Escape2Victory

Holt played very well and, for me, showed not only what we missed in the second half, but have been missing all season. Although the Reading defence was terrible, he was, at times, unplayable in that first half. Hopefully it will give him the belief to kick on against Leeds and Ipswich (if not suspended) and stop constantly playing for free kicks that he''s not going to win.

[quote user="Pabs"] When we go up, I will be interested to see if Millwall join us in the Championship.  If they don''t, I seriously think we should look into signing Abdou.  He plays in a role similar to Russell, but could also slot into the Korey Smith/Lappin role. In the Championship, I can see Lappin becoming more of a ''squad'' player rather than a regular starter.  We need reinforcements in that area and for me Abdou fits the bill.  Every time I have seen him play he has been fast, athletic, strong and excellent in the tackle.  Give a foundation of Russell, Abdou and Smith and you can let Hoolahan do his thing! OTBC [/quote] Great shout, everytime I have seen him he has stood out. Thought he played especially well at Elland Road when they beat Leeds. Would be a great addition. Moreover, so long as Millwall don''t go up, he represents a much more realistic target than Snodgrass/Lambert etc. If we could get a decent right winger and a pacey striker (Billy Sharp if we have the cash?), I think we would be competitive.

[quote user="Norfolk Lutonian "][quote user="promotion chasing CT "][quote user="SimonOTBC"] [quote user="promotion chasing CT "]What does Delia Smith joining Waitrose have to do with the footballing side of NCFC?   Seems like its news for news sake. [/quote] I kind of see what you mean, but given the proportion of her wealth that goes into the club, the more she has the more we get. [/quote] I''m not knocking Delia and her business ventures one bit. However there must be better media outlets than the Norwich City website to tell us all though? [/quote] Unless at has escaped your notice (probably not too difficult!) Delia Smith is joint-majority shareholder of Norwich City, as another poster has pointed out if it helps the club financially, I deem it newsworthy. The club are stuffed, if they don''t report it they get criticised, if they do report it they get criticised by people who want to increase their post count!   [/quote] Hammer. Nail. Head.

[quote user="Brendan"]The ones which have suddenly turned up in the last two games now we''re top of the league. Since reaching the summit, we''ve had two 25,000+ attendances. If you''re here to support a ''winning team'' then gladly Pee off and do something else with your time. [/quote] Right.. We average 94% of our capacity (http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/D2/attend.html) and you have to consider that the away allocation does not always sell out. Todays attendance was 23,103 according to canaries.co.uk, which is less than numerous gates before xmas. Don''t let the facts get in the way of boosting your post-count though. Idiot.

[quote user="Mr. Bump"]Draw is a perfect result.[/quote]Agreed. Think those wanting Swindon to win today are a little short-sighted.

[quote user="The Chirp"]Wonder what she let slip? (see Michael Bailey''s twitter) I know for a fact that Sullivan has been made well aware of Norwich''s finances and potential (been given figures of our costs, loans etc...)  I wonder if he has decided to delve a little deeper and contact Delia and Co. Very Wishful thinking... her slip is probably that NCFC are about to cut the prices of their pies... :) [/quote]"There is at least one person in the City boardroom who won''t sell Carrow Road."Again from his twitter.

[quote user="Big Bad John"] Given given the wonderful nature of hindsight and the vast change in circumstances it''s just a tad easy to say though isn''t it? [/quote] Fair point, but fail to see how Hoolahan has ever been viewed as anything but a great asset. In my opinion we would still be in the Championship had he not been out injured at the end of last season.

[quote user="OutGunn-ed"] Hoolihan = No pace, no end product. [/quote] This is my favourite post of the lot..

[quote user="TheGoogler"][quote user="Escape2Victory"]Green Kenton Fleming Mackay Drury Bentley Francis Parker Huckerby Bellamy Ashton[/quote]Kenton?! Over Edworthy and Helveg? Time for your medication, sir![/quote] My recollection of Helveg was that he was way past it and not the same player that he was at Inter or Milan. Pretty sure Edworthy was favoured for long periods of the premier league season. Was a close call between Kenton and Edworthy, but remember Kenton being immense in the play-off final year before sealing a move to the premiership. Surpised he didn''t go on to have more of a career.

Green Kenton Fleming Mackay Drury Bentley Francis Parker Huckerby Bellamy Ashton

[quote user="jas the barclay king"][quote user="The Lord"]   Very interesting article in the evening news, basically Mark Fotheringham states that he has already been contacted by several clubs about his avaibility when his contract runs out in June...   [/quote]   which equates to Tapping up... Doncasters a Solicitor, best he take action against the clubs concerned. an interesting article though.. Fozzy is signalling his intent and wants to captain a succesful side. its good that someone who Glenn holds in such high regard is speaking up for his manager and the rest of the squad. he wants the club to move in the right direction and is hoping the board will rise to the challenge. time will tell jas :) [/quote] Pretty sure clubs are allowed to speak to Fotheringham as he is in the last 6 months of his contract and thus can sign a contract now taking effect from the summer if he so wishes to. Just thought id say before the predictable posts start slagging off Doncaster for being clueless...

[quote user="Confused Des"] Because the board believes it can buck the trend of paying competetive wages and transfer fees,by "thinking cleverer" than everyone else,whilst whittling away our transfer budget on numerous bargain bin squad fillers,Robinson,Hughes,Thorne,And most of or current team.Bolstered by the occasional big name,eg Earnshaw who it turns out can only be persuaded to join on the proviso that they can name their own leaving terms no matter how detrimental to the team in terms of cohesion or unity,or by ensuring the squad was large enough to compensate for such an eventuality. By the way it handled Dean Ashtons transfer to West Ham, or Leon Mckenzies to coventry. For the Lack of ambition that so clearly manifests itself on the pitch, Name one other club that has "prudence with ambition" or "sound fiscal policy with a modicum of sucess" as a club mission statement, then wonder why we have difficulty attracting and retaining ambitious footballers. Because despite numerous chances for the board to learn from past mistakes,there is no sign that it has nor shows any willingness to listen to criticism,beyond labelling it unhelpful.   quoting the handling of Ashton''s seems bizare. Ashton was given a new contract the summer we went down, with the ambition that he would fire in the goals to return us to the premiership. Anyone that saw his performances that season could see he was taking the piss and simply didnt give a damn. History shows there is not a huge amount of point keeping an unhappy player.     [/quote]

[quote user="slater"]The problem is that we''ve (badly) we been forced to radhly replace all of our more expensive, better players with cheaper, worse ones as the parachute money runs out. A bit like the other two teams (Palace and Soton) who came down with us from the Premiership. Now look at the league table and tell me how much better they''re getting on?[/quote] exactly. it would be ridiculous to spend money we don''t have. i am by no means happy by the present performances, but i would prefer to have my football club existing for the rest of my lifetime than gamble on more success in the short term. If the Turners or other suitable investors want to invest, then it would be great. Until then, however, i fail to see what more the board can do.

I am a first time poster but i was just interested to hear why people are so anti our board? We are a Championship club. Like many championship clubs we are crippled with debt. Players capable of playing in the premier league will want to leave(ashton, earnshaw, francis etc) Due to the difficulties of sustaining a football club at this level we are not always going to able to replace them with people of the same value. (even if we could attract such players to the club) Even when an agreement can be made with a potential new players club, the player will not always want to come here. (e.g Billy Sharp, Steve Howard, Dave Coterill etc) Yes the club has good support, facilities and stadium but it is also a fair distance from anywhere else of note in the country. Players will often have the chance to join another club without moving house and family. Surely the responsbility for signing bad players lies with the management of recent years? Players like Hughes, Doherty, Jonson etc didnt exactlly come cheap. The inclusion of release clauses in contracts is also a modern reality for teams in our position (and league). If we don''t include such clauses, we have no chance of attracting players such as Etuhu and Earnshaw in the first place.