andyc24_uk

[quote user="Mister Chops"]Why not buy someone better than our current strikers, and then Holt/Morison can sit on the bench?[/quote] This. If we''re going to improve - or even tread water in a more competitive division - this season, then we need to brig in players better than Holt. Ideally, GH needs to be our 3rd-choice striker next season. It''s unlikely he''ll have as exceptional a season as last year, given that he''s a year older, his mentor Lambert is gone, the fans are no longer 100% behind him and his motivation will likely not be as strong after this recent spat. My big wish for the new campaign is 2 new, better players in up front, Holt as the third, Martin out and the other 3 providing a variety of different styles of play as and when CH wants to change things up. Oh, and some defenders too, of course.

Just a thought... but everyone is talking about Culverhouse and Karsa as if they are a single entity, one of whom cannot operate without the other. It''s entirely possible that one of them (my guess Cully, given his long association with the club) would prefer to stay at Norwich, while the other could be tempted to follow Lambert to Villa.

Do they have anybody left worth signing? Only ones I can think of in their squad who might be worth picking up on the cheap are Maurice Edu and maybe Aluko?

Yes, if he''s interested, he would be a quality signing. I know we have a wage structure in place for a reason, but if there''s the opportunity of signing a genuine top-class talent like Barnetta, then I hope McNally would be prepared to push the boundaries a little...

Gebre Selassie looked very good (albeit in a piss-poor Czech team) and would be a fantastic option at right-back if we can''t get Naughton. He''s supposedly got his eye on a move to the Premiership as well and would I imagine be a realistic target.

I thought it was going to say Asda (alongside Carl Cort...)

Wants to leave Blackburn; probably would be willing to take a wage cut to return to the premiership; Only 29 although he seems to have been around forever; a realistic target and the kind of player who might fit into our squad, and would be a ''figurehead'' up front if Holt leaves... Would do well with the service from Pilkington as well I suspect. (Plus wouldn''t you just love to hear the entire Barclay chanting ''Feed The Yak And He Will Score!'' :-P ) Anyone else reckon he''d be a good buy, or am I on my own with this one...?

Would be great if he does, but to be honest I''d hope Morison is our 4th-choice striker, behind a fully-fit Vaughan and two new signings who can put the ball in the net. I think everyone agreed that a new man up front was one of the key positions we needed to strengthen this summer, and if Holt is on the way out then we really need to buy two forwards - As players found out last year it''s a long, hard season and we''re bound to get injuries part way through; we struggled through with 4 strikers (plus I guess eventually Vaughan) last year - One of them is gone, another possibly on the way and Vaughan''s fitness still a big question mark. I imagine Hughton will have a few targets in mind.

Yes, absolutely - but as others have said, he''s exactly the type of player Lambert excels at getting the best out of - clearly talented, highly rated but never quite lived up to the hype in the past. He''ll do what he did for us with Ruddy/Surman/Naughton etc. Wouldn''t be at all surprised to see Agbonlahor up at the sharp end of the goalscoring charts this time next season and a solid part of the England setup.

Bonjour Luc! Merci de poster ici! Ipswich sont nos grands rivaux, comme Lille et Lens ... Beaucoup de fans de Ipswich venu ici pour perdre notre temps, de sorte que certaines personnes ne faire confiance à personne ... nouvelle Cependant, la plupart d''entre nous sommes très heureux de vous rencontrer! Je pense que nous serions très heureux d''avoir Rudi que notre nouvel entraîneur, mais le LOSC est un grand club ... alors peut-être il ne voudra pas se déplacer. Je souhaite vraiment que Norwich et Lille pourrait jouer un match amical de pré-saison - Je pense que ce serait un grand jeu!

Barry Bannan of Villa I would say is a certainty to go, unless he rejects the call-up.

So before pre-season has even begun, more than a quarter of clubs in the Premiership will have new managers Norwich Villa Liverpool Swansea West Brom Chelsea (probably) It''s going to be VERY interesting for the first few months of next season! On continuity grounds, there could be an argument there for appointing Culverhouse (or at least keeping him and Karsa) - the less upheaval we have, the easier it will be to hit the ground running come the start of August...

Totally agree with that. To be honest, if you look at the way we played for the last third of the season, barring the Spurs and Arsenal games, you''d have to conclude that we were likely to struggle badly to stay up next season. Far too many points dropped against weaker opposition, big questions over formations and personnel selection. Without knocking what had been achieved, I think the players and Lambert may actually have started to get a little too comfortable and begun to fall into the trap of believing their own hype a little too much. Squad unity and team spirit has got us a long, long way, but there does come a point at which it can no longer be a substitute for performance and skill. A new manager will shake things up a bit, will inherit a very solid young squad, and will probably be less conservative in the transfer market than PL would have been. I''m actually much more positive about our chances for next season now than I was a week ago.

If Lambert is indeed still under contract with us and has been placed on ''gardening leave'', or if it''s escalated to an official dispute, then presumably he cannot begin work with Villa until everything is sorted out, compensation is agreed and McNally formally releases him from his Norwich contract (or a tribunal finds in PL''s favour). Either way, as far as I can see, gardening is pretty much all he''ll be able to do until then! Given that Villa are effectively our direct relegation rivals in the league next season, surely it''s in Norwich''s interests to play this out as long as possible to reduce the time PL has to get to grips with his new job, and thus cause as much damage to Villa''s preparations for the new season as we can? McNally could theoretically force the issue all the way to a lengthy tribunal process which would take weeks to resolve, while bringing in a new man with a role of ''chief footballing tactics officer'' or ''director of on-field operations'' or some other euphemism for manager at Carrow Road to begin work for us in the next few days; and leave PL and Villa stuck in limbo for several weeks and unable to start preparing for next season until well into the summer. This may sound a little harsh given what PL has done for us over the last few years, but given the manner of his departure, I wouldn''t feel all that much sympathy; and if it costs an under-prepared Villa a couple of points early in the season, that could very realistically end up being the difference between us and them come May 2013...

I''ll likely get crucified for saying this, but I''m not too disappointed by Lambert''s exit. Fantastic job that he did, I suspect he''d taken us about as far as his talents would allow. The second half of the season he made some questionable tactical choices (sticking with formations that were clearly ineffective; leaving Holt on the bench in favour of an out-of-form Morison etc). Taken on the last 10 games of the season, we''d have barely escaped the drop by the skin of our teeth. Not knocking anything PL''s done, but we have a new challenge now - to become a solid top-flight side which doesn''t have to worry about relegation and can eventually challenge for the European cup spots. Maybe we need a fresh approach in order to achieve that? We also need someone who casts the net wider and is more ambitious in bringing in players IMHO - Lower-league gems have worked wonderfully un until now, but not all of them can cut it in the Premiership, and we need to be looking abroad for new signings. If he doesn''t get offered the Chelsea job, Di Matteo must surely be top of the list; Hughton would be a solid appointment but I honestly think we can do better; Poyet for me is too volatile and wouldn''t work out although would raise the profile of the club. Another name I''d like to throw in the mix is Mark Bowen - Norwich connection aside, he''s been assistant at big clubs and at international level and is well respected - I think he could do a good job for us.

Out - Ward, Barnett, C Martin, Smith (Loan), Steer (Loan). In - Naughton, Pacheco, Lee Chung-yong, Snodgrass, a big tough CB cheap from Europe, a completely unknown but awesome skilful striker in the Cisse/Ba mold. Keep Drury and Lappin and find another LB in January.

Another possibility to throw out there, given the timing of Holt''s announcement - Perhaps he''s unhappy about PL''s decision to release Whitbread and/or Wilbraham? Anyone know if he was particularly close to either of them in the dressing room? If he was already somewhat unhappy about being benched in some games with an out-of-form Morison played instead, disappointed about missing the England squad, and having a bad week, then losing one of his buddies who he perhaps thought deserved another season might have pushed him over the edge? Pure speculation of course, but the timing just seems a little suspect to me... most of the big clubs will likely wait until after the Euros to go shopping...

On a permanent massive-wages contract? Hell no. But only on either a ''pay as you play'' deal, or a very low basic wage with decent appearance/goal bonuses? Absolutely. He''s scored 17 in 52 games for united - which doesn''t sound that special, until you realise he''s only made 18 starts. (It''s also a better strike rate than any of our current forwards bar Holt). When he''s fit, he still knows where the goal is - and of course has plenty of top-flight experience, which may well come in handy next season as things will be a lot tougher than they were this campaign. Not the no.1 target for us this summer, but if I were PL, I''d certainly be giving him a call and making him an offer.

Being realistic - Wilbraham - Not really a loss for us. Not premiership quality, he''s still got a couple of seasons left in him at Championship level. Brindley - Never close to 1st team, not a loss really. Ball - Been here 6 years, yet to break into the first team and unlikely to do so in the next 12 months. Dawkin - Surprised at this, I thought he was supposed to be one of our hot young prospects? I do think we''ve developed a worrying trend of not looking after our youngsters recently - Other than the ''keepers, who was the last player to come through the youth ranks and establish himself? Chris Martin to some degree; other than that... Jason Shackell? Whitbread - Sorry to say, but the first really major screw-up of Lambert''s reign as manager. Letting our best defender (and only one whs looked clearly up to Premiership standards so far) leave when all we have is one who''s clearly not up to scratch, one injury-prone, one inexperienced, and an out-of-position right-back as cover? Not a good move. I really hope PL has at least one, ideally two genuinely top-class centre-backs lined up to come in over the next few weeks - I mean experienced Premiership players, not some youth teamer with potential or someone who looked decent in League 2 - Yes it''s worked before, but only because we had experienced defenders to play alongside them. From the others, we need Drury and Lappin to stay as we''re dreadfully short of LB cover; we need Francomb as we''re short of RB cover; and we need Fox and Jackson as they''re both important players to the squad. Would like to keep the rest of them as well, but I''d understand it more if they were allowed to move on.

[quote user="anselin007"]Target 1 - Chung-Yong Lee (BOLTON)Target 2 - Martin Olsson (BLACKBURN)Target 3 - Jay Rodriguez (BURNLEY)Nothing to do with B'' teams3 Players i believe we should be looking at[/quote] You beat me to it! Lee Chung-Yong is quality (assuming he''s back to his pre-injury form), still young, fast, skilful and incredibly hard-working. Perfect player for our squad, and has been in the country a few years now so presumably the language barrier which usually seems to put PL off signing any non-English-speaking players won''t be an issue. Way too good for the Championship. Olsson would be a good shout if we can''t get Naughton, but with Kyle already being integrated into the team I''d say that''s easily worth spending the extra money on. Only concern is that Spurs may want him back more than ever now with Walker injured. Also we need a fast, skilful striker along the lines of Cisse and Ba at Newcastle - and I don''t think we''re going to find one in the lower leagues unfortunately. PL might be forced to look to European or African talent.

I know we''re not allowed to criticise Lambert for fear of upsetting certain fans, but still... I think he''s made a couple of mistakes in the second half of the season which have affected us as a team as well. Firstly, failing to deal with contract negotiations for some players - He has his reasons I''m sure but it''s hard not to think this uncertainty has affected the players'' morale and dressing room harmony. Secondly, his decision to effectively give up on the FA Cup when our good performances in the competition and the faint hope of a Wembley appearance were part of what was sustaining the belief in the squad and the good run. Again, he had his reasons, but I think both these were errors borne of inexperience, which hurt us in the long run and hopefully will be fixed for next season.

I think the above comments just about nail it, but I would say there are a couple of players who have shown in recent weeks that they aren''t really up to this level of football. Ward tries hard at the back but just doesn''t quite have what it takes to go up against genuine top-class strikers - I hope he stays next year but as an occasionally-used backup, not as a regular starter; and sadly Morison has just been getting worse and worse since about Christmas - he''s mostly anonymous and barely bothers to get involved in the game. His attitude is not right any more for whatever reason, and despite his goals and promise at the start of the campaign, he''s no longer pulling his weight for the team and probably needs to leave in the summer.

I think the above comments just about nail it, but I would say there are a couple of players who have shown in recent weeks that they aren''t really up to this level of football. Ward tries hard at the back but just doesn''t quite have what it takes to go up against genuine top-class strikers - I hope he stays next year but as an occasionally-used backup, not as a regular starter; and sadly Morison has just been getting worse and worse since about Christmas - he''s mostly anonymous and barely bothers to get involved in the game. His attitude is not right any more for whatever reason, and despite his goals and promise at the start of the campaign, he''s no longer pulling his weight for the team and probably needs to leave in the summer.

I''m not entirely sure why on-field success and sensible, ethical behaviour in the boardroom have to be mutually exclusive, but... Given the choice between being a smaller club that has less success but cares about its fans and treats them well, and a giant corporate avaricious Chelsea-esque behemoth? I''d honestly choose the championship every time. Hopefully the bad publicity McNally has got from this will curb his somewhat bullying attitude towards genuine fans who want to support the club, and we can enjoy the best of both worlds from now on.

Very sad to see this. It appears that yesterday was the day Norwich City became a ''nasty'' corporate club. Not impressed with releasing a new kit which is essentially identical to the previous years'' one, solely to wring more money out of the loyal fans. If it had been a complete redesign of the kit, then fair enough - but it''s virtually identical to this season''s kit, which is in itself fairly average. Clearly they had no interest in the actual design, just in making the smallest possible changes to get away with ripping off the fans. But what''s really out of order is bringing the police in to investigate something which (a) may or may not have been a crime; and (b) certainly caused no financial damage to the club whatsoever. It''s hardly like this kid was hacking into club accounts and posting financial data online or something - What difference did a handful of people seeing the new kit a few hours early make? Absolutely Zero. Disgusting behavior more reminiscent of money-grabbing multinational corporations or the music industry than the supposedly ''friendly, local club'' which NCFC sells itself as. I have a lot of respect for what McNally has done to turn the club around, but this is out of order. For the first time in my life, I''m actually ashamed to be a Norwich City fan.