SWP = Poor Mans Ruel Fox!!

  Count me in Nutty, really enjoyed last season and looking forward to getting involved albeit with a slightly altered format.  Well done for keeping it going!   I lost track at the end of the season and not really sure where I finished in the table?

[quote user="Jimmy Smith"]i hope steer stays put for the sake of 1 game on the bench, shove a youthie on there if any spare keeper at all imo [/quote]   My thoughts exactly, wouldn''t like to cancel Steer''s loan deal for the sake of one game on the bench.  He needs the benefit of some first team football

[quote user="TheJarrold"] It should be 1 game...but they might take the Drogba incident into account (he should have been booked for that but luckily wasn''t) [/quote]     How would that make a difference, if he had been already booked he would have still been sent off for a professional foul, which carries a one match suspension.  Anyway it as an accidental collision which the referee saw, so nothing further will happen with that. To the OP, one game suspension, hopefully Rudd will do us proud vs West Brom!

    BREAKING NEWS: Gazza arrives outside Arsenal dressing room with a fishing rod, a crate of stella and a boneless banquet

[quote user="NWC"]Tony Fernandes is wasting no time in strenghtening their weak squad. £4million is the rumoured fee, but I bet he''s on 40-50K. He''s a great player, but I hope he''s carp for them!!! [/quote]   It may  be true that they are interested in him but he is worth more than £4million, I would say you would have to double that.

  Southampton have looked impressive so far, but it is very early days.  I would expect them to be there or thereabouts.   Promoted teams do tend to start well, maintaining their momentum from the previous season, if I recall both Leeds and Millwall started well last season (if not quite the 100% records the Saints and Brighton have enjoyed thus far).

[quote user="Bethnal Yellow and Green"] [quote user="YellowLittle1"]I am pretty happy that talks between Norwich and Fernandez did fall through. The fact he is a West Ham fan and he is going to take over another London team is pretty wrong. I don''t think he will be much better the Ecclestone and Briatore to be honest. Think he clearly is only doing it for a quick profit. Not like Delia who is in it for long term, Delia will only sell up to someone who has Norwich at heart which I think is what owners should be about.[/quote] I don''t know about that. Fernandes is sport crazy I don''t think he is looking at QPR as an investment but more as something he can enjoy. I''ll doubt he''ll be like David Whelan and pump millions of pounds into the club, but think he will look for the club to become a steady Premier League club which reinvests its money into players - which is basically what Delia does at Norwich. If he manages this I can''t see too many QPR fans being unhappy and for them almost anything must be better than Ecclestone and Briatore, who blocked Warnock from spending any money on players apart from £1.25m on DJ Campbell. [/quote]   He will need to pump in millions a la Whelen to get QPR to be a steady Premier League club though, there is no way they would be able to afford regular average PL wages to keep them up with a ground capacity of 18,500.  Someone somewhere would have to pick up the shortfall, or pay to expand/build a new stadium.  

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/06/paul-lambert-norwich-city-interview   Enjoyable read, cannot help but believe in him more and more!!

  Onouha would be the stand out signing for me, he has the potential to be a quality defender, the other signings are nothing better than what we have signed close season.    Lets not forget they haven''t signed Onouha yet, and I cannot see them signing Cole.  His star might have dropped in the last few years but he would still want to sign for a bigger club than QPR!

[quote user="Lambo Is God"] I''ve just put on a couple of season-long bets, to my wife''s chagrin.   Norwich to be the highest finishing club out of the 3 promoted Championship sides from last year (2 to 1, William Hill). Desperately hoping QPR implode, as they seem to be doing.   Norwich to avoid relegation (5 to 4, Corals).   You can no doubt get better odds online. These ones just took my fancy and provide some season-long interest (assuming we''re not down by Xmas).   They won''t make you feel dirty, either (though playing with your PinkUn too much just might). [/quote]   You could get 11/4 for Norwich to be top promoted side at your local Corals, I think that is a great bet personally.  Also how about 40/1 for City to be top after the first round of matches??   In response to the OP, don''t think you could find odds on player of the season, is something too easily affected by a relatively small number of people cannot see any decent sized bookmaker taking the bet.

[quote user="Give Peas to a Wizard "]Any City Stand expansion would surely involve a tunnel over Carrow Road...so maybe these blueprints aren''t as impossible as others may think.[/quote]   An expansion to the City Stand would mean the end to Carrow Road (the road not the ground lol).  It does nothing nowadays anyway its just a pedestrian walkway on matchdays.  There are roadways in existence now which means it could basically disappear with no inconvenience to any parties.

  Sorry I can''t agree that he is a reasonable manager.  Over the last couple of seasons he has had a decent amount of money to spend at Brum and made them the most boring team to watch in the division, over the last two seasons they have comfortably scored the least amount of goals, less than a goal a game!   Seems a very strange appointment and he really has to hit the ground running, which will be difficult when joining a side where all your best players want to leave anyway!

[quote user="Pabs"]I don''t want us to sign any of those players![/quote]   I''d take Scholes and Van Der Sar!!

  On SSN that Villa are intending to speakto/interview him in the next 24 hours, methinks Talksport jumped the gun somewhat, why change habits of a lifetime hey?

[quote user="Harry the Green Wizard"]Villa supporters won''t be happy about that. [/quote]   bit of an understatement there lol

  The headline sums up your original post in four lovely words!!   Along the same lines as someone else has mentioned, I know a couple of Leeds fans at work and they think Johnson is an excellent signing for us especially on a free, and they are almost suicidal at the idea of us possibly signing Snodgrass as well!

[quote user="paul moy"][quote user="yellow blood"][quote user="paul moy"] I''ll give you a clue.... he scored 10 goals with his head last season. [;)] [/quote] Look, if you are his Agent / Mother / Girlfriend then you are aiming your posts at the wrong audience. Perhaps you should post on a League 1 board because that''s where he is going to end up playing either before or after 31st August. [/quote] If I was his agent I''d be sending this video out to every Championship side, bearing in mind that Norwich don''t appear to want him. I''ve already recommended to a mate that his club Peterborough put in a bid.  At 500K he''s a steal as after next season he''ll be in demand as Champs top scorer IMO. [/quote]   1.  How do you know that Norwich ''don''t want him''?  I haven''t seen anything to say he is not in our long term plans.   2.  Just how obsessed are you about Cody????? Do you have posters of him on your bedroom wall?

  Think we are all canny enough to know transfers can be done and players signed any time of the year really, just the paperwork can only be processed during the specified transfer windows

[quote user="CanaryJames"]We haven''t signed anyone in June ;)[/quote]   Yeah didnt we actually sign Vaughan while it was still May :D ?

  I''m sure we''ve got plenty of irons in the fire with regard to all positions Lambert wants to strengthen, just a coincidence that these deals have progressed the quickest.  Maybe other players are bosmans and so we wont be signing them until the end of this month?   I would not be surprised if all (or most of) our deals are done by the start of July so Lambert has all his players ready for the start of pre-season.

  As other people have said, Milwall have to pay 25% of any fee to Stevenage, so its understandable they are driving a hard bargain for someone with a decent amount left on his contract.  If they sold for only £2mil, they would only actually get £1.5mil for him!   I can see us going back for him, it definitely seems like we are very keen on him

  I do think Bright has seriously lost it, I mean what is he achieving by blocking the likes of Hucks, Dion and Jake?  The man is an idiot, although this O''donoghue character is the biggest numbskull!   It is interesting to see just what will happen next!

[quote user="Rob Sims"] 1 year doesn''t offer the individual much job security. I expect most managers knowing how fickle football is want as long a contract as possible so that when the enevitable axe falls after 1 bad season (or less if your board is managed by certain foreign owners.  They get a healthy payout to live on while looking for future work. I imagine Lambert quite likes the idea of a 1 year rolling contract on improved terms for him and his team as they are on their way up. [/quote]   When that 1 year would pay about £1.6million or more I think that is plenty of security lol.  

[quote user="priceyrice"][quote user="pete_norw"] [quote user="Scottlarock"]I think he''s 11/2 because it''s more likely PL would want that job instead of a now Championship club (West Ham). It''s an open show market as there isn''t actually a job yet - prices will then fluctuate when there is a vacancy and the rumours start flying. Bookies make a fortune from these bets and can manipulate the market easily - most of the managerial rumours are from bookies PR people. I remember backing Peter Grant at 33/1 :-)[/quote] I don''t think any club would be willing to match the compensation figure that would be asked for,  personally I would expect it to be quite high, but lets not get carried away ( again) nothing mentioned from club and no contact from other clubs  [/quote] Compensation figures are not figures the club just make up, all to do with buying out the reaminder of someone''s contract. I really have no idea how Lambert''s contract is made up. Obviously the Mirror and Sun claim he has a rolling contract which we are yet to renew, if that was the case he could go for free. However, i remember Mcnally saying something last year saying they have tied Lambert down and have clauses in place if someone does try and nab him. Lambert has built a club here, i think everyone on this board has finally realised he won''t be going anywhere this summer [/quote]   I think I am correct in saying that a rolling contract means that Lambert always has so long left on his contract (say two years?), which means that if we want to sack him we would pay out two years, and equally if he left for another club they would have to pay us two years worth of his contract.  I am sure Worthington was on a similar contract?  In that instance he would never be ''free'' to leave the club.

[quote user="Canary Call Special Needs Admin"]I think CMS is more of a Lambert-type player but I''m a big fan of Long as a finisher. However regardless of who comes in, with the way Jackson finished the season he has to keep his shirt for the first game. Obviously competition is needed but nobody should get a free pass into the team ahead of Jackson on current form.[/quote]   Not sure you should really be picking a team at the start of the season on the form of the previous season, is that really ''current form'' at that stage?   It would probably depend on performances in pre-season just as much as well.   I would be pleased for CMS to join us, and I don''t think we will pay anything close to what was being quoted in March.