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andyc24_uk

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Everything posted by andyc24_uk

  1. andyc24_uk
    We definitely need cover for Aarons at RB - I actually thought we might keep hold of Pinto as he's got the top flight experience and isn't a bad player, but clearly he wants first team football which is understandable. We also need a new striker - Srbeny seems a nice guy but he's not really been good enough for the Championship, won't be anywhere near PL standard. He probably needs to move on realistically for his own career. Rhodes I'm still in 2 minds about - seems an important figure in the dressing room but was nowhere near good enough in the top flight last time he tried. Depends how much we'd have to pay for him. Idah I would love to see get a chance but I suspect a season on loan in League 1 or 2 beckons, then integrated into the first team squad the following season. Defence I'm not sure... I think the personnel are good, but maybe we need to improve the defensive coaching instead as we make too many mistakes and let in too many goals; but every single one of our CBs also show flashes of brilliance that suggest they're all good enough if only they could find some consistency... Maybe we throw a fairly sizeable pay cheque at a talented defensive specialist coach from a bigger club? Beyond that I actually don;t think we're desperate for anyone. Backup 'Keeper would be nice, depending on how highly DF rates Oxborough as the long-term successor to Krul; If we find the right player as cover for Emi and/or competition for Hernandez then excellent; if not then I dont see it as essential.
  2. andyc24_uk
    Assuming we continue our good financial habits of the last couple of years, with at minimum a season of Premier League revenue and parachute payments now secure in even the worst case scenario Norwich should be set for a long term future in the top two divisions. Ipswich on the other hand I can genuinely see heading for bankruptcy and ending up in non-league. They have no assets, very little potential for sale to investors (3rd tier, limited catchment area problems worse than ours, high debt levels) , ground barely fit to pass basic league safety requirements and not going to be invested in any time soon; chairman who will likely cut off any significant funding if they don't immediately make a winning start to next season. I actually don't think we'll ever see another East Anglian Derby, at least not in the league.
  3. andyc24_uk
    I'd like to see Reed back, yes he's not likely to displace anyone from the first team immediately but his attitude fits with what we're trying to do, I think he's capable of stepping up another level beyond what we saw of him last season, he clearly likes the club and the versatility he offers would make him an extremely useful player to have on the bench; as a homegrown player he would also be a shrewd signing in the long term in the event that we were to be relegated after one season in the Premier League and needed to worry about making the quota again in future seasons. I'm also a fan of Will Vaulks, seems to have the right attitude and drive to do well, gets into good positions and always gives 100%. With Rotherham relegated I would be very surprised if he doesn't have a release clause that can be activated and I don;t think he would cost as much as someone like Maupay.
  4. andyc24_uk
    Set your VPNs to Korea, ladies and gents. I'm working over here, been able to watch almost every game this season on iFollow and it's not listed as blocked for tonight. Going to miss it next year TBH. (although far more games easily available on Sky I suppose!)
  5. andyc24_uk
    100% agree with this - He's a young lad who has vast potential for us and has come on in leaps and bounds this season, albeit perhaps not quite as far as Aarons and Godfrey. He's not looked quite sharp enough the last couple of games and I think you would have to be a real optimist to think he's ready for regular football in the Premier League at this stage - but the only way he'll progress to that level is by playing regularly week in week out in the Championship or possibly abroad. I'll be surprised and quite disappointed if he's at Carrow Road next season to be honest, he needs to play pretty much every game next season to push his development that bit further and make him into a really top player and a loan - actually to a club like Wigan would probably be ideal - is the way to ensure that.
  6. andyc24_uk
    To the tune of '3 Lions on the shirt' : They’re going down, They’re going down, They’re going, Ipswich going down Noone seems to know how to score, Their build-up play’s a bore They just know, They were so sure, That Hurst was gonna save the day, In some miracle way, But he didn’t know how to play, 'Cause I remember Donkeys on their shirts, Lambert f*cking steaming, Relegation certs, 10 years now and counting. So many jokes, so many sneers, Cos Marcus Evans’s arrears, Will keep them down, For years and years, But I still see that hat-trick by Holt , And Johnson’s thunderbolt, Pukki belting the ball, Hernandez scoring Donkeys on your shirt, Portman Road is empty, Your pitch is made of dirt No hope of returning. They’re going down They’re going Ipswich going down
  7. andyc24_uk
    I wonder, IF we were to mathematically seal promotion with a couple of games to spare, whether Farke would rotate the squad for the last couple of games, giving fringe players 90 minutes partly as a way of assessing them in competitive action ahead of next season and partly as a reward for their patience and contribution over the season? Would be good to see Heise get a bit of action in one of the last matches; I'd love Pinto to get 90 minutes and a decent send-off from the crowd as well to be honest.
  8. andyc24_uk
    If McGovern is going to be retained as second choice then it makes very little sense to me, he's a long, long way short of the ability required in the top flight and does nothing to help the homegrown quota... However - If Aston Oxborough is as good as he looked coming through the youth ranks and is seen as the long-term replacement for Krul, he surely has to go out on loan next season to get full-time experience in League 1/2. From that point of view, IF we're planning on bringing in another English 'keeper as backup to help with the homegrown rule, then retaining McGovern as 3rd choice makes a little bit of sense, assuming he's on low wages. Saying that though, Farke and Webber hve both talked in the past about how they prefer a smaller squad and how the club can't and won't carry passengers, they must also know that the fan reaction was likely to be largely negative, so I'd assume there are some concrete plans afoot here that we're not entirely aware of yet.
  9. andyc24_uk
    Not questioning his signing on loan this season at all Broadstairs - I was sceptical at the start of the season and he's proved me wrong, he's contributed some essential goals and secured us vital points earlier in the campaign. Having said that, I'm still on the fence about whether making him a permanent acquisition next season is a good move - He's only scored once in the last 4 1/2 months and hasn't been able to dislodge Pukki from the first XI even when his goalscoring form has slipped a bit, and looked well off the pace last time he tried his luck in the Premiership. It may be he goes and scores another 4 or 5 goals for us between now and the end of the season and signing him becomes a no-brainer - I hope that's the case, it would be fantastic - but if not then the club has to think about whether Rhodes has found his level in the Championship and we need to consider other options for a higher division - Possibly Idah among them.
  10. andyc24_uk
    Would love a pre-season friendly against them and for the clubs and fans to build some proper links - given our existing links to Dortmund, both of us having a track record of bringing through good young players, plus the fact they seem like a generally decent, well-run club with mostly pretty sound fans, they'd be a good team to develop friendly relations with.
  11. andyc24_uk
    I'd definitely hope Idah gets a full season out on loan next year if we get promoted - League 1 or possibly Championship would seem the obvious choice but it has to be the right club - I wonder if a season in Germany would do him good - Bundesliga 2 is clearly a league that produces gifted players and presumably a lot of the philosophies they employ there in training and tactics are close to what Farke is looking to instil at Norwich, so that might be a better proving ground than an English club that plays in a different way? Although saying that if he's ready to step up out of the blue like Aarons was at the start of this season then why not have him as an option off the bench? Next year's striker situation will be interesting to say the least if we're promoted... Nothing against Srbeny but given he hasnt really done much in the Championship it's hard to see him having much of a role if we're in the top flight next season and I know some people will disagree but I'm not 100% sold on signing Rhodes permanently either (He's clearly a great figure in the dressing room and that alone might well be reason enough to sign him, but on the pitch he's not done *that* much if we're ruthlessly honest, hasnt come close to dislodging Pukki in recent weeks even when Pukki's form has dipped, and was nowhere near the pace last time he was in the Prem). Idah could be the solution...?
  12. andyc24_uk
    Scotland are an absolutely abysmal national team right now, this defeat shows just how appalling they are, easily beaten by Kazakhstan - I honestly wouldn't bank on them beating San Marino in the next game the way they're playing. There are clearly talented players available (like McLean) but it's the same tired ineffective management and hopeless coaching time and again - McLeish has never been a particularly stellar manager and he clearly hasn't got a clue who to pick for Scotland, just seems to grab whoever looked half decent on TV the previous week and throw them in a lineup. He needs to go and the SFA instead of appointing Lambert who is probably the one they'll turn to, need to bring in a young, talented manager on a long-term (10 years or so) contract with a long-term vision who will do what England are in the process of doing - Identify the most promising young players at 15-16 years old and bring them up through the ranks together so that in 5-6 years you have a solid group of players who know each others' style of play and have tons of experience playing together.
  13. andyc24_uk
    Used to hate them because of Muscat - Utter scümbag, he should have been banned for life on multiple occasions - but honestly they're not that team any more and it's hard not to enjoy watching them this season with the way they're playing. A significant section of the fans are knobs though.
  14. andyc24_uk
    Yep, true. There's no happy solution really in a situation like this - But I would honestly rather see that than have results wiped out. Somebody's going to be disadvantaged one way or another, and I'd say completing the season even in a weakened state has more sporting integrity if you like than just wiping the record and effectively pretending the matches never happened.
  15. andyc24_uk
    Does anyone other than FIFA execs actually think the yellow card for taking off your shirt rule serves any purpose whatsoever? From what I understand the argument is that it was introduced to supposed to stop timewasting but honestly whipping your shirt off and putting it back on again takes less time than 90% of the other flashy goal celebrations you see from players, and surely the time taken to actually book someone is far more than the time it would have taken him to pull his shirt back on anyhow?!
  16. andyc24_uk
    Still unfair though really on all the other clubs who played against them and players who scored v them losing goals; Given the amount of money in the game these days the FA really ought to have an emergency fund available for circumstances like this, with which they can take over a bankrupt club and run them under administration until the end of the season before dissolving them. Even if that required sacking the entire backroom staff, cutting the squad down to a bare minimum of 11 or 12 and using U-18s or semi-pros to make up the numbers on the bench, it would be better than winding up a club mid-season and affecting everyone else. If they took about half a percent of the Premier League's TV revenue deal each season, that would be more than enough to cover an emergency fund without having any noticeable effect on wealthy team's revenues.
  17. andyc24_uk
    One of the big arguments I've read for why Puel didn't work out is that he likes to play a possession-based passing game and play the ball out, which doesn't suit the style of the players at Leicester (Vardy in particular) or the desire of the fans for exciting, attacking football. I suspect Farke's style of play, while far more attacking than Puel's, still wouldn't really work particularly well with the players they have. It's noticeable that we've finally managed to implement that style successfully this season now that Farke has got his own men in every position and has had the time to impress his ideas on the group... My guess is he'd have to do the same thing again at Leicester and I'm not sure their fans would give him 18 months to get it right. Having said that, I do hope this possible threat is the kick up the backside the club needs to get Farke's new contract signed and sealed - The longer it goes on, the harder it is to understand why it's not done yet.
  18. andyc24_uk
    Signed pro forms according to the front page article. Next product off the Norwich City Assembly Line of Footballing Excellence, perhaps? I'd love an Icelander in the team just for an excuse to get the 'Viking Clap' going at Carrow Road - make it loud enough and the stands at Portaloo Road would probably fall down from the vibration 😛
  19. andyc24_uk
    Depends on where you are with the VPN for 3pm games I think - I'm guessing it's only within Europe as I don't need it in Asia (watched the Bolton game without one). Amazing that they're charging €12.50 for a match pass in Ireland though... how can they justify charging 2.5x the price between different countries?! @wcorkcanary might be worth you trying the VPN next time and telling it you're in Asia somewhere, see if you get charged a fiver instead? Or maybe it's linked to what card you have linked to the account? Or maybe Delia just likes me more than she does you? 😛
  20. andyc24_uk
    At a guess, the original plan was probably to stay up there, have a training session and some team bonding before the Bolton game, but I would suspect with tonight being Valentines Day and the majority of players being married or in a relationship, they might have wanted some 'family time'...
  21. andyc24_uk
    Interesting... Was the €12 just for the one-off match pass? Where were you watching from? I paid £5, watching from Indonesia on holiday, and had perfectly good reception other than a couple of 10-second freeze-ups in the first half which might have been more to do with the local internet than iFollow. Interested to see what people get charged from different parts of the world and if a VPN makes a difference - I usually tune in from Korea, costs £5 a match and 95% of the time seems to work fine with no VPN needed, although I do now have to disable the Adblocker.
  22. andyc24_uk
    But how many times have we ever actually been in this situation? A mostly-young, hungry squad with an ambitious management/backroom team who all seem to be buying into a long-term project that's clearly a lot more than simply 'Get promoted'. Yes, we've had talented, promotion-winning squads before - but never with this kind of squad and never with this kind of long-term vision backing what we're trying to do. Of course they'll all move on eventually, but IF we go up this season I think it would take a huge opportunity from the right club for anyone to want out - I get the sense that this current crop of players understand that there's more to football than just chasing the highest wage; I suspect anyone who didn't understand that would not be welcome in Farke's dressing room (Hence Middleton's exit despite being highly rated and clearly ready for first team football, for example)
  23. andyc24_uk
    This is a key point for our future... Last summer we had an unproven manager who was unknown to the general public and being questioned by a lot of fans, two players who were of any significant value, both of whom we sold, and had Maddison's injury been more severe and his transfer fallen through we would have been in major financial trouble. Today, we have a table-topping squad which honestly could probably hold its own in the Premiership already, and between Buendia/Aarons/Leitner/Pukki/Lewis/Godfrey/Vrancic/Stiepermann/Cantwell/Klose if he extends his deal, we have easily 100-150m worth of assets that we are under absolutely no obligation to sell and arguably the most exciting and increasingly talked-about young manager in the country. I think we'll go up and I don't think any of our big stars will leave, unless someone gets a call from a massive club that has a track record of trusting in young players for the fist team and will pay us 20m+. Honestly the only side I can see who would fit that bill right now is maybe Dortmund. But if we do lose anyone, then (a) We will be able to afford a replacement, and (b) from everything we've seen so far, I'm certain Webber and Farke have already identified targets to bring in if we need them.
  24. andyc24_uk
    I dont understand why he was in the Directors Box at all! I'm not trying to have a go at Delia here but I think that was a poor lapse of judgment - Irrelevant what Lambert has done for us in the past, he's the rival manager and he'd just been banished from the dugout for the football equivalent of committing a 'crime'. If someone's arrested for burgling your house, you don't invite them to stay in your spare room while awaiting trial... I'd personally love to see the FA clear up the rules on that, so that anyone sent off from the bench is escorted out of the stadium, and also a complete ban on mobile phones on the bench - there's absolutely no reason for them at all.
  25. andyc24_uk
    Agreed, I think Okazaki would be a good fit in this team in a lot of ways but he's not someone we need to bring in now. Possible summer signing maybe if we were to go up? His Premier League experience would make him a better option than Srbeny and possibly Rhodes at that level I'd suggest. For now though, no thanks - Much rather get a LB in as cover.
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