us in this situation.  We keep reading in the press that the players are too good to be in this position.  the players also repeat ad nauseum that they owe the fans and manager a debt and are going to repay it.  Well let us see that starting tomorrow then. What is going on off the pitch is a different matter.  What ever our feelings we have no money, we have the Glen Roeder management team and the Delia Smith boardroom.  No business worth its salt conducts its busness in public.  This forum now seems to consist of those who either don''t believe anything comming from Carrow Road, unless it fits in with their own views, Those who think that silence masks any number of conspiracies, and those that unrealistically call for unknown benefactors to give us millions of pounds.  Get real chaps, lets make the best of what we have got and be constructive and positive.  Starting with supporting tomorrow and then buying all your Christmas presents from the club shop, organising your Christmas meals at Delia''s and booking your summer holidays through Canary Travel before buying more shares and putting all your surplus cash into your Norwich and Peterborough Canary account.  Then re-new your season ticket.

But we do know where the money had gone don''t we?  A wage bill of over 8 million and gate receipts of over 5 million leaves a 3 million deficit.  We cannot pay our way through gate receipts alone.  We need all the other sources of income aplus the generosity of the board and all the other supporters who give or loan the club money in whatever shape or form.  It has been this way since before the last ill-fated excursion to the ''Premier'' league.  The same is true of most clubs at all levels. Other than that the original post succinctly puts the problems of the club in a true perspective.  No-one is satisfied with the current position on or off the field it is just that some are more realistic than others. 

We are several million pounds in debt, we are losing money on a weekly basis.  Presumably the only way we are allowed to survive by the bank is that the debts are covered by guarantees by the board,or the value of our tangible assests, (no I don''t mean the players).  I know lets throw millions of pounds (from who?), on great players who are bursting to play for us (like who?).  This will guarantee success in a manner no other club can match.  Simple isn''t it! In the real world we are no different from the majority of football clubs throughout the land.  We are forced to compete in an ever more expensive environment with no guarantee of success at any time.  we rely on the generosity of bank and board, like it or not.  The message boards of all clubs are full of the same unrealistic sentiments expressed here.  Anyone can rant without the need to justify opinions but reasoned arguments based on facts are not so easy.  No-one can be happy with our start, we all know the deficiencies and what needs doing but rubbishing the squad this early in the season is out of order.  The only thing I would say is that I am heartily sick of players apologising for their performances and promising to get it rightr next time.  Keep quiet and let your performance do the talking.