Cyril the Canary

I got the opportunity the other week against birmingham to go in one in the Jarrold Stand.  It was a nice day out as the company laid on a free bar etc., seeing as it was with Aviva we got a couple of nice perks as well.   However, the atmosphere was appalling and what I find completely strange and unacceptable really was the fact you couldn''t stand in the box and watch the game.  The curtains had to be drawn due to licencing reasons, so you couldn''t have a beer inside the box and watch the game at the same time.   Can understand not being able to take your beer out of the box onto the stand but to not allow you to stand in your box and take a swig was a bit of a downside for me.

[quote user="7rew"]I just don''t rate gerard at all - or lampard for that matter.  They are lovely Holywood midfielders, but can''t keep the ball as needed at international level.  My solution to the england team is not based on 4-4-bleedin'' 2.  Its time to look at what we have rather than what we need.  Man U have this last season really played without a striker. (Rooney is not really amn out and out striker)  Also we seem not to have full backs apart from cashley on the left and a centre back playing wide on the right. So I''m proposing a return to an old style formation, (of course it requires everybody to be fit) 1. Green - GK (best goalie not 2 years from retirement atm) 2. Richards -RCD 3. Ferdinand - CD 4. Woodgate - LCD 5. Hargreaves - RDMF (can also play RB) 6. Barry - LDMF (can also play LB) 7. Agbonglahor  - RWAMF 8. Bentley  - RAMF - possibly this could be Gerrard. This is the hardest choice. 9. Rooney - CAMF 10. J.Cole - LAMF 11. Young. - LWAMF All of the front 5 are comfortable in MF and upfront, with 2 each side comfortable wide.  They would line up 3-2-5-0 but would play with a mixture of players of the front 5 in midfield and attack. If done right it would be impossible to man mark any player and impossible to mark zonally since sny number of player can turn up in any zone as needed. The only problem is that it needs intelligent players and ones that can follow the advice of people watching (coach etc.) who will be able to spot opposition player to target etc. Formations that may all crop up in the same match, as the need dictates: ___1 _2_3_4 __5_6 7_8_9_10_11 or ___1 _2_3_4 8_5_6_11 _7_9_10 or ___1 2_3_4_6 8_5_10_11 __7_9 or ___1 5_2_3_4_6 7_8_10_11 ___9 or ___1 2_3_4_6 8_9_5_10_11 ___7[/quote]   I think you should send this to capello, the daft italian should take note.  IMO we definitely need to get rid of the dead wood (much like GR has done here) ie gerrard lampard beckham.  They don''t deserve to start maybe keep them on the bench as an impact player, but they definitely do not deserve to wear the white shirt in a starting role.

I think it must''ve been around 86/87 sitting in the old south stand watching a cracking game between city and southampton that finished 4-4.  I was only 4 at the time so can''t really remember the scorers or anything, but just remember the atmosphere, and my dad sneaking me in through the turnstiles as he only had enough money for 1 ticket but wanted to take me along to my first game, so managed to get me in somehow.

This to me does seem to have some weight.  A former colleague of mine who I used to work with at a well known insurance company in Norwich, recently left to work for Towergate.  At the recent Spurs game pre-season, My mate was in the directors box for Towergate, sitting next to Cullum, I spoke with my mate after the game and he said all is not dead and buried and they are still discussing possible investment.  Thought I''d raise it now as didn''t seem appropriate before.    

[quote user="Fozzie"][quote user="King Beef"] [quote user="Fozzie"]Stuck watching the match on a LA Galaxy feed, so all the talk is of how Beckham feels about every pass the team are making. Not heard the ''commentators'' mention Hucks'' involvement in the game at all.  Not even in the starting line-up. [/quote] Do you have a link for the LA Galaxy feed? If so could you PM it to me? Cheers, KB [/quote] done. Also.  Someone sort out the constant server error stuff! [/quote]   could you pm me a link as well please can''t find a decent stream of it anywhere

There''s only a city flag in the crowd!!

I will only ever support one team (the boys in Yellow and Green).  But like many others on here I do have a soft spot for other teams: Japanese team - Nagoya Grampus (formerly Grampus 8) this was mainly due to Mr. Linekar going to play for them when I was a young boy.  Linekar was my favourite non-norwich player.  He was just a god.  Got a couple of their shirts as well. Purely on following the Huckerby bandwagon i''ll probably take an interest in SJE. and Cambridge United.  My dad''s mate tried so hard to get me to support them when I was a little nipper, but it was never going to happen, but I do like to look out for their results.

In Banff Town Centre in Canada this January Just gone, he had his Norwich beenie hat on, I had to have a double take just to make sure but it definitely was one of ours!   On another occasion saw someone wearing one ofr shirts up in Inverness.

What about Kevin Phillips, he''s holding out for a two year deal at WBA but I doubt he''ll get so could become available.  Would be a great elder statesman like DD was?    And anyone that can play at centre back better than Shacks and Doc would be a good bonus, my pet dog can kick a ball better than them two!

Personally, I don''t think introducing a draft type system will work in how our league system is set-up.  It works excellently if it is a closed shop league like the NFL, and a predominantly one nation played sport, but in a system where there is relegation and promotion it is nigh on impossible.  If it did happen and say the 92nd team in the league gets first pick of the talent coming through, there is nothing stopping the big 4 from going out and spending a few quid on this promising youngster, but would they?  They would probably more than likely go abroad and get a cheaper african/european/south american than pay over the odds for young english talent, leaving the young player to develope, or not, in the lower divisions where the coaching is not as good.  Lets face it nugent worth £6m, don''t think so, a club would rather spend less than half that on a young african player, who is equally as talented and equally untried. And say the PL champions get 92nd pick, they''ll just go out and buy something from deepest darkest bulgaria, that has been playing for their club in UEFA cup or something instead.  And will probably terminate their youngsters contract within a year.  All hypothetical of course.  But I can see it happening. Just reading back what I''ve written there is probably a good arguement there as well for developing the draft system, at least if the premiership clubs did decide to buy lower leagues draft picks it would distribute some of the money away from the rich into the lower leagues. Anyhow its not really viable. I would like to see the FA gain back more control with what goes on with the PL and english football in general, so they have more say on how the money is distributed.  With all the money and revenue flowing into the english game there should be absolutely no reason why England shouldn''t be sitting atop the world looking down on everyone else.  With the money being redistributed I''d like to see clubs have tie-ups with local clubs where they have an input on how the youth players are developed and these local clubs become feeder clubs.  For instance, with the extra revenue NCFC recieve through the FA they could have tie ups with hellesdon U-7''s right through to Kings Lynn for the development of local youth players where their coaches are given the right training and qualifications to nurture these players.  Another route we could take is similar to a rule that is enforced within the Spanish league set-up, where they are not allowed to have no more than 3 non-eu players within their matchday squad.  OK this doesn''t stop EU nationals from playing for the teams, but it will at least slightly improve the chances of home grown talent of making the first team squads of the PL teams.  It seems to work within the spanish leagues as there is a far higher proportion of spanish nationals playing in their league.  Plus with the re-allocation of money down the leagues, the emphasis on getting results fast might dwindle and therefore managers giving home grown youth talent a chance might increase.  I like the idea of what Blatter has previously said about a quota system, even though it goes against EU employment laws, I do believe it should be challenged so it protects the identity of each countries league. Finally another idea we could look into is pretty radical, but it could increase the chances of England actually winning the world cup.  The welsh rugby side have done it for awhile, the croats have done it recently, so why shouldn''t we.  I''m talking about getting foreign nationals to play for England.  With half of Arsenals youth team foreign and been living in this country since they were 12, could Mr. Capello or whoever chat them up and ask them to play for England when they have been resident here 5 years.  Its an idea!! There are probably hundreds of holes in my ideas and arguements but like scudamore i''m just putting it out there. As for the English fans trying to do something to change the way it is run I think even if everyone joined forces for a day of protest nothing would change.  The owners would just ''franchise'' the clubs out and then they can get their game abroad. Nothing will change with what fans could do. It needs men with balls at Soho Square to bring Football Home.

And what stinks even more is that they are laying off hundreds of workers in Norwich this year, and with cost cutting in the future due to hit £350m in next three years i''m sure there will be many more going again.