bigbear

You''re probably right, but I''m just amazed that there has been such a lack of communication between the 2 of them, surely Gunn can give a report, then Roeder says no, end of story.  Not for Gunn to then come out and say what he did, and then for Roeder to say what he did also.  

When Roeder 1st came to the club, I wasn''t too impressed.  He then turned my thoughts of him around.  Then in the run-in at the end of the season, I went back to being very unsure about him.  His initial team selection left a bit to be desired, then some strange tactics, bad substitutions,  it all went wrong, and we were very lucky not to be relegated. In some games (usualy just half a match) we were brilliant, in others (or the other half of the match), we were absolutely dreadful, and worse than we were under Grant.  Is there a reason behind that, is anyone to blame?? With what has happened since the start of the closed season, I am very dissappointed with him at present.  Hopefully he will turn it around with some good signings, and it will make me think differently about him again.  I will give him the benefit of any doubt, but I have my suspicions.  I still can''t understand why he as been getting rid of the backroom staff, except for money reasons, maybe too many people on the wage bill.  If he repaces every single one of them with someone else, then you have to ask why, because surely, they would all have had some sort of pay-off or redundency package. Norwich need a good start to the season, and the only way to do that is by getting players in, and he hasn''t started doing that yet.  Hopefully the next few weeks will be fruitful in terms of signings.

Is Roeder turning against another member of staff.  Bryan Gunn hasn''t been in the scouting role long, but he seems to be looking aroud a bit.  He was reportd to have stated that with the Barry Nicholson debate, he was pretty much a certainty and was just about ready to pack his bags to come here.  Then Roeder states that we''ve never been interested in him and there''s no way he is coming here. Which is actually the truth?  Is Gunn telling porkies and doesn''t actually know what he is doing, or does Roeder know whats going on and doesn''t like the player and is calling Gunn a liar, when he is? Roeder is, at the moment doing the same thing as Worthington did.  Where he says he needs loads of players to make it ''his team'', yet all he does is get rid of players without replacing them.  Worthless said that however many he gets rid of in terms of numbers, he will replace but with better quality.  Roeder has done the same, saying that 12-15 players will be off and we need 8,9 or 10 to replace them.  So far, all the players have left the club, with no replacements.  He must start getting players in now, including trying to get season long loan players.  They need a good pre-season together, as we all know that at least 1 of them will be out for 3 months at least, so we will at least have the numbers there, and they may have the time to start gelling as a unit.  Normally, it''s last minute, the players haven''t got a clue who the others are, and they are rubbish, then 1 or 2 of them get injured!!

I am assuming that none of our loanees will come back, for the good of this post. GK- We have enough keepers, so that is fine. LB- Will Drury be the same again after such a bad injury?  No other cover. CB- Mistake riddled pair Shacks and Doc, 80 mins good, 10 mins rubbish.  No other cover. RB- Otsemobor, not the greatest defender, and gets a nosebleed running down wing in attack so he has to do his flick inside.  No other cover LM- No one at all. CM- Pattison, Rusty, very similar, Fozzy, more of a ball player.  They can win the ball, but can they keep hold of it.  They all struggle having to pass the ball over 5 yards.  Lack of goals.  No other cover. RM- Croft who Roeder doesn''t seem to like and Chadwick who is a sick-note.  No other cover. S- Cureton, who struggled in front of goal this year, given same chances next year may do better, maybe!  No one else. From looking at this, Roeder needs to invest in 1 or 2 left backs, 2 center backs, 1 or 2 right backs, 1 or 2 left wingers, 1 or 2 centre midfielders, especially a creative attacking midfielder with goals in him, 1 right winger and 3 strikers. That should hopefully give us a starting line up and a bit of cover.  In other words we need between 9 and 13 players at least with my reckoning, as obviously he thinks our young players are rubbish and are not up to the job (except for our young keepers)

Roeder has made one hell of a difficult decision.  Whether it is the right or wrong one is yet to be seen. From what I have heard, especially by the chanting at the QPR game, that 90% of Norwich fans wanted him to stay.  So, Roeder has gone against the wishes of the vast majority of fans.  He really needs to do something special in the transfer market to get people back on his side.  Especially with the lack of firepower we have, upfront and on the wings.  Assuming that all loanees will stay at their parent clubs, we will have no left winger (I can''t see Lappin coming back and filling that role), and 2 right wingers, 1 of which is Croft who Roeder only too happily drops if he ever gets the chance (if we get a half decent bid in for him, he will be off, mark my words) and also Chadwick, who i rate, but he is only going to be fit for 25% of the season. People say that getting Hucks off the wage bill is a good move.  He has to up the wage bill massively anyway, because if you look at who he got rid of, in terms of the youth players, none of them were on very much.  So, whoever he brings in, if they are better, they will probably be on higher wages, which cancels out Huckerby''s wage savings. Whether I agree or not with Hucks leaving is my own prerogative,  we all have to get behind him and HOPE that what Roeder has done, is for the good of the team, and will pay off in the end.  We must support the manager, and we should give him some time before bringing out the guillotine for him.

I noticed that Sheffield Wednesday got a pathetic £2000 fine for having 6 loan players in their match day squad against Bristol City the other week.  Surely the FA should''ve been making an example of them to make sure it never happens again.  If  Bristol City miss out on automatic promotion by 1 or 2 points they should be able to appeal the verdict even though it would probably have no benefit.  If Norwich would have done it, I bet they would have thrown the book at us with points deduction and a fine. Maybe next year Norwich should try to get shed loads of loanees and put them all in the squad.  If it will get us some much needed points, then we might as well cheat if we have to!!  But whats the betting we would be severely reprimanded.  The FA are a joke, with that, and what has been happening in the premiership with big name players verbally abusing referees and getting away with it.  Mascerano got sent off in the game and then had his suspension extended, what happened to Cole, Terry, Lampard a week earlier, nothing, because it was ''dealt'' with on the pitch. It''s time the FA grew some balls and banned players if they need banning and taking points from teams if they are caught cheating or having players who are constantly diving, verbally abusing officials, having mass brawls on the pitch, etc. Norwich are included in that as well, we have more red cards this year than I have ever remembered,  including 2 in a match twice.  We should be fined for not controlling our players, but then so should other teams 

From what I hear, the club have been very dissappointed with flybe and won''t be wanting them to extend their sponsorship, and have already been looking towards getting a successor. To be honest, in terms of being a fan, what have flybe done for us?  They sponsor our team, and yet they have done nothing in the way of offering cheap flights for fans to away matches.  With flybe flying out of airports all over britain, surely this would be an easy idea, and would have helped towards reaching their targets, which they have spoken about recently.  Imagine Southampton for example, they could have brought more fans here and we could''ve taken more down there.  To be honest, flybe certainly is nowhere near the cheapest low-cost airline out there and doing things like would make them more popular for other destinations

welcome to the jungle by guns and roses is a great track, especially given our disciplinary record this year.

Was it really as bad as people are making out?  If it wouldn''t have broken his leg like it did, most people would''ve said that it was a bad challenge, possibly a booking.  I''ve seen it a few times now.  He went in with 1 foot, not 2.  His foot wasn''t over the top of the ball as you can tell by the break being just above the ankle, but not by a lot.  He was clearly looking at, and going for the ball.  He didn''t go in overly hard either, the only bad thing about it was his studs were showing.  When I 1st saw the tackle live, I thought it was an innocuous challenge, which also the Arsenal players thought.  When there is normally a bad challenge, you usually get the entire Arsenal team kicking off with opposition players and then surrounding the ref.  Neither of those 2 things happened. We''ve all seen a lot worse challenges, and probably some of you has them happened on you or possibly even done a few in matches.  He didn''t  shoot anyone or deliberately go out to maim anyone, so he should be left alone for this one. I feel sorry for Eduardo, and hope him a speedy recovery.  Any break like that could take some time to heal, thats if it does totally.

Gibbs started the game quite poorly, but as the match progressed he got a bit more confident and sarted playing a fair bit better.  Would still have liked to see more from him though.  But having a central midfield partner who kept passing the ball into touch doesn''t really help!!  I think Fozzy will come straight back into team, but alongside who.  Even though he was rubbish yesterday, I would say Pattison, but purely as a ball winner and battler than any other reason.

Leicester well and truly deserved their win, and to be honest it could have been a lot worse, if it wasn''t for the woodwork and Marshall in goal who had to make a few great saves.  It is the worst Norwich have played for a hell of a long time, and hopefully won''t play like that again this season.  It seemed like the only time in the game where one of our players got stuck in with any cinviction, was where Russell did a totally rediculous, dirty challenge and deservedly got given a red card.  Both sets of fans had the majority of people behave themselves, but as per usual, you get the minority who try to ruin the day for everyone else.  Norwich fans made themselves heard far more than the blues lot until the 3rd goal, where the leicester fans actually realised they were at a game and were winning easily.  Maybe they were too busy thinking about the other teams still left in the FA Cup and not the game in hand.

when it comes to things like this, i really do hate being right.  I might have guessed a 1-0 or a 2-1, but never 4-0 with a player sent off.  Apparently it was the 1st red card that ref has shown all season.  Is it 5 in total for the season now for us?  I remember a few seasons back when every single year, Norwich would be close to winning the fair play award, not this season, it seems! Maybve if I would have put a bet on norwich losing 4-0, it never would''ve happened, as whenever i make a score guess, or even the right result at the bookies, i get it wrong.  My last bet, was Norwich to beat Bury, says it all really!

Even though it is a brilliant turn out from our supporters again away at Leicester, I can''t help but think that it is a bad omen.  The amount of times we have taken a huge following somewhere, and the team just hasn''t turned up.  Another bad thing, is that Norwich are now 13 matches unbeaten, meaning it''ll probably be unlucky number 13 for us this time.  Also, to be honest, Holloway''s teams (except for at Carrow Rd a few games ago) usually do well against us, and come out on top.  I really hope I am wrong though, but I can''t help the pessimism, especially as we are bound to get knocked down a peg or two at some point in the not too distant future. A good win today (which I really hope happens, believe it or not), and it should stand us in good stead for some good, very winnable matches coming up, especially at home.

unfortunately his name is a bit hard to put in a song, unless Fozzy is used of course.  Hopefully someone will make up a decent song for some of the other players out there.  I still hate the Huckerby song, and a lot of the other players don''t get sung about either, for example Shacks, Doc, Pattison, Croft, Chadwick, Otsemobor, Evans, etc.  The Safri and McVeigh songs were genius and the people who made them up should be given a huge pat on the back for those ones.  The Mo Camara song is very good too

I''ve heard that Bertrand may be struggling a little bit, so maybe it''s time for Gibbs to start.  If Bertrand is fully fit, then there is no need to change a winning starting line up.  Gibbs is supposed to be vert highly regargded so it would be good to see him at some point soon

Marshall - 7 unsure about the goal due to angle i was for it, but apart from that, very good Camara - 5 not a great game but always looked to get forward Shackell - 3 dreadful, passing way off, control pitiful, decision making inept, won a few in air though, which then usually went to a wolves player Docherty - 7 got shackell out of a lot of bother, apart from his usual holding of his man, very solid Otsemobor - 5 looked lost with Smith, due to where smith was playing.  Improved when croft came on Hucks - 4 started quite well, but again didn''t get the ball enough.  Players are still scared of him and back off, but his crossing has been awful this season.  But then there was no-one to actually cross to half the time anyway Pattison - 6 looked solid and got stuck in but he is never going to run with ball and make a defense splitting pass Russell - 8 MOM same as above with Pattison, but looked to get forward when he didn''t have ball and got stuck in more than anyone else on pitch.  Had to try to make up for smith being on pitch Smith - 2(being generous) yet again, can''t understand why he is playing wide right.  he is supposed to be a central midfielder, who spent most of the time he was on the pitch, in his right position leaving Otsemobor exposed and having nothing going down our right.  When in the middle, he did absolutely nothing.  he must do special things in training to get a game because he hasn''t had a single good game for our 1st team.  What he did at QPR and for Chelsea to keep hold of him remains a mystery.  Maybe he will show us what he can really do, but at present he certainly isn''t Evans - 5 Due to no creativity in midfield, had little oppotunities, tried very hard though and had to keep trying to make things happen out of nothing Cureton - 6 same as above but managed to get a few more chances and finished well for his goal.  neither strikers seemed to spend a great deal of time in the box Subs Croft - 5 helped Otsemobors game as he knew where croft would be to help out if necessary.  Croft made a few runs down right, messed a couple of crosses but at least got in the positions to do so, yet again crossing to no-one in the middle Dublin - 5 played better than he has done in last couple of games coming off bench.  Won a few headers and not as many mis-placed passes Brown - 4 think in the time on the pitch, he touched the ball once, where he flicked the ball on to the nearest defender!  seemed to be out a bit wider than he should though.  Maybe shouldve played more central where he couldve done more   Glenn Roeder -5 Very strange seeing Smith on right wing again after an inept performance against Charlton when everyone else played well.  Then just like Boxing Day, not making the change to bring him at half time, and waiting.  At least we only had to wait 5 mins.  Strabge to see Brown and Spillane on bench after what has been said in the papers recently  about certain players possibly never playing for this club again

Whenever I hear that name, I always know there will be some controversy involving him.  Every time I see him referee Prem games, there are always lots of bookings and quite often a sending off, the same was true of yesterday.  I still can''t believe he has been ref in an FA Cup final.  It''s not the refs fault, if offsides are given or to give whether balls have crossed lines or not, such as the binners 2nd goal yesterday, I haven''t seen any replays of it so I can''t say.  But most other things that happen on the pitch are down to him.  I think it was 4 binners who got bookings, all for late challenges, fair enough.  Brelliers in 2nd half, he was given a warning that any more fouls and he would be booked, then he won the ball cleanly, a foul was given and he was booked, didn''t foul for rest of game but still got stuck in.  Counago and Lee in 1st half were guilty of diving, which was so plain to see it was unbelievable.  Counago must have gone down 4 times at least.  Styles gave nothing, meaning he knows it wasn''t a foul so shouldn''t that be a booking?  At one point the ball was a little way away, and all of a sudden, Counago did a 360 degree spin and dramatically fell to the floor.  To me, he is trying to tell the ref that something untoward happened off the ball, trying to get a man sent off.  Styles had a good look at it and waved play on. At 1st look from sitting in lower barclay, when Hucks put his foot up and caught the man, my immediate reaction was red card.  But was hoping that Styles was pulling it back for the clear foul on him moments before.  The ref was much closer than I was, and should''ve seen the incident much clearer than I did.  From where I was, I knew that if the foul was given against Hucks, it was a sending off, but even I could see the way the binner went into the challenge.  Hucks was being clearly fouled before hand, turned with the ball, see a scummer launching at him with his boot high, so Hucks did what I would probably do, and that is put my foot/leg up to defend myself.  If the player would''ve caught Hucks and he went down, I wonder what the decision would''ve been then?

Years ago, whenever Norwich played a team with Hartson in, I was worried.  As he hadn''t played for such a long when we got him, I didn''t think too much about it, but he has won me over.  His overall gameplay and reading of the game is excellent, even though his fitness isn''t.  Unfortunately, I don''t think he can last much over a half a game, let alone a whole one.  He wins almost everything in the air, and some of his lay offs whether, with his head, chest or boot, seems to find a Norwich shirt quite often, when other players have tried it and failed.  Another thing i liked was when Alexander had the ball at his feet, hartson trotted up to him, so the keeper had to pick it up, on doing so hartson called him a clucking banker (obviouisly not the actual words used, but you can work out what he did actually say!) being in the lower barclay i had a good view of that. After Hucks got sent off, people said tha Magilton and Hartson had words.  According to my brother who was watching it on sky, he was seen to have a go at Magilton saying that they were cheating, diving, bankers, which I thought was fair enough on how many times they did it throughout the game. As Hartson would not be able to manage a whole game or even 3/4 of it, I really don''t know how I would play him, do you start him , and hope the half time break gives him a little while longer, or do you look to bring him on in the latter stages of the game?  I''m not the manager, even though under the latter stages of the Worthy era, and under Grant I wish that I was, bun hopefully we now have a man who knows what to do.  Even though I thought that if we would''ve had an extra striker on the bench, we may have won the game, but thats a big if.

I didn''t go to the match yesterday, and I now refuse to listen to the radio on away days purely because of the drivel I have to listen to and thats coming from 2 completely biased commentators!!  I read the NOTW today, not a great paper I know, but I wanted to know what happened in the Prem and Champ yesterday.  The report about Norwich was hard to read but unfortunately, it''s not the 1st time it could have been said this season.  Rocky at the back, no midfield, no attack, couldn''t string 2 passes together if they tried.  Look familiar!! We have seen far too much of this, this season and last, something must be done.  Maybe not a protest before the binners game, but certainly after  depending on result.  if we haven''t got a new manager in by the game, if we get a result, we could give the board a slight reprieve until a new man is found.  Our season has got gradually worse and worse, and at this moment in time, there is only 1 thing that could make it worse, and thats getting stuffed by our nasty smelling neighbours.  Remember how we played against Wolves, and what Ipswich did to them yesterday! I personally don''t think we will get anything from the game next Sunday, but I will be at the game anyway, with fingers, toes and everything else crossed that we can somehow do the (at the moment) unthinkable, and win a game of football.  I still have never booed Norwich in any way shape or form while I have stood in the stands, but Sunday may be different.  I would like to be able to boycott the match, under the Chase regime I did boycott games and went to every demo, but that was when I payed for a ticket on matchdays but I have a season ticket now, so my money has already been spent.

I read the evening news with great delight yesterday after reading about football head Alan Brazil''s plight.  Hopefully he will get a custodial sentence for drink driving after pleading not guilty and trying to claim that the policeman used a faulty breathalyzer.  Being an ex-scummer he will probably get away with it and then end up being given money by the police for whatever reason no doubt, as the binners seem to get away with everything else. I would love to hear him get sent to Norwich prison, but unfortunately it will just be a 12 month ban and a fine more than likely.

heard yesterday while standing in the queue for the beer festival that Roger Munby has told one of my friends work colleagues that Glenn Roeder is there 1st choice at the moment.  I really hope that it is an untrue rumour as he is an awful manager.

from the fact that half the people on their forum would like to pay for his taxi to come down to Norwich, he is obviously held in high regard.  He certainly wouldn''t be my choice, and from what i can make out, they wish he was never their choice either!  

at the moment, we have lost 7 out of 8 games.  Coming up, we have Burnley away, which is a bogey ground if ever there was one.  Then we have West Brom away, they hit the woodwork 6 times against us last year and missed a couple of sitters, we had 2 chances and somehow won,  a dead cert loss.  The Ipswich at home, I hate to say it but t I can''t see anything but a loss at the way we are playing at mo.  The Watford at home, who are flying, a loss again I think.  After the next 4 games, we could have lost 11 out of 12 games.  If that happens which was totally unthinkable at the start of the season, could it possibly be our worst ever run?  If it isn''t it can''t be far off. Duffy''s tactics and formations and substitutions today were shocking, and thats coming from a man who has been at the club for a little while now and should know the players.  He, in my opinion is not the man for the job, but then also, I can''t think of anyone who can turn this shower of the preverbial around

I really hope they weren''t all his best bits, cos he spent most of the time fouling people where we already have 1 of those players in the Doc, and only at 1 time did he actually do anything creatively.  The man has been awful so far, but I have heard good things from supporters of teams north of the border, who all say he is very good.  Just hope he shows it!

Superb.  But how come the bloke on the right in the stands was allowed a beer in the stand??  I suppose at least he wasn''t standing up, cos then the stewards would really throw him out