George Smiley

Having been reading the lynch mob mentality of some ,not all of the Leicester fans about "That Pen" in the playoffs.The question still remains .How do you take a pen in that kind of pressure situation? Pens will probably play a big part of our season whether it is giving them away or sticking them in the onion bag.One supporter  pointed out .. a "Panenka" penalty is probably the hardest of all to execute because if you over hit it and it will smack  the bar or sail over.Under hit it and it will only travel o so slowly off the ground and will give the keeper time to (in Marshalls case dive the wrong way,get up  and still stop it) .Execute it perfectly and all the keeper has to do is stand rooted to the spot and catch it.They were actually saying that that the other pen which was saved was a better penalty but any penalty which doesn''t go in is a bad one surely.Has anyone on here ever taken a pen?How hard can it be?

This seems to be relevant now that we are champions,  from the movie  Mike Bassett England Manager. Check out the first 5 mins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33G8rUpUI08&feature=related .Is it true that Norfolk County Council refused the movie  company to film in the city?

A more worrying scenario would be the Prem teams who are after(will be after) a new manager.It looks like West Ham are going to give Zola the Spanish Archer.Have you heard of the annual sack race at the beginning of the season in the Prem, for under achieving teams?If Burnley and Hull can choose managers like Laws and Dowie  then Lambert must be  on West Hams'' radar at the moment.What good managers could they pick instead of ours?

This is probably old  hat  but i just saw  "the Damned utd"  on dvd.Top film  and thoughly entertaining with a brilliant script.Cloughie was one of the reasons i grew up loving the game so much but i only really knew about him from his Forest times.Liked the way his Nottingham forest teams always played football on the deck and would never contest a refs decision.This made me wonder ,what would happen if we tried the same approach? Surely refs would give us the benefit of the doubt of any 50-50 split decisions after we had earned a reputation for it.How many points would that be worth a season?Best 3 parts of the film ...Clough shouting "Bollocks to Don Revie!!" in the middle of Elland road in front of Bremner , Giles etc,The Derby chairman telling him exactly who was boss and The TV showdown with him and Revie (You would never see that these days with Ferguson and Wenger).Oh for a similar manager coming along and making Norwich City football club champions of Europe.

Can anyone remember when Peru shipped in six against the hosts to send Argentina to the final? ( Argentina needed to win by  4 pipping Brazil).Understandably the Brazilians went apeshit ( a bit like people on this board after yesterday)Strange when you consider that Peru were in form  ,stuffed Scotland 3-1 and had the worlds greatest kit ( they were no pushovers).It was a nailed on fix ( 2 tankerloads of grain arrived in Lima harbour 2 weeks later)so clutching at straws did our players receive a nice bonus in brown envelopes for throwing the game?

 

Will they be salivating? or will they be saying "Its going to be a bad time to play Norwich after such a hammering!" ?

C''mon , if you''re a Norwich city player you can pull any woman you want.

Would a team like Wroxham reserves or a local pub team concede 7 goals against Colchester if their lives depended on it? I remember Alyesbury playing England in 1988 and losing by about the same scoreline.A sick, senseless, spineless sham!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1iGdYzcnuU     check on the time at  1 min 46 secs.  gutted!,  i fancy a cup run this year

Does anybody know what i am talking about?  hope this helps   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defender_(football)

Are there any teams  anywhere which play this way?  It may be worth a try , what attributes do you need to make it effective?

In other words , Which countries could we beat?It is not unheard of for clubs to play other nations.I believe Arsenal beat France 2-0 in 1989.There was a story about some Brit who was married to a foreign national of some tin pot country and being a half decent player managed to blag an international cap in a world cup qualifier.

We should copy the Germany tournament model   "technically competent  players in every position, a never say die attitude, and loads of luck!"   you think i am joking , our greatest ever team was a  rough replica of the Dutch European championship winning side of 1988 .Dave Stringers green and yellow army of course 88/89.Some people will point to the team of  Mike Walkers which finished third in the prem but this team shipped in goals by the shedload.

 Thats the reason why we are forced to watch this shower of shite, either that or we were bad in a previous  life.    But seriously... Its not often i feel sorry for the younger generation canaries fan (i''m 38 by the way ) but i do  have some sympathy for them.When will they get the chance to see the big names?? , Watching top class football at carrow rud was a way of life for me  back in the  80s and  early 90s and its something i took for granted.Little did i know.I work abroad but i usually go to home and away games when i have been back(only 5 this season)(about 18 last).I haven''t been on the ground so to speak but these recent results have hit me hard.A crying shame(

I am trying to find a video clip of the handbags brawl between The Arse and Norwich in 1989  .Nearly all the players were involved including our illustrious manager.We had a decent team at that time and the incident was all over the  10 oclock news and the back page of the current bun ,mirror ,mail etc  on Monday morning.Even the Old Bill got involved.It  kicked off  at the end of the match after the ref gave them 2 soft penalties in a seven goal thriller.I might be wrong here but someone told me that the thing which lit the torch paper  was the fact that Alan Smith of the Arse told Gunn "Take that you C***!" after they scored the winner from the penalty spot in injury time.One of my favourite city games despite the fact we lost.

Cmon Bryan!, You''ve played under some half -decent managers  in your time , Ferguson,ONeill,Walker Stringer,Brown.Don''t let all those team talks go to waste,3 points tomorrow will do for starters .Chance to make a name for yourself..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaPoAT-Sy8     this will take your mind off our shiteness( albiet  briefly)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportivo_Wanka  

Signing Dean Coney in 1989, With any other half-decent striker, we could have won the league that year , not to mention going to the Cup final.Greatness was within our grasp but we imploded on the final furlong.Most of that season we were the greatest show in town .Now tell me, if that is a fact am i lying?

 Maybe Roeder is now thinking of playing in a different style.I would just love it if we signed Wes Hoolehan  or Robbie Blake.Quality players who can make defence splitting passes.I am a bit clueless about the defence .What centreback should we sign?

This thread is just a lighthearted look at our current squad.This is just my opinion so i would like to see other peoples thoughts as there are a million other alternatives 1 Ched Evans-  reminds me of a younger Alan Shearer in his heyday 2 Jamie Cureton-Robert Fleck 3 Mark Fotheringham-Dennis Wise 4 David Marshall- David Seaman (solid  younger version before ponytail) 5 Darrel Russell-Ruud Gullitt , same swashbuckling style 6 Matty Patterson-Gary Holt 7  Hucks  -  Franz Carr  ( remember him ,used to roast fullbacks) 8 Ryan Bertrand - Cashley Cole 9   Doc -Tony Adams 10 Shacks-Joleon Lescott 11  Mo Camara  - Mark Bowen

He was a really decent player for the toon, mackems and fulham and should have had loads of England caps, i am sure he could  still do a job for us if injuries hit us in the future.But seriously i think he really does a good job on the touchline.The players seem to respect him a lot.A lot of our positional sense and defensive awareness in games is down to him.