Rasputin was a C...

Defoe scores again.Decent performance from us earlier in the day, no denying the effort from the players. We just don''t score anywhere near enough goals.

Peter Crouch plays his part in setting up Stoke''s opener.

Sounds like Andre Marriner is having a cracking game once again.

Can''t stand "It''s not our fault" FC but it''s good to see they are doing their bit.

[IMG]http://i67.tinypic.com/205pah4.jpg[/IMG]

Bugger

Always nice to see a big club like Villa stumble occasionally.

Oh dear me Jesus that was reasonably amusing. Looking forward to your next journalistic contribution.

Clicking on links so you don''t have to...It emerged prior to a recent Norwich City game that Lewis Grabban is determined to make things difficult for his present employers. The rumour suggests that the striker left the team hotel after being told he was only going to be named as a sub for the Capital One Cup game against Rotherham United. Of course, it isn’t purely believed to be a reaction to not starting the game, it’s more of a case of the player wanting to leave the club and link-up with Eddie Howe at Bournemouth again. Alex Neil has confirmed that the Cherries have had three bids rejected for the player with the latest believed to be a deal worth around £6.2m. If we assume for a second that Grabban does indeed want the transfer to happen, it’s all a bit strange to me. When Norwich signed the striker when they were first relegated to the Championship, he was only too happy to leave Bournemouth at that point. Of course, he may have been surprised by his former club’s rise since then – but he is already a Premier League player in any case. So, another possibility is he is frustrated by not playing every game – but Alex Neil has come out on a number of occasions to state how much he thinks about the striker. In fact, Grabban has played a lot under the manager and even started the first game of this season against Crystal Palace. Furthermore, I wouldn’t have thought that the forward would be automatic first choice at Bournemouth with Callum Wilson in the building. When Norwich City were last in the Premier League there was a similar incident involving Wes Hoolahan. I think at that point it was more to do with the fact that the Irishman wasn’t getting a regular game in the team – but nevertheless he tried to force a move through to Aston Villa. At the time it looked certain that he would leave. However, David McNally and friends insured he didn’t. Hoolahan was a big part of Norwich City’s success last season and has started this season brightly with three assists already. Grabban is a player highly regarded by Neil so I’d think he would want to hold of him if he possibly can. The other issue here is that Bournemouth are one of Norwich’s chief rivals to beat the drop so won’t want to give away a prized asset to them. I’m sure there will be a few disciplinary issues and the striker may find himself out of the squad for the next few weeks – but I’d be surprised if the move was sanctioned. The other thing here is the club are quite light on striking options with Gary Hooper possibly on his way to Sheffield Wednesday, Kyle Lafferty with injury problems and Ricky van Wolfswinkel fighting to rediscover his form. It’s well-known that the club are looking for a new striker even before the thing with Grabban but there is no guarantee of that being a success. Alex Neil has pointed out that he will not leave Norwich short which adds to the suggestion that Grabban will stay put! Wow, such insightful writing.

So...The Mirror have broken down the wealth of the owners of every Premier League club. It comes as little surprise to see Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones listed at the bottom with a wealth of just £23m. A quick look on Twitter earlier suggested that this meant that survival for Norwich City will be difficult and establishing themselves in the Premier League would be a near to impossible task. Although, I understand the logic behind this I tend to disagree with it. It’s certainly fair to say that money talks at the top end. After all, Manchester City and Chelsea have the richest owners on this list and they are most likely to be the two clubs fighting it out for the title. In addition, it’s understood that the top six probably wouldn’t be achievable for Norwich due to the wealth of the clubs at the top end. But let’s remember that wealth isn’t purely what owners are worth but it’s the whole infrastructure of the club. Furthermore, Financial Fair Play rules mean that club owners cannot simply bankroll their club’s spending. Instead, Premier League teams will need to generate their own income to sign players rather than rely on a sugar daddy! Right here is the crux of my main point, the whole idea is for the Canaries to be a self-sufficient football club, and that was very much the plan when David McNally first came in as chief executive. Now, there is no doubt that other smaller clubs in the top-flight have more financial muscle in the transfer market than Alex Neil’s team. However, I would argue that is as a result of remaining in the league for a number of seasons. In order to illustrate my point further, let me just use the examples of West Brom, Crystal Palace, Everton and Swansea. I think most people would agree that all four clubs are established Premier League teams now – but along with Norwich City they represent the five poorest millionaires in the league. Nevertheless, they are clubs that are run very well with very good managers and owners that are very passionate about their clubs. So, there is no reason why the Canaries cannot follow such examples. Equally, Southampton are a team that have established themselves in the EPL albeit with a rich owner – but they have done it largely on the back of spending money they have reclaimed from selling a number of their star players, and having a very strong youth system. Aston Villa have an owner much richer than Delia Smith, but their summer spending has been financed by the sale of Christian Benteke rather than Randy Lerner’s wealth. Equally, Bournemouth and Watford both have much richer owners than Norwich – but that’s not to say they will survive relegation on this fact alone. In my experience, the football clubs that prosper in the Premier League are often the ones that are well run and spend the resources they have in a sensible and measured way. There are a number of examples of rich owners that haven’t been able to establish their club in the Premier League despite that wealth. Think about the likes of Hull City, Fulham, Cardiff, QPR, Blackburn and Nottingham Forest. Therefore, I don’t personally think whether Norwich can establish themselves or not will come down to the wealth of the owners. The key thing for me is the club is now back in the big time and need to make the most of that opportunity. I already firmly believe that we’ve one of the best young managers around and we will be sensible in the transfer market. Throwing money around in desperation is not the way to go about it, and plenty have proved that in the past. The other factor here is we are very fortunate with the owners that we have and the way they want to run the club. Certainly, we are not going to have any debates about changing the team’s name or the colour of the shirt as other clubs have. There are so many opportunities that come from being in the Premier League, and if they manage their ship carefully there’s no reason they can’t follow the examples of the likes of Southampton, Crystal Palace and West Brom. I certainly don’t subscribe to theory that the club are doomed simply because we don’t currently have super rich owners!

Hopefully we won''t go down the route of putting our owners name on the shirt, unlike some clubs who evidently don''t have enough appeal to potential sponsors.

Just like watching Brazil [:D]

1-1... almighty cockup in defence. Marvellous, just what the cheating scumbags deserve. Come on Brentford!!!

Really don''t think my heart can take this. It seems watching it on the radio makes things ten times worse.

[quote user="Ron Manager"]Just one goal would be enuff Rasputin.[/quote]Ahh so it would. 2 would be a little easier on the ticker though me thinks.

As it stands, if we win by 2 clear goals tomorrow we''d be 2nd. Not a bad turn around.

If they did make it up to the Prem for their one season in the sun, I could then see them dropping back down and experiencing a similar situation to that of Blackpool. Owner who is merely in it to line his own pockets. Could be fun... for some.

KerlickLooks like he got under Mick''s skin a bit [:)]

Iwan''s majestic facial fuzz

Oh woo woo whata ghoul!

Thank word removed for that. Now see it out you complete tossers!

Poo

[quote user="morty"][quote user="Hackedoff"]Lambert out banner at KC[/quote][URL=http://s869.photobucket.com/user/mortymccarthy/media/Untitled1_zps482e7d5f.jpg.html][IMG]http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab257/mortymccarthy/Untitled1_zps482e7d5f.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/quote]"The only movement Lambert knows is how to take a dump!!!!!!!!!!!!!"One of the many comments on our former manager over on Villa''s equivalent message board.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!Sorry, just a natural reaction to a half time whistle.

Ipswich Town, we''re coming for you...etc etc