DEB (never forgotten)

[quote user="1st Wizard"] Okay, not bottom three yet granted, but the wrong results on Saturday and were as good as! http://new.pinkun.com/content/NCFC/Stats/2008-2009/table.aspx We play Watford & Charlton in December, and if we lose them, as I fear we will, then you may as well cancel Christmas as far as I''''m concerned. I''ve always believed, that this damn Smith led board would ruin our club long term, and now that its happening, it hurts to be proved right. We''re going down big time, with a crap manager at the helm..................accept it![:|] [/quote] Accepted it a long time ago! However, well over 20,000 happy punters enjoyed their night out! They love it!

Keith finds a new ''best friend''!  

[quote user="Boot"]I would rather have Delia''s small amount of money than no-ones and actually I don''t want Delia out particularly if nobody is comming in.  So if it''s all the same to you I think I''ll save my chanting for supporting the team, sorry if that seems like a bizarre notion by the way!. [/quote] There we are folks! - says it all!!!!  

[quote user="FramCanary"] Smith & Jones employ Keith Harris to find a buyer as they now seem intent on selling. Harris (an expert in brokering deals involving sale & aquisition of football clubs) has stated that investors in clubs can expect a return on capital of between 5% & 10%, with no requirement to invest further sums: “I have been able to demonstrate that if you do it correctly, the club should generate sufficient cash to fund itself,” he said. “So having bought it you shouldn''t have to put more money in unless you choose to. And you can generate a return of 5-10% in the value of the club every year over a period of seven to 10 years.” This alone, tells you all you need to know about how badly our club is being run. They have employed Harris, who (in turn) has effectively confirmed that the club is simply not being run correctly from a financial viewpoint. How ironic! [/quote] Have you seen this Fram?: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/2176869.stm

[quote user="Marlingford Canary"] WE WANT DELIA OUT SAY WE WANT DELIA OUT!   [/quote] Blasphemy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

[quote user="singing canary"] considering most of the championship teams are running at a loss i fail to see how he can justify that!!. surely any potential buyer would look into this before making a big purchase. if he is making wild promises like that i certainly dont fancy our chances of getting sold.   [/quote] As potential buyer Peter Cullum said, ''''The £20 million is an investment that is very unlikely to yield a good return other than emotional and it''s something I''ve always wanted to do." Although aware that a takeover is unlikely to return a profit, Cullum still appears keen to pursue his interest. Cullum, now an MP, is a current season ticket holder, but will be hoping that if his bid is accepted, he will be watching his beloved side from the director''s box rather than the terraces. ''''I don''t want to be the front person for the football club - that''s Delia. I don''t want fame and publicity. If there is to be some sort of deal I would like it to be on friendly terms," he said. Source - Daily Telegraph. We shall wait to find out how many other potential buyer''s Harris can find!

[quote user="Delia S. Tickers"][quote user="FramCanary"][quote user="Delia S. Tickers"][quote user="FramCanary"] Why are we unable to move Lappin on? - because all clubs that have shown an interest in him have been put off by his wage level.     [/quote] And there was me thinking it was because he was crap. Never knew this before, it''s amazing what "facts" the Accounts throw up. [/quote] Mark McGhee (Motherwell Manager) - 9/08 ''Someone like Simon Lappin, whom we had here on loan last year, was available from Norwich, but we can''t get anywhere near his wages'' Scotland on Sunday. I''ve made my point. I agree to disagree with you. You will never convince me that the current board are doing a good job, & I am unlikely to convince you of the opposite!.   [/quote] Motherwell are a tinpot club, what do you expect? If that was another Championship similar to us then I would suggest that you had a point, which of course you don''t. [/quote] Don''t waste your time with these apologists Fram! We could be relegated, enter administration & still Smith & her board would be excused. Be Bob''s fault I would imagine!. Their dwindling numbers remain by her side, defending her with all their might - poor souls!    

[quote user="ellis206"][quote user="FramCanary"] Smith & Jones employ Keith Harris to find a buyer as they now seem intent on selling. Harris (an expert in brokering deals involving sale & aquisition of football clubs) has stated that investors in clubs can expect a return on capital of between 5% & 10%, with no requirement to invest further sums: “I have been able to demonstrate that if you do it correctly, the club should generate sufficient cash to fund itself,” he said. “So having bought it you shouldn''t have to put more money in unless you choose to. And you can generate a return of 5-10% in the value of the club every year over a period of seven to 10 years.” This alone, tells you all you need to know about how badly our club is being run. They have employed Harris, who (in turn) has effectively confirmed that the club is simply not being run correctly from a financial viewpoint. How ironic! [/quote] Utter rubbish, Harris has only dealt with Premier league clubs, which should be generating profit due to the high income that they receive, the fact that Norwich are operating at a loss doesn''t mean we are a badly run club, due to the fact that EVERY club in this league is operating at a loss each season. There is no money in this league, the only way we could start making a profit, is if we freed up our wage bill. Wish people would stop taking pot shots at our board when they clearly no nothing! [/quote] The apologists are out in force today!

Clinghan. Some great saves from Marshall - but he was at fault for goal conceded. Slightly out of position, slipped & could not recover to prevent soft goal. Players worked hard throughout team. Pleased for players & manager. Need another win tuesday.  

[quote user="Reg Presley"]Some points: 1. Comparing the squad value now with 1996 is unfair: a) The Bosman ruling was only just coming into effect b) we weren''t subject to the same rules regarding youth as we are now - messrs Eadie, Bellamy and Cureton would not have been able to be taken into our Academy had today''s rules then applied 2. Anyone who thinks that Ashton etc weren''t forced sales has not been paying attention. A week or so before Ashton went the club was forced to borrow the money to pay Carl Robinson''s wages. 3. The South Stand and Infill were entirely financed by borrowing. 4. Did we need to replace the South Stand? No one has ever challenged the club on this - but judging by some of the stands that get safety certificates I must admit to a degree of scepticism. And did we need to replace it to the standard we did? And is the infill necessary at all? The general financial climate has moved against us, but the Chase / Wynn-Jones prioritising of property development ahead of football and in particular the ludicrous expectations of the money that can be made have dragged this club down. Actions speak louder than weasel words The insistence that any new investor must plough moneys into the coffers of existing shareholders rather than into the football budget demonstrates clearly where the priorities lie. Interesting that Mr Di Stefano was criticised by the current regime for wanting to buy shares from an existing shareholder (Jimmy Jones) rather than investing directly into the club. Seems there is only one destination for new money that "ticks all the boxes". [/quote] Some excellent points Reg. I would also make the point that the ''fire'' sales which Doncaster referes to were the £1.6m & £1m sales of Newsome & Ward. These sales represented profits totalling around £1.3m. Newsome had suffered a bad knee injury from which he was never to recover, and so both deals were good business. I would also add that medium sized clud''s such as ours both suffer & benefit from the bosman ruling. Excellent points, but I feel that Fram''s opener is difficult to question, as it sums the position up superbly. Not enough ''fans'' question the financial situation at the club, and why it is so ''dire'' - as confirmed by Smith at the AGM. I would imagine that the ''Turner''s'' identified huge problems when undertaking their review of finances & this resulted in a considerable difference of opinion with other members of the board. This may have been part of the reason for their departure.

[quote user="BlyBlyBabes"] Who is the board going to get to help them throw good money after bad in the middle of an economic recession? The Turners pulled out, they snubbed Cullum, who next? What next? I mean they have no vision, no goals. They don''t benchmark and strive to emulate. Only a fool would back them with significant money as things stand. All they do is flounder around and turn plaintively to the minor shareholders at the AGM and warble  - well, what would you do differently. It''s all just too sad for words. They''re living on a hope and a prayer that Roeder can turn things around on the field and give them breathing space. In fact they''re so desperate that they''re even scared to rebuke him for rudeness to minor shareholders. OTBC     [/quote] Fully agree.

[quote user="Beauseant"] Kevin Reeves for me. Quality player whose career was cruelly cut short. Honourable mentions for Keelan, Greeno, Chippy, Suggy, Curran, Peters and Sutton. [/quote] Reeves takes some beating. Fantastic player. Would also mention Watson, Bruce, O''Neill (M), Gordon, Linighan, Boyer, Townsend....... Crikey, there are too many to mention!

[quote user="Snakepit boys"]Can I be the first to say well done to Glen Roeder who got it spot on tonight! Board out!!! [/quote] Fully agree. If he keeps us up again, he will have done another great job. He will find it tough in the 2nd half of the season when he loses certain loan signings due to the state of the club''s financial situation, but I think he will keep us in the championship.

In the past 3 years we have received two years of ''parachute'' monies £14.2m & generated a profit in excess of £12m in player transfer trading. A new home shirt issue will have seen a healthy profit achieved on around 20,000 sales, & all season tickets sold again for the start of this season. In addition, we are told that Catering produces a significant profit. I realise that ''the wage bill remains a burden'', but - what the hell is going on?. At the AGM it was confirmed that the playing budget for this season ''has been spent''. What are we going to do (Carl Moore!?) when loan players who have (without a doubt) improved our poor /thin squad go back to their parent clubs? If the multi-million pound income relevant to the past few seasons has all gone (mainly - it seems - on player wages!) then that is purely as a result of decisions made at board level. It seems remarkable that some supporters come on this message board attempting to endorse decisions made by the board of directors with regard to their management of the club''s finances.  

I reckon 3-1 Forest simply because of recent results. Earnshaw will score twice and Tyson will get the other, and Lita for Norwich.

According to Doomcaster - our financial position is ''robust'', & supporters should ''take comfort from the Accounts''!!!!!!!!!!! - adequately covered in Fram''s recent & popular post. The Chairman insists that administration is unlikely. At the AGM Smith inadvertently confirms that the financial condition of the club is ''dire''. This is little surprise - several years ago the club confirmed that the £70k signing of Carl Robinson was only achieved after members of the board provided loans for this purpose. Currently, we have to go ''cap in hand'' to a supporter (Moore) to enable the Manager to bring a player in on loan. Next month £2.5m is needed to make settlement of a Bank loan agreement. What a mess!!!!!!!!!! BILLIONAIRE CITY FAN INTERESTED IN HELPING US OUT? SMITH WILLING TO NEGOTIATE SALE?

Unfortunately, I think you are right. However, if we could sneak a win it would temporarily ease our relegation fears. As you say, it is a BIG 6-pointer! Glad to see you are back on the board after receiving idiotic & abusive responses to your first thread last night from both ''Thirst Wizard'' & ''Canaries in Bed''. You indicated that you are 13, & have had a season ticket holder for 8 years. It is interesting to have commentary from young supporters. Let''s keep our fingers crossed for tonight.

[quote user="nutty nigel"] Congratulations Cityangel on your 5000 posts! [Y] Well done from me too[;)]   [/quote] Indeed, congratulations!.

[quote user="Thirst Wizard"][quote][quote] Your still not getting into that large space in your head are you? He scored 23 for Col U in champ, one of season with Reading in this flight and the 14 for us the rest were in lower leagues, guess what, the lower leagues don''t have better players than the higher leagues, strange I know! Oh, I could say that he has scored a few this year, but as we all know, he has not. If JC was any good through his playing life, then he would have certainly have played for better teams than Swindon, Col U, Some dodgy korean team. [/quote] You are pathetic. Why don''t you build a constructive post built on the core message contained within fram''s opener. You seem obsessed with JC, rather than dealing with the overall subject & points raised. [/quote] So it''s OK to call somebody pathetic straight of the bat,  but descriptive swearing is wrong?  IMO you should sort your priorities out. [/quote] I do apologise, I won''t take up any more of your & my time exchanging a degenerating & wholly insignificant debate. I fully agree that I should sort my priorities out. Time to shut this thing down & get another beer! All the best.

[quote user="Thirst Wizard"][quote] [quote][quote]Oh come on! Look at his spelling and punctuation. Does that look like the work of a Binner?! Thought not. That extra finger always catches a few random keys and gives them away.[/quote] Oh dear, he then f*ucked it up by posting ''Sorry Sado''s - didn''t mean to offend the delia worship brigade. '' [/quote] Sorry mate, but you are totally out of order - I too will be reporting you. Assuming the lad is honest about his age & that he has joined the board this evening for the enjoyment of sharing/exchanging views, your post is unacceptable. [/quote] Go on then if it makes you happy, it''s only a message board for Christ sake. Didn''t stop you from enlarging it though did you. You''re probably the same person anyway. [/quote] The lad is right - you are sad.

[quote user="Canaries in Bed"] Your still not getting into that large space in your head are you? He scored 23 for Col U in champ, one of season with Reading in this flight and the 14 for us the rest were in lower leagues, guess what, the lower leagues don''t have better players than the higher leagues, strange I know! Oh, I could say that he has scored a few this year, but as we all know, he has not. If JC was any good through his playing life, then he would have certainly have played for better teams than Swindon, Col U, Some dodgy korean team. [/quote] You are pathetic. Why don''t you build a constructive post built on the core message contained within fram''s opener. You seem obsessed with JC, rather than dealing with the overall subject & points raised.

[quote user="Delia S. Tickers"][quote user="jas the barclay king"] another point... 4-4-2 Magazine did an interview with AKinbiyi not too long ago, he has the best strike rate of any striker outside the premiership up to the end of last Season.... Does this smack of the record of a bad striker or just a striker who made some comical misses? the right manager could of made Akinbiyi a star for us im convinced.... jas :) [/quote] Well jas, take your pick out of Walker (twice), Deehan, O''Neill and Megson. None of those managed to release that Star Quality. [/quote] To me, this says more about the managers listed than it does the player. As Jas indicates, his record is outstanding. Akinbiyi''s managers have put faith in his ability, improved him & he rewarded with over 150 goals to date!

[quote user="nutty nigel"] [quote user="FramCanary"]Ultimately, the ''Smith'' era will be remembered by most as a period of financial disaster & (apart from 03/04) underachievement on the field of play. It has also been a period where we may as well have not incurred the expense of running a youth policy. End of.[/quote] And there you have, 24 hours later the truth behind the reason for the opening post. A few facts and unrelated assumptions cobbled together in order to discredit the current board. Sorry to put a spoke in your wheel Fram but the appointment of Mike Walker2 happened before the Smith era and although by the start of the 96/97 season Smith&Jones were on the board it was still very much an interim board with Lockwood still Chairman and Martin Armstrong still very much the spokesman for majority shareholder Geoffrey Watling. The sales of Akinbiyi, Johnson, Cureton and Mills all happened under that interim board. I don''t think Walker2 ever played Cureton while Johnson and Mills both had disciplinary problems under Walker and both put in transfer requests. In the case of Johnson I seem to remember the request went to a local radio station rather than the club. Thirst Wizard is right about the 90 minute travelling time law and he is also right about  how many local players come good. As Roeder said Norfolk does not have a history of producing great footballers. If it was just a case of us missing out on them they would surface somewhere else.  And while we can rightly be proud of Sutton, Fox, Gordon they are the exception rather than the rule. All clubs miss out on players who are later sold on for millions. There are many reasons for this. The one that always springs to mind with me is Dion Dublin. Dave Stringer and Big Bob didn''t see the potential there when they shipped him out to Kings Lynn did they Fram? But these things happen I''m afraid.   [/quote] You indicate that Fram''s excellent initial post & further comment is based on fact & unrelated assumption - please get your facts straight before posting such drivel. Walker returned as manager in June 1996. Smith & Jones bought Watling''s 42% shareholding in December 1997 & in March 1998 Danny Mills was sold. Walker had previously (& outrageously) stated during questioning at the AGM that Mills was a player who ''had no positional sense and was incapable of passing the ball'' (this was witnessed by my father who was in attendance). Although Walker motivated his inherited squad of players & achieved a 3rd place finish in the top tier, history has proven that he was totally incapable of building a successful side of his own. Here is a clue as to why! Cureton was sold in October 1996, after being unable to convince Walker that he was worth retaining. He immediately realised his goal scoring potential with 68 league goals in 161 starts at Rovers, prior to further improvement in his ratio with 50 goals in 74 league starts at Reading. I''m sorry, but Fram''s post hits the nail on the head.