canarychris

MARTIN ALLEN......i said it 12 months ago and i''ll say it again now. Out of work so no compensation will need to be paid, he will get us playing as a TEAM rather than a bunch of uninterested individuals

Being a NCFC fan, for me anyway, is not about choosing a team to support based on who is top of the league at the time, it is not about who your mates support, it is much deeper, it is something i was born into. For the past 35 years i have bleed green and yellow, sometimes from a distance sometimes from close up, like i say it isn''t something i chose it''s something i became. My Dad is a supporter, my 4 year old son is a supporter (i took him to his first game this season) and my 8 month old daughter is a supporter (although she may not know it yet). I guess on top of the season ticket i religously purchase each match costs me £15 (Parking, programme, pie, drink) which goes straight into the club. On top of this there is every new shirt (home and away) for me and my son aswell as birthday and xmas presents. I do not resent a penny of what i have spent since i attended my first game in 1979, at least i didn''t until last Saturday. It was Burnley all over again and to rub salt into the wounds i sat and watched the most inept performance i have ever seen by any club at any level of football. I allowed my son to stay up and watch the game last nite, he asked to go to bed at half-time and quite honestly i wish i had followed his lead. Where am i going with this? not really sure but i wanted to put some thoughts into print, but i guess what it comes down to is that people like myself will support the club regardless of our status as i have great memories like Vitesse, Munich and Milan, Like beating Arsenal 4-2 from 2-0 down, Brucies header in the Milk Cup semi and the day out at Wembley, losing 7-1 at Blackburn, Fashanu''s goal of the season, losing on penalties at the Millenium Stadium, signing Hucks, Gossys goal in the last game in front of the Anfield Kop, and i could go on and on..... but what about the next generation how will we keep them as supporters of our great club, how will they achieve an affinity through memories (more good than bad that we choose to remember)? This great club has fallen so far over the last 3 three years that it is difficult to see an improvement in the near future, is a change of manager the answer or is it a change of board or is it just that we have overachieved for a very long time now and we are finding our rightful place in the pecking order. Anyway enough of my ramblings.... CITY ''TIL I DIE!!!!

I called for Martin Allen to be our new manager 12 months ago when Granty was appointed and now i call for him again for the following reasons:- 1. He is a superb motivator who can get the best out of his players. The squad we have in general is fine, Martin Allen would get them playing as a team. 2. People will say he only plays long ball, but that is because of the resources he has had to work with at Barnet, Brentford and MK Dons. I believe when he works with better players he will let them play to their strenghs. As a player he played for teams that had a reputation for playing good football and i believe he would bring the right blend to us. 3. He didn''t get on at Leicester because Mandaric wanted to pick the players he signed, no manager should have to work like this. The other main contender as i see it is Paul Jewell, however i really can''t see us attracting him to FCR.

and it would appear even Hucks agrees with me!!!!

To everybody who said we wouldn''t miss these 3 players because we had strenghtened the squad can you tell me where, in fact i could have headed this up ''Thorne, Hughes and Louis-Jean'' and made the same arguement!!!! I have been happy to let Grant build his own team and have tried not to judge, sorry Granty this IS your team and it doesn''t look any better than what u took over a year ago. U r out of your depth, please go now.

GK - Bryan Gunn (C.T)               (Gunn got in here before Kelan so that position has gone....) RB - CB - Jon Newsome   (jimmy500) CB - LB - RM - Mark Barham (CanaryChris) CM - Ian Crook (All in Yellow) CM - Martin Peters (lappinitup) LM - Darren Huckerby (cityangel) CF - Ted Macdougal (Macdougal''s Perm) CF - Chris Sutton (elpits)

Count me in, as i have mentioned a few times b4 on this board i think he''d be a great signing

If Brellier isn''t fit i would play Spillane in Midfield with Russell, at least he can tackle. Apart from that the team picks itself, which suggests with 4 players out our squad is far from strong enough. Anyway i predict a 3 - 1 win with Cureton scoring first.

No, i stopped listening to his commentary ages ago as u could never tell what was happening

My boy is 4 and a bit and i took him to his first game on Tuesday. He had a pie and bottle of coke b4 the game then sat on my lap through the first half. He had a bag of crisps at half-time and then slept through the second half, he obviously understands the game better than me or i''d have had a kip in the 2nd half too!!!! He has since told me he enjoyed it and would like to go again, so all in all a successful first visit. 

don''t disagree that we need competition all across the backline and if someone comes in and does a better job than Doc that is fine, but at the moment imho he will be fine with Brellier in the holding role offering some protection. I see Chelski conceded 2 goals at home on Sunday for the first time in ages and Surprise Surprise Makelele didn''t play, we where a better side when Saf played in front of the back four (the stats back this up) and will be a better side when Brellier plays. DON''T turn Doc into the next Hughes, if we buy better then great, but remember 2 seasons ago the supporters of this club voted him player of the year ahead of the likes of Hucks, he is not a bad player he is just having his every move and therefore mistake criticised by certain members of this forum. Anyone who saw the new defensive unit in action at Preston on Saturday would have been impressed so lay off and get behind every member of the squad. I don''t particularly rate Lappin or Fozzy but i don''t start endless threads just to slate them!!! If u throw enough mud some will stick - LAY OFF THE DOC

i guess the fact that we didn''t have a defensive midfielder in the side to give some cover to the centre backs is irrelevant when there is an easy opportunity to make the Doc the scapegoat for a 5 - 2 victory!!!! The back 4, including Doc, where excellent on Saturday with Brellier giving some protection in front, last nite no one was tracking runners from midfield meaning our back 4 was overloaded. The second half was irrelevant, 5 - 0 up with a match on Saturday. No one wants to get injured and the match is already dead. All credit to Barnet who gave it a go throughout by the way.

If we got these 5 i''d be delighted:- Sodje (700k), Mills (free) Vaughan (500k), Mullins (1m?) Riordan (750k + add ons) Comes to about 3 million so might be stretching things a bit but would give us a squad capable of challenging this season.

That''s it, nice and positive, let''s all get behind the team!!!! oh sorry u didn''t go yesterday so are drawing assumptions again.... How had the heart been ripped out of Preston? They lost Nugent, signed Carter and had Mawene back after a year out injured. We had 4 debutants and 2 players who have played less than 10 games betweeen them. My point being that Preston where able to carry on from last season with a similar style and pattern of play while it will take us a few weeks to bed new players in to the way Granty wants us playing. Yesterday we had no Hucks or Cureton therefore no cutting edge. On other threads i have said we need more creativity in midfield and more pace up front but yesterday was a good point won against the odds and with plenty of time until the transfer window closes i hope these problems together with defensive cover are solved. Yesterday was a committed performace that i was far from unhappy about driving 530 miles to see. Yes there could have been more quality but we are definetly getting the basics right.

yeh, couldn''t believe there sponsors mom was Neil Mellor, there best 2 players where Carter and Mawene. 

Not at all Fillet. The 9 was for a centre back and 2 of the 8''s where for a centre back and defensive midfielder, this shows that we defended well and kept a clean sheet under considerable pressure. Brown''s 8 was for his hold up play and selfless running. If we had won 4-0 then hopefully the defenders would have got 7''s as they didn''t have much to do and the strikers and wingers would have had 8''s and 9''s!!!!

Right, back from Preston and delighted with a point from a fairly average performance. In fact it was an average match and neither side deserved more than a point. As for ratings i''m getting p***ed off with players getting marked by people on who there favourites are. To give Doc a 6 is scandolous, giving reasons of free kicks he could have given away. Don''t u watch the defenders we play against who constantly hold shirts, bear hug and climb all over our forwards, in short Doc ''gets away'' with no more than any other defender at this level. Shacks was our best player but Brellier, Doc and Brown wheren''t far behind. Marshall 7 - Coped well under pressure at set pieces Ostembor 7 - Hoped for more going forward (but could say that for the whole team) Drury 7 - Steady, defended well against Whaley Doc 8 - See above Shackell 9 - Led by example Brellier 8 - Does what it says on the tin, lost our shape when he went off Russell 7 - Battled hard but little quality on the ball Lappin 6 - Sorry but he is lucky to get a 6 Chadwick 7 - No end product, hopefully hat will follow Dublin 6 - Didn''t seem to get the pace of the game, i''m sure he''ll be more effective from the bench this season Brown 8 - Worked hard feeding on scraps Subs Fotheringham 5 - Kept giving the ball away, simply not good enough Croft 6 - No service Strihavka 6 - See Croft In summary there was plenty of effort but with only Hucks and Cureton to come back the final third is a serious concern. Can''t see where the chances are going to come from. Brellier looks the part but he needs a creater beside him and if Hucks is going to play upfront we badly need a left midfielder. Defense looked fairly solid but we need to add numbers and competition.

Thanks for the comments guys, just a few points on some of them:- If the youngsters are ready to step up and provide defensive cover why have they been so sparingly used in preseason. Doc, Shacks and Drury played more minutes than anyone else in the friendlies. Lappin is NOT cover for Drury, he is a midfielder who can play left back in an emergency. If Drury is out 4 a month we cannot rely on Lappin at left back. Cave-Brown couldn''t make an impact an Kings Lynn last season so is clearly not ready to provide cover for Ostembor. I am not saying that Brellier, Russell or Cureton are bad players, just that these are the type of players we should be bringing in to compliment the likes of Earnshaw, Saf and Etuhu to give the squad strength in depth. We should have 2 players for every position, a squad of 22 players capable of performing regularly in the Championship. The squad is unbalanced we have 3 goalkeepers but only 4 left footed players (including Eagle and a centre half). We still don''t have a creative midfielder (Smith is injured and isn''t ours anyway, Fozzy isn''t good enough). If Hucks plays on the left we have no pace up front, just backs to goal strikers. I do sincerely hope that we are a better ''team'' this year, however with the exception of Hucks i don''t see matchwinners in our squad. We DO have money to spend and i''m sure there is funds available within the wages budget and this needs to be spent now. If we signed Mills, Dixon, David Vaughan, Ben Watson and Riordan we would go a long way to resolving the above problems.

So far i have supported Granty in his summer activity and have sympathy with him as regards to release clauses however i am now becoming concerned about the depth and quality of our squad. We have a squad that contains 3 goalkeepers but only 1 right back, 1 left back and 3 centre halfs. If we pick up a couple of injuries tomorrow amongst these 5 players will it lead to panic buys or wasted money on loan signings. Are Brellier, Russell and Cureton better than Saf, Etuhu and Earnshaw, i''m sorry but i don''t think so. Marshall and Ostembor look as if they will be good signings, hopefully Strihavka will aswell. Gilks is merely a backup player. To me the squad appears thinner and with less quality than it was last season, yes the kids are a year older but i doubt,with the exception of Martin and Spillane, if they are ready for a busy Championship season. The first month of the season will be vital to keep fans onside, the last thing this club needs at the moment is a poor start followed by demonstrations in September. I know people will say that the transfer window doesn''t close until 31st August, but i fear that the damage may already be done by then. We have sold / released 9 players in the summer and signed 7 (including 2 goalkeepers). Surely with forthought and planning players should have been lined up to replace the outgoing members of the squad without relying on loan signings.

please ignore Cluck (everyone else does). Canary fans from all over the world are welcome at FCR, come along and enjoy your visit to Norwich.

Hi Guys, I may be in a minority here but can''t help but think Danny Mills can be the answer to our prayers at centre half. As we all know he is a tough uncompromising defender and although being better known as a right back he had a very successful spell in this division with Hull last season playing at centre half. Agreed wages will probably be on the high side, but with what has been freed up with the sale of Saf i don''t see this being a major issue. Thoughts?

Home against Liverpool when i was 8. Took my 4 year old son to the England under 21 game a couple of months ago and will take him for his first NCFC experience at the Barnet game.

Cheers Gazza, will do. Had forgotten about the museum so will definetly go and have a look.

i''ll be there Stevo, taking my Dad to his first away match!!! No idea where we will all meet up and would like to know if anyone can help? There must be a local boozer we can use.

I was seriously looking forward to watching Saf and Brellier play together. Fotheringham isn''t at the races (as shown on Tuesday nite again), Smith is injured and Lappin isn''t good enough. Rusty will work hard but won''t bring the quality that Saf posseses so we must sign a ball playing midfielder now!!! Any team that has to play Andy Hughes in central midfield for 90 minutes in their penultimate preseason friendly obviously has issues. Granty should be playing his starting 11 (allowing for injuries) by now and if Brellier for Hughes and Hucks for Chadwick is as strong as we get then i have to admit i am worried. p.s.